The young prince received the best education there was and surpassed already quick are teachers in wisdom. He was also master of martial arts. At the age of 16, he married his cousin, Yasodhara, the daughter of Suppabuddha, the brother of Maha Maya. From the marriage of Siddhatta and Yasodhara came a son: Rahula. The prince grew up within the walls of the royal palace where everything that showed the signs of decay, cleaned up for the ugly side to hide from life. His father wanted to prevent him from seeing the world would renounce when he beheld the perishable nature of things. But the urge to investigate the true nature of things remained the young prince, and one day he went there with his charioteer Channa and his horse Kanthaka out for a tour of the city. There he became acquainted with the hard, naked truth.
He then saw an old man, a sick man and a dead man (the three heavenly messengers). He asked his charioteer if these were the only creatures in the world that befell this fate, to which Channa replied in the negative. Even if someone is rich or poor, ugly or beautiful, wise or ignorant -- the idea that this terrible fate will one day befall all sentient beings, did Siddhatta tremble through marrow. He felt an intense compassion for all sentient ones creatures and finally he decides with a determined will, a medicine to seek that can put an end to these horrific situations for good to which all beings are subject.
Shortly after seeing the old, the sick, and the dead man, he met a wandering hermit. Deeply impressed for its simplicity robes and the hermit's calm countenance, the prince looked at him for a long time and insistently. Then the prince decides to leave the palace in exchange for the homeless life.
| Auteur: Peter van Loosbroek -- Ananda Copyright: www.sleuteltotinzicht.nl/glb_copyright.htm |