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Compassion Towards Animals of so many miles on foot from Gandhar Port (Gujarat) to Fatehpur, he was greatly surprised.
Emperor Akbar, by way of deference to Suriji, requested him to accept gift of some gold and silver. Thereupon Suriji said that he would not accept anything. Suriji added that if he was keen to offer anything, he should order to set free the birds and animals kept by him in the cages. Suriji also added that he should prohibit large-scale fishing in the huge pond named Dabad and should also issue a mandate to stop violence of any kind by anybody during the Jain festivals of Paryushan. Akbar issued orders as was desired by Suriji. Moreover, Akbar added 4 days on his own accord to the 8 days of Paryushan festival and ordered to stop the killing of animals for a total of 12 days. The mandate was also conveyed throughtout his empire including Gujarat, Malwa, Ajmer, Delhi, Fatehpur, Lahore and all the way to Multan. The Emperor also issued a mandate not to indulge in any sort of animal-killing in the vicinity of pilgrim places like Girnar, Taranga, Shatrunjaya, Kesariyaji, Abu, Rajgruhi and Sametshikharji.
Compassion in the Jain religion means one should feel the same agony in your heart when you experience that some one else is suffering. It advocates empathy. One should have the same affectionate feelings for the soul of others, as one would have for ones own soul. Similarly one should crave the same thing for the soul of others as one would crave for ones own soul. Thus the Jain religion tries to achieve the feeling of oneness with the smallest of living organisms. The life and soul of every other living being is as much valuable as the life and soul of oneself. Hence we should have intense feeling of
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