the prince?”
On seeing the Sakyans’ concern
he replied, “I foresee for the prince
no harm.
Nor will there be any danger for him.
This one isn’t lowly: be assured.
This prince will touch
the ultimate self-awakening.
He, seeing the utmost purity,
will set rolling the Wheel of Dharma
through sympathy for the welfare of many.
His holy life will spread far and wide.
But as for me,
my life here has no long remainder;
my death will take place before then.
I won’t get to hear
the Dharma of this one with the peerless role.
That’s why I’m stricken,
afflicted, and pained.”
[Snp III.11]
4. Sakyamuni Buddha signaling fearlessness with right hand and the gift-giving sign with his left hand, date unknown, China.
5. Two Buddhas, one reclining and one seated, date unknown, Shwedagon Pagoda, Yangon, Burma.
6. North wall of the anterior room of Grotto 9 in Yungang, featuring Maitreya, Sakyamuni and Prabhutaratna, date unknown, Yungang, China.
7. Seated Buddha, date unknown, Mogao Cave 254, Dunhuang, China.
As with other men who become famous in their adult lives, many stories have been told about the miraculous birth and precocious wisdom and power of Gautama; these serve to demonstrate the spirit of the times in which they arose and grew. It is probable that the circumstances of his birth – his status as an only child, born out of due time, followed by the subsequent death of his mother – add to the instinctive feeling that his birth must have been different from that of ordinary men.
The name Siddhartha, said to have been given to him as a child, may have been a subsequent invention, for it means ‘he who has accomplished his aim.’ But parents of Suddhodana’s rank have never shown much aversion for grand names, and other Siddharthas are mentioned in various histories of the time. However this may be, his family name was certainly Gautama, and as this was the name by which he was usually known after his death, we shall use it throughout this book.
Any other names given to the founder of Buddhism are not names at all, but rather titles. To the pious Buddhist it seems irreverent to speak of Gautama using his human name, thus the use of those numerous epithets which are used to refer to the Buddha, the Enlightened One. Such are Sakya-sinha, ‘the lion of the tribe of Sakya;’ Sakya-muni, ‘the Sakya sage;’ Sugata, ‘the happy one;’ Sattha, ‘the teacher;’ Jina, ‘the conqueror;’ Bhagava, ‘the blessed one;’ Loka-natha, ‘the Lord of the world;’ Sarvajna, ‘the omniscient one;’ Dharma-raja, ‘the king of righteousness,’ and many others. These expressions had very real significance in moments of poetic fire, but their constant use among Buddhists tends not to bring into clearer vision but rather veil the personality of Gautama and maintain his aura of mystery.
Gautama himself was very early regarded as omniscient and absolutely sinless. His perfect wisdom is embodied in the title of Samma-sambuddha, ‘the completely enlightened one,’ found at the commencement of every Pali text. From his perfect wisdom, according to Buddhist belief, his sinlessness would follow as a matter of course. As a consequence of this assumption, the idea soon sprang up that he could not have been born as ordinary men are; that he had no earthly father, and in fact descended of his own accord into his mother’s womb from his throne in heaven; and that he gave unmistakable signs immediately after his birth of his high character and of his future greatness. Earth and heaven at his birth united to pay him homage; the very trees bent of their own accord over his mother, and the angels and archangels were present with their help. His mother was the best and the purest of the daughters of men and his father was of royal lineage, a prince of wealth and power. It was a pious task for the storytellers to make Gautauma’s renunciation and his condescension to teach the dharma greater by the comparison between the splendour of the position he was to abandon and the poverty in which he afterwards lived.
8. Ornate head of a Buddha, date unknown, location unknown, wood.
9. Head of Gautama Buddha, date unknown, India, stone, National Museum, New Delhi, India.
It is believed that Gautama was married very early to his cousin, the daughter of the raja of Koli. He did not, however, turn out to be a model prince. According to most of the southern accounts, Gautama’s relatives went en masse to complain to the raja Suddhodana that his son, devoted to home pleasures, neglected those manly exercises necessary for one who might hereafter have to lead his kinsmen in case of war. Gautama, once informed of this, is said to have appointed a day to prove his skill against all challengers, and by surpassing even the cleverest bowmen and showing his mastery in ‘the twelve arts,’ he won back the good opinion of the complaining clansmen.
This is the solitary record of his youth. We hear nothing more of Gautama until, at the age of 29, he suddenly abandoned his home to devote himself entirely to the study of religion and philosophy. According to the story, a deity appeared to him in four visions, in the following forms: a man broken down by age, a sick man, a decaying corpse, and lastly, a dignified hermit. The visions appeared only to Gautama and his attendant Channa, who was each time inspired to interpret each vision for his master. We find in this ancient tradition an illustration of the feeling which pushed Gautama to abandon his family and his home. He was probably not the first and he was certainly not the last who, in the midst of prosperity and comfort, felt a yearning which nothing could satisfy and which robbed all earthly gains and hopes of their charm. This vague dissatisfaction deepens with every fresh proof of the apparent vanity of life, and gains power when, as is reported in the case of Gautama, it arises more from sympathy with the sorrows of others than from any personal sorrow of one’s own. At last, the details of daily life become insupportable; and the calm life of the hermit troubled with none of these things seems a haven of peace, where a life of self-denial and earnest meditation may lead to some solution of the strange enigmas of life.
10. Torso and Head of Buddha, date unknown, Sehhtatgyi, Pyay, Burma.
11. Seated Buddha, date unknown, China.
12. Seated Buddha showing the vyakhyana mudra, symbolising perfect wisdom and the vow to teach others, date unknown, location unknown.
13. Seated Buddha, date unknown, China, gilt bronze, height: 17.5 cm.
Such feelings must have become more and more present in Gautama’s mind, when about ten years after his marriage, his wife bore their only child, a son named Rahula. The fear that this new tie might become too strong for him to break seems to have been the immediate cause of his flight. According to the oldest authorities of the Southern Buddhists, the birth of his son was announced to Gautama in a garden on the riverside, where he had gone after seeing the fourth vision (that of the hermit). Rather than rejoice at the birth of his son, Gautama is believed to have only said quietly, ‘This is a new and strong tie I shall have to break,” and he returned home thoughtful and sad. But the villagers were delighted at the birth of the child, their raja’s only grandson. Gautama’s return became a celebration, and he entered Kapilavastu amidst a crowd of joyous clansmen. Among the sounds of triumph that greeted his ear, one especially is said to have attracted his attention.