Book Title: Treasury of Jain Tales
Author(s): V M Kulkarni
Publisher: Shardaben Chimanbhai Educational Research Centre

Previous | Next

Page 213
________________ 156 Prabhāvati was extremely beautiful and they both enjoyed all kinds of pleasures. One night the queen saw a curious dream generally called a simhasvapna -- a lion dream. So called because it is about a lion. As the queen was sleeping in her most comfortable bed, around the middle of the night, she saw an enormously big lion, well built, good looking, silver white in complexion with jaws wide open, eyes blood red, descending from the sky and entering into her mouth. The queen was completely awake but not frightened in the least. On the other hand she was extremely happy. She was eager to narrate the whole dream to her husband, her impatience would not allow her to wait till the morning. Therefore she rushed into his bed room and awakened him. The king kept on looking at her with great curiosity and asked her the purpose of her visit at that odd hour of the night. She told him of the dream which strangely enough filled her with a great feeling of satisfaction, and asked him whether he could fathom the meaning of such a dream. The kina thought for a while and said to his queen that as he understood it, the queen would beget a son, the gem of the royal family, exactly after nine months and seven-and-a-half days. However the king said he would consult the royal priest for the right interpretation of the dream. But even with the king's explanation the queen's joy knew no bounds and she kept awake all through the night so that the dream she had seen should not be disturbed. She remembered various auspicious stories about gods and saints for the rest of the night. In the morning the king sent for the priest and asked him to interpret the queen's dream. The scientific explanation according to the priest was that the child that was going to be born was destined to be either a great king or a monk. The dream that the queen had seen was one of the fourteen dreams that prophesy great events in the life of the child to be born. Exactly after nine months and seven-and-a-half days the queen gave birth to a son bearing the lustre of full moon. The king expressed his great joy by distributing all the ornaments that he had on his person except his crown to all the servants that had attended the queen during her labour and brought him the good news. The whole capital celebrated the birth of the child on a grand scale. The king ordered Jain Education International For Private & Personal Use Only www.jainelibrary.org

Loading...

Page Navigation
1 ... 211 212 213 214 215 216 217 218 219 220 221 222 223 224 225 226 227 228 229 230 231 232 233 234 235 236 237 238 239 240 241 242 243 244 245 246 247 248 249 250 251 252 253 254 255 256 257 258 259 260 261 262 263 264 265 266 267 268 269 270 271 272 273 274 275 276 277 278 279 280 281 282 283 284 285 286 287 288 289 290 291 292 293 294 295 296 297 298 299 300 301 302 303 304 305 306 307 308 309 310 311 312 313 314 315 316 317 318 319 320 321 322 323 324 325 326 327 328 329 330 331 332 333 334 335 336 337 338 339 340 341 342 343 344 345 346 347 348 349 350 351 352 353 354 355 356 357 358 359 360 361 362 363 364 365 366 367 368 369 370 371 372 373 374 375 376 377 378 379 380 381 382 383 384 385 386 387 388 389 390 391 392 393 394 395 396 397 398 399 400 401 402 403 404 405 406 407 408 409 410 411 412 413 414 415 416 417 418 419 420 421 422 423 424 425 426 427 428 429 430 431 432 433 434 435 436 437 438 439 440 441 442 443 444 445 446 447 448 449 450 451 452 453 454 455 456 457 458 459 460 461 462 463 464 465 466 467 468