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Manual of Indian Buddhism c4.s2: 2. Forebodings of the Future. Flight from Kapilavastu. Renunciation of the World

Manual of Indian Buddhism c4.s2

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2. Forebodings of the Future. Flight from Kapilavastu. Renunciation of the World

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Time passed on, and the Bodhisattva lived in luxury and all kinds of enjoyments⁴.

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⁴ Cp. Lal. V. Chap. XIV; Buddhac. Chap. III, vs. 26 ff. and V, 16 f.

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On a certain day the Prince ascended his chariot, and drove with his charioteer Channa (Skr. Chanda, Chandaka) to the pleasure gardens. The gods, knowing that the time was approaching when he would attain supreme Enlightenment, resolved to show him the 4 ominous sights. One among the gods assumed the form of an old, decrepit man. The Prince asked Channa:⁵ "What man is this?" "He is an old man", was the answer, "and every living being is doomed to become like him". With emotion in his mind, the Prince quickly returned home, and Śuddhodana on being informed of the reason of that speedy return, felt his anxiety increase, and doubled the guard surrounding the palace.

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⁵ The compiler of Intr. Jāt. I, 59 here refers to the Mahāpadāna.

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On another day the Prince saw, under the same circumstances, a sick man produced by the power of the gods. He put the same question, and on hearing the answer, turned back in agitation. The King multiplied the means of enjoyments for his son, and again doubled the guards.

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Sometime after the Bodhisattva, when driving to the gardens, met with a corpse. The answer, given by his charioteer moved him more than ever. Quickly he returned to the palace, and the King redoubled his precautions.

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On a fourth occasion the Bodhisattva on his drive to the gardens saw, by the instrumentality of the gods, a monk. The decent deportment of the person made a deep impression on his mind, and when he heard that the man was an ascetic, he forthwith felt a strong inclination to renounce the world¹. Now he drove on to the gardens, and there spent the day. After taking a bath he seated himself on the resting stone to be clothed.

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¹ Jāt. I, p. 59 adds the remark: "The preachers of the Dīgha-N. say that he saw all the 4 signs on the same day". This has nothing to do, as ROCKHILL op. c. p. 22 supposes, with the Prince riding on horseback to the fields and seeing some poor ploughing labourers; this scene falls between the third and the forth ominous sight in Buddhac. V, in ROCKHILL's source afterwards.

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At that moment Śakra felt that his throne became hot, a certain foreboding of danger to his dominion. Conceiving that the Bodhisattva at midnight of that very day would leave the palace and carry out the Great Renunciation, he ordered Viśvakarman to go to the gardens, and adorn Siddhārtha with heavenly attire.

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Viśvakarman obeyed the order, came into the presence of the Prince, and disposed in a divine manner the folds of the latter's hairdress. Thus arrayed in all his splendour, the Bodhisattva ascended his chariot. Just at that time he received the message that Yaśodharā had been delivered of a son², on hearing which he said: "Rāhula has been born, a bond has come into being." Hence the name of Rāhula was given to the child by order of Śuddhodana.

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² In Mhv. II, 159, and Tib. L. p. 240 (cp. Bhadrak. II) it is not the birth, but the conception which took place in the night of the Prince's flight. No date is given Buddhac. II, vs. 46, where Rāhula is marked by the epithet Rāhusapatnavaktra. Cp. the fact that in Tib. L. p. 245 Rāhula's birth coincides with the defeat of Māra at the time of a lunar eclipse on fullmoon day in Vaiśākha. The same moment gave birth to Ananda, the son of Amṛtodana. In Bhadrak. IX, Rāhula is born six years after his conception, as in Tib. L.

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When the Prince was entering the town with great magnificence, a young lady, Kisā Gotamī³, was contemplating from the upper storey of her palace the entrance of the Bodhisattva, and exclaimed:

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³ Her story is told Par. Dīp. 195 ff.; Thertg. 213—223. Cp. Dhp. p. 118; 289; 387; Aṅg. N. I, 14, 5. In Mhv. II, 157 and Bhadrak. XXXV, she is called Mṛgī, the mother of Ānanda; in a confused Tibetan account something like Mṛgaja, with ROCKHILL, I., of B. p. 23; not named Buddhac. V, 24.

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Happy, indeed, is the mother,
Happy, indeed, is the father,
Happy, indeed, is the wife,
Who possesses such a husband!

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On hearing those words, the Bodhisattva became meditative, and as his mind was already estranged from evil passions, he perceived that real happiness can only be gained by quenching the fire of love, hatred and delusion. "She has given me a good lesson", quoth he, "I will search for the peace of Nirvāṇa⁴, and this very day leave my family and renounce the world." Then detaching from his neck a collar of great value, he sent it to Kisā Gotamī as a token of gratitude.

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⁴ The term rendered by "happy" in the stanza, is nibbuta, and Nirvāṇa is synonymous with nibbuti (nirvṛti). See CHILDERS s. vv.

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When Siddhārtha, after retiring to his apartments, lay reclined on his couch, a crowd of fair damsels began to sing, play and dance to divert him, but he took no pleasure in the spectacle and fell asleep. The damsels, disappointed, lay down to sleep. A short time after the Prince awoke and, looking around, saw the loathsome appearance of the sleeping women¹. He felt more and more disgusted, and the desire to accomplish the Great Renunciation (Abhiniṣkramaṇa) arose in him with double force. He rose, called his charioteer, and gave order to saddle his horse².

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¹ For a fuller description see Jat. I, p. 61 and Lal. V., p. 251, with the misogynic effusion p. 252. Cp. Buddhac. V, 43 ff. Mhv. II, 159.

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² N. writings insert an episod describing how the Prince as a dutiful son, before departing, asks his father's leave; Lal. V., Chap. XV; Mhv. II, 141; cp. Buddhac. V, vs. 27—38. The episode contains powerful passages, but is hardly appropriate.

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While Channa was saddling the courser Kanthaka, the Bodhisattva went to the room of Rāhula's mother. He opened the door and saw Yaśodharā sleeping, with one of her hands upon the head of the child. Fearing that her awakening would be an obstacle to his going away, he silently left the palace³. As soon as he came out, he went to his gigantic white steed, bestrode it, and ordered Channa to take hold of its tail⁴. The city gate was opened by the power of the guardian deity, and so the Bodhisattva escaped.

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³ Intr. Jāt. I, p. 62 adds the notice that according to a Jāt. commentary "Rāhula was at that time seven days old", but rejects that view as not being found in other commentaries. Quite different again several N. traditions, see note above p. 16.

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⁴ The horse measured 18 cubits from the neck to the tail.

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At that moment Māra the Fiend appeared in the air, with the intention to prevent the Bodhisattva to become a Buddha, by promising him in a week the dignity of a universal monarch. But the Prince, not aiming at worldly sovereignty, remained deaf to the Tempter, who, baffled in his design, maliciously followed him, as a shadow the body, waiting for an opportunity⁵.

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⁵ Lal. V, p. 257 it is not Māra, but Chandaka who tries to deturn the Prince from his design. Cp. Mhv. II, 160, and again 165. Cp. WINDISCH Māra und B. p. 205.

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It was on the full moon day of Āṣāḍha⁶ when the Prince left the city. At a certain distance he turned the face, at the spot where would be erected the shrine of "Kanthaka's Return"⁷. His progress through the country went on in great pomp and glory, a host of heavenly beings attending him with lighted torches, and the sky being replete with flowers from Indra's heaven "as with the drops of rain at the beginning of the rains"⁸.

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⁶ I. e. the date of his conception.

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⁷ Kanthakanivattana. This shrine not mentioned Lal. V. 277, but another erected on the spot where Chandaka took leave, (Chandakanivartana).

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⁸ In Madhyadeśa the rains set in about the end of June.

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After going with such a splendid retinue 30 Yojanas the Prince arrived at the river Anomā⁹. He sprang with his steed over the river, lighted, and said to Channa: "Here take my ornaments, and return with Kanthaka. I am going to become an ascetic".

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⁹ Slightly different Mhv. II, 164, where the place Anomiya is apparently the same as Anupiya in the country of the Mallas. Cp. Lal. V. p. 277.

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Thereupon the Bodhisattva thought: "These long locks of mine are unbecoming a Sramaṇa". He took his sword, cut off his hair, and flung it together with the crest jewel towards the sky, saying: "If I am destined to become a Buddha, let it stand in the air; if not, let it come down on the ground!" The tuft of hair with the jewel went up and remained suspended in the sky, where Śakra received it in a golden casket, to place it in the Shrine of the Crest jewel (Cūḷāmaṇi) in the Heaven of the 33 gods¹⁰.

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¹⁰ The name of the Caitya in Lal. V. p. 278 is Cūḍāpratigrahaṇa. The relic is Indo-Aryan Research. III. 8. figured as placed in the Sudhammā Devasabhā, and called *Bhagavato Cūḍamaho* Pl. XVI of Bharhut; cp. CUNNINGHAM p. 189 of his text.

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Again the Prince thought: "These fine Benares clothes do not befit a Śramaṇa". At that moment the Mahābrahma angel Ghaṭīkāra, who in the days of yore had been the friend of the Bodhisattva, when the latter was Gyotipāla¹, provided him with the right requisites of a Śramaṇa, the 3 robes etc. The Bodhisattva put on his new dress, and bade Channa to go back with the salutations to his parents. The charioteer obeyed, but the horse Kanthaka, unable to bear his grief, died of a broken heart. After his death he was reborn as a deity of the same name in heaven².

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¹ For the history of the two friends, see Mhv. I, 319 ff. and cp. Mil. P. p. 221 ff. Dhp. p. 349. — In Mhv. II, 195; Lal. V. 276; Buddhac. VI, vs. 60, the B. changes his dress with the *kāṣāya* of a hunter or a Devaputra who had assumed the shape of a hunter.

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² The death and deification of the steed is more amply told in Mhv. II, 189 ff. According to this source, and Lal. V. p. 282 K. died after his having returned to Kapilavastu. Cp. about his blissful state in heaven Vimāna-V. p. 81.

Cites (10)