________________
III
BIRTH AND EARLY YEARS
PARENTAGE.
TIME AND PLACE OF BIRTH
IN any review of the life of a great man, and in appreciation of his achievements, we naturally tend to look at the beginning of his career, and see what chances he had in life and what he made of them. We see some men born in easy circumstances, who have never had an opportunity of toiling or labouring, who have never known from close daily contact what human suffering means, rich and prosperous, and have drifted, as naturally as a river flows, into lives of benevolence and usefulness; while there are others, who start from humble beginnings, and with a daily struggle for existence, with no means and opportunities at their command, with no advantages of birth or favour or fortune, and yet in spite of these obstacles, undismayed by embarrassment or difficulty, undisturbed by clamour or confusion, undaunted by intricacy or perplexity, undeterred by obloquy or opposition, fight valiantly and courageously what they call the battle of life, developing day after day the seeds of virtue and of goodness that are lying latent within them, ultimately achieving a moral and a spiritual triumph-the true greatness-in the end. And Vijaya Dharma Sūri belonged to the latter class.
