Time Capsule: - Lord Buddha

It might sound strange to say that Silly was not silly. In fact he was the cleverest boy in his class. His name was Silapachai and his friends and classmates lovingly called him Silly because his original Thai name was too long. 

So it was Silly's turn and he entered the Time Capsule and pressed the buttons that would take him to the little Himalayan Kingdom Kapilavastu.

Childhood
On the brightened screen appeared the beautiful marble palace of King Sudhodana. In the court of the king stood two boys. One carried a bow and some arrows and the other an injured swan. Before the King were also his ministers and noblemen. They had come to hear the dispute of these two young men over a swan.

One was Devdutta who claimed that he had shot down the bird; and the other was Prince Siddhartha, son of King Sudhodana. His claim was that he had saved the life of the bird and so it was his. Both young men pleaded and argued before the king and noblemen and eventually it was decided that the bird would belong to the one who had saved its life and not one who had attempted to kill it. And so Prince Siddhartha won a point and taught the first great lesson. This was the very nature of Prince Siddhartha. From his youth he was very gentle, kind and loving to all people as well as to all animals.

People heard of the Prince's wisdom and recalled the strange dream Queen Maya had had before his birth. In the dream she saw a beautiful white elephant flying from the sky and entering her body. She narrated her dream to the King, and the two of them called wise men to give the meaning of the dream. The wise men said that the Queen would have a son who would be a special child, and he would be a great man, certainly greater than the King himself. This pleased King Sudhodana very much for he wished to have a son who would be a mighty ruler and who would expand the boundaries of his tiny kingdom in the north of India.