Experimenting the manners of the hermits

Six long years the ascetic wandered Gotama (among which Prince Siddhatta was now known) on the main roads and back roads of India. He was apprenticed to Alara Kalama and Uddaka Ramaputta, two eminent masters in that time. They taught him everything they had gained in knowledge and wisdom. But the ascetic[1] Gotama was not satisfied because their teachings did not lead to the abolition of suffering. With undiminished effort he endured severe asceticism exercises, both physical and mental, to find a way for the cessation of suffering by suffering even more... Finally he became so skinny, that when he put his hand on his stomach, he covered his spine could touch. He had been so hard on himself that there was hardly there was more of him than a skeleton. He was near death...