During time of the Buddha there was a king named Pasenadi Kosala.
One night he had dreamed of 16 omens that frightened him. He was worried
- not knowing whether the good or bad things he had seen are going to happen or
not. King went to Jetavana Monastery & asked the Buddha about the meaning
of those 16 dreams. Buddha explained the
meaning of those 16 dreams as follows.
Dream No. 1
King saw 4
stout oxen came running from all 4 directions.
Furious with anger and grudges, they looked like they wanted to fight
until death. But when they got close to
each other they just retreated without crashing at all.
Buddha made
the prediction that: - (Inauspicious) In the distant future, there will be
natural disasters happening everywhere. Rain will not fall in time. There will be very large clouds coming from 4
directions and it seems that there will be heavy rain. Once all 4 clouds have
gotten close to one another, they will retreat without a drop of rain falling
to the ground. The results will be draught.
Humans and animals will be famished and die in large quantity. This type of calamity will occur in the future
and can be seen and heard not too long from now.
Dream No. 2
King saw all
kinds of trees, not big enough to be able to bear flowers or fruits but they
were full of fruits and flowers to the extent that the branches and limbs
nearly could not support them.
Buddha made
the prediction that: - (Trees) In the distant future, daughters that are too
young to have husbands and to be married/ have children and start a family in
their young age. Some have indulged
prior to their marriage without shame. This will not be too long before it can be
heard and seen.
Dream No. 3
King saw a herd of cows and bulls drinking
milk from their offspring.
Buddha made
the prediction that: - (Bovine) in the distant future, parents will depend on
the labor of their children. Food and other goods, including money, will be
provided by their children. In that era,
parents will have to specially please their children. This type of calamity
will occur in the distant future, it will not be long to hear and see it
happen.
Dream No. 4
King saw
group of people harnessing young calves to pull their wagons and while strong
calves stay behind, young calves are struggling pull their wagons.
Buddha made
the prediction that: - (Bovine) in the distant future, people will favor young
who lack experience, ability, omniscience and circumspection and still do not
understand social customs, to govern a country, economy, society. They allow them to govern the affairs of the
country while more experienced are neglected. This type of calamity will occur
in the distant future. It won’t be long
and you will hear and see it happen.
Dream No. 5
King saw a
one headed horse with two mouths which can eat grass with both mouths but will
not get full no matter how much it eats.
Buddha made
the prediction that: - (Equine) in the distant future. Judges will extort money from both sides of
the parties as bribery for inquisition.
Some cases will get postponed to acquire more money. They will request
all kinds of fees for their own satisfaction without mercy or ethics. This type
of calamity will occur in the distant future.
It won’t be long and you will hear and see it happen.
Dream No. 6
King saw a
group of rich people bringing extremely expensive golden trays for foxes to
defecate and urinate on them.
Buddha made
the prediction that: - (Golden Tray) in the distant future there will be
foolish people claiming to be knowledgeable and trustworthy. They are well known in society, mature but
unreliable and they will propagate that they teach the Buddhas’ teaching. In reality they teach out of selfishness,
desire and lust and try to distort the Buddhas’ teachings. They try to adapt
the Buddhas’ teachings, and blend it with their doctrine and declare that my
teachings are part of their doctrine which will make most people misunderstand
and assume that my teachings can blend with their doctrine and believe that
they are one and the same. There will be
more of these things happen in near future; it won’t be long and you will hear
and see it happen.
Dream No. 7
King saw a
man weaving ropes on a bench and there is a female fox waiting to bite and eat
the rope when it's completed. Once the
rope was completed the fox ate it all up.
Buddha made
the prediction that: - (A man weaving rope) in the distant future, women desire
having ample wealth, men, roaming in streets and waste their husband’s earnings
on food/ dresses, other men. This type of calamity will occur in the future, it
will not be long and we will hear and see this.
Dream No. 8
King saw
large earthen jars and small earthen jars in the same location. People will
stand in queue to fill those large earthen jars with water until they overflow
but no one care to fill those small earthen jars.
Buddha made
the prediction that: - (Earthen Jar) in the distant future people will make
donations selectively. Senior monks with
higher rank will get attention and people will give too much offerings with expensive
goods and food, whereas novices sitting beside those senior monks will not be
presented with any offerings at all. The
people will have to work much harder to pay their tax to the rulers without
thinking of saving some for them. This type of calamity will occur in the
future. It will not be too long for all
to see and hear.
Dream No. 9
King saw a
pond with clear water but the water in the middle of the pond was muddy and
dirty. All animals went to the center of the pond to drink but they didn’t care
about the clean and cool water at the ponds bank, they just smelt it and passed
by it.
Buddha made
the prediction that: - (Large pond) in the distant future people will be
endlessly greedy, they can’t get enough possessions. Kings will become immoral having no
compassion toward fellow citizens and rule the country by being indulge in four
extremes (Satara Agati) and means of bribery and corruption. Capitals will not
be suitable living places because of an increase of dangers. The public will migrate to rural areas. This type of calamity will occur in the
future. It will not be too long for all
of us to hear and see.
Dream No. 10
King saw
rice in a pot which was in different states of the cooking process. Cooked in
one section and half cooked in another section and totally raw in yet another
section.
Buddha made
the prediction that: - (Uncooked) in the distant future most people and deities
in the world will become immoral. Rains will not occur in right time, harvest
will be destroyed by drought/ rains in certain areas while yielding of good
harvest can be seen in areas where rains cycles are balanced just like different
sections in a one rice pot. This type of
calamity will occur in the future. It
will not be too long for all of us to hear and see.
Dream No. 11
King saw a
group of people exchanging cores of red sandal wood which is expensive to trade
with just a pot of sour milk which is absolutely incomparable in value.
Buddha made
the prediction that: - (Core of red sandal wood) in the distant future, a group
of people will trade my teachings for money. They will publish and sell them to
make a living. They will try to make all kinds of business with my teachings to
earn money which is incomparable to the value of the teachings. These
calamities will occur towards the end of the Buddhist era. It will not be long and all will certainly
hear and witness this.
Dream No. 12
King saw a
dried up hollow bottle gourd sinking into the water which would normally float
on the water. This truly baffled him.
Buddha made
the prediction that: - (Dried up hollow bottle gourd) in the distant future,
good knowledgeable and wise individuals both monks and laymen who deserve
praise and admiration in society will be hindered by groups of bullies
repeatedly. Good laymen will not get the
chance to work in the countries administration. Those that are knowledgeable,
capable and honest will not be elected into the higher government positions and
if they will be elected then there will be groups of dishonest people working
for their own benefits trying to harass them. Good and well-disciplined monks, highly
educated, which strive for the achievement of Nibbana or work to help the
society will be considered as undesirable to them and get no respect from them.
Eventually, good monks will fade away and disappear from society. This type of calamity will occur in the
future and it will not be long before all will see and hear.
Dream No. 13
King saw a
solid block of stone as big as a ship floating of the surface of water like an
empty bark. Normally such stone would
sink but that block of stone just floated on the surface of water.
Buddha made
the prediction that: - (Big solid stone) in the distant future, bad people will
get praised and be admired in society.
They will have rank and power; they will be popular and dignified. They will have many subordinates and
followers. If they were laymen they will
be well-liked and respected everywhere they go. This type of calamity will
occur in the future and it will not be long before all will see and hear.
Dream No. 14
King saw a small toad chasing an enormous
cobra for a meal. Once caught, the toad
immediately devoured the snake.
Buddha made
the prediction that: - (A small toad chasing enormous black cobra once caught
she immediately devoured it as if it were a small insect) in the distant
future, famous monks with great ability to give rhetoric speeches gain
influence and power. They start to play an important role in society, are
respected and trusted by people and gain admiration. Men get attached to
beautiful sights, sounds, fragrances, flavors, tangible sensations and sensual
pleasures. They become possessed by sexual desire and therefore small toads (young
women) will see the opportunity to seductively lure with charming words that
fascinate the cobras. And then the toad devours the cobra. In the distance future all will see and hear
this for themselves.
Dream No. 15
King saw a crow surrounded by golden swans wherever the crow
went, those golden swans will surround it as followers.
Buddha made
the prediction that: - (Golden swans served a crow) in the distant future, kings
will be unskilled in war craft and admire and pay respect to immoral monks as
teachers. The crow is clever and devious
in giving gifts in return for the respect of all little swans, small swans, and
big swans. The swans will show how
important the crow is by more status and titles. This will happen in the
distant future and all will hear and see.
Dream No. 16
King saw a herd of goats hunting tigers and enjoying eating
the tiger’s meat.
Buddha made
the prediction that: - (Tigers were afraid of being hunt by goats and disappeared)
in the distant future, during the reign’s immoral rulers, immoral people will become
partial to those rulers and receive wealth and be satisfied with a monarchy. Moral
people will slowly fade away from the society. Immoral supporters who are highly
respected, trusted, and praised misuse their power to benefit themselves and
their siblings. This type of event will happen in the distant future and we all
will hear and see it.
* Almost every above forecast happens in today’s society.
These forewarnings were given to the world to acknowledge - not only for King
Pasenadi. We can see it happen in many
societies in the world.
May all beings be well and happy & attain the fruit of
Nibbana.
Suranda Weediyage
BA, Tripitakachariya, Dip in Pali/ Buddhism (Pali & Buddhist University of Sri Lanka), HNDBF,
surandalk@gmail.com
http://www.thebuddhadhamma.wordpress.com
