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54
Shrimad Rajchandra's Message
who is testing me”. Shoolpani astounded asked, “Me! A friend of yours?”. Bhagwan's reply was remarkable. He said, “Not only mine, you can be a friend to the entire universe.”
Bhagwan Mahavir who viewed the whole universe as his friend, was being tortured continuously by a celestial being, Sangamdev, for almost six months and yet Bhagwan did not bear any enmity towards him, even for a moment. On the contrary, he was concerned about how much suffering Sangam would have to endure due to his heinous acts. Such profound compassion defined by the Jain tradition is not limited to just human beings or other living species. Its vast sky-like expanse encompasses everything in the universe, be it material or sentient, the microscopic or large.
We can witness such constant flows of compassion in the life of Shrimad Rajchandra. The seeds of this compassion were sown during his childhood in the precinct of the Ramji Mandir in his village, Vavaniya. There, a saintly woman Rambai tended to orphan children and those inflicted with leprosy, with motherly love. Shrimad's mother, along with young Shrimad would visit the temple every day to offer her respects to the saintly Rambai, a lady full of kindness, charity, and spirituality, and to help her with her work. Shrimad had the good fortune of being influenced by these noble experiences at a very early age. This selfless desire to compassionately serve others was reflected in all facets of his later life.
The flow of compassion in Shrimad's heart encompassed everything without exception, it was not restricted merely to those he knew personally, but to anyone and everyone. Shrimad never discriminated between young and old, rich and poor, or between servants and masters. Genuine compassion has no limits, boundaries or confinements. A hallmark feature of his compassion
