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194
SHRAMAN MAHAVIR
Gautam would question the Lord frequently Sometime these queries would relate to the Lord's life Once he asked
'Sire! Your existence is a patent fact or not?' 'My existence is a fact and at the same time it is not.'
'Sire! It could either be an admission of existence or a denial of it How can both the statements be valid simultaneously?'
'Unless both the truths be valid simultaneously I can neither exist nor not-exist'
'How is it so my Lord ?'
'If my existence owes itself to the conscious self of others and not solely to my own conscious self then I can't aver that my existence is a patent fact Existence can be claimed by a group And since my existence is not patent my nonexistence is also not patent'
'Then is it certain that you exist by virtue of your own conscious self only?'
'Yes it is certain and relatively speaking undeniable that I exist by virtue of my conscious self'
'Sire! Is it also certain that you don't owe your existence to the conscious self of others?'
'Certainly Relativity certifies that I don't owe my existence to other conscious selves Since I don't exist by virtue of other conscious selves, I exist by virtue of my own conscious self. That's why I state that I exist and I don't exist Existence and non-existence go hand in hand Non-existence shorn of existence and existence shorn of non-existence are no where to be found'
'Sirel Just as your existence is transformed into existence, does your non-existence also transforms itself into nonexistence ?
'You state the truth The stream of my existence flows towards existence and the stream of my non-existence flows towards non-existence'
'Then are not existence and non-existence contradictory?'
