The Renunciation of Gautama Buddha

Note: This article has been excerpted from a larger work in the public domain and shared here due to its historical value. It may contain outdated ideas and language that do not reflect TOTA’s opinions and beliefs.

The renunciation of Gautama Buddha, from Buddhist Birth Tales, a translation of the c. 4th-century BCE Jataka Tales by V. Fausboll and T.W. Rhys Davids, 1880.

II: The Intermediate Epoch

Avidure Nidana

Part 4

At that time a noble maiden, Kisa Gotami by name, had gone to the flat roof of the upper story of her palace, and she beheld the beauty and majesty of the Bodisat as he was proceeding through the city. Pleased and delighted at the sight, she burst forth into this song of joy:

Blessed indeed is that mother Blessed indeed is that father Blessed indeed is that wife Of whom such an one is master!

Hearing this, the Bodisat thought to himself: “On catching sight of such an one the heart of his mother is made happy, the heart of his father is made happy, the heart of his wife is made happy! So she says. But by what can every heart attain to lasting happiness and peace?"

And to him whose mind was estranged from sin the answer came: "When the fire of lust is gone out, then peace is gained; when the fires of hatred and delusion are gone out, then peace is gained; when the troubles of mind, arising from vain conceits, opinions, and all other corruptions have ceased, then peace is gained! Sweet is the lesson this singer makes me hear, for the going out which is Peace is that which I have been trying to find out. This very day I will break away from household cares! I will renounce the world! I will follow only after the Nirvana itself!

Then loosing from his neck a string of pearls worth a hundred thousand, he sent it to Kisa Gotami as a teacher’s fee. Delighted at this, she thought: "Prince Siddharttha has fallen in love with me, and has sent me a present." But the Bodisat, on entering his palace in great splendour, reclined on a couch of state.

Thereupon women clad in beautiful array, skilful in the dance and song, and lovely as deva-maidens, brought their musical instruments, and ranging themselves in order, danced, and sang, and played delightfully. But the Bodisat, his heart being estranged from sin, took no pleasure in the spectacle, and fell asleep.

And the women, saying: "He for whose sake we were performing is gone to sleep? Why should we weary ourselves?" laid aside the instruments they held, and lay down to sleep. Lamps fed with sweet-smelling oil were burning. The Bodisat, waking up, sat cross-legged on the couch, and saw those women with their music truck laid aside and sleeping some drivelling at the mouth spittle-besprinkled, some grinding their teeth, some snoring, some muttering in their sleep, some gaping, and some with their dress in disorder plainly revealed as mere horrible occasions of worldly ways.

Seeing this change in their appearance, he became more and more unfain of sense-desires. To him that magnificent apartment, as splendid as Sakka's residence, began to seem like a great area laden with divers offal, like an enamel-field full of corpses. Life, whether in the worlds subject to passion, or in the other worlds of form, or in the formless worlds, seemed to him like staying in a house that had become the prey of devouring flames.

An utterance of intense feeling broke from him, “It all oppresses me! It is intolerable!" and his mind turned ardently to the state of those who have renounced the world. Resolving that very day to accomplish the Great Renunciation, he rose from his couch, went to the door and called out: "Who is there?"

Channa, who had been sleeping with his head on the threshold, answered: "It is I, sir, Channa."

Then said he: "I want to-day to accomplish the Great Renunciation saddle me a horse."

So Channa saying: “Very good, sire,” and taking harness, went to the stable-yard, and entering the stables saw by the light of the lamps Kanthaka, prince of steeds, standing at a pleasant spot under a canopy of cloth, beautified with a pattern of jasmine flowers. "This is the very one I ought to saddle to-day," thought he; and he saddled Kanthaka.

Even whilst he was being saddled the horse knew: "He is saddling me so tightly and not as on other days for such rides as those to the pleasure grounds, because my master is about to-day to carry out the Great Renunciation." Then, glad at heart, he neighed a mighty neigh; and the sound thereof would have penetrated over all the town, had not the devas stopped the sound and let no one hear it.

Now after the Bodisat had sent Channa on this errand, he thought: "I will just look at my son." And rising from his cross-legged sitting he went to the apartments of Rahula's mother, and opened her chamber door. At that moment a lamp, fed with sweet-smelling oil, was burning dimly in the inner chamber. The mother of Rahula was asleep on a bed strewn with many jasmine flowers, and resting her hand on the head of her son. Stopping with his foot on the threshold, the Bodisat thought, "If I lift her hand to take my son, she will awake; and that will prevent my going away. I will come back and see him when I have become a Buddha." And he left the palace.

Now what is said in the Jataka commentary: "At that time Rahula was seven days old," is not found in the other commentaries. Therefore the view given above should be accepted.

And when the Bodisat had left the palace, he went to his horse, and said: "Dear Kanthaka, do thou bear me over this once to-night; so that I, having become a Buddha by thy help, shall bear over the world of men and devas." Then leaping up, he seated himself on Kanthaka's back.

Kanthaka was eighteen cubits in length from the nape of his neck, and of proportionate height; he was strong and fleet, and white all over like a clean chank shell. If he should neigh or paw the ground, the sound would penetrate through all the town. Therefore the devas so muffled the sound of his neighing that none could hear it; and placed, at each step, the palms of their hands under his feet.

The Bodisat rode on the excellent back of the excellent steed; told Channa to catch hold of its tail, and arrived at midnight at the great gate of the city.

Now the king thinking: "In that way the Bodisat will not be able at any time to open the city gate and get away", had placed a thousand men at each of the two gates to stop him. The Bodisat was mighty and strong according to the measure of elephants as ten thousand million elephants, and according to the measure of men as a million million men. He thought: "If the door does not open, sitting on Kanthaka's back with Channa holding his tail, I will press Kanthaka with my thighs, and jumping over the city rampart, eighteen cubits high, I will get away!"

Channa thought: "If the door is not opened, I will take my master on my neck, and putting my right hand round Kanthaka's girth, I will hold him close to my waist, and so leap over the rampart and get away!"

Kanthaka thought: "If the door is not opened, I will spring up with my master seated as he is on my back, and Channa holding by my tail, and will leap over the rampart and get away! " And if the door had not been opened, verily one or other of those three would have accomplished that whereof he had thought. But the deva residing at the gate opened it.

At that moment Mara came there with the intention of stopping the Bodisat; and standing in the air, he exclaimed: "Go not forth sir! in seven days from now the treasure-wheel will appear, and will make you sovereign over the four continents and the two thousand adjacent isles. Stop, my lord! "

"Who are you?" said he.

"I am Vasavatti," was the reply.

"Mara! Well do I know that the treasure-wheel would appear to me; but it is not sovereignty that I desire. I shall become a Buddha, and make the ten thousand world-systems shout for joy."

Then thought the Tempter to himself: "Now, from this time forth, whenever a thought of lust or anger or malice shall arise within you, I will get to know of it." And he followed him, ever watching for some slip, as closely as a shadow which never leaves its object.

But the future Buddha, making light of the kingdom of the world, thus within his reach casting it away as one would spittle left the city with great honour on the full-moon day of Asalhi, when the moon was in the Uttarasalha lunar mansion (i.e. on the 1st July). And when he had left the city a desire sprang up within him to look back upon it; and the instant he did so the broad earth revolved like a potter's wheel, and was stayed: saying as it were to him: "O great man, there is no need for you to stop in order to fulfil your wish." So the Bodisat, with his face towards the city, gazed at it; and he fixed at that place a spot for The Shrine of Kanthaka's Staying. And keeping Kanthaka in the direction in which he was going, he went on with great honour and exceeding glory.

For then, they say, devas in front of him carried sixty thousand torches, and behind him too, and on his right hand, and on his left. And while some devas undefined on the edge of the horizon, held torches aloft; other devas, and the Nagas, and Winged Creatures, and other superhuman beings, bore him company doing homage with heavenly perfumes, and garlands, and sandal-wood powder, and incense. And the whole sky was full of Paricchattaka flowers as with the pouring rain when thick clouds gather. Divine songs floated around: and on every side thousands of musical instruments sounded, as when the thunder roars in the womb of the sea, or the ocean heaves against the boundaries of the world!

Advancing in this pomp and glory, the Bodisat, in that one night, passed beyond three kingdoms, and arrived, at the end of thirty leagues, at the bank of the river called Anoma. But why could not the horse go still further? It was not through want of power: for he could go from one edge of the world's disc to the other, as easily as one could step across the circumference of a wheel lying on its side; and doing this in the forenoon, he could return and eat the food prepared for him.

But on this occasion he was constantly delayed by having to drag himself along, and break his way through the mass of garlands and flowers, cast down from heaven in such profusion by the devas, and the Nagas, and the Winged Creatures, that his very flanks were hid. Hence it was that he only got over thirty leagues.

Now the Bodisat, stopping at the river side, asked Channa: "What is this river called?"

"Its name, sire, is Anoma."

"And so also our leaving the world shall be called Anoma (illustrious)," said he; and signalling to his horse, by pressing it with his heel, the horse sprang over the river, five or six hundred yards in breadth, and stood on the opposite bank.

The Bodisat, getting down from the horse's back, stood on the sandy beach, extending there like a sheet of silver, and said to Channa: "Good Channa, do thou now go back, taking my ornaments and Kanthaka. I am going to leave the world."

"But I also, sire, will leave the world."

“Thou canst not be allowed to leave the world, do thou go back," he said. Three times he refused this request of Channa’s; and he delivered over to him both the ornaments and Kanthaka.

Then he thought; "These locks of mine are not suited for a recluse. Now it is not right for anyone else to cut the hair of a future Buddha, so I will cut them off myself with this sword." Then, taking his sword in his right hand, and holding the plaited tresses, together with the diadem on them, with his left, he cut them off. So his hair was thus reduced to two inches in length, and curling from the right, it lay close to his head. It remained that length as long as he lived, and the beard the same. There was no need at all to shave either hair or beard any more.

The Bodisat, saying to himself: "If am to become a Buddha, let it stand in the air; if not, let it fall to the ground", threw the hair and diadem together as he held them towards the sky. The plaited hair and the jewelled turban went a league off and stopped in the air. Sakka, the deva-king, caught sight of it with his deva-eye, and receiving it into a jewel casket, a league high, he placed it in Tavatimsa, in the Dagaba of the Diadem.

Cutting off his hair, with pleasant perfumes sweet, The supreme person cast it to the sky. The thousand-eyed one, Sakka, by his head, Received it humbly in a golden casket.

Again the Bodisat thought: "This my raiment of Benares muslin is not suitable for a recluse." Now the great Brahma Ghatikara, who had formerly been his friend in the time of Kassapa Buddha, was led by his friendship, which had not grown old in that long interval, to think: "To-day my friend is accomplishing the Great Renunciation, I will go and provide him with the requisites of a recluse.

The three robes, and the alms bowl, Razor, needle, and girdle, And a water strainer these eight Are the wealth of the monk devout.

Taking these eight requisites of a recluse, he gave them to him. The Bodisat dressed himself in the banner of an Arahant, and adopted the sacred garb of Renunciation; and he enjoined upon Channa to go and, in his name, assure his parents of his safety. And Channa did homage to the Bodisat reverently, and departed.

Now Kanthaka stood listening to the Bodisat as he talked with Channa. And thinking: "From this time forth I shall never see my master more!" he was unable to bear his grief. And going out of their sight, he died of a broken heart; and was reborn in Tavatimsa as a deva, with the name of Kanthaka. So far the sorrow of Channa had been but single; now torn with the second sorrow of Kanthaka's death, he returned, weeping and bewailing, to the city.

But the Bodisat, having renounced the world, spent seven days in a mango grove called Anupiya, hard by that spot, in the joy of renunciation. Then he went on foot in one day to Rajagaha, a distance of thirty leagues, and entering the city, begged his food from door to door. The whole city at the sight of his beauty was thrown into commotion, as was Rajagaha by the entrance of Dhana-palaka, or like the deva-city by the entrance of the governor of the Asuras.

Fausboll, V. and T.W. Rhys Davids. Buddhist Birth Stories. Vol. 1, Trubner & Co., 1880.

V. Fausboll, T.W. Rhys Davids

TOTA Curated Archives

This group houses a collection of articles pulled from the public domain. They focus on primary sources showing individual viewpoints and important cultural works. Please note that some articles collected here contain outdated ideas, terms, and viewpoints. The authors here do not represent TOTA's opinions or positions but have been offered for the historic value of their observations.

View Group