He Then Asked If The Man Was Born So, And The Charioteer Answered
That He Was Not, As He Was Once Young Like Themselves.
'Are there,' said
the prince, 'many such beings in the world?' 'Your highness,' said the
charioteer,
'there are many.' The prince again enquired, 'Shall I become
thus old and decrepit?' and he was told that it was a state at which all
beings must arrive."
The prince returns home and informs his father of his intention to become
an ascetic, seeing how undesirable is life tending to such decay. His
father conjures him to put away such thoughts, and to enjoy himself with
his princesses, and he strengthens the guards about the palaces. Four
months later like circumstances recur, and the prince sees a leper, and
after the same interval a dead body in corruption. Lastly, he sees a
religious recluse, radiant with peace and tranquillity, and resolves to
delay no longer. He leaves his palace at night, after a look at his wife
Yasodhara and the boy just born to him, and betakes himself to the forests
of Magadha, where he passes seven years in extreme asceticism. At the end
of that time he attains the Buddhahood. (See Hardy's Manual p. 151
seqq.) The latter part of the story told by Marco, about the body of the
prince being brought to his father, etc., is erroneous. Sakya was 80 years
of age when he died under the sal trees in Kusinara.
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