LORD MAHAVIRA QUOTES

O Self! Practise Truth, and nothing but Truth.
Enlightened by the light of Truth, the wise transcends death.
Truth alone is the essence in the world.
A truthful man is treated as reliable as the mother, as venerable as the guru (preceptor) and as beloved as the one who commands knowledge.
Truthfulness indeed is tapa (penance). In truthfulness do reside self-restraint and all other virtues. Just as the fish can live only in the sea, so can all other virtues reside in truthfulness alone.

Fight with yourself, why fight with external foes? He, who conquers himself through himself, will obtain happiness.
There is no enemy out of your soul.The real enemies live inside yourself, they are anger, proud, curvedness, greed, attachmentes and hate.
It is better to win over self than to win over a million enemies.

Dont be proud if you gain. Nor be sorry if you lose.

Every soul is independent. None depends on another.
Every soul is in itself absolutely omniscient and blissful. The bliss does not come from outside.

Have compassion towards all living beings. Hatred leads destruction.
Every living being has a strong desire to live and we must respect this in our thoughts and actions.
Silence and Self-control is non-violence.
Respect for all living beings is non violence.
Non violence is the highest religion.

God is neither the creator nor the destroyer of the universe. He is merely a silent observer and omniscient.

All human beings are miserable because of their own ignorance, and they themselves can be happy by acquiring proper knowledge.

A living body is not merely an integration of limbs and flesh but it is the abode of the soul which potentially has perfect perception (Anant-darshana), perfect knowledge (Anant-jnana), perfect power (Anant-virya), and perfect bliss (Anant-sukha).

Study of scriptures (Svadhyaya) is of five kinds: 1. Reading of scriptural texts, 2. Questioning, 3. Repitition, 4. pondering over and 5. narration of religious discourses opening with auspicious praise(of Jina).
He who studies scriptures with devotion and without any desire for personal praise and honour but for purging of his karmic pollution will have the benefit of scriptural knowledge which conduces to happiness.

Live and allow others to live; hurt no one; life is dear to all living beings.
Just as you do not like misery, in the same way others also do not like it. Knowing this, you should do unto them what you want them to do unto you.

The valiant does not tolerate indulgence, nor does he tolerate abhorrence. As he is pleased with his own self, he is not attached to anything.

The unenlightened takes millions of lives to extirpate the effects of karma whereas a man possessing spiritual knowledge and discipline obliterates them in a single moment.
As gold does not cease to be gold even if it is heated in the fire; an enlightened man does not cease to be enlightened on being tortured by the effect of karma.

Pride, anger, carelessness, illness and idleness are the five obstacles in the path of acquiring knowledge.
Anger spoils good relations, pride destroys humility, deceit destroys amity and greed destroys everything.
Conquer anger by forgiveness, pride by humility, deceit by straight-forwardness and greed by contentment.

If one undertakes retrospection of the day's events, one must do it regularly at the appointed hour, not fitfully, not doing it today, neglecting to do it tomorrow and the day after and then taking it up again on the fourth day. Such irregular practice is not conducive to the confirmation of the habit of retrospection.

Anger begets more anger, and forgiveness and love lead to more forgiveness and love.

There is nothing as fearful as death, and there is no suffering as great as birth. Be free from the fear of both birth and death, by doing away with attachment to the body.

Only that man can take a right decision, whose soul is not tormented by the afflictions of attachment and aversion.

One should practise Dharma before old age creeps up, the senses become feeble and one falls a prey to all kinds of diseases.(For, it will not be possible to practise Dharma later with a feeble and incompetent body.)

Do not be in dread of the dreadful, the illness, the dis ease, the old age, and even the death or any other object of fear.

Only the one who has transcended fear can experience equanimity.
(One should reflect thus:) Let me treat all living beings with equanimity and none with enmity. Let me attain samadhi (tranquillity) by becoming free from expectations.
Where there is neither pain nor pleasure, neither suffering nor obstacle, neither birth nor death, there is emancipation(Nirvana).

Just as everybody keeps away from a burning fire, so do the evils remain away from an enlightened person

A man is seated on top of a tree in the midst of a burning forest. He sees all living beings perish. But he doesn't realize that the same fate is soon to overtake him also. That man is fool.

The five senses of the awakened always remain inactive. The five senses of the slumber always remain active. By means of the active five one acquires bondage while by means of the inactive five the bondage is severed.

There is no separate existence of God. Everybody can attain God-hood by making supreme efforts in the right direction.

If you want to cultivate a habit, do it without any reservation, till it is firmly established. Until it is so confirmed, until it becomes a part of your character, let there be no exception, no relaxation of effort.

The soul comes alone and goes alone, no one companies it and no one becomes its mate.

There are only two mistakes one can make along the road to truth; not going all the way, and not starting

Birth is attended by death, youth by decay and fortune by misfortune. Thus everything in this world is momentary.

Can you hold a red-hot iron rod in your hand merely because some one wants you to do so? Then, will it be right on your part to ask others to do the same thing just to satisfy your desires? If you cannot tolerate infliction of pain on your body or mind by others' words and actions, what right have you to do the same to others through your words and deeds?

An indolent person can never be happy and a lethargic person can never acquire knowledge.A person with attachments cannot acquire renunciation and a person who is violent cannot be compassionate.

Those who are ignorant of the supreme purpose of life will never be able to attain nirvana (liberation) in spite of their observance of the vratas (vows) and niymas (rules) of religious conduct and practice of sila (celibacy) and tapas (penance).

Let me renounce the bondage of attachment and hatred, pride and meekness, curiosity, fear, sorrow, indulgence and abhorrence (in order to accomplish equanimity).
Let me give up attachment through unattachment. My soul will be my only support (in this practice of unattachment). (Hence) let me give up everything else.

The greatest mistake of a soul is non-recognition of its real self and can only be corrected by recognizing itself.

The knowledge acquired at a time when one is comfortable vanishes away when one begins to experience discomfort.Hence a Yogin ought to contemplate on the self in the midst of hardships keeping in mind his capacity for tolerance.

One who knows the spiritual (self) knows the external (world) too. He who knows the external world, knows the self also.

Just as fire is not quenched by the fuel and the ocean by thousands of rivers, similarly no living being is satisfied even with all the wealth of all the three worlds.

One who, even after knowing the whole universe, can remain unaffected and unattached is God.