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about this man. But about others, who were more established than Mahavira, before Mahavira, who were older than Mahavira, he was behaving in the same way, even worse. Makkhali Gosal was another competitor for the twenty-fourth tirthankara... because now the line was going to be closed -- after the twenty-fourth, there was not going to be a twenty-fifth.
Once, I managed with one idiot... he is a Jaina monk -- he was, because the Jainas threw him out. I convinced him that if there can be twenty-four tirthankaras, why not twenty-five? What is wrong in being the twenty-fifth? And day in and day out I continued to argue about the twenty-fifth. I said, "You declare you are the twenty-fifth." And he declared. His name is Swami Satyabhakta. He declared, and the moment he declared, the Jainas threw him out saying, "You are not even a Jaina... twenty-fifth!"
He came running to me: "You convinced me that I am the twenty-fifth!"
I said, "I don't take any responsibility. I simply argued. It was you who became convinced -- that means you had been carrying the seed of it; you wanted, but you were not courageous enough to say it. And I simply brought it up. It was your desire, otherwise you would have said, 'I am satisfied. I don't want to be the twenty-fifth.' I have been trying it on other people also. They have not been caught, so I am not responsible."
Now he is very angry, because since then the Jainas have not allowed him back into the community. He has asked to be forgiven, but such a man to the Jainas... it is just like the Jews were against Jesus. Jainas at least have not crucified him; they simply threw him out, took away the symbols of the Jaina monk and said to him, "If you say it again we will drag you to the court, because in our tradition nobody can be the twenty-fifth."
But he is such an idiot.... I said, "You do one thing. You say that Mahavira was not the real twenty-fourth, you are the twenty-fourth."
He said, "Great! This idea never occurred to me."
I said, "But remember, I will not take the responsibility of it, because this time they will beat you. For twenty-fifth they have simply thrown you out because you
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