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come down from there. He realised that though his brother might be younger than him, in character, knowledge and spiritual discipline, he was far ahead of him. His brother had attained enlightenment first, and so he must bow in respect to him. He had to get down from the elephant called ego. With this thought in mind, he decided to go to Lord Rishabhdev. As soon as he took the first step towards Rishabdev's ashram, he attained enlightenment.
So you see, ego completely overshadows your knowledge and understanding. It also stops your achievements and spiritual growth. An individual should be ready to bend. There are a lot of good qualities that come with bending/ putting aside your ego. I keep saying that there are five fingers, if they started to think that they should not bend, will you be able to do any work? You won't be able to do anything, either in the kitchen or in the office. You have knees, which are meant for walking. Now if they started to think that it was an insult for them to bend, then you would become stiff, you would not be able to walk.
There is a saying that only those who have life, can bend- and stiffness (ego) is the immediate identification of a corpse! A corpse remains rigid and unbending. Hence, bending is the biggest quality, and should be present in both householders, and saints. Even a saint, who does not know how to bend; who does not practice humility will find that his sadhana is not fulfilled.
Lord Mahavir observed intense penance (tapasya) for twelve and a half years. It is believed in the Jain tradition, that the tapasya of Lord Mahavir was equal to the penance of all the other twenty three Jain tirthankaras put together.
They say that Mahavir's tapasya was so harsh and intense, that no one else's tapasya could match it.
During Mahavir's twelve and a half years of tapasya, when he was steeped in meditation, an angel called Sangam Dev, came to test him. He had heard many compliments from Indra (the god of rain), that on
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