The Great Departure- Buddhist EventEvent"Siddhartha's Renunciation"

The Four Sights

Siddhartha had been raised in the palace at Kapilavastu by his father Suddhodana, who surrounded him with every pleasure and shielded him from all knowledge of human suffering. A prophecy at the prince's birth had promised two possible fates: universal emperor or spiritual teacher. Suddhodana wanted the first.

When Siddhartha finally ventured beyond the palace walls, he saw an old person, a sick person, and a corpse. Then he saw a wandering ascetic, calm and composed. The first three sights showed him that aging, illness, and death were inescapable. The fourth showed him a way through.

The Night

Siddhartha was twenty-nine. His son Rahula had just been born. Before leaving, he passed through the chambers where court musicians and dancing girls had fallen asleep after an evening's entertainment. Ashvaghosha's Buddhacarita lingers on what he saw: a woman drooling on her sitar, another clutching at the air as if grasping at vanished pleasures. What had been an evening of glamour was now a room full of slack mouths and tangled limbs. His resolve hardened.

He went to look at Yashodhara and Rahula one last time. He longed to pick up his child but feared waking his wife. He turned away.

He called for his horse Kanthaka and his charioteer Chandaka. Devas put the palace into deep sleep. Yakshas cupped Kanthaka's hooves in their hands to muffle the sound. The city gates swung open on their own.

Mara at the Road

As Siddhartha rode from Kapilavastu, Mara appeared. He promised the prince that within seven days he would become a universal emperor if only he turned back. In the Lalitavistara's telling, Mara followed like a shadow, whispering of the wife sleeping unaware, the newborn who would grow up fatherless. Siddhartha refused. Mara declared he would follow the prince and wait for any moment of weakness.

The Anoma River

At the bank of the Anoma River, Siddhartha dismounted. He removed his princely garments and ornaments and put on the simple robes of a wandering mendicant. He took his sword and cut off his topknot, the hair that marked him as a Shakya prince. He threw it into the air. The devas caught it and enshrined it in the Tavatimsa heaven.

He sent Chandaka back to the palace with Kanthaka and a message for his father. Kanthaka died of grief on the journey home and was reborn in a heavenly realm. From that morning, Siddhartha was no longer a prince. He was a shramana, a homeless wanderer with nothing but the question that had driven him out: how to end suffering.