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Jainism: The Cosmic Vision
trace of it was left on the face of the great yogi Mahavira. He thought in his compassionate heart, "Alas! What will happen to this poor soul? He has burdened himself with what a huge load of Karma all because of me."
Kalikalsarvajnya Hemchandracharya says:
कृतापराधेऽपि जने कृपामन्थरतारयोः । ईषदबाष्पार्द्रयोर्मद्रं श्रीवीरजिनेनेत्रयोः । ।
[Beneficent are Bhagwan Mahavira's eyes which emit pity on his tormentors and which are wet with tears in the corners on account of his compassion for them.]
And then his eyes opened wide, with tears glistening at the ends of each of his two lotus-like eyes. Seeing the tears Sangama danced and spoke, "Oh ! the pitying eyes of forgiving God will surely bless me though I have tormented him."
Once upon a time Bhagwan Mahavira thought that in order to cast off Karma, he should go to a place where man was man's enemy, where nobody knew what a monk was and where he had no friends and acquaintances. He wanted to put the religion of Ahimsa (non-violence), the religion of love, to test. So, he went to the Anarya region named Radha where it was difficult even to survive. Here people were unkind and cruel. They bruised his body in a hundred ways. Wild dogs tore at his flesh. At that time one of his disciples said, "Shell we not keep with us a stick at least to keep them off?"
"In that case our vow of Ahimsa will be broken", said Mahavira.
There he was tormented almost to death, but Mahavira did not deviate from his path at all.
It is said in the Acharanga Sutra:
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