After reaching the palace, he went directly to the king and requested him that he wanted to become a homeless wanderer in his search for the end of all pain and misery in the world. He asked for his permission to explore the world.
This shocked the king; he had been afraid of this since the day Asita had told them that the newborn prince would become either a great leader or a great teacher. He told Siddhartha to forget the idea of leaving the palace. He told him that he was still too young to lead a lonely life of a holy man and that he should put off the decision until he was older, as he was the heir to the throne and had to become a king and rule his father’ s kingdom.
Siddhartha put forth four requests to the king. He would stay only if he would be promised that he would never grow old or become ill or die or be in a state of unhappiness. These words confused and angered the king. But the prince remained from his stand. If his father could not save him from the sufferings that he would have to go through during illness, old age, death or sorrow, then the king should allow him to go and try to save himself.
But the king would hear nothing more from the prince and ordered the ministers that the prince should not be allowed to leave and that a guard was to be set up all around the palace grounds. Saying this, the king stormed out of the room in anger.
The Luminous Life of Buddha ( မဟာလူသား မြတ်ဗုဒ္ဓ ) Edited by SHYAM DUA TINYTOT Publication
