Life is not exactly what we perceive it to be. Life is the body our soul resides. The soul is immortal i.e., which never dies. It takes rebirth numerous times. Being born in India, we all are told that someone is looking at us and keeping a check on our good deeds and bad deeds.  It is said that we are born by bringing in this world the burden of deeds from our past lives be it good or bad. Hence, we were always advised by our elders and numerous great scholars to always do good deeds and practice Ahimsa which translates into non-violence. These teachings are imbibed in our minds but as time passes, we tend to overlook these teachings and focus on the results. If we fail to achieve the desired results, we feel dejected and sometimes it leads to sorrow or persistence beyond reality. Sorrow is something which is a result of our thinking. Sometimes, to achieve the desired results, we do injustice to others even without our knowledge.

This book has simply mentioned the basic principle we all must follow as human beings to live peacefully and also to free ourselves from the shackles of birth and death. In Indian Culture, we have specific uchharas which were practised but eventually, we have forgotten them. Some people relate these kinds of teachings and uchharas to spirituality and after becoming atheists and ignore it. We are from a culture where spirituality and science are always connected. For eg. In our culture, married women wear toe rings or vermilion which has a scientific reason attached to it but in the course of modernization, we think of these as age-old trends. Due to such neglect of our practices, we are facing issues but are still not ready to accept the fact that our culture is much more advanced than we think it to be. Simply practising the five basic principles of non-violence (ahimsa); non-attachment (aparigraha); not lying (satya); not stealing (asteya); and sexual restraint (brahmacharya), with these celibacy ideals one can step into a much cultured and a greed free society. Not thinking about these as a spiritual practice but thinking of them as a stepping stone to becoming a greater human being and ensuring a good environment for all. We all can at our levels start practising these basic principles and become more aware and fairer towards each other since we can easily state that,

“What goes around comes back”

Which is the case for Karma. Hence, we all should not be engulfed in temporary happiness and become unfair, rather, we all should focus on long-term happiness instead of momentary gains. The gains we earn by performing good deeds will always be with us to nullify the bad deeds which were done by us knowingly or unknowingly in the past. The one thing one must always keep in mind is that we are the determinants of our fate and by performing good deeds, we can enhance our fate. As it is said that

“Do good deeds don’t worry about the results”.

This book teaches us with examples from the Life of Tirthankara Mahavira that to live our life to the fullest, we all should be more patient and not be hostile towards anyone no matter whatever they have done to us in the past. Everyone has a different definition of living life to the fullest for some earning money and fame is living life whereas for some it is living peacefully. From this book we learn to maintain a balance between these lifestyles and incline more towards living a well-balanced lifestyle which is beneficial for others as well as for us not only on a spiritual level but also physically as well as psychologically. Lord Mahavira or Bhagwan Mahavira, or Tirthankara or Kevalgyani are the names used for addressing the Kevalgyani Mahavira, for the words Tirthankara or Kevalgyani means someone who has achieved omniscience and is free from the cycle of birth and death.