The king received Siddhartha’ s request and agreed to it. But he was worried that he might encounter any unpleasant thing in the outside world and might leave the kingdom and follow the path of knowledge.
So, the king sent out his servants to the capital, Kapilavastu, that the prince would be visiting the city the next day. The people were ordered to decorate the houses and the city in the prince’ s honour; also the sick and the old were supposed to be kept in the house. And then, very gently, the soldiers took all the street beggars and brought them to a part of the city where the Prince would not visit.
The next morning, Channa, the charioteer, brushed up Kantaka, the prince’ s favourite horse and drove to the capital city. The prince was seeing Kapilavastu for the first time. The whole kingdom came on the streets to take their first look of the handsome young prince. They were very happy to see their tall , good looking prince and thought that they were fortunate that he would one day rule them.
Siddhartha saw that all the people were happy and some were even dancing . The citizens threw flowers on the prince’ s path. Siddhartha was happy that the song was true and that it was a beautiful and wonderful city.
Riding happily through the city, he suddenly saw an old, bent and sad person out of place in the happy crowd. Confused, he asked his charioteer why the man was different from the others.
Channa looked at the man and told the prince that the man was just an old man. He told the prince that the old man had been young and strong like others. But slowly his strength was lost and as a result his body got bent, his cheeks lost their colour, he lost most of his teeth and looked like he now did. Siddhartha was shocked and sad at this. The charioteer told him that everyone – even he, his wife, his son, his servants –would experience old age. Every moment of every day , a person grows older and that one day most people would look like that man..
The kind hearted prince was shocked into the silence . He had suddenly seen the curel reality of life. The sight of the old man in the middle of the happy young people had scared him. His trip had been spoiled and he want back home , where he kept away from everyone and rushed to his room. Everyone noticed his strange behavior and tried to lift his spirits, but was unsuccessful. He did not eat anything and sat alone pondering over ’old age’.
The king arranged another journey for him to go to an even more beautiful part of the city . Channa prepared Kantaka and rode Siddhartha into Kapilavastu . This time also the streets were beautified and the people were glad to see their prince. But this time, the prince saw a sick man, who coughed violently and shook horribly.
Channa told him that he was a sick man and that people could fall ill for a number of reasons like eating bad food, catching a cold or fever or if he could not stand the difficulties of life. He told him that even happy people could become sick; and that no one was safe from illness.
Again the prince was extremely stunned. He did not understand how people could be happy when they could become sick any moment. He wanted to return to the palace. This time, the prince was even more depressed. The prince did not speak to anyone. The king was again informed of his son’ s misery. He was upset that his son was sad and miserable.
The Luminous Life of Buddha ( မဟာလူသား မြတ်ဗုဒ္ဓ ) Edited by SHYAM DUA TINYTOT Publication
