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384]
[Eleven Ganadharas of the Lord and their history
too, who was sitting in the Sacrificial-house, heard this; and was very much astonished that his learned brother had been duped by an ordinary beggar. He began to think thus. "The so-called Omniscient hermit must be the greatest cheat and hypocrite of his time. Let me go myself and expose his dissimulated Ominiscience. I shall thus be able to prevail upon my brother and persuade him to return home. I cannot admit his claim to Omniscience until this hermit satisfies me about it by giving a correct explanation of my inner feelings without my telling them to him. With this thought in his mind, Agni-bhuti started with his disciples to the Samava-Sharana of the Lord and reached there in a very short time. As soon as he stepped in, the Lord addressed him by his name and said," Agni-bhuti ! You doubt in the existence of Karmas. Your question is that "when the Soul is formless i. e. devoid of sense-qualities, how can it be affected by the Karmas which have got a form i. e. which are material in nature and how can there be any relation between the two ?
Agni-bhuti was dumb-found to hear these words from the mouth of the Lord. He could not say a word in reply; but the Lord continued to speak, "Agni-bhuti, the Jnanis (the enlightened people ) know these Karmas directly; while the unenlightened people can only infer about their existence. If you think that good and evil are not the results of Karmas, then how does a man become a king and enjoy all princely luxuries, while another is so poor that he cannot even get sufficient food for himself, at one and the same time? This is nothing but the result of the dissimilarity of the forces of Karmas. You see in this world that one man is
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