THE LIFE OF BUDDHA (2)

The Ploughing Festival 

A very remarkable incident took place in his childhood. It was an unprecedented mental experience which, in later life, during his search after truth, served as a key to his enlightenment.

As an encouragement to agriculture the king arranged for a ploughing Festival. It was indeed a festival occasion for all, as both nobles and commoners decked in gala dress participated in the ceremony. On the appointed day the king, accompanied by his courtiers, went to the field taking with him, the young prince together with the nurses. Placing the child on a screened and canopied couch under the cool shade of a rose apple tree to be watched by the nurses, the king took an active part in the ploughing Festival. When the festival was at its climax, the nurses stole away from the prince’s presence to catch a glimpse of the wonderful spectacle. The thoughtful child, mature in intellect though young in age, and intently concentrating on inhalation and developed the first ecstasy – Jhàna.

In the midst of their enjoyment the neglectful nurses suddenly remembered their duty, and when they saw the prince absorbed in meditation, were struck with awe and immediately reported the matter to the king. He hastened to the scene and beholding the prince in meditative posture, saluted him saying: “This, dear child is my second salutation.”

Prince Siddhartha’s Youth

As a royal child prince siddhattha no doubt received a good education, although the books give no details about his schooling. Being a scion of the warrior race, he must have been specially trained in the art of warfare.

At the early age of sixteen, he married his beautiful cousin princess Yasòdharà, Who was of equal years. After his happy, marriage, he led a luxurious life, blissfully unaware of the vicissitudes of life, outside the palace gates.

Of his luxurious life as a prince he states:-

“I was delicate, excessively delicate. In my father’s dwelling three lotus ponds were made purposely for me. Blue lotuses bloomed in one, red in another, and white in the third. I used no sandal Wood that was not of kàsi. Night and day a white parasol was held over me so that I might not be touched by heat or cold, dust, leaves or dew.”

“There were three palaces built for me – one for the cold season, one for the hot season, and one for the rainy season. During the four rainy months, I lived in the palace. Just as in the houses of others, food from the husks of rice together with sour gruel is given to the slaves and workmen, even so, in my father’s dwelling, food with rice and meat was given to the slaves and workmen”