From birth to prince hood

Sakyamuni was raised as a Hindu. It was common practice in India for a king to have many wives. Therefore, the prince was raised by his step mother who succeeding the queen. His parents assumed that he would succeed his father later in his life.

Soon after his birth the infant Bodhisattva was examined by brahmin specialists in "the thirty-two marks of the great man.

According to Buddhist tradition two destinies are open to one who possesses these marks in full:

1. either he will become a great "wheel-turning" king ruling the four quarters of the earth in perfect justice
2. he will become a Buddha.

The king arranged matters that Siddhartha should have no occasion to become unhappy and disillusioned with his life at home.

Shuddhodana hoped that he could prevent Siddhartha from renouncing his home-life for holy-life.

Young prince

When Siddhartha was nearly thirty, the moment of his final decision was imminent.

Tired of waiting, his father, King Shuddhodhana, had already begun preparations for the crowing his heir, and in seven days Siddhartha was to be enthroned.

Shuddhodhana took every precaution to prevent his son’s flight and even mobilized all Shakya people capable of bearing arms to guard the palace exits.

At this same moment Siddhartha’s son, Rahula, was born. "It is a bondage which has come to me," said Siddhartha when he heard of his first-born and only child, meaning that it was another tie added to those already holding him back.

Abhinishkrama

Reality & the four visions

At the age of 16, he was married to his wife Yasodhara. When he was 29, his wife had a son, Rahula. Shortly after his son's birth, according to sources, he had four visions.

The four visions:

• First vision he was deeply disturbed by seeing an elderly, helpless, frail man.
• Second, he saw an emaciated and depressed man suffering from an advanced disease.
• Third he spotted a grieving family carrying the corpse of one of their own to a cremation site. He reflected deeply upon the suffering brought about by old age, illness and death.
• Fourth vision, he saw a religious mendicant - a Samanera- who led a reclusive life of meditation, and was calm and serene.

Leaving a life of luxury

These four visions greatly disturbed him, and he learned that sickness, age, and death were the inevitable fate of human beings — a fate no-one could avoid.

The four encounters motivated him to follow the path of the mendicant and find a spiritual solution to the problems brought about by human suffering.

After the four visions, Siddhartha decided to leave his life of luxury in search of salvation - the eternal peace.

However, that night as he left his palace, he stopped and thought: "I must see my son." He went to the residence of his wife and opened the door. She was asleep on a bed, her hand on her son’s head.

Siddhartha, with one foot in the doorway, stopped and watched. "If I lift the Queen’s hand to take my son in my arms she will awaken and thus my departure will be hampered.

When I shall become Buddha I will come back and see him." And with these words he went forth on his horse, accompanied by his charioteer, Chandaka. But how did he pass through all the doors and gates heavily guarded? Again, it was the moment when supernatural assistance interfered and helped him.

He left his wife, child, luxurious lifestyle, and future role as a leader of his people in order to seek truth.

It was an accepted practice at the time for some men to leave their family and lead the life of an ascetic.

This renouncing the throne and leaving for a modest life is know as Abhinishkrama- the leaving.

And he would spend the next six years of his life seeking the truth.

Take Robes

Siddhartha gives up the worldly life. After shaving his head and taking robes, he takes on a holy life.