nubial happiness, it might well have been thought that Gautama's troublesome tendency to solitary meditation would have passed away. But the "divine unrest" of a noble nature was too strong for the blandishments of a court, which seems to have offered all that could minister to the gratification of every sense and taste. Gautama's was not one of those natures that can sink the burden of thought in the sense of present satisfaction-can lose the sense of the mystery and travail of human life as a whole in its own little sparkling pool of transient happiness; nor yet of those that, acutely sensitive to the woes of others, can still throw off the otherwise overburdening weight in the active pursuit of worthy objects. This latter type, indeed, is born rather of the energetic West than of the dreamy,contemplative East. Gautama was still haunted by the insoluble mysteries of life and death, by the oppressive sense of the transitoriness and the miseries of life, and by the feeling that some and of the familyof the Sakyas, which belonged to the clan of the Gautamas-a part of the great Solar race-very famous in the early annals of India. Mâyâdêvî, his mother, was a king's daughter, extremely beautiful in person, and highly endowed in mind and soul. She died seven days after the birth of the young prince, who was entrusted to the care of a maternal aunt, also the wife of his father. His childhood as well as his birth were, according to tradition, marked by marvellous events. The old Brahmin Asita, dwelling in Himavat, came down to greet the child, and declared that he bore the marks which should distinguish the coming Buddha. This much appears to be certain, that great personal beauty and high intellectual power early marked him out for distinction. His masters soon declared that he knew more than they could teach him; and, true to the instinct of all contemplative minds, he was wont to escape frequently from the luxurious splendour of his father's court to meditate alone in the leafy solitudes of a neighbour-where-could he only find it-there must lie a ing forest. Here, on one occasion, after a prolonged absence, he was found by his anxious friends sitting under the shade of a bamboo tree, lost in meditation. Apprehensive lest this irrepressible tendency to contemplation should make a mere dreamer of the lad, Suddhodana resolved to secure his early marriage. When this was proposed to him, Gautama demanded seven days for reflection, after which, being convinced that even marriage could not disturb his mental tranquillity, he consented that a wife should be sought for him, on the single condition that, whatever might be her caste, to which he was indifferent, she should be noble in mind and pure in heart. The beautiful Gopa, daughter of King Dandapani, also of the family of the Sakyas, was selected as the worthy bride. In order to win her from her father, and remove the impression that too much thought had made him effem inate and unfit for active life, the beautiful youth with eastern eyes and raven curly hair, showed himself as accomplished in all athletic exercises as distinguished in intellectual qualities. The marriage was happily consummated, the bridegroom being but sixteen years of age; and life seemed to offer the fullest happiness to the beautiful and youthful pair. Amidst all the luxurious enjoyments of an oriental palace, and the new delights of con path to rest and relief. In words which re- If I at While still pursuing this train of thought in his lonely forest meditations, three very commonplace incidents, as they might well have seemed, proved, in connexion with another which immediately followed them, the turning point in his life. Driving out of the city one day on a pleasure excursion to one of the royal parks, he met an aged man, shrunken, bowed, and decrepit, covered with wrinkles, with veins and muscles prominently visible, baid head, chattering teeth, and leaning with trembling joints on the staff that supported his tottering limbs. "Who is that man?" said the Prince to his coachman. "He is small and weak, his flesh and his blood are dried up, his muscles stick to his skin, his head is white, his teeth chatter, his body is wasted away; leaning on his stick he is hardly able to walk, stumbling at every step. Is there something peculiar in his family, or is this the common lot of all created beings?" "Sir," replied the coachman, “that man is sinking under old age, his senses have become obtuse, suffering has destroyed his strength, and he is despised by his relations. He is without support and useless, and people have abandoned him, like a dead tree in a forest. But this is not peculiar to his family. In every creature youth is defeated by old age. Your father, your mother, all your relations, all your friends, will come to the same state; this is the appointed end of all creatures." Alas!" replied the Prince, are creatures so ignorant, so weak and foolish, as to be proud of the youth by which they are intoxicated, not seeing the old age which awaits them? As for me, I go away. Coachman, turn my chariot quickly. What have I-the future prey of old agewhat have I to do with pleasure?" And he returned at once to the palace. 66 66 On another occasion, as Gautama was proceeding to his beautiful pleasure-garden of Lumbini, he encountered a poor fever-stricken wretch lying alone, parched, wasted, covered with mud-hardly able to breathe, and expecting with terror the approach of death. This sight, also, sent him back with sadness to his palace, with the exclamation, "Where is the wise man who, having seen what he is, could any longer think of joy and pleasure?" Once again, he was met on his way by the sight of a dead body borne on a bier by sobbing and lamenting friends. Finding this also to be the common lot of humanity, he broke out into the exclamation—" Oh! woe to the youth that must be destroyed by old age! Woe to health, which must be destroyed by so many diseases! Woe to this life where a man remains so short a time! If there were no old age, no disease, no death! If these could be made captive for ever! Let us turn back," he added. "I must think how to accomplish deliverance." The course he was to pursue was determined by another meeting. This time it was a religious mendicant who, calm, restful, and dignified in his bearing, as, clad in his distinguishing robe, he plodded on his way, attracted the attention of the Prince. "Who is this man?" he asked. "Sir," replied the coachman, "this man is one of those who are called bhikshus, or mendicants. He has re Gautama's resolve was taken. His wife, to whom he first communicated it, finding dissuasion impossible, sorrowfully acquiesced. His father tried every means to turn him from his purpose--would have bribed him with promises of immediate and unlimited power. But one thing he could not give— the one thing Gautama sought. "Give me," he said, "that I may know the method of exemption from old age, disease, death; or give me, at least, that I shall know no transmigration in the world beyond, and I will cheerfully remain with thee ever." But such assurance was beyond the king's power to give; he was subject himself to the common doom.* Seeing that persuasion was fruitless, he sought by force to prevent Gautama from carrying out his purpose. Guards were set at the gates of the town, and the king himself, with five hundred young Sakyas, watched the palace. But one night, when sleep had overcome the watchers, Gautama bade his coachman saddle his horse. Taking one last look at his sleeping wife and child, he did not venture-says the legend-to remove the young mother's hand from the baby's face, lest by his awaking, his resolution might be weakened. "After I have become Buddha," he is reported to have said, "I will see the child ;" and the boy, as well as his mother, were afterwards numbered among his followers. Taking a last look at the palace and the town, he said, sadly and tenderly, Never shall I return again to this city of Kapila, until I shall have attained the cessation of birth and death, exemption from old age and decay, and reached the pure intelligence." The saying was so far realized that he did not again see his birth-place until he returned, twelve years after, to preach the new faith. At twelve leagues from Kapila he dismissed his coachman with his horse and all his per * Some accounts say that the immediate cause of Gautama's abrupt flight was the disgust awakened by the exhibition of a troop of dancing girls, sent to entertain him in his apartments. sonal ornaments, and set out upon his course ly grasped this thought—as he believed— as a travelling mendicant, a character as this true knowledge of deliverance, he claimfamiliar in the East as was a mendicant monk ed the appellation of the Buddha, the “ Enin medieval Europe. He is said to have been lightened." Inanimate nature rejoiced, say just twenty-nine when he thus broke with his the legends, over this discovery, as they had old life. On the spot where he dismissed his done over Gautama's birth. Rocks were favourite horse and his faithful attendant a rent, trees blossomed, mountains shone with monument was afterwards erected, which the unearthly radiance, the sea became fresh, the Chinese pilgrim Hiouen Thsang found still blind saw, the deaf heard, and the prisoners standing in the seventh century of our era. were set free. Every extravagance of orienHaving shorn his flowing black locks- tal imagery is used to celebrate the momentsymbol of his royal caste—and exchanged his ous crisis in the history of humanity. The silken robes for the yellow stag-skin of a hun- place itself where he first arrived at this conter-the origin of the yellow robes worn by ception was called Bodhimanda-the seat Buddhist priests to this day--Gautama first of intelligence; and the tree under which he sought the Brahman teacher Arata, who sat while meditating it became an object of taught some three hundred disciples near the veneration, and even of worship. city of Vaisâli. Here his beauty and wisdom But Gautama seems still to have heritated excited the utmost admiration, and the Brah- whether he should teach this high doctrine man teacher besought him to remain with to a possibly uncomprehending, insensible him as his colleague. But he did not find world, who might reject the doctrine and inwhat he sought, and went away unsatisfied. sult the teacher. But the needs of the we k Passing on to the city of Râjagriha, where a and the perishing prevailed. Going to Be son of his father's friend was king, and be- nares, he first communicated his new light came his friend and protector, he sought to his former disciples, who received it with the instruction of a still more celebrated all the enthusiasm of the teacher. They Brahman, Rudraka, who had seven hundred were the first of many converts at Benares. disciples. Here he was received as before. But, while crowds gathered to hear his earnest But, still failing in finding the way to salva- and burning words, others, turning away, tion and peace, he withdrew, with five dis- scornful and offended, declared, “The son ciples, to the seclusion of the forest of of the king has lost his reason !" A rich Uruvilvâ. There for six years he remained young layman of Benares, sick with the ennui alone, and for some time practised with the of sensuous delights, was one of the first of utmost severity the ascetic austerities of the many young men who embraced his teaching. Brahmans; but finally, being convinced that | When the number of his disciples had reached not in these lay the way to deliverance and sixty, he sent them abroad to expound "the peace, he renounced them, and was deserted law," as he called his teachings, to all men by his disciples as an apostate from the true without exception. "Go ye now," he is refaith. Left alone, he pursued his solitary ported to have said, " and preach the most meditations, plied, say the legends, by the excellent law, expounding every point thereof fiercest assaults of evil spirits, whom he fought and unfolding it with care. Explain the beand overcame. Gradually, the great idea of ginning and middle and end of the law to the NIRVANA dawned upon his thoughts. all men without exception. You will meet, Was there not some end to be found, some- doubtless, with a great number of mortals, not where, to the burden and pain of existence; as yet hopelessly given up to their passions, to the dizzying, terrible round of birth and who will avail themselves of your preaching death, birth and death, which the Brahman for reconquering their hitherto forfeited lidoctrine of transmigration pitilessly taught? berty, and freeing themselves from the thralBut this burden and misery of existence-did dom of passion.' In this charge Buddha it not arise from the cravings of desire, with set at nought the whole Brahmanical teach its despotic power, over the ever unsatisfied ing of exclusive and rigid caste, and proheart of man? Eradicate this tyrant desire. claimed his mission to entire humanity. It Conquer thyself. Here, surely, must be the was no wonder that the enmity of the Brahonly path to perfect peace, in the absolute mans was deeply stirred, and that they left no extinction of all desire, all self-conscious means untried to crush this new and formidlonging! From the moment when he clearable heresy. From place to place, however, undaunted this Kisâgotami does not understand the by their bitterest hostility, the Buddha jour- law of death, I must comfort her,' said to neyed, preaching in groves, from mountain her, My good girl, I cannot myself give tops; making many converts, and calling all medicine for it, but I know of a doctor who men alike to hear his doctrine of deliverance. can attend to it.' The young girl said, ‘If In Uruvilva, in Râjagriha, in Kâsala, so, tell me who it is.' The wise man conBuddha preached, taught, and founded mon- tinued, 'Buddha can give medicine, you asteries for the numerous disciples and must go to him.' Kisâgotami went to Buddha, preachers of the new faith. At last, after and doing homage to him said, 'Lord and twelve years of absence, he revisited Kapil- master, do you know any medicine that will avastu, and saw once more his father, who be good for my boy?' Buddha replied, 'I had repeatedly in vain implored the return know of some.' She asked, 'What medicine of his wandering son. His teaching was do you require ?' He said, 'I want a handspeedily embraced by all the Sakyas, inclu- ful of mustard seed.' The girl promised to ding his young son, Rahula ; while his wife procure it for him, but Buddha continued, ‘I Gopa, with five hundred noble ladies, as require some mustard seed taken from a sumed the monastic robe. The last moments house where no son, husband, parent, or of his father were soothed by the exhortations slave has died.' The girl said, 'Very good,' of Gautama, who held him in his arms while and went to ask for some at the different he breathed his last, in his ninety-seventh houses, carrying the dead body of her son. year. Throughout all northern India, the The people said, 'Here is some mustardBuddha seems to have extended his pilgrim- seed, take it.' Then she asked, 'In my age. There is a legend of him on the banks friend's house has there died a son, a husof the Indus, feeding a hungry tigress with band, a parent, a slave?' They replied, the flesh of his own arm-a somewhat extra-Lady, what is this that you say! The living vagant expression of the tenderness for the brute creation which was one of the most striking characteristics of Buddha and Buddhism. Singhalese legends say that he repeatedly visited Ceylon, and left in two spots the imprint of his sacred feet. Kindly offices of compassion, sympathy, and consolation clustered around his blameless public life, which was interrupted by occasional periods of silence and seclusion, possibly necessitated by the bitter enmity of his enemies, times which he probably used for preparing in silence the teachings which he left with his disciples, and which form part, at least, of the Buddhist scriptures. are few, but the dead are many.' Then she went to other houses, but one said, 'I have lost a son;' another, 'I have lost my parents ;' another, 'I have lost my slave.' At last, not being able to find a single house where no one had died, from which to procure the mustard seed, she began to think, ‘This is a heavy task that I am engaged in, I am not the only one whose son is dead!' Thinking thus, she was seized by fear, and, putting away her affection for her child, she summoned up resolution and left the dead body in a forest; then she went to Buddha and paid him homage. He said to her, 'Have you procured the handful of mustard seed?' I have not,' she replied; 'the people of the village told me, "The living are few, but the dead are many. Buddha said to her, 'You thought that you alone had lost a son; the law of death is, that among all living creatures there is no permanence.' When Buddha had finished preaching the law, Kisâgotami was established in the reward of the noviciate; and all the assembly who heard the law were established in the same reward. "Some time afterwards, when Kisâgotami was one day engaged in the performance of her religious duties, she observed the lights in the houses, now shining, now extinguished, and began to reflect, My state is like these lamps! Buddha, who was then in the Gandhakuti building, sent his sacred ap-"In reading the particulars of the life of the pearance to her, which said to her, just as if last Buddha Gaudama, it is impossible not he himself was preaching, 'All living beings resemble the flame of these lamps, one moment lighted, the next extinguished; those only who have arrived at Nirvâna are at rest.' Kisagotami, on hearing this, reached the stage of a saint possessed of intuitive feeling." Max Müller gives these legends of Buddha as a specimen of the true Buddhism, “intelligible to the poor and suffering, which has endeared Buddhism to the hearts of millions"-" the beautiful, the tender, the humanly true, which, like pure gold, lies buried in all religions, even in the sand of the Buddhist Canon." At last, after forty-five years of public teaching and laborious wanderings, the time drew near for his full entrance into the Nirvana, which had borne so large a part in his teaching. Attended by a large number of disciples, he paid his last visits to the cities where he had taught. Near the city of Kusinagâra, he felt that the end had come. He asked to have his couch laid between two tall Sâla trees in a neighbouring forest. Having been carried thither with difficulty, he spent his last hours in giving his parting counsels. The most remarkable words ascribed to him at this time are said to have been addressed to his cousin and favourite follower, Ananda : "Be not much concerned about what shall remain of me after my Nirvâna rather be earnest to practise the works that lead to perfection. Put on those inward dispositions that will enable you to reach the undisturbed rest of Nirvana." "Believe not that then I shall have disappeared from existence and be no longer among you. The law contained in those sacred instructions which I have given shall be your teacher. By means of the doctrines which I have delivered to you, I will continue to remain among you. As the day broke, he passed away into the undiscovered lands his human eyes had vainly sought to explore. No one who has studied the character and life of Buddha, in so far as we are able to disentangle it from encompassing fable, can fail to be struck by its blamelessness and beauty, which have drawn forth, alike from French academicians and German philosophers, from Roman Catholic bishops and Protestant missionaries, candid and enthusiastic admiration. Bishop Bigaudet says: to feel reminded of many circumstances relating to our Saviour's life, such as it has been sketched out by the Evangelists." And M. Barthélemy St. Hilaire, one of the most graphic and faithful biographers of Buddha, declares his belief that," except Christ alone, there is not among the founders of religions a figure purer or more touching than that of Buddha. His constant heroism equals his conviction; he is the finished model of all the virtues that he preaches; his self-denial, his charity, his unalterable sweetness, seem not to fail for a moment. He silently prepares for his teaching by six years. of seclusion and thought; propagates it by the sole force of persuasion during more than half a century; and when he dies in the arms of his disciples, it is with the serenity of a sage who has practised the right all his life, and who is assured of having found the true." If such words can be written by Christian men who clearly see wherein he failed to find the true, it is no wonder that his followers venerated him with a fervour which ended in idolatry. Notwithstanding his caution to them to be little concerned as to his remains, these were honoured with the most magnificent obsequies, and his ashes, carefully collected from the funeral pyre, were divided among his friends, and afterwards distributed through the whole of India.* To this day any supposed newly-found relic of the great Buddha is honoured with a costly temple, and becomes an object of adoration to thousands of prostrate worshippers. Concerning some of the "circumstances" which "remind us of the life of Our Saviour," however, the parallelism is far too complete and striking in all its details to be mere coincidence. According to the statements of the Buddhist Canon, there was a miraculous conception, lights beaming from Heaven to announce his birth, an acknowledgment of the child as a deliverer, by an old Brahman, a presentation in a temple, a baptism of water and fire, a temptation in the wilder * Over each of the eight portions of his relics was erected a tope-a bell-shaped building raised over relics. In Ceylon exist the most celebrated relics of Buddha -a supposed tooth of the Saint, and an ancient tree, said to have been a branch of the tree un-der which he became Buddha.. |