On growing older, the prince became famous and was loved by everyone because of his kind and peaceful nature. Everyone loved him. He grew up to be a very kindhearted man who loved peace and hated violence. The king was worried about his non-violent nature, as he wanted him to become a great king, strong and mighty. He stated: ‘’Siddhartha is too gentle and sensitive. I want him to grow up to be a great king. Kings must be strong and powerful. He is more interested in sitting by himself in the garden than he is in learning how to be the ruler of a kingdom’’. He was also worried that his son might want to leave the peace and become a lonely, holy man like Asita. If he become a great teacher , the king’ s ambitions of seeing his son become a great king would remain unfulfilled.
The king asked for the advice of his ministers. One of them said that the prince should be married, to get him out of his dream world and into the real world.
The king started his search for a beautiful princess worthy of his son . The ministers told the king that they had found the perfect bride for his son. They advised him to go and ask hiss neighbour, King Suprabuddha , for me hand of his daughter, Yasodhara, for the prince.
The king approached Yasodhara’s father who warmly welcomed the king and heard his proposal. But he told him that there were lots of other excellent young men who wanted to marry his daughter and therefore the prince should compete to marry his daughter.
The king agreed to the contest, which was to be held in a few days. But he was worried, as Siddhartha had never shown the slightest liking for the warrior games, then how could he win among skilled contestants. But the prince told him not to be worried and that he would win the contest; he was willing to do whatever was required to make Yasodhara his bride.
The contests were in archery, swordamanship and horse riding. Though there were many skilled contestants, Siddhartha excelled in the sports and won his lady’ s hand not only by a show of strength but also with his tender and caring nature.
The Luminous Life of Buddha ( မဟာလူသား မြတ်ဗုဒ္ဓ ) Edited by SHYAM DUA TINYTOT Publication
