Risabha Deva

Author(s): Champat Rai Jain
Publisher: Jain Mitra Mandal

Page 64

CHAPTER IX
PEEPING INTO THE FUTURE
Bharata was never quite at ease in his mind about the wisdom of the step he had taken as regards the establishment of the Brahmana class, since he knew that his Father, who could have done it as well, had not seen it fit to do so. One night he saw a number of dreams which alarmed him a bit, and he decided to question the WORLD TEACHER about their import. So he proceeded to Mount Kailasa where Risabha Deva was staying at the time, and after worshipping Him with reverence and devotion, related his dreams, and humbly sought their explanation from Him. He was told that his dreams bore reference to the next age (the panchama kāla) which would be marked with much deterioration and misery.
The first dream was the sight of twenty-three lions roaming in a forest and then climbing up the summit, of a hill. The WORLD TEACHER interpreted it to mean that in the day of twenty-three out of the twenty-four Tirthamkaras, Jaina Saints would remain steadfatst to their austere ideal, and prove worthy of saintship.
The second dream conisted in the sight of a lion followed by a numbdr of deers. This signified that in the time of the last Tirhamkara all saints would not