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Shri Mahavir Jain Aradhana Kendra
www.kabatirth.org
Acharya Shri Kailassagarsuri Granmandir
When she saw Mahavira's saintly countenance she forgot her own troubles and wanted to help him.
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MELVE YEARS PASSED. Mahavira lived his life of penance, hardly eating or sleeping and devoting himself to meditation. Sometimes he found himself in the jungle and sometimes in towns and villages. He arrived at the city of Kaushambi, in a powerful and prosperous kingdom. Here lived many wealthy and pious people, who offered
him food and shelter. But he was not interested. He resolved to impose upon himself restrictions for how and when he would accept any food. His conditions were as follows.
The food must be plain boiled black beans, offered in a simple wicker basket. The offering must be made by a former princess held captive, chained and with her hair shorn, who had not eaten for three days and whose eyes were filled with tears. She should be standing upon the threshold, neither inside a house nor outside it, and should make the offering after the neon meal was over.
He told 110 one of his vow. But he assiduously began to beg from door to door in the city, waiting for these conditions to be fulfilled. Each day, despite receiving numerous offerings, he accepted nothing. So he fasted for a month and the people of kaushambi were worried that this saint, who depended on their generosity, seemed to be starving.
What can we do?" they asked one another. "We are ready to give this pure hearted man whatever he asks, but when we inquire from him what he wishes, he simply looks at us, his eyes filled with compassion, and says nothing. We want to serve him, but we do not know how.
Five months went by since he arrived in Kaushambi, and Mahavira continued to fast, begging from door to door and waiting patiently for his conditions to be fulfilled.
During this time, on the borders of that land a war was being waged for this was how the city defended and expanded its wealth. The city's soldiers had advanced into one of their neighboring kingdoms
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