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Y. Now you can run about in the garden or play with the Captain's son.

R. Mother, I do not believe that goodness always works in this life.

Y. Why do you think so?

R. Because there are very bad boys, so bad that only a whipping will cure them.

Y. Rahula!

R. Truly, mother, truly. Even the gardener says so.

Y. You must set the bad boys a good example.

R. No use, mother; they remain bad. I have tried it.

Y. You must have patience.

R. No use, mother; and the gardener says, A viper remains a viper.

Y. Even poisonous reptiles can be tamed.

R. Yes, but the gardener first pulls their fangs. Would you like me to play with a viper?[35]

Y. No, my boy.

R. What is going on?—O Mother! Kala Udayin is back!

R. Kala! Welcome home! Shake hands!

K. Be heartily greeted, my boy.

R. Did you see father?

K. I did, Rahula.

R. Tell me all.

K. I will tell mother.

R. Come to mother. She has been expecting you for many days.

Y. Gopa, take his bundle. [The maid takes his bundle and carries it into the house.] What news do you bring of Prince Siddhattha?

K. I followed the Prince from place to place and saw him last near Benares in the forest of Uruvela.

Y. How is his health, and will he come back?

K. His health is probably good, but he does not think of coming back—not yet. O my dear lady! If you[36] could see him! he is as thin as a skeleton. I could count all his ribs.

R. What is the trouble with father.

K. He is fasting. He lives on a hempcorn a day; think of it, one little hempcorn a day!

Y. Oh, he will die! My poor husband. I must follow him and attend to his wants. He needs his wife's loving care. I will leave my home and follow him.

K. Could you help him, princess? He might not like it, and the monks abhor women. Moreover, I was told that he takes food again, every morning a cup of rice milk. The day I left he looked better. Still, he was pretty pale.

Y. Tell me all you know of him.

K. I went first to Rajagaha, and there I heard wondrous tales about the noble monk Gotama. All the people knew about him, they called him a "sage" or "muni" and the "Bodhisatta."

R. What does that mean, Kala?

K. Bodhisatta is the man who seeks the bodhi—and the bodhi is enlightenment or Buddhahood.

Y. What did the people of Rajagaha say?

K. When Prince Siddhattha came to Rajagaha, he created a great excitement in the city. Never had been seen a mendicant of such noble appearance, and crowds flocked to him. They thought he was a Buddha and greeted him as a Buddha; but he said[37] to them "I am not a Buddha; I am a Bodhisatta, I seek Buddhahood, and I am determined to find it."

Y. Did you meet people who saw him?

K. Indeed, I did. They say he looked like a god. The news spread all over the capital, and King Bimbisara himself went out with his ministers to see the Bodhisatta. King Bimbisara came to the place where the stranger stayed—under a forest tree near a brook—and greeted him most respectfully saying, "Great monk, remain here with me in Rajagaha; I see that you are wise and worthy. Live with me at the royal palace. Be my adviser and counselor. You are not made for a mendicant. Your hands are fit to hold the reins of empire. Stay here, I beg you, and you shall not lack honor and rank." "Nay," replied Siddhattha, "let me go my way in quest of enlightenment. I am bent on solving the problem of existence, and I will become a Buddha." Said the King, "Hear then, great monk. Go in quest of enlightenment, and when you have found it come back to Rajagaha."

Y. Is King Bimbisara so religious?

K. King Bimbisara is ambitious. As is well known, he is a warrior and a conqueror; but that is not all. He wants to be the greatest monarch of all ages and he would have all the great events happen under his rule. This is what he said to the Bodhisatta: "When I was a youth I uttered five wishes, and they were these: I prayed, May I be crowned King. This wish has been fulfilled. Then I wished, May the[38] holy Buddha, the Blessed One, appear on earth while I am King, and may he come to my kingdom. This was my second wish, and while I gaze upon you I know that it will be fulfilled. Further I wished, May I see the blessed Buddha and pay my respects to him. This was my third wish. My fourth wish was, May the Blessed One preach the doctrine to me, and my fifth and greatest wish was this, May I understand the doctrine. I beg you, therefore, great monk, when you have become a Buddha come back and preach the doctrine to me and accept me as your disciple."

Y. And whither did Siddhattha go from Rajagaha?

K. He visited the great philosophers Arada and Udraka, but he found no satisfaction in their theories. So he went on to Uruvela where the ascetics live. I followed the Bodhisatta and learned that he stayed with five disciples in the forest. I found shelter near by in the cottage of the chief shepherd, a good old man with a pretty daughter, Nanda. There I watched Siddhattha and his disciples from a distance. He was the youngest but the wisest of them, and they reverenced him as master. He outdid them all in fasting. One day Nanda, the shepherd's daughter, saw him faint, and he might have died from exhaustion right on the spot if Nanda had not given him rice milk to drink.

Y. O good Kala, what shall I do? What shall I do? Here I sit at home, a poor, helpless woman, unable[39] to assist him or to take care of him! O Kala, advise me, what can I do?

S. I am glad to see you back. Have you seen my son?

K. I have sire.

S. Where did you find him?

K. At Uruvela, the place of mortification where saints try to see visions and reach a state of bliss.

V. And has Siddhattha succeeded?

K. It does not seem so; he is starving himself to death.

V. Is he dying?

K. Not exactly, but I do not see how he can live—on that diet.

S. Oh, Visakha, how have I been deprived of my son through a whim!

V. It seems that Siddhattha is ruining himself.