Heart of Jainism

Author(s): Mrs Sinclair Stevenson
Publisher: Mrs Sinclair Stevenson

Page 51

THE LIFE OF MAHAVIRA
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Her next dream was of a jewel-bedecked celestial abode 1 xii which shone like the morning sun and which was hung with garlands and pictures of birds and beasts. There the celestial choirs gave concerts, and the place resounded with the din of the drums of the gods which imitated the sound of rain clouds.
Here again the Digambara insert a vision of a great xii a king of the gods dwelling below the earth. This the Svetāmbara do not accept, but both agree about the next xiii dream, in which Trišalā saw a great vase piled up with jewels. The base of the vasc was on the level of the earth, and its height was as the height of Mount Meru, and its brightness illuminated even the sky; it foretold the birth of a child that should possess right knowledge, right intui. tion, and right conduct.
Her last dream was of a clear fire fed with clarified butter, xiv whose beautiful flames seemed almost to scorch the firmainent, which prophesied that the white-souled child she was to bear should illumine the universe by his wisdom.
All these dreams Trišalā related to Siddhārtha, and the next day the interpreters that he summoned foretold from them the birth of a spiritual conqueror (Jina), lord of the three worlds and the universal emperor of the law.
Some of the more advanced Jaina do not believe that Trišalā actually saw all these dreams, but they hold that before the child's birth both father and mother knew that he would be either a Cakravarti (universal monarch) or a Tīrthankara. Perhaps the legend of the dreams may carry with it this meaning, that at that time there was a universal stirring of desire, and that many were hoping some reformer or religious leader might be born. At any
1 The Sthānakavāsi believe this abode to have been a huge immovable car as big as a city.
? A really orthodox Jaina, however, would deny the title of Jaina altogether to any one who did not hold these and all the other legends mentioned in this book to be literally and historically true, though varying interpretations of them are given.