The History of Buddhist Thought c19.11

c19.11

In the heaven of the Thirty-three the gods were rejoicing at the news. An ascetic named Kāladevala (or Asita), who had acquired the eight Attainments, went up to this heaven and learnt the cause of their rejoicing. Coming down he went to the king’s abode and asked to see the child. The boy was presented to him, and the ascetic, who could remember the future as well as the past, perceived that his own death would take place before the boy became a Buddha. So he smiled and then wept, but he assured the people that it was on account of his own loss.¹ Five days afterwards the name-giving ceremony took place, and the brahmins again prophesied that the child would become either a universal king or a Buddha.² But one of them, Koṇḍañña, prophesied his buddhahood without a doubt. It was he who was the first to be converted by Buddha. The king was told that his son would abandon the world on seeing the four signs : an old man, a sick man, a corpse, and a man who had renounced the world, so he set guards to ward off such omens.