IN THE WOMB THERE IS RESOLUTION

IN THE WOMB THERE IS RESOLUTION

In the world there are certain things which we cannot believe in easily. In those things we are accustomed to believe in which we have seen in our own eyes. With the growth of his sense-organs and brain, it is common knowledge that the mind of a child grows. In the mind of a child knowledge is not innate. While he was still in the womb of his mother any one would be surprised if he were told that the son of Trisala commanded extraordinary perception. 

As per experience a child in the womb is not even capable of having sensory knowledge and hence all kind of doubts are created through miraculous events. As an ascetic called Nandan, the child had been born in his previous lives which Trisala had conceived. Long Tapas had been performed by him. Without eating anything he would remain absorbed in meditation for a whole month. Then again another month long meditation had been started.

For years and years together in a series these tapas and meditation lasted. In the life of a saint, service and meditation were blended together. Over the gross ones subtle powers had come to acquire perfect control. He had permanently developed the capacity for PRATYAKSA or direct perception by remaining the effects of karma enveloping his consciousness. Direct perception may be noted as “AVADHI Jnana” or “CLAIRVOYANCE”.

Out of compassion for its mother the child decided not to move and stir during its stay in the womb. It does not want to cause pain to its mother or to anybody else. From time immemorial its soul had been soaked in ahimsa. In compassion it had been immersed. It stopped stirring in the womb of the mother like a jogi lost in meditation.

Trisala became very sad when she did not feel the foetus stirring in the womb. Doubts possessed her. To her attendants she disclosed her condition after some time. What was happening to the queen the king also came to know. The entire household shared the anxiety and sadness of the royal couple.

What was happening in the external world, the unborn child perceived. The whole atmosphere of the palace was pervaded by sadness and anxiety. The cause of sudden change was known to the child. This was reflected in his mind. He thought “the world is mysterious”. For the good of mankind which is done has been regarded as a source of evil. For my mother I have stopped stirring out of compassion. This is the cause of distress to everybody. To gross things only the world is accustomed which is capable of imagining anything”.

Hence the child decided to stir. The face of Trisala beamed with joy when she felt stirring in the womb. Hence the gloom changed into exaltation. Afterwards the palace assumed a festive appearance.

The mental state and ambitions of parents had been reflected for the child in the womb. The child resolved not to become an ascetic after his birth during the life time of his parents out of affection for them.

The child was born after some time. With Universal excitement and joy the birth was celebrated. On that day the mother was the happiest woman in the world. Making her still more cheerful, the dreams she had dreamt and the prophesies made by the sooth-sayers etc began to float in her memory.

 For the safety and security of the child she had conceived. Trisala took every care and practised discipline. During her pregnancy she took meagre meals. All kinds of rich and harmful food had been avoided. On a balanced diet she lived.

By avoiding sadness, anxiety, anger, hatred, jealousy, envy etc. she tried to keep herself cheerful as far as practicable. The entire atmosphere was kept sweet and cheerful. She spoke in soft tone, walked slowly and never laughed aloud. She would not make anykind of hurry nor would sit under the open sky. In the womb of the mother, the best development of the child takes place. For the development of the child the mother is responsible to a very large extent. The mother knows her responsibility. She will certainly give birth to a beautiful child who might be enlightened and valorous. But an ignorant mother gives birth to a child who is timid ugly and unintelligent. Responsibility had been fulfilled  by Trisala successfully. Hence she gave birth to a good child who is beautiful, intelligent and possessed of the best qualities.

With divine characteristics the child was born with a wonderful form, having his breath sweet and fragrant. With a sweet smell, the whole atmosphere was separated. 

The child would be a Dharma Chakravarti was an indication as he did not emit any sweat or dirt from its body. The child was inherently pure in all respects as there was no dirty substance in him. In its body there was nothing unhealing. All the ailments of the body would be destroyed by the purity of the soul.

It is a sacred mystery and need not be explained in terms of the laws of physiology as to why the flesh and blood of the child’s body maintained a white colour according to which the blood of a human being contains white as well as red corpuscles. Even if one variety of these corpuscles is out of the required proportion, diseases develop and the body may die. A balance between the two kinds of corpuscles  might have been maintained by the body of the child so that the colour of its flesh and blood might have remained white like milk.

To have alook at the extraordinary child thousands of people came.

They became exhilarated by the sweet colour emitted by the body of the child.

 At a wonderful moment, the child was born. Mild and pure was the breeze and it was spring. The trees were laden with new leaves and woods were articulated. It was the thirteenth day of the bright half of the Lunar month of chaitra and it was midnight. As the portents were auspicious the planets stood high. With all her cheerfulness and grandeur, nature greeted the birth of the child.

Every particle of the earth was brightened with the rays of the sun and the darkness of the night disappeared. Nature began to appear neat and clean.

Siddhartha was informed by a slave girl that the queen was blessed with a child at this sacred hour. The heart of the king began to throb with Joy and Jubilation which knew no bounds. With invaluable presents the slave girl was rewarded. To the status of a free citizen for ever the slave girl was accorded. The new born baby-prince was to practise in future for the emancipation of the slave girls.

The chief Minister was ordered to celebrate the happy birth of the prince in the most befitting manner by the king as his mind was filled with great expectations and new aspirations. The prisoners were released from the prison as is done on such occasions and the capital was profusely decorated. With all pomp, show and gaity the happy occasion was to be celebrated.

That the poor should be fed free and at cheaper prices all the commodities should be sold in the market as per the order of the king and the shopkeepers were to be compensated suitably for the loss they would suffer. In joyous festivities seven days should be spent by the people of the kingdom as per the announcement for the celebration.

VARDHAMANA

The basic constituents of the Universe are the name and form. With a beautiful form the kings son had been born. To a grand feast all his relatives had been invited by the king. It came up for consideration the question of giving a name to the child. To choose a name for their child, it was customary for the parents. The observation of the king is as follows: - “our family has grown richer in every respect ever since Trisala had conceived the child. By increasing love among the members of family prosperity has been followed. Hence I like to name the child as Vardhamana keeping all these in mind”. It had been agreed upon by the queen. Hence the child had been named as Vardhamana.

With the growth of vardhamana the prosperity of the family began to increase. New characteristics have been acquired by the growing child.

Tendencies he had acquired in the previous birth began to grow thin in the case of the prince.

The child neither wept nor laughed and he remained calm and quiet. A strange aura shone on his face and he remained in a contented mood always. Like a growing child he was quite active but never restive. The nurses were perplexed sometimes with his serious face. Level of his consciousness had far surpassed the growth of his body.

People felt him to be a problem child those who looked at him in a cursory way. But all problems had been outgrown by Vardhamana himself. He appeared to be unattached to everything even as a small child. Towards food and play he did not seem to have any physical attractions.

Towards his great future this state of his being hinted through and through. To be devoid of any kind of attraction for him his spiritual growth made all the things of the world appear.

SPIRITUAL VIGOUR AND FEARLESSNESS

Generally on two factors success in life depends. They are wisdom and energy.

Power uncontrolled by wisdom is dangerous where as knowledge unattended by power is pitiable.

A man becomes fearless with the harmonious combination of the two mentioned above. In equal proportion Vardhamana possessed both. By any kind of fear he was never touched.

To play the “Amalaki” game with them, once his playmates persuaded him. In the garden of the house they played. Towards the tree all the children ran. Vardhamana climbed up the tree after overcoming everybody. He saw a huge snake when he was coming down the tree coiling around the trunk of the tree. At the sight of vardhamana the snake hissed at. All the children ran away struck with fear. Vardhamana remained unruffled and strong. Disentangling it from the tree he threw it away after catching the snake. His playmates applauded him and vardhamana won the game.

The fearlessness and strength came to be recognized when vardhamana was only eight years old hardly even at that tender age. He began to exhibit the character of a Kshatriya being born in a family of Kshatriya. Born with the accumulated strength of sadhana he had performed in the course of his previous life. Everyone was impressed with the growth of his physical and spiritual strength. A proper synthesis of both leads to success and growth. In him vardhamana had both energy and strength. At the age of eight he was sent to school. According to some he never went to school.

Vardhamana was very much devoted and obedient to parents and he was a very respectful child. He was conversant with what was being taught at school as his extra-ordinary and extra-sensory knowledge had developed already. Simply because he had been commanded to do so he joined the school.

The king was told that vardhamana completed his schooling and there was no necessity further for him to go to school.

MARRIAGE & DETACHMENT

Time is never at a stand-still and it moves on and on. Vardhaman stood at the threshold of youth as he grew up. A very healthy beautiful and strong personality had been commanded by him. The time to think of the marriage of the young prince has come. The matter was under consideration between the queen and the king. With the proposal of marriage of his daughter with vardhamana king of Kalinga sent an envoy to Siddhartha. At the proposal there was little surprise as they knew that their son was too much devoted to the self. In the world of his own consciousness Vrdhamana mostly lived. To accept the proposal of the Kalinga king the desire to see the line of succession compelled the king and queen. Carrying the message of acceptance of the proposal of marriage the envoy returned.

The prince found himself in a strange situation. When his father informed vardhamana of the acceptance of the proposal of the latter’s marriage. Trying to feel his oneness with it, he had been absorbed in the spiritual reality. His spiritual perceptions had not been disturbed at all at the news. Marriage implies duality in which one has to enter into worldly relations with another being.

Surrounded by the relatives and all kinds of prosperity and comforts the prince lived in the royal palace. But his mind turned inwards into the depth of the self and his tendencies had become spiritualized. When his spiritual consciousness is underdeveloped man’s ego remains shared by the attractions of the world. Sensuous pleasure do not attract him any more once the spirit wakes up and the world begins to be tasteless. The spirit of vardhamana had attained this stature. Like the lotus in the pond he lived in the world unattached. To the amuzement of his parents and relatives vardhamana had his own spiritual kingdom to rule and he seemed to live in a descent world. In the matter of food, he observed strict austerity and this was resented by all. To appreciate his abstinence they failed miserably. Similarly the attitude of compassion and equality could not be understood which the prince adopted towards everyone. To develop an authoritarian attitude as a prince had been expected by the people. That everyone should swimwith the current of time is the belief of the people. But there are some who would like to swim against the current and they like to toe an independent line. For their relatives and friends such people become a problem. To see him behave like a traditional prince was the expectation of the parents.  But the prince sought new horizens as he had become enlightened. Hence it was impossible to become traditional in his attitude as it was expected by others on his part.

THE GREAT RENUNCIATION

Producing changes in the states of all things the wheel of time revolves ceaselessly. The child becomes young poised on this wheel. Into old age young man enters. At the age of twenty eight the young prince arrived. His parents passed away having grown old. As a result of their death the royal family was plunged into sorrow. Their death did not affect the prince at all though he loved his parents. To the pleasures & pains the spiritual heights he had attained made him averse as he was not a sheer philosopher. A direct perception of truth he had and hence he did not take death seriously. It was to him a normal happening in life. The ties of affection broke which bound him to his parents.

The great desire to renounce the world arose in him. His elder brother had been apprised on the matter. To hear of his plans, Nandivardan was shocked. He began to weep and his whole being trembled.

When he was called upon to face a new situation he hardly recovered from the shock of the death of his parents. Perhaps his brother thought it the right time to renounce the world to get a relief of sorrow by the death of his parents as his mind had been seized of a spiritual fervour. A mood of aversion to the world is produced generally by the death of dear and near ones. It is all the more prone to the desire for renunciation one who has a spiritual inclination. Nandivardhan felt nervous. He did not want to part the company of his brother at this stage as he would not be able to stand two successive shocks.

To cause any kind of inconvenience to anybody prince vardhamana did not like. His mind was full of love and compassion. For another two more years the situation forced him to remain with the family. A strong and strange state of mind had been passed through. During these two years he was neither a house holder nor a recluse. In a state of complete surrender of all worldly activities he realised his self and remained calm and quite.

With all the living beings of the world he had developed a feeling of complete equality, as he saw life in raw water and left using it. His sense organ had been controlled completely as he had mastered the process of meditation with a full control over his speech. His life was that of a recluse although he lived in the family as he still had the responsibilities of his family on him.

His mind remained occupied with the idea of renouncing the world though he led a worldly life. His conscience was busy planning a friar’s career for himself, though he was surrounded by the grandeur of royal family. In the hands of a few he did not like wealth accumulation. A part of his income he would give up every morning to the needy gladly. For a full year this was continued. The course of Dana (giving) ended and that of aparigraha (non-possession) was to begin.

Imposition of the time limit was over on him by his brother as the two years passed by vardhamana felt it was time for him to renounce the world mundane. He then placed his proposal again before his brother to leave the family who agreed with him.

In the third quarter of the tenth day of the first half of the lunar month of Margasirsa in the Hemant season the great exit took place at the “Muhurta” called “vijay”.

For the last two days prince vardhamana had been fasting as he had a peculiar way of fasting. He had realized that his body was entirely different from his soul.

Living for the body is no life for him. To liberate the soul from the bondage of the world he lives in. Hence it is necessary to free oneself from the limitation imposed by the body in order that the soul might be liberated. This process of liberation is a part and parcel of fasting which leads a man into the independent world of the soul.

The prince renounced the world as he attained this state of self enlightenment. By rejoicing in the family vardhamana’s renunciation was marked. With the music of instruments the sky was sounded as the young girls sang songs of joy. Auspicious hymns were recited by birds. A happy commotion was there everywhere. But in his own loneliness vardhamana sat engulfed. He was forgetful of the noisy 

atinosphere. 

For the jnatakhanda forest the prince left home seated in a palanquin. A crowd of thousands of people escorted him to the forest including nandivaradhana and Suparsva. Alighted from the palanquin the prince stood under an ashok tree and took off his princely garments. He became a nirgranth. Everyone began to gaze at the prince and the strain of music stopped at once. In a strange calmness nature seemed to be engulfed. The prince stood looking towards the horizon between the east and west and plucked off the hair of his head. His face beamed with joy and jubilation. With a divine light shone on his head, with joy and enthusiasm the whole atmosphere was pulsated.

“I bow to the perfect beings” – told the prince folding both his hands. His egotism, egoism and attachment disappeared as soon he had dedicated himself to the attainment of liberation. To follow the principle of equanimity he resolved whole heartedly not to do any action born of attachment or aversion as attachment and aversion give birth to inequality and sin.

A nirgrantha renounces passion and unfettered. He is free from inhibitions. In the presence of the people of Kshyatriya KUNDAPURA prince vardhamana assumed the status of sramana vardhamana and he no more belonged to the kingdom he had left behind. An empire he had entered where there were no rulers nor the ruled. He had entered into a new family where there was no distinction between “mine” and “thine”. To see him leave the boundaries of kshyatriya Kundapura thousands of people shed tears.

Solemn parting was very sad. To treat one as our own till he lives with us trust and treat him as a stranger as soon as he had estranged himself from us is really a strange custom of the world.

To the people of Kshyatriya Kundapura sramana vardhamana now appeared to be a stranger.

A small speech followed afterwards from sramana vardhamana to the people who were with him.

“I am a Sramana now. Above the limitation of the state and the nation I have risen. Living within its boundaries you are the citizens of a state. I am not surrounded by any boundary now as I am a wandering ascetic. You cannot accompany me now. If so how far?  He went ahead alone leaving his followers and he transcended the limitations of time & space. Sramana Vardhamana installed himself as the emperor of the kingdom of spirit.