The life of the Buddha / Tutorial 3

PRINCE SIDDHARTHA'S KINDNESS

Prince Soddhartha was very kind to people, animals and other living things. As a very brave horseman he won many prizes in the country. Although he did not have to suffer any hardships and difficulties as he had everything, he always thought of the poor He felt sorry for them and wanted to make them happy too, as be always was. people and living things who were working hard to make him happy.
       

          One day he was walking in the woods with his cousin Devadatta who had his bow and arrows with him. 

Suddenly Devadatta saw a swan flying and shot at it. His arrow brought the swan down. Both the boys ran to get the swan. As Siddhartha could run faster than Devadatta, he reached the bird first and found, to his surprise, that the swan was still alive. So he gently pulled out the arrow from the wing. He then got a little juice from cool leaves, put it on the wound of the bird to stop the bleeding and with his soft hand, stroked the swan which was very frightened. When Devadatta came to claim the swan, naturally Prince Siddhartha refused to give it to him. Devadatta was very angry to see is cousin keeping the swan away from him. "Give me my bird, I shot it down," said Devadatta. 

"No. I am not going to give it to you. If you had killed Il, would have been yours. But now since it is only wounded and alive it belongs to me because I saved its life," said Siddhartha. 
Devadatta still did not agree, Then Siddhartha suggested, "Let us go to the court of wisemen and ask them who really owns the swan." 
Devadatta agreed and then both of them went to the court of wisemen to tell them about their quarrel. The wisemen said, "A life certainly must belong to him who tries to save it, a life cannot belong to one who is only trying to destroy it. The wounded swan by right belongs to Siddhartha."

PRINCE SIDDHARTHA’S WEDDING 

Prince Siddhartha finished his studies very soon. He bad the best teachers to learn from; the best friends to play with; the best house to live in; the best clothes to wear and the best food eat His father had built him three palaces one for each season. one for winter, one for summer and one for the rainy season. He had also built for him extensive parks and hunting grounds with ponds with water-lilies, swans and beautiful fish in them.

         Asita and Kondanna who came to the palace had warned the king. "when your son sees a sick man, an old man, a dead body or a monk he will want to leave your palace and become a monk himself. 

The king was worried that his son would see them and leave the palace. Therefore he gave him many young servants and did not allow any sick man or old man to go into the palace. The king did not even let anybody talk about sickness, old age, death and monks. But Prince Siddhartha was very thoughtful and was asking people many questions. He really wanted to know the meaning of life.
       One day the king asked some wise people, "What shall I do to make my son happy ? He seems to be thinking always." They said: "Now your son is sixteen years old. Shall we get a beautiful girl for him to marry ?"

        The King agreed and sent for all the beautiful girls in the country to come to the palace. When all of them came the King asked the prince to choose one to be his wife.

        Among them there was a most charming and kind girl by the name of Yasodhara. When Prince Siddhartha gave her a present more valuable than what he had given to the other maidens, the King saw that the Prince had chosen his love. The King happily accepted Yasodhara and allowed his son to marry her. 

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The life of the Buddha / Tutorial 2

THE NAMING CEREMONY

The King Suddhodana had an old teacher. As the teacher Who  was very wise, he was known as a Sage. His real name was Kala Devala but people usually call him Asita the Sage. Asita lived in the jungle. He had heard that the King then had a son; he was very happy because this was the first time a child was born to the King. 

          The next day, he went to see the King's son. The King was very happy to see his wise old teacher again. In the palace, ate the Sage was seated, the King brought the Prince before the Sr and said "Teacher, my son was born only yesterday. Here he i Please see if his future will be good."

      As the King said this, he lowered the infant Prince before the Sage so that he might examine him properly. However, the baby turned his feet on to the Sage's head. Thus surprised, Asita took hold of the baby's feet and examined them very carefully. He saw some marks on the Prince's feet. Then he got up and said, "This Prince will become a very great Teacher in this world." The Sage was very pleased and putting his palms together, paid due respect to the baby Prince. The King seeing this, also did the same. This was the first salutation of the King.

 Everyone was happy and pleased to know of the Sage's pre- diction.  

      On the fifth day, the King invited five wise men to witness the Naming Ceremony and to suggest a good name for the Prince. The wise men examined the birth marks of the Prince and concluded that "The Prince will be a King of kings if he wants to rule. It he chooses a religious life then he will become the Wisest - the Buddha." 

The youngest of the five wise men called Kondanna said "This Prince will be the Buddha and nothing else." Then the wise men gave him the name SIDDHARTHA mean ing "wish-fulfilled"

His education

On the seventh day, Prince Siddhartha's mother died. The king had another queen called Prajapati Gotami. She was the younger sister of Queen Maha Maya. She had given birth to a s on the same day that Queen Maha Maya died. Then Prajapa Gotami gave her own son to a nurse and brought up Prince Siddharta as her own son. She loved him very much. Prince Siddhartha could not remember his own mother. 

    When Prince Siddhartha was only a few years old King Suddhodana sent him to school. There were many children in his class. All of them were from noble families. His teacher was called Sarva Mitra. He learnt languages. reading, writing, mathematics, history  geography, science and many games like boxing, archery, wrestling and many others. 

He learnt all these subjects faster than any other pupil in his class. He was the cleverest in the class, the best in games and the best in everything. He gained distinction in every subject and became cleverer than his teachers. He was the wisest and the only one who asked many questions from his teachers and elders. He was the strongest, the tallest and the most handsome boy in the class. He was never lazy, never misbehaved and never disobedient to the teachers. He loved everybody and everybody loved him. He was a friend of all: kind even to animals and never harmed them.

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