Jain Spirit 2005 09 No23

Author(s): Jain Spirit UK
Publisher: UK Young Jains

Page 82

PHILOSOPHY
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Stefan Klein
memorable story appears in the canonical BhagavatiSutra, which purports to preserve the words of
the last Jain Tirthankara, Mahavir. There, Mahavir was asked
about a war between Konika, the Jan Education International
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emperor of Magadha during Mahavir's time, and a federation of eighteen independent kings that had reportedly left 840,000 men dead. Mahavir's disciple specifically wanted to know whether it was true that all those men would be reborn in heaven because
they had perished on the battlefield. In answer to this question, Mahavir declared that only one man out of this large army was reborn in heaven and only one reborn as a man, all the rest ended up in hell or in the animals realms.