Answer

The Great Dream

In the Jakata stories, known as “The Great Dream”, Master Buddha describes the peculiar sixteen dreams that he had one night. After he woke up, he remembered the dreams and got very frightened regarding what they exactly meant and he could do with the information that they implied. He then notifies the Brahmins, the Hindu priests who had the responsibility of teaching and upholding sacred knowledge then, who declare that the dreams were evil and that they needed to make a sacrifice to get rid of the “curse”.   The queen hears about this and advises the King to go to Buddha for a better understanding of his dreams since Buddha is blessed and all-knowing.  The Buddha interprets the dreams.

From the dreams, great life stories can be learned both by the King and readers of the dreams. First lesson is that poor leadership will be cursed and severely penalized, yet in hardship times the world will be freed of its sufferings. Secondly, children should respect their elders, attending to them as they age, and women and men should live in harmony so that they can produce descendants who will lead future generations. Thirdly, notwithstanding the fact that kings are rulers of their nations, Buddha is still the all-powerful being. Despite being the rulers of the people, kings are not all-knowing. They need assistance from the Brahmins/priests to guide them through the process of understanding their thoughts. The king even asserts that Brahmins are his directors, exclaiming to the Brahmins that his “life is in your hands; make haste and work my safety” (Chalmers 1), implying that without the Brahmins’ assistance, the king has no direction.

Regarding the author’s commentary, Buddha is regarded as the master. Despite kings ruling their countries, Buddha remains the all-powerful being in the world. After hearing of the predicaments of the king, he is advised by the queen to go to Buddha since Buddha is the “Chiefest personage of all the world, the all-knowing and pure, the spotless master Brahmin” (Chalmers 2).  This implies that everyone in India believes that Buddha has explanations for all the challenges facing the world and that Buddha is the ultimate conqueror of knowledge. Relative to the Brahmins, Buddha is perceived as noble and intelligent beings. The king is not all-knowing despite being people’s rulers, and needs assistance from Brahmins. Similarly, it appears that the role of women in the society relied upon men and they had the responsibility of producing children for the future generations. In his dream, the king says that “young girls shall go to live with men, and it shall be with them after the manner of women, they shall conceive and bear children” (Chalmers 3). He adds that it is the manner of women to give birth, inferring that women were perceived as inferior to their male counterparts with respect to power/authority during that time of India’s civilization. The children were to care for their elders as they age up. 

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