Parabels of Mahavir

Author(s): Harindranath Chattopadhyaya
Publisher: Shri Kiran Publishers

Page 19

161 ages and ages 10 mark a new Golden Age for all alike on earth.
The kings who had come from a-far seemed to be under some spell which had brought them to king Siddhartha's kingdom....
Their eyes were filled with light while they knelt before him in deep humility.
There lived in Siddhartha's kingdom an astrologer, a learned seer who knew the stars by heart; when he talked of the planets you thought he was their neighbour.
The king sent a palanquin to fetch him to the palace.
And the astrologer arrived with his long redcloth-covered book of starry arithmetic : which is to say that he could count the stars on his fingertips the instant he looked into the pages of the book; and, along with the stars, he counted the destinies of men which those stars worked out.
Said the king : "We have great faith in your calculations ! Do tell us something about the babe in the womb of the royal mother."
The astrologer put his finger on the seventh page of the book and read without stopping at any word : "The babe will be a boy; yet he will not be a human creature !''
Those who heard this were shocked "What !" exclaimed the king. "What do you mean ? not be a human creature ?''
Did the astrologer suggest he would be a creature of the jungle ?