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[ 3 ] of the natural powers of the soul. These are some means that. lead one to be born in a life which ends in the inost coveted stage of freedom from worldly Karmas and makes one attain the position of a Tirthankara. An Arihant or a Tirthankar is born with a nobility of soul which increases thousand fold at the time of his getting enlightenment. At that time the whole univers the earth, the heavens and all other spheres offer at his feet their faith, devotion, respect and love in various ways. In short a Tirthankar has 34 specialities, 35 goodnesses of the tongue and is free from all the 18 defects. The Jains believe in 24 such Tirthankars and the last of them was Lord Mahavir.
Among the Jains Lord Mahavir occupies the same or even better status than is held by Lord Krishna among the Hindus, Lord Buddha among the Buddhists, the glorious Zorastrius among the Parsis, the noble self-sacrifising figure of Lord Jesus among the Christians and the prophet, Mohammed among the followers of Islam.
This is the heroic soul whose preaching of Ahimsa still fill the whole of India even through a period of 2500 years. Lord Buddha also preached the same highest trutn but the followers of Buddhist flag could not keep this flame alive and the majority of them become non-vegetarians. There is no doubt that Buddhism held away over a great number of people of the world and it is still there for in answer to the question about the religion having largest following on the face of the earth one must admit that it is Buddhism, China, Japan, Mongolia, Burma, Siam, Assam, Ceylon and other countries are professedly Buddhists but its influence at this, time is not great as a national
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