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372 1 [Eleven Ganadharas of the Lord and theirhistory
absoluteness of soul,' and prabhasa about the reality of salvation.' But none of them tried to get rid of their doubts in the least. They thought that if they went to other people in order to get their doubts removed, it would mean that they admitted their inferiority before others. That was the reason why these illustrious Pundits cancealed their doubts from others. As it was a big fire-sacrifice, many other Pundits from all directions had come to take part in it and consequently the Yajamana (i. e, the holder of fire sacrifice, and the Rituijas (i. e. Saints engaged to offer oblations) were very proud of it.
While people were thus flocking to the Fire-sacrifice of Somila, the gods were coming in their aerial cars to the Samaua-Sharana of Lord Mahavira with the intention of listening to his religious instructions, Indra-bhuti and others saw this from a distance and thought that they were coming to join their Fire-sacrifice. They praised themselves for the power of their incantations which had attracted and complled the gods to descend from their high heavens and join their Fire-sacrifice on this earth. But when they saw that the gods were going to the Samavasharana of the Lord instead of coming to their Fire-sacrifice, all their hopes collapsed. The only possibility now was that the gods might have committed a mistake or they might have gone thither for parking their aerial cars. On enquiry, however, it was found that they had descended to this earth in order to listen to the religious instructions of the 'Omniscient Mahavira' and not to join the Fire-Sacrifice.
As soon as Indra-bhuti heard the word 'Omniscient', his fore-head began to ache. In a fit of anger, he said, Fie,
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