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INTRODUCTION
Lord Arihanta
Those are great, divine and pure souls who have completely annihilated the worldly bondages, who have achieved complete control over passions and emotions, who have attained enlightenment and most perfect insight by their soul force and bright light of spiritual knowledge. The following Sanskrit couplet is fitly applicable to them:
भिद्यते ह्रदय ग्रन्थि श्छिद्यन्ते सर्व संशयाः ।
क्षीयन्ते चास्य कर्माणि तस्मिन् दृष्टे परावरे ॥ They are the brilliant lamps that kindle the darkness of ignorance. They have attained Godhood through encased in this earthly tabernacle. They are the destroyers of sin and redeemers of the fallen, cleaners of the besmeared and wipers of the miseries of the miserable, They are the incarnations of full-fledged Ahimsa. They are the image of selfless love and reservoir of pity. They are everflowing fountains of penance, sacrifice, forgiveness, good actions, most valuable instruction, good of humanity, gems of thought, in short of all the wealth of happiness of this world and the other.
To become a prophet ( Tirthankara ) is not an easy job, not a child's play. This is well earned event which flowers after secret growth of innumerable years. To attain the position of an Arihant hard efforts, continuous, strennous and patient, spread over thousands of years carried on in
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