Acharya Tulsi
| 2 | Thirty Years Of Family Life |
ueen Trisala had already given birth to her first son called Nandivardhana. The soul of Triprstha was born to her as the second son. She felt an unprecedented joy on the night of her conceiving the child. She saw a series of significant dreams in a half-waking state. She woke Siddhartha up and told him that she felt something extraordinary.
"I saw an elephant and a bull and several other things in my dream. I feel a very pleasant sensation. The whole atmosphere seems to be throbbing with light and joy", she reported to her husband and added, "I expect some extra-ordinary event to happen".
Siddhartha sensed the Situation and remarked, "Darling, you have seen very auspicious dreams. You are a fortunate lady and will bring fortune to our family." Thus encouraged, the queen's joy knew no bounds. In a state of exhilaration she retired to her bedchamber. She remembered the saying that one who has seen an auspicious dream should not again go to sleep after one has been awakened from the dream. She remained awake for the rest of the night.
The rays of the sun had pierced the far ends of the earth. Everyone had applied himself to the day's business. The king sat in the audience hall with the queen. He called upon the chief courtier to summon the sooth-sayers to his audience.
The sooth-sayers presented themselves before the king. They were honourably received. The king began to consult them on the queen's dreams. They examined the contents of the dreams and said, "The queen has seen very significant dreams. She will give birth to a son who will be a Cakravarti (universal emperor)."
The queen's face flushed with the forecast about her son becoming a Cakravati. The king's face beamed with joy. Expectations are more thrilling than actual happenings.
The picture of the Vaisali Republic changed into the picture of an Empire in the imagination of the king. The picture of a vast Empire was grand indeed, but Siddhartha was stunned to imagine that the values and ideals, which the gana democracy had cherished and practised, would come to an end with the establishment of the expected empire. These ideals were the ideals of the dignity and freedom of man. Siddhartha had been striving for the strengthening of these ideals in the life of the gana and had never been enamoured of the idea of an Empire. The future seemed to cause him anxiety. It was horrible to imagine his own son destroying those ideals. He became sad and perplexed.
The leader of the sooth-sayers gave his further reading: "Our prophesy needs an amendment after a careful study of the queen's dream." The king impatiently interfered and asked, "Is not my son going to be a Cakravarti?" The sooth-sayer replied, "He will certainly be a Cakravarti, but he will preserve the ideals and values of the ganatantra of Vaisali. He will be a Dharma-Cakravarti, the Emperor of the Kingdom of Religion, and will develop the ideals of ahimsa, freedom, relativism, co-existence and non-possessiveness. He will be a great exponent of these."
Siddhartha's perplexity was over. He sighed a sigh of relief and thanked the sooth-sayers. The queen was no less happy than the king. Their worldly joy changed into a pious mood. Joy born of a sense of worldly gains is not pure joy. It is alloyed with passion. Spiritual joy is perfectly pure. It can never be followed by sorrow.
The king amply rewarded the sooth-sayers and applied himself to his routine duties.
