Chapter Four: Springtime Excursions, or Three Sights
One day, the prince found out that spring had finally come to the land.
Grass had sprouted in the forest, their trees resounding with the songs of kokilas,
and the ice on the lotus ponds had melted. He felt like an elephant that had
been confined to a house, and he wanted to go out into the parks to look at the
girls in their spring finery, so the king ordered a picnic entertainment for his
beloved son.
He gave an order that expressly forbade the prince be exposed to the sight of
any afflicted person on the highway, saying "Heaven forbid the sensitive
prince even imagine himself distressed." So outriders gently
removed from the route all those who had mutilated limbs or other disabilities,
and also the decrepit, the sick and all the usual, squalid beggars.
When the fortunate prince with his well-trained attendants came down to visit
the king and formally ask permission to leave, the king had tears in his
eyes. He hugged him [" smelt his son's head"]
and gazed lovingly at him, and finally gave him permission to go, but he just
could not let him leave.
Finally, the prince mounted the four-horse golden chariot with its gold
trappings and harness like flash lightning, and accompanied by his worthy
retinue he entered the road which was strewn with heaps of gleaming flowers and
bedecked with hanging garlands and waving banners. It was like the moon
rising into its starry sky.
They proceeded very slowly so that the crowds of people, their eyes wide with
curiosity like blue lotuses, could get a glimpse of him. They cheered,
praising his personality, his glorious appearance, his personal beauty, and
cried, "Long live the Prince."
People who did not normally go out in public also watched. Hunchbacked
men, forest hermits, dwarves and prostitutes -- they all bowed down as at a
religious procession when military standards are lowered before the gods.
High-born women got permission to go out on the rooftops when they heard from
the seraglio attendants the cry, 'The prince is going out.' They tripped
over their slipped sashes, their eyes as dazed as if they had just awakened,
their ornaments hastily put on, as filled with curiosity they crowded
together.
The jangle of metal belts and anklets resounding on the staircases and roofs
frightened the pigeons in the dovecotes. As the women scrambled, they
muttered blame at one another, and some of the heavier women had trouble keeping
up. One or two had to really slow themselves down, as soon as they
remembered to cover themselves up.
There they were, restlessly swaying in the windows, squashed together while
their earrings got a good polishing, their ornaments all jingling.
Lotus-like faces shone between the clashing jewelry looking just like bouquets
of flowers adorning the front gates of houses.
With the crowds of damsels, the mansions themselves seemed alive, their
shutters flung open as if in eager curiosity, and the magnificent city appeared
like heaven, its divine chariots packed with nymphs.
Their faces shone like lotuses through the narrow windows as their earrings
tangled on one another's cheeks. Gazing down on the prince in the road,
the beautiful women seemed longing to fall to the ground. Gazing with
upturned faces at him, the men on the ground seemed longing to rise to the
heavens.
Beholding the king's son radiant in his beauty and glory, the women whispered,
'His wife must be a very happy woman!' But they meant this in the nicest
way, and not from any baser feeling.
'He looks like Kama, the god of love, standing there with his long, sturdy arms,
but we have a feeling he will leave this royal pomp and devote himself to
religion,' and they bowed, full of kindly feelings towards him.
The prince, for a while, did feel a little pleasure, seeing for the first time
that highway crowded with respectful citizens all dressed in their formal white
garments, and that made him feel young and carefree.
But then the gods in their heavens, having observed the city rejoicing like a
heaven itself, on purpose -- to stir the heart of the king's son -- created an
old man who was going haltingly along the way.
The prince stared at the decrepit person so unlike any of the other
bystanders, and in a lowered tone of voice asked in confidence of his driver,
"Charioteer, who is that man who just turned up, with the white hair, his
hand resting on a staff, his eyes hidden beneath his brows, his limbs all loose
and bent? Is that some kind of change due to illness or something?
Is it his natural state, or did he have some kind of accident?"
So the charioteer revealed the secret that should have been so carefully kept,
not thinking he was doing anything wrong because those same gods had bewildered
his mind.
"That is what happens when old age breaks us down. It ruins our
good looks, makes us weak and depressed, steals our enjoyment of life, wrecks
our memory and is the general ruin of all our senses.
"Once, he too, drank milk in his childhood, and in the course of time
learned to crawl. Having step by step become a strong young man, now in
the same way he has step by step reached old age."
Hearing this, the prince was somewhat taken aback and said to the charioteer,
"What! Will this horrible thing happen to me, too?"
"It will undoubtedly, over time and after many years, happen even to you,
my long-lived lord. All the world knows that old age will eventually
destroy their fine appearance; they accept that fact."
Then like a bull who has heard the crash of a thunderbolt close by, the
Great-Soul whose mind had been purified by the merit of karma accumulated from
eons of virtuous actions, was deeply agitated at this news of old age.
With a long, deep sigh, and shaking his head, he raised his eyes that had been
on the decrepit old man, and looking around at the cheering crowds, he said in
distress, "So. Old age wins over the memory, the good looks and the energy
of every single one of us, and yet the world is not even disturbed by
it."
"Since that's the way it is for us all, driver, turn back the
horses. Let's go home right now. How can I enjoy an outing in the
park with thoughts of old age overpowering me?"
Then the charioteer, at the king's son command, turned the chariot around, and
the prince, distracted and distraught, entered the palace as if it were
completely empty with no one around.
But he found no happiness even there at home because he was obsessed with the
thought, 'old age, old age.'
However, once more with his father's permission, he went out just as
before. Then the same deities created another man, this time with his body
all diseased and seeing him, the son of Shuddhodana staring at the man,
addressed his charioteer.
"That man with the swollen belly going around hugging strangers, gasping
for air as he plaintively says "mother" while his whole frame
trembles, his arms and shoulders droopy, all pale and thin -- please, who is
that?"
And the charioteer answered, "Gentle Sir, that is the great affliction
called sickness. It results from an imbalance or inflammation of the [three]
humours and has made even this once strong
man lose control of himself so he has no idea what he is doing."
The prince, looking at the sick man compassionately, asked, "Is that just
his own thing or can all beings get this 'sickness'?"
The driver replied, "Prince, everyone gets this, so with their bodies
aching and racked with pain they seek consolation in all sorts of
pleasures."
At that, his mind became very distressed, and he trembled like the reflection of
the moon in troubled water, and full of sorrow he said in a low voice,
"Even though they can see all this calamity of diseases people can still
feel undisturbed? How awful that people are so foolish as to even smile while
all this is going on!"
"Turn around, driver. Let's go right straight back to the king's
palace. Having heard this alarming news about disease, I could not
possibly concentrate on having any fun."
So, having turned back, very much preoccupied and all joy gone, he entered his
home. And having noticed that Siddhartha was back for a second time, the
king himself went to the city to investigate.
When he found out the reason for the prince's return, the king felt betrayed and
although unused to dealing out severe punishment even when quite displeased, he
really scolded the man whose duty it was to see that the road was clear.
Once again he arranged for all kinds of exotic and erotic entertainment for his
son praying, "Let's hope that he will never be able to leave us, even if it
is due to an addiction to the pursuit of pleasure."
But when his son found no pleasure in the various games, music and all
the other activities that are available in women's apartments, the king once
again gave orders for a ride outside, thinking to himself, "Well, maybe
this is just what it will take to distract him." And in his worry
over his son's mental state, never even thinking of the harm that could result
from hurried planning, he ordered the best singers and the other party girls to
go along.
With the royal road once again decorated and guarded, the king again had the
prince go out, this time having ordered the charioteer and chariot to proceed in
the opposite direction.
But just as the king's son was going on his way, the very same deities created a
dead man, though only the driver and the prince -- no one else -- saw him as he
was being carried along.
Then the prince said to the charioteer, "Who is that person, adorned but no
longer breathing, that is being carried along by four men and followed by those
mournful, wailing companions?"
The driver, knowing the truth, his mind having been overcome by the gods of
'pure mind and pure dwelling,' told the forbidden truth to his master.
"This is some poor man who, now deprived of consciousness, sensation,
energy and other qualities, is lying as unconscious as a block of wood or a pile
of straw, abandoned by both friends and enemies after having carefully prepared
his body and stood watch over him."
Hearing the charioteer's words, he was somewhat startled and said to him,
"Is that an unusual event, a sort of accident that happened, or do all
living creatures end up that way?"
And the driver replied, "This is the final end of all living beings.
Whether an ordinary person, one of the middle class or an aristocrat, it makes
no difference. Destruction is the fate of every single being in this
world."
Then the king's son, as soon as he heard about death though he was normally calm
and collected, immediately felt himself sinking down overwhelmed, and so he
leaned into the end of the chariot pole with his shoulder and spoke up in a loud
voice, "That's what is to become of all creatures? And yet the world just
shrugs it off and lives totally absorbed in the world! I
think that men's hearts must be very hard indeed if they can remain calm in the
face of such a thing!."
"Charioteer, go back. This is neither time nor place for a joy
ride. How could any rational being who knows what destruction is just
continue right along without caring about it?"
But even when the prince repeatedly commanded him, the charioteer did not turn
around. Instead, he drove them to Padmakhanda, The Lotus-and-Sword.
And there in that lovely glade which resembled Nandana, the Garden of Earthly
Delights, with its flowering trees and cuckoos flitting joyously about,
sparkling ponds gay with lotuses, and lots of cool refreshment, the king's son
was abducted amidst troops of beautiful women.
It was just as if he were some innocent too weak to withstand the temptations
of Kubera's palace at his capital Aloka, alive with sinuous and shapely apsaras
doing their seductive dances.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The kokila is the Indian cuckoo the
sound of whose lyrical voice is considered the harbinger of spring and romance.
Next: Chapter 5 The Double-edged
Sword.
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