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three days. When he did open his eyes again, he was still in a state of semi-consciousness. All around him he say beautiful women standing and he asked where he was. He was told that he had died, and that preparations were being made to take him either to heaven or hell. He was told that people were waiting for him to become conscious so that he could confess the sins he'd committed. If he did, he would be taken to heaven; otherwise he would be sent to hell. If he spoke the truth he would be saved.
He felt that now he should tell the truth and not lose the chance of going to heaven; now that he had died there was nothing to fear. But just at that moment he remembered that half-sentence he had heard Mahavira say. Mahavira had been talking about gods and ghosts. He had also hinted about the yamadoots, who take people to the worlds beyond death. The thief had heard him say that the toes of yamadoots are always inverted: he opened his eyes and saw that the feet of the people standing by him were normal, so he became alert. He now saw there was no need to confess. He saw through the trick, and said that he had not committed any sins; what could he confess? If they wanted they could take him to hell. But as he hadn't committed any sins, how could they? So they had to let him go.
He went running to Mahavira, fell at his feet, and asked him to complete the sentence which had saved him. When half of Mahavira's sentence had saved him, of how much more benefit would be the whole sentence! He said he was totally surrendered to Mahavira. Sometime or other he was bound to be caught and hanged but if he heard the rest of the sentence he might still be saved. So Mahavira used to say that even if half the sentence of an awakened one was heard, it could be useful one day.
Similarly, a man running past a temple, or just passing by casually, hears the sound vibrations coming from a temple or smells the fragrance of the place... and even that can be of help to him.
Hidden Mysteries
Chapter #2
Chapter title: Alchemical Secrets of Places of Holy Pilgrimage
6 June 1971 pm in Woodlands, Bombay, India
Archive code: 7106065
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