In this post, we discuss an aspect of Buddhism. Specifically, we put forth our opinion on why being a universal ruler, Chakravartin, is equivalent to being the Buddha, the enlightened one.
At the birth of Siddhartha Gautama, the sages had predicted that he'd be a universal ruler or become enlightened[1]. We believe that this is so because the two are equivalent states theoretically.
In theory, being in control of everything is the same as being detached from everything. In practice, this manifests as acting in a detached way, i.e., acting with the body and senses while having the right abstract representation of the perceived reality in the mind, which, we believe, is essentially Karma yoga.
As we've discussed in a previous post, perceived reality can be characterized as a cognitive bias if it is to be understood with only the mind. The Buddha, we believe, is the perfect scientist who's perceiving reality as a cognitive bias and is meditating on the abstract representation of the perceived reality, i.e., the Buddha is understanding the perceived reality instead of experiencing it. The Chakravartin, the universal ruler, is in control of the whole universe because he has the right abstract representation of the universe in his mind; in other words, he interacts with the perceived reality with his body and senses while having the right abstract representation of it in his mind. Just like in engineering, once the underlying scientific laws are understood, one can engineer perfect machines and structures. The universal ruler, having understood and internalized all the universal laws, becomes a great king.
Thus, we see that one could argue that being a universal ruler requires acting with sensory detachment from the perceived reality, and so does being in the enlightened state, the only difference being that one doesn't act at all in the Buddha-like state, making the two states theoretically equivalent.
We end this post with an interesting Hindi/Urdu saying by the 14th century Sufi saint Kabir who influenced Bhakti yoga:
Phikr gayi, chinta miti, man hua beparwaah
Jinko kachu na chahiye, wo shaahon ke shaah
Translation by ChatGPT:
Worry is gone, anxiety has vanished, and the mind has become carefree.
Those who desire nothing are the kings of kings.
[1] From wiki: According to later biographical legends, during the birth celebrations, the hermit seer Asita journeyed from his mountain abode, analysed the child for the "32 marks of a great man" and then announced that he would either become a great king (chakravartin) or a great religious leader.