ABSTRACT
On other days the gods represented a sick man and a corpse, and on each occasion he turned back in his agitation.
At length the day of the Great Renunciation arrived. He set out for the park as before, and saw a man who had abandoned the world. The charioteer inspired by the gods explained, and praised the virtues of renunciation. That day the Bodhisatta, taking pleasure in the thought of abandoning the world, went on to the park. After bathing he sat on the royal rock of state to be robed, and as his attendants stood round about him, Sakka, king of the gods, perceived that he would make the Great Renunciation at midnight, and sent the god Vissakamma in the likeness of the royal barber to adorn him. When he was returning in majesty to the city, his father sent him a message that the mother of Rahula had borne a son. The Bodhisatta on hearingsaid, " Rahula is born, a bond ift born," and his father therefore gave the order, " let prince Rahula be his name." 1
At his entry occurred the well-known event that forms a parallel to the incident in Luke xi, 27 :
At that time a kshatriya maiden named Kisa Gotami had gone to the roof of the palace, and seeing the beauty and glory of the Bodhisatta, as he made a rightwise circuit round the city, she was filled with joy and delight, and breathed forth this solemn utterance :
Happy indeed is the mother, Happy indeed is the father, Happy indeed is the wife, Who has such a husband.
