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1 MAHAVIRA AND THE COW HERDER
 One day as Lord Mahavira was going from one place to another, he stopped near a big tree, outside the village, to meditate. While he was meditating, a cow herder came there with his cows. He needed someone to look after the cows, so he could run some errands. He asked Mahavira swami if he would look after the cows for a few hours. Lord Mahavira was in deep meditation, and did not hear the cow herder. However, the cow herder went away thinking that Lord Mahavira  had heard him and will look after the cows.
 In the meantime, the cows started wandering away, looking for and grazing grass. A few hours later, the cow herder returned and found all his cows missing. He asked Mahavira swami, "Where are my cows? What did you do with them?" Lord Mahavira was still in meditation and did not reply. The cow herder started wondering. 
"Where could they be?" Since Lord Mahavira did not reply, the cow herder searched for them everywhere in the valley, but could not find them. While he was looking for the cows, they returned to the place where Mahavira swami was meditating. When the cow herder came back, to his amazement, all his cows were standing near Lord Mahavira.  Mahavira swami was still meditating. The cow herder became very angry at Lord Mahavir, because he thought that Lord Mahavira was hiding his cows. So, he took out his rope and was about to whip Mahavira swami with it. Just then, an angel from heaven came down and held the rope.
"Can't you see that Lord Mahavira is in deep meditation?" asked the angel.
"But he tricked me!" said the cow herder. The angel replied, "He is a God. He does not care for your cows or anything else in this world. He was in meditation and did not hear you. He did not do anything to your cows. You would have gotten bad karmas for hurting him."
The cow herder realized that he had made a mistake. He apologized to Lord Mahavira and went away silently. The angel went back to heaven feeling happy that he could stop Lord Mahavira's suffering. Mahavira didn't have any bad feelings towards the cow herder, because he held no 
anger towards anyone.
  We should not make hasty decisions, because we can be wrong. We should also not hurt anyone, and should observe forgiveness instead of anger. This way we can stop new karmas from coming to our soul.

 2 Story of Ahimsa
  Shri Kuladânanda Brahmachâri in the book Sri Sri Sadgurusanga, Part III, pages 125-126 writes as follows:
   “Mr. Anderson a European gentlemen, saw a sage in the forest of Jayadebpur, where he went out for a hunt. The elephant, on which Mr. Anderson was riding, got frightened seeing a tiger and threw him down. Mr. Anderson fired twice or thrice at the tiger, but missed his aim. He then began to run followed by the tiger. He saw a naked sage in copse and ran to him. The sage asked him to sit and waving his hand forbade the tiger to advance. The tiger sat at a distance, wagged its tail and growled for some time and then went away. Mr. Anderson was astonished to see the wonderful phenomenon and asked the sage how he was able to pacify the tiger. The sage replied: ‘tigers or snakes, never injure one who has no Himsâ. Because you have a feeling of Himsâ in your mind, you are attacked by wild animals.’ Mr. Anderson from that day became a vegetarian and gave up shooting. He was seen by many people in Dacca and Chittagong when this change had come over him.”

 3. NON-VIOLENCE
  According to Jainism there was a King named Mahabal. Once, in a religious festival, he prohibited the hunting in the state, but his son killed an animal secretly. When the gardener told the king about his son killing an animal, the King became very angry and ordered to hang the Prince. The King sent his servants to fetch the hangman Yampal Chandal. The King ordered him to hang the Prince.
  Yampal Chandal requested the King, "Oh lord I shall not kill the Prince because it is Chaturdashi today. I had taken a vow from a Digamber saint not to kill anybody on Chaturdashi. Hearing this the King became angry and ordered his servants to bound Yampal and the Prince and throw them into the sea. But by the impression of Yampal's vow, the Gods of water saved Yampal from drowning.

 4. Candanabala : First Head of Women Disciples
  Candanabala  was the princess of a king of Campa. After defeat of King of  Campa in a battle, the princess was taken as a slave and finally purchased by a wealthy merchant called Dhanna, who mercifully treated her as his daughter. The merchant's wife, however, suspected the intentions of her husband. So when the merchant had gone to Kausambi, Candanabala was put in fetters, her head was shaved, and was starved for three days, at the end of which she was given roasted black grams to eat. In the meantime Mahavira, who was undergoing very difficult penances, was moving from house to house to accept some alms to eat to break his fasts of more than five months, but was returning back from all houses without accepting anything. People were anxious to offer anything, he wanted to break his fasts but he did not utter a single word and returned back after seeing the situation and the food offered to him. This attitude of the saint was very perplexing to the citizens of Kausambi because, by that time his reputation as a great ascetic had spread far and wide and it was considered a great honour for one whose offer of food was accepted by him.
   Mahavira's method of performing penances was very peculiar. He often used to resolve to take only a particular type of food if offered to him under particular circumstances by a particular person. Others were knowing nothing about such resolves with the result that the conditions under which the offer was to be accepted were not satisfied and his fasts remained unbroken for a number of days. In fact, during the course of 12 years of his penances he is said to have taken food only on 349 days. Idea was that if nature wanted him to remain alive, it was bound to satisfy his resolutions. Now when Mahavira was in Kausambi in the eleventh year of his penances, he had resolved to accept the offer of roasted black grams from an unmarried princess in captivity with the shaven head and locked in fetters and also with tears in her eyes. It was obviously difficult to satisfy all these conditions at a time. For five months and twenty-five days, the master wandered from one house to the other in Kausambi and silently returned and went without food, his conditions unfulfilled.
  Candanabala knew this story of master's wandering and after her own fasts for three days when she got roasted black grams to eat, her first thought was to offer these grams to the master if he was kind enough to accept the same. When she saw the master approaching her on his usual visit to take alms, her joy knew no bounds as she offered the rare Morsels of food which she got after three days. When the master approached her, he found that all the conditions of his resolve, but one, were fulfilled. The one condition which remained unfulfilled was the absence of tears in the eyes of his donor. When he noticed this, he began to retreat without uttering a word. This shocked the enthusiastic devotee whose enthusiasm and joy evaporated. Deeply dejected, she began to cry and tears rolled her check. A back glance at her, convinced the master that all his resolves were fully satisfied. he returned back and accepted the alms of roasted grams from her and broke his famous fast. This Candanabala then renounced the world. She was freed by her master and she was made the first head of the order of Jaina nuns.

5.CHANGE OF HEART
  Once a businessman was travelling in a bus. There he found a purse on the seat. He picked it secretly. When he reached home, he found one thousand rupees with an address slip in the purse and became very happy. After some days he lost a hundred rupees note. He searched for it but could not find. On the same day his sweeper came to him and told, "Oh babuji, I found this note from your garage. Please take it". At the same time he thought, "I am worse than my sweeper, because I have stolen a purse of a gentleman. I must return it to him". At once he set out to the owner's house and handed him the purse. When the owner thanked him, he said,"Do not thank me but thank my sweeper who had changed my heart". He then told the whole story. So we should always remain honest in our life.

6. IMPORTANCE OF NAMOKAR MANTRA
  Once, a man was going to the market. On the way, a hurt ox was lying there. Seeing the ox, the man became restless. He felt that the ox was about to die, so the man sat near it and began to recite the Namokar Mantra. Hearing the Namokar Mantra, the heart of ox became calm and it died with good feelings. In the next birth it became the son of a King. There he got many palaces, beautiful cloths, ornaments, etc. If an animal gets a good life by hearing the Namokar Mantra, then why will we not get the peace and happiness by reciting the Namokar Mantra? Everyday we should recite the Namokar Mantra to destroy our sins. 

7. RESULT OF VEGETARIANISM
  According to Jainism there lived a hunter in the forest. Once there came a Digambar Saint. He preached the people about vegetarianism. Most people took an oath not to eat meat in their life. When he asked the hunter to leave the eating of meat, the hunter said, "Lord, the meat is our main food and we can't live without it". At the end he decided to leave eating meat. Once he became very ill. The doctor advised him to eat meat as medicine. He refused and did not take meat because of his oath. He was born in the heaven. So we should remain pure vegetarians and never eat meat. 

 8. LEGEND OF GULLIKAYAJJI 
  In Shravanbelgola next to the Bahubali colossus there is an  image of a woman called Gullikayajji. This women forms an important episode in the Bahubali legend. It is a legend  that when the great military leader Chamundarai decided to bathe the Bahubali image with milk he mobilized enormous quantities of it. On a scale worthy of a great warrior. But to the amazement of everyone present on this occasion, all that milk could barely wet the body as far down as the waist. A simple, modest, woman called Gullikayajji then expressed a desire to pour her humble offering over the god's image. It is said thai her thimbleful of an offering did not simply drench the entire height of Bahubali, but went down to flood the whole basin. The moral of this miracle dawned on the mighty Chamundarai who had Gullikayajji's image carved and installed to show respect for a simple old woman, who destroyed the hubris (ahankar) of the mighty Chamundarai.