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IV, 19. INTERVIEW BETWEEN FATHER AND SON. 229
With glittering vesture and with godlike crown reverenced he might have been by servile crowds ! But now, his manly beauty hidden, with heart restrained, and outward form subdued, 1600
'Rejecting the much-coveted and glorious apparel, his shining body clad with garments grey, what aim, what object, now! Hating the five delights that move the world, 1601
Forsaking virtuous wife and tender child, loving the solitude, he wanders friendless; hard, indeed, for virtuous wife through the long night, cherishing her grief; 1602
And now to hear he is a hermit! She enquires not now (so lost to life) of the royal Suddhodana if he has seen his son or not! 1603
But as she views his beauteous person, (to think) his altered form is now a hermit's! hating his home, still full of love; his father, too, what rest for him (they say)! 1604
And then his loving child Rahula, weeping with constant sorrowful desire! And now to see no change, or heart-relenting; and this the end of such enlightenment ! 1605
'All these attractive marks, the proofs of a religious calling, whereas, when born, all said, these are marks of a “great man," who ought to receive tribute from the four seas! 1606
And now to see what he has come to ! all these predictive words vain and illusive. Thus they talked together, the gossiping multitude, with confused accents. 1607
Tathagata, his heart unaffected, felt no joy and
I. e. her life of widowhood.
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