Krishnadevaraya was the king of Vijayanagara Empire
about 500 years back ruling the Deccan Plateau. He was a righteous King taking
caring of his subjects well. Once he dreamt of an artistically designed palace
which was floating in the air. He was very much fascinated by the idea of
having a palace that can float. The next morning he summoned his ministers and
courtiers and told them about what he had dreamt. He expressed a wish to have a
palace that would float. Everyone assembled there knew that this was a
ridiculous wish yet no one dared to speak against the wish of the King. Some
went on to praise the King of dreaming a floating palace and hoped that King
have a floating palace soon. King made an announcement that any architect who
is ready to build a floating palace will be rewarded one lakh gold coins!
The entire kingdom knew that it was impossible and
the King had gone mad, yet they did not dare to tell the King that his dream
was far from reality. As day went by no one came forward to build a palace in
the air, King consulted some of his senior ministers in this regard. Gathering
courage they informed the King that dreams are never real. They just come and
go; there is no sense in analyzing a dream and concluding that it is possible
to covert a dream into reality. Since the King was so fascinated by the dream
he had lost the power of reckoning. His desire to have a floating palace was so
strong that he wanted it built at any cost. He doubled the reward money and
asked the announcement to be made outside his kingdom as well.
The entire cabinet was fed up with the childish
nature of the King they approached Tenali Ramakrishna, the court jester to help
them in convincing the King about the futility of his desire. Tenali
Ramakrishna was very intelligent and witty as well; he asked them not to worry
and requested them to give him some time.
A few days later an old man who could hardly walk
came to the King seeking justice. King Krishnadevaraya asked the old man the
reason for the problem and promised him of justice. The old man said he had
been looted of his hard earned wealth by a person known to him. The King could
not tolerate the fraud activates in his kingdom. He asked the old man to name
the culprit and if found guilty he would sentence him to death. Initially the
old man seem to be hesitating and when the king assured him that nothing will
happen to him and security will be arrange to safeguard him, the old man said:
Your Majesty, you were the thief!
The King would not believe what he had heard. He
asked the old man what made him think so. The old man answered thus: O King,
last night I had a dream that I have gone outside the country and earned five
thousand gold coins. On my return back to your kingdom you had come to my house
along with your soldiers and looted me of the gold coins. I have lost all my
life savings!
The King was calm all this while howled at the old
man in anger: You old fool! How can you imagine that what you saw in a dream
was true? Dreams come and go in sleep.
The old man replied: O King, if your dream of having
a floating palace could be taken seriously, why should my dream not be true
also? The old man removed his wig and beard and showed his true identity. It
was Tenali Ramakrishna who bowed before the King and said: Forgive me, your
majesty I could not see any other way to convince you not to take dreams
seriously. The King understood that dreams are indeed fantasies of mind and
sometimes cannot be true.
Dreams are in fact the reflections of the wake state
and so we get involved and transact with the people in it and participate with
them. Even so in the dream state we assume that what is happening is for real
until we are awake. Everyone has had this experience of assuming the dream to
be real. Most amazingly a person who has had a stupendous meal may dream he is
very hungry and get up in the middle of the night, only to say what a silly
dream?
Off late quantum physics is inclined to believe that
this universe is more like a dream than imagined earlier. This insight has made
Sir James Jeans, noted physicist, mathematician and astronomer announce thus:
“The Universe begins to look more like a great Thought than a great Machine.”
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