We live in
a time of infinite possibility, we are told. This is the epoch that will see
the culmination of all our dreams, like the era of “Devanampiya”, or the
emperor Ashoka. There is one exception, though, as he forsook his ancestral
faith to embrace a new, puzzling path that only held out the hope of balance
and harmony, not victory or validation. Both are inevitable in this new period of glory. But, as often happens in the real world, there
are two issues to be sorted out.
One i