The Life of the Buddha: The Four Signs.
The Bodhisatta is never entirely forgetful of his high calling. Yet it is needful that he should be reminded of the approaching hour; and to this end the cosmic Buddhas made audible to Siddhattha, even as he sat and listened to the singing of the dancing-girls, the message "Recollect thy vow, to save all living things; the time is at hand; this alone is the purpose of thy birth." And thus as the Bodhisatta sat in his beautiful palaces day after day surrounded by all the physical and intellectual pleasures that could be devised by love or art, he felt an ever more insistent call to the fulfilment of his spiritual destiny. And now were to be revealed to him the Four Signs which were to be the immediate cause of the Great Renunciation.
The Bodhisatta desired one day to visit the royal pleasure-gardens. His father appointed a day, and gave command that the city should be swept and garnished, and that every inauspicious sight should be removed, and none allowed to appear save those who were young and fair. The day came, and the prince drove forth with the charioteer Channa. But the Devas are not to be diverted from their ends; and a certain one assumed the form of an old and decrepit man, and stood in the midst of the street. "What kind of man is this?" said the Prince, and Channa replied, "Sire, it is an aged man, bowed down by years?" "Are all men then," said the prince, "or this man only, subject to age?" The charioteer could but answer that youth must yield to age in every living being. "Shame, then, on life!" said the prince, "since the decay of every living thing is notorious!" and he turned to his palace in sadness. When all that had taken place was reported to the king, he exclaimed: "This is my ruin!" and he devised more and more amusements, music and plays calculated to divert Siddhattha's mind from the thought of leaving the world.
Again the prince drove out to visit the pleasure-gardens of Kapilavatthu; and on the way they met a sick man, thin and weak and scorched by fever. When the meaning of this spectacle was made clear by the chariotieer, the Bodhisatta exclaimed again: "If health be frail as the substance of a dream, who then can take delight in joy and pleasure?" And the car was turned, and he returned to the palace.
A third time the prince went forth, and now they met a corpse followed by mourners weeping and tearing their hair. "Why does this man lie on a bier?' said the prince, "and why do they weep and beat their breasts?" "Sire," said the charioteer, "he is dead, and may never more see his father or mother, children or home; he has departed to another world." "Woe then to such youth as is destroyed by age," excaimed the prince, "and woe to the health that is destroyed by innumerable maladies! Woe to the life so soon ended! Would that sickness, age, and death might be for ever bound! Turn back again, that I may seek a way of deliverance."
When the Bodhisatta drove forth for the last time, he met a hermit, a mendicant friar. This Bhikkhu was self-possessed, serene, dignified, self-controlled, with downcast eyes, dressed in the garb of a religious and carrying a beggar's bowl. "Who is this man of so calm a temper?" said the prince, "clothed in russet garments, and of such dignified demeanour" "Sire," said the charioteer, "He is a Bhikkhu, a religious, who has abandoned all longings and leads a life of austerity, he lives without passion or envy, and he begs his daily food." The bodhisatta answered "That is well done, and makes me eager for the same course of life; to become religious has ever been praised by the wise, and this shall be my refuge and the refuge of others and shall yield the fruit of life, and immortality." Again the Bodhisatta returned to his palace.
When all these things had been reported to Suddhodana, he surrounded the prince's pleasure-palace by triple walls and redoubled the guards, and he commanded the women of the palace to exercise all their charms, to divert the prince's thoughts by music and pleasure; and it was done accordingly. And now Yadohara was troubled by portentous dreas; she dreamed that the land was devastated by storms, she saw herself naked and mutilated, her beautiful jewels broken, the sun the moon and the stars fell from the sky and Mount Meru sank into the great deep. When she related these dreams to the Bodhisatta, he replied in gentle tones: "You need not fear. It is to the good and the worthy alone that such dreams come, never to the base. Rejoice! for the purport of all these dreams is that the bond of mortality shall be loosed, the veils of ignorance shall rent asunder, for I have completely fulfilled the day of wisdom, and every one that has faith in me shall be saved from the three evils, without exception."
The Bodhisatta is never entirely forgetful of his high calling. Yet it is needful that he should be reminded of the approaching hour; and to this end the cosmic Buddhas made audible to Siddhattha, even as he sat and listened to the singing of the dancing-girls, the message "Recollect thy vow, to save all living things; the time is at hand; this alone is the purpose of thy birth." And thus as the Bodhisatta sat in his beautiful palaces day after day surrounded by all the physical and intellectual pleasures that could be devised by love or art, he felt an ever more insistent call to the fulfilment of his spiritual destiny. And now were to be revealed to him the Four Signs which were to be the immediate cause of the Great Renunciation.
The Bodhisatta desired one day to visit the royal pleasure-gardens. His father appointed a day, and gave command that the city should be swept and garnished, and that every inauspicious sight should be removed, and none allowed to appear save those who were young and fair. The day came, and the prince drove forth with the charioteer Channa. But the Devas are not to be diverted from their ends; and a certain one assumed the form of an old and decrepit man, and stood in the midst of the street. "What kind of man is this?" said the Prince, and Channa replied, "Sire, it is an aged man, bowed down by years?" "Are all men then," said the prince, "or this man only, subject to age?" The charioteer could but answer that youth must yield to age in every living being. "Shame, then, on life!" said the prince, "since the decay of every living thing is notorious!" and he turned to his palace in sadness. When all that had taken place was reported to the king, he exclaimed: "This is my ruin!" and he devised more and more amusements, music and plays calculated to divert Siddhattha's mind from the thought of leaving the world.
Again the prince drove out to visit the pleasure-gardens of Kapilavatthu; and on the way they met a sick man, thin and weak and scorched by fever. When the meaning of this spectacle was made clear by the chariotieer, the Bodhisatta exclaimed again: "If health be frail as the substance of a dream, who then can take delight in joy and pleasure?" And the car was turned, and he returned to the palace.
A third time the prince went forth, and now they met a corpse followed by mourners weeping and tearing their hair. "Why does this man lie on a bier?' said the prince, "and why do they weep and beat their breasts?" "Sire," said the charioteer, "he is dead, and may never more see his father or mother, children or home; he has departed to another world." "Woe then to such youth as is destroyed by age," excaimed the prince, "and woe to the health that is destroyed by innumerable maladies! Woe to the life so soon ended! Would that sickness, age, and death might be for ever bound! Turn back again, that I may seek a way of deliverance."
When the Bodhisatta drove forth for the last time, he met a hermit, a mendicant friar. This Bhikkhu was self-possessed, serene, dignified, self-controlled, with downcast eyes, dressed in the garb of a religious and carrying a beggar's bowl. "Who is this man of so calm a temper?" said the prince, "clothed in russet garments, and of such dignified demeanour" "Sire," said the charioteer, "He is a Bhikkhu, a religious, who has abandoned all longings and leads a life of austerity, he lives without passion or envy, and he begs his daily food." The bodhisatta answered "That is well done, and makes me eager for the same course of life; to become religious has ever been praised by the wise, and this shall be my refuge and the refuge of others and shall yield the fruit of life, and immortality." Again the Bodhisatta returned to his palace.
When all these things had been reported to Suddhodana, he surrounded the prince's pleasure-palace by triple walls and redoubled the guards, and he commanded the women of the palace to exercise all their charms, to divert the prince's thoughts by music and pleasure; and it was done accordingly. And now Yadohara was troubled by portentous dreas; she dreamed that the land was devastated by storms, she saw herself naked and mutilated, her beautiful jewels broken, the sun the moon and the stars fell from the sky and Mount Meru sank into the great deep. When she related these dreams to the Bodhisatta, he replied in gentle tones: "You need not fear. It is to the good and the worthy alone that such dreams come, never to the base. Rejoice! for the purport of all these dreams is that the bond of mortality shall be loosed, the veils of ignorance shall rent asunder, for I have completely fulfilled the day of wisdom, and every one that has faith in me shall be saved from the three evils, without exception."
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place time topic people language
India - Ancient - Religion/philosophy - Indians/Buddhists - English
India - Ancient - Religion/philosophy - Indians/Buddhists - English
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