________________
verses which seemed to reflect the king's own thoughts at the moment:
Deluded by the ever-recurring darkness of desires such as those relating to home, wealth, spouse, and children, thou does suffer day and night, o mind, but do not think about the suddenly arriving scourge of Death!
The bard recited another verse on the futility of trying to keep the ones we love under control; and it seemed to Yaşodhara as if the bard had come to know of the events of the previous night. Candramati also noticed the change in her son's demeanor and had misgivings about his relations with Amrtamati, who she thought had been given much more freedom that was good for her. She remembered also that a maid-servant had reported to her that her daughter-in-law was in the habit of casting affectionate glances at the elephantdriver. Nevertheless she asked Yaşodhara the reason of his dejection and restlessness. But he told her a concocted story about having seen a dream in which he appeared to renounce the world and retire to the woods after having put Prince Yaşomati on the throne.
Candramati advised her son not to have any faith in dreams and told him the story of the teacher who had dreamt of his school as being full of sweetmeat balls and relying on his dream invited the king to a luxurious repast! She further related that a maid-servant had just reported to her that in a dream seen by her she had turned into rice gruel and was being eaten up by the Hindu Priests invited to the remembrance ceremony of her deceased mother!
After thus demonstrating the fantastic character of dreams, Candramati suggested that if Yaşodhara was really apprehensive of having seen an evil dream he should seek a remedy by sacrificing all kinds of animals to the tutelary goddess and perform the customary rites to counteract the evil. Yaşodhara was shocked at the idea of sacrificing animals and his heart revolted against the use of animal flesh in the worship of the gods. As he made no attempt to conceal his feeling of revulsion at the course of action suggested by his mother, the latter attributed his heterodox leanings to the insidious influence of the Jainas. She accused the courtiers of disloyalty
55 Jain Education International For Private & Personal Use Only
www.jainelibrary.org
