DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.45392#0036
Buddha & the Gospel of Buddhism
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,” exclaimed 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 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
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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,” exclaimed 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 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
20