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Bhagwan Mahavir ]
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Khira ( a kind of liquid dish made of rice, milk and sugur etc ). When the mother saw her only little child weeping in this way, and her own difficulty in satisfying his want, she kissed the child on his cheeks, and said to him with a heavy heart, “My dear little son, you know that I have not got even a single pie with me to-day. Had I got money I would not have sent you for looking after the cattle. Little child, you are unfortunate to have your birth from me who am so unfortunate. Had you been born in a high family, you would not have to weep in this way”.
But all this was like weeping in the wilderness for Sangama. He was too young to realise the difficulty of his poor mother. He insisted on having Khira and began to cry more loudly now than before. He wept so pitiably that the neighbours gathered there and asked his mother as to why he was weeping. Sangama's mother was a lady of high family and wanted somehow to evade the real cause; but a man, who was standing near by, told them what the matter was. Then the neighbours took pity on the mother and the son, and after collecting all the provisions for preparing Khira, they give them to the mɔther. Now the mother set to prepare Klira for her child and in a few minutes the Khira was quite ready. She served it in a dish for her son, and then busied herself with her own work. In the mean-while a strange thing liappened. Hardly had the child lifted the first morsel of Khira to his mouth, when a hermit came there for begging food and water. This hermit had been keeping one month's fast which had finished only yesterday. Today was his Parana or fast breaking day. As soon as the child saw that grave, radiant, and blooming face of the hermit,a feeling
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