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Bhagwan Mahavir ]
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him. He now prepared himself to welcome the miseries, diseases, sorrows and poverty, the very appearance of which had once terrified him. He now began to regard them as the gifts of his past karmas and accepted them gladly with the pious hope of breaking through his karmic bondage. The man, who could not sleep or eat when faced with the questions of profit and loss; the man, whom the considerations of harm and injury had made sorry and mournful; the man, whose heart becanie the play-ground for joys and sorrows at the thought of gain or loss of a thing to him; the man, who was afraid of birth and death; and the man, who felt sorry for separation and happy for uniting, now, having tasted the ambrosia of the Lord's immortal words, was experiencing the fellow-feeling in everything. He regarded them all as due to the workings of karma on this earth, which is the play-ground of nature. It is righty said that, “A man can be able for keeping the company of the good only at the manifestation of his good fortune built in various previous births."
Although the main object of Lord Mahavir's attaining Tirthankar-hood was to abolish inequality and to establish universal brother-lood in the world, to free the man from the shackles of karma, and to lead them to the right path of supreme blessedness, still he did not exercise any undue influence upon people through pride, nor did he force any one to come under his religious banner. He was a teacher of Truth, and that was all. Any one, who desired to elevate the value of his life by attaining Truth, was free to come to the Lord and quench liis spiritual thirst by listening to his message. Every word of his message was proclaiming Peace;
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