Bhagvana Mahavira

Author(s): Tulsi Acharya
Publisher: Jain Vishva Bharati

Page 21

Chirty Years of Family Life
he dreams and said, “The queen has seen very significant dreams. She will give birth to a son who will be a Cakra. vartī (universal emperor).”
The queen's face flushed with the forecast about her son becoming a Cakravarti. The king's face beamed with joy. Expectations are more thrilling than actual happenings.
The picture of the Vaiśālī Republic changed into the picture of an Empire in the imagination of the king. The picture of a vast Empire was grand indeed, but Siddhārtha was stunned to imagine that the values and ideals which the ganademocracy had cherished and practised will come to an end with the establishment of the expected Empire. These ideals were the ideals of the dignity and freedom of man. Siddhār. tha had been striving for the strengthening of these ideals in the life of the gaña and had never been enamoured of the idea of an Empire. The future seemed to cause him anxi. ety. 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 soothsayer replied, "He will certainly be a Cakravarti, but he will preserve the ideals and values of the gaṇatantra of Vaiśālī. He will be a Dharma-cakravarti, the Emperor of the Kingdom of Religion, and will develop the ideals of ahiṁsā, freedom, relativism, co-existence and non-possessiveness. He will be a great exponent of these."
Siddhārtha'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.