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The great renunciation

by Aryadasa Ratnasinghe

Ancient India, 26 centuries ago, was the scene of a spiritual revolution, the greatest the world had ever seen. Indian society at that time had two large and distinguished religious foundations. One was the 'sramanas' who went by the names ajivakas, acelakas, partibrajikas, silavadins, tapojiguccivadins, jatilas, Isvara nirmanavadins, tridandis, nastikavadins, tarkavadins etc. They were ascetics who had renounced the world in search of a panacea for the ills of suffering.

The other was the 'brahmanas' (priests) well-known for their erudition and religious acumen. There were certain brahmins who went by the names of paccabhumakas, kamandalukas, sevalamalikas, udakarohakas, aggiparicarikas etc, who preached that they were possessed of power to send all dead to heaven. The Brahmajala Sutta of the Digha Nikaya gives the various aspects of the representative religious movements at the time.

There were polytheists, deists, theists, pantheists, henotheists, nihilists, agnostics, hedonists, mystics, resurrectionists, in mutual opposition to each other, one asserting the supremacy of his own teachings, and all trying to win converts in their missionary peregrinations, whose recriminations were made manifest in scepticism.

Into this arena of religious combatants, entered the Buddha, with his sublime doctrine, based on the Four Nobel Truths and the Noble Eightfold Path, leading to the cessation of rebirth.

Most young men of noble families (kulaputras), left their homes in quest of truth, and underwent the severest mortifications to discover a way to end suffering. It was a time of deep and many sided intellectual movements, which extended from the brahminical thinkers far into the people at large. When dialectic scepticism began to attack moral ideas, and when a painful longing for deliverance from the burden of being was met by the first signs of moral decay, the Buddha appeared, having recounced the world at the age of 29 years.

It was on the Esala fullmoon night in 594 BC (2,596 years ago) that Prince Siddhartha Gautama (later Buddha), son of Raja Suddhodana of Kapilavattu (now identified with Bhuila in the Basti district), undertook the great renunciation, to find a panacea to free mankind from the ills of suffering and to end rebirth which leads to suffering.

Having lived for 13 years in conjugal harmony and luxury, with his consort, princess Yasodara alias Bimba, and with the passage of time, truth gradually dawned upon him. His contemplative nature and boundless compassion for others, did not permit him to spend his valuable time in the mere dispensation of enjoyment and the fleeting pleasures of the palaces built to stand climatic conditions.

He soon realised how cramped and confined was his household life, a den of strife, when compared with homeless life, free from domestic responsibilities. Pondering over his thoughts, one day, the prince went out of the palace with his charioteer Channa, to witness the way people lived, deprived of comfort and luxury. Soon he came in direct contact with the stark realities of life. Within the confines of the palace, he only saw the rosy side of life, but the dark side, common to all mankind was purposely veiled from him, as decreed by his father to keep him aloof from seeing human suffering. On his way to the park, his eyes met four strange sights which he had never seen before.

These four prognosticated signs (satara pera nimiti) were a decrepit old man, bent as a roof-gable and walking slowly with a staff; a diseased person fallen and weltering in his own water (urine); a corpse on its way to the cemetery, and a dignified hermit in yellow robes who had renounced the world in search of truth.

The first three signs convincingly proved to the prince the inexorable nature of life and earthly ailments of humanity. The fourth sign, dignified the means to overcome the ills of life and the way to attain calm and peace.

These four signs, obviously, served to increase the urge in him to loathe and renounce the world and become an ascetic. He now realised that life in the lap of luxury is only an illusion for personal gratification of the senses and nothing more.

Now, the prince realising the unworthiness of sensual pleasures which gratify the senses, and so highly valued by mankind in general, and appreciating the worthiness of renunciation to lead a homeless life, in which the wise seek delight, the prince decided to leave the palace and tread in the ascetic path, as the positive approach free from all worldliness. The prince took this final decision, after much deliberation and forethought, when he heard the news, on his way to the palace, that a son was born to princess Yasodara, which he considered a fetter.

Contrary to expections from a father, the prince was not happy when the news reached him, because he regarded the birth of a son, as an impediment in his leaving the palace, under such circumstances. So, without welcoming the joyful tidings, the prince thought to himself that a 'rahu' (fetter) has been born to impede his expectation. The son was, accordingly, named Rahula.

The palace was no more a congenial place for the prince. Neither his charming young consort, who was of equal age, nor his lovable infant son were able to deter him from changing the decision he had already made to renounce the world and lead a homeless life devoid of worldly desires. He was thus destined to play an infinitely more important and beneficial role than a dutiful husband and a loving father.

The allurements of the palace given to luxury and the concubines of the harem were, to him, no more cherished objects of delight. He considered all of them as 'maya' (illusions) that lead to worldly attachments, and decided that renunciation was the best approach to seek his salvation from worldliness. On that eventful day, the prince ordered his favourite charioteer Channa (who was of equal age) to join him and that very night both made arrangements to leave the palace.

Before leaving the palace, the prince cast his dispassionate glance, through the half-opened door of Yasodara's chamber, and saw the mother and child fast asleep. Without disturbing them, and having saddled the horse Kantaka, he undertook his great mission, accompanied by Channa, for the welfare of mankind. Great was his compassion for the two dear ones at the parting moment.

Leaving all the wealth and luxury behind, and as an ordinary man bereft of royalty, the prince and Channa, rode on the back of the horse Kantaka, and stole away with a light heart from the palace, and vanished into the darkness of the night.

A royal prince, now penniless and alone, undertook the Great Renunciation with confidence to attain the highest blissful state of knowing the truth.

Thus he did renounce the world in that Esala fullmoon night, and in the bloom of youth, amidst plentitude of wealth and prosperity, which is written down in history as an act unparalleled of mankind. He journeyed far, and crossing the river Anoma, rested on its right bank, to become an ascetic.

Here, he shaved his hair and beard, handed over his princely garments and ornaments to Channa, with instructions to return to the palace, and wore the simple yellow robe worn by ascetics, and began to lead a life of voluntary poverty, with no permanent abode as his own. A shady tree or a lonely cave sheltered him by day and night, protecting him from sun and rain.

Barefooted and barebodied, he walked in the scorching sun and piercing cold to achieve his objective.

Entering the city of Rajagaha (modern Rajgir), the kingdom of Bimbisara, the recluse Siddhartha, with the bowl in hand, went from house to house begging for food. When questioned by the king who the recluse was, he said "I am a prince of the Solar Race of the Sakya Clan, and my native home is in the Kosala valley. Having found no delight in sense pleasures, I am now in the quest of wisdom and enlightenment, to find out a way to cease suffering and rebirth which is the result of craving."

Having heard so, the King Bimbisara solicited a favour that the recluse would visit his kingdom, after attainment of Enlightenment.

The recluse bade farewell to the king and wandered alone in search of the two brahmin recluses of great wisdom, to become a pupil of either of them. He first went to Alara Kalama who gladly welcomed him as his disciple cum pupil.

The recluse stayed with him and learnt the mysteries of 'akincannayatana' (Sphere of boundless consciousness) of the higher dhyana of nothingness.

Then it occurred to the recluse that "not only in Alara Kalama are to be found faith, energy, mindfulness, concentration and wisdom, because I too possess them". Before long, he by his own intuitive wisdom realised that doctrine and attained that state, but it was not what he anticipated. He politely took leave of the teacher and went in search of Uddaka Ramaputra, who claimed himself as more competent than the former.

Uddaka Ramaputra readily admitted the recluse to lead a holy life under his dispensation.

The recluse mastered the new doctrine and attained the final stage of mental concentration, known as (neva sanna na sannayatana), the realm of neither perception nor non-perception. This was the highest stage of concentration, and the ancient Indian sages could not go beyond that. In the Bhayabherava Sutta, the terrific penance which the recluse had undergone for six years are categorically given.

When he realised finally that all what he learnt was of no avail, he began to take food moderately, and began to follow the Middle Path, rejecting the extremes of self-mortification and sensuous gratification, which were ignoble and unworthy. Meeting with disappointments but not discouraged, he finally attained Buddhahood, when ignorance was dispelled and wisdom arose, darkness vanished and light arose. He said "Delivered am I. Rebirth is ended. I have done what was to be done, and there is nothing more to be done".

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