The Buddha Story Continues ~ an Unexpected Sight

The King still wanted to be certain that his son would not see anything on his trip that might disturb his mind, because that might make him want to leave the kingdom and follow the holy life.

The day before the Prince was scheduled to travel to the city, the King sent his servants and soldiers out with this message: "By order of the King! Tomorrow the royal Prince Siddhartha will visit the capital city of Kapilavastu. Decorate your houses and the streets and let everything be colorful in his honor. Let those who are sick or old or in any way unhealthy stay indoors tomorrow. Nothing should be seen in the city that is not young and fair and beautiful."

Then, as gently as they could, the soldiers took all the street beggars and brought them to a part of the city that was not on the prince's route. 

When the morning came, Channa, the charioteer, groomed the Prince's favorite horse, Kantaka.  Then, with his royal passenger aboard, he drove out through the palace gates.  It was the first time the Prince had seen Kapilavatu since he was a small child, and it was the first that the most of the citizens of the city had ever seen their Prince.  Everyone was excited and the people lined the festively decorated streets to catch a glimpse of the handsome young prince.

"How tall and good looking he is!" they exclaimed.

"How bright his eyes are!"

"We are indeed fortunate that someday he will be our king."

The prince was delighted, as well.  The city shone bright and clean.  Everywhere he saw people dancing and laughing and cheering.  The streets were covered with flower petals thrown by his joyful subjects.  "The song was true," he  thought to himself.  "This is indeed a golden, beautiful and wondrous city!"

As they continued along the planned route, the Prince saw a sad person in the crowd.  He was old and bent.  The Prince had never seen anything like this before.  He turned to Channa and asked, "Who is that person over there? Why is he stooped over and not dancing?  Why is his face wrinkled and pale, rather than smooth and shining?  Why is he so different?"

Channa replied, "That is just an old man."

"Old?" the Prince asked. "Was this man 'old' like this before, or did 'old' happen to him recently?"

"Neither," Channa answered. "Many years ago that wrinkled man was young and strong like the others you see.  Slowly he grew weak.  His body bent, the colors faded from his cheeks, he lost most of his teeth, until finally he looked as he looks now."

Siddhartha was both surprised and saddened.  "Is that poor man the only one suffering the weakness of old age? Or are there others like him?"

"Surely you know, O Prince, that everyone must experience old age," Channa said. "You, me, your wife Yasodhara, Rahula... everyone at the palace... We are all growing older every moment. Someday most of us will look like that man."

These words shocked the gentle Prince and for the longest time he did not speak.  Finally he cleared his throat.  "Chana," he said, "I have seen something today that I never expected to see. In the midst of all these happy young people this vision of old age frightens me.  Please turn the chariot back to the palace.  I am no longer enjoying this day.  I wish to see no more."

When they arrived back at the palace, the Prince hurried to his room without speaking to anyone.  For a long time, he sat by himself.  Everyone noticed his strange behavior and tried to cheer him up, but nothing helped.

At dinner he did not touch of his food, even though is was a meal unsurpassed in excellence. He paid no attention to the music or the dancing.  He just sat by himself, thinking about old age.

And he knew that he needed to go out into the world again, and see more.

Next time, The Second Journey.

If you missed the earlier chapters, they can be found here:

Birthday of the Buddha
The Buddha Story Continued
The Young Prince
The Marriage Contest
The Pleasure Palaces
A Song Of Beauty

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The Buddha Story Continues ~ A Song of Beauty

In earlier posts, we have followed the story of the Buddha: Birth of the Buddha, The Young Prince, The Wise Men's Predictions,  The Marriage Contest, and The Pleasure Palaces.  Today the story continues.

One evening after dinner, Prince Siddhartha lay reclining on his couch, his head resting in the lap of his beautiful bride, Yasodhara.

His musician was playing beautiful songs.  The servant girls were  whispering to each other.  It was another beautiful evening, like so many others, inside the Pleasure Palace where Siddhartha's father wished his son to stay, isolated from the world.

But on this evening, Siddhartha was feeling restless.  He turned to the singer and made a request,  "Help me fall asleep with a song you have never sung for me before."

The musician, of course, did as she was asked.  Quickly she began to compose a new song with the words and images floating through her brain, all the while strumming along on her instrument.  She sang of the beautiful things to be found in the world, of the distant lands where she had once traveled,and of golden cities where people lived happily.

The prince was enchanted by the song, and asked the singer, "Are there really places of beauty outside these palace walls?"  When the singer assured him that there were, he asked more questions.  "What kind of lives do the people there live?  Are there things more lovely than what I see before me each day?"  He begged the singer to tell him everything she knew of the world outside.

And so she told him of cities and towns, mountains and valleys, rivers and oceans, lands where people spoke in different languages.  She told him that these were only things she had seen; she heard that there were more places and people she had not even imagined.  "Though your place and gardens and walls are beautiful," she told the prince, "there is much to see outside these walls."

The prince, of course, now wanted to see and experience all these strange and wonderful things himself.  He had lived in the pleasure palaces for so long, he had forgotten about the world outside, as his father had wished.

The prince was content in his palaces, sitting in his garden. listening to beautiful music.  But now it was time to travel and see what lay beyond.

That very night, the prince sent a message to the King.  He asked that a travel party be arranged, to that he might go out into the city and learn what lay beyond the garden walls.

Next: An Unexpected Sight

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The Buddha Story Contined ~ The Marriage Contest

In earlier posts, we have learned the story of the  Birthday of the Buddha, followed by A Fortunate Birth, and then the story of The Young Prince. 

Here, then, is the story of The Marriage Contest.

As the Prince grew older, his kindness made him well-loved by everyone who knew him. But his father worried that the young prince was too gentle and sensitive.  In order to be a great king, his King Shuddhodana reasoned, he needed to be strong and powerful.

 

The Prince Siddhartha, it seemed, preferred sitting along in the garden to learning how to rule a kingdom.  His father fretted that his son would leave the palace to follow a life like that of the holy man Asita.  And if he did that, he would never be a great king.

So, once again, King Shuddhodana sent for his trusted advisers, asking them what to do.  One pointed out that the Prince sat and dreamed of other worlds because he was not attached to anything in this world.  The solution, said the adviser, would be for the Prince to find a wife and have children.  This would quickly cure him of his dreaming, and he would be forced to learn how to rule the kingdom.

The King was intrigued by this idea.  He arranged a sumptuous banquet and invited the young women from all the noble families.  At the end of the evening, the Prince would give gifts to each of the guests while the advisers watched closely, hoping to see which of the young women Siddhartha favored.

The women, who were really still girls, were embarrassed.  Each grew even shyer when it was her turn to accept the Prince's gift.  Finally only one girl was left ~ Yasodhara, the daughter of a neighboring King.  Yasodhara was not shy, and when she approached, for the first time,  Siddhartha looked into her eyes.  Yasodhara was very beautiful and the Prince was attracted to her.  When Yasodhara asked where her gift was, the Prince realized he had given away all the gifts on the table.  Instead, he took the ring from his own finger and gave it to her.

This was all the advisers needs for encouragement.  They ran to the King and announced that Yasodhara was the prefect bride for his son.  But when her father met with the King, though he acknowledged that Prince Siddhartha was a fine young man, he was not willing to give his daughter up so easily.  Other young Princes wished to marry her, as well: young men skilled in riding and archery and other sports.  Yasodhara's father sad that, if  Siddhartha wished to marry Yasodhara, he would have to compete against the others.

And so a contest was arranged, with Yasodhara as the prize.  King Shuddhodana was worried. The Prince, after all, had never shown an interest in any games.  How could he ever win a competition?  But the prince assured his father that he would do whatever was necessary to win Yasodhara as his bride.  The first event was archery, and all the others did well.  Devadatra, Siddhartha's cousin, was one of the suitors, and his arrow not only hit the bull's eye; it went clear through the target.  As the crowd cheered,  even Yasodhara worried. How could Siddhartha beat that shot?  Would she be forced to marry Devadatra?

Siddhartha, however, was confident.  He set the target at the greatest distance.  When he pulled the arrow back on his bow, he was so strong that the bow snapped in half and he had to request a stronger bow.  The advisers conferred, finally offering an old bow in the palace that belonged to one of the greatest warriors.  Since his death, no one had been strong enough to string it, much less shoot it.

Siddhartha immediately agreed to use the historic bow.  He bent it and strung it easily, to everyone's amazement.   When he shot the arrow, it made a sound so loud it was heard in faraway villages, and the arrow hit the target so hard and fast that it didn't even slow down but, instead, continued until it was out of sight.

The crowd went wild.  But other contests remained.  Next was a contest of swordsmanship.  Each of the suitors chose a tree, and then slashed through it with his sword.  Each chose a bigger tree.  Each succeeded.  Finally it was Siddhartha's turn and he chose a tree with two trunks growing side-by-side.  When he cut through, he was so strong and his sword was so sharp, the tree didn't even fall.  It remained standing.  At first Yasodhara worried that Siddhartha had failed.  But a breeze swept through and blew over the trunks.  Again the crowd went wild, insisting that Siddhartha had won.  But a final contest remained: horsemanship.

There was a horse so wild it had never been ridden before.  Each suitor tried to mount the horse but none could remain on the horse's back for more than a few seconds.  One, in fact, was nearly trampled by the horse after he was thrown.   The crowd began to shout, urging the King to stop the contest before someone was killed.  But Siddhartha was not afraid. for he believed that gentleness was more powerful than brute strength.  Slowly he reached out and touched a tuft of hair on the horse's forehead.  Then speaking in a quiet voice, he calmed the horse, who began to lick Siddhartha's hand.  Still whispering,  Siddhartha climbed on the horse's back, paraded before the cheering crowd, and bowed to Yasodhara.

Siddhartha won the contest, not only through power and strength, but through gentleness and kindness.  And in winning the contest, he won the hand of Princess Yasodhara.

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The Buddha story in greater depth here.

To be continued...