Siddhartha’s Great Renunciation: Was It an Escape from Family, or a Quest for Humanity?
N. Singh · ·4 min read
Translated from the original Hindi · मूल हिंदी लेख पढ़ें
Imagine a 29-year-old prince at whose feet lay all the pleasures of the world.
Splendid palaces—three distinct mansions for summer, the rains, and winter—gatherings of dance and music, a beautiful wife, Yashodhara, and a newborn infant, Rahula, who had only just arrived in his arms. His father, Shuddhodana, had made every possible effort to ensure that this young man’s eyes would never fall upon an old man, a sick person, or even a withered flower.
Yet one night, while the entire palace lay fast asleep, Siddhartha quietly rises. He awakens his charioteer, Chhandaka, mounts his beloved steed, Kanthaka, and, upon reaching the banks of the River Anoma, casts off his royal robes, crown, and jewels. With his sword, he cuts off his fine hair and departs into the forest like a bhikkhu (monk).
For centuries, critics have raised this question: “Was it not an evasion of duty for a young father to desert his sleeping wife and suckling infant?”
Escape Versus the Great Quest
In the first volume of their book, ‘Buddha Dhamma and Bharat’ (dhamma [righteous path and teachings of the Buddha]), the co-authors Nathuni Singh ‘Kodanna’ and Vimala Singh unravel the foundational philosophical layers of this so-called ‘escape’.
They explain that when an ordinary person abandons home, he flees on account of some personal disillusionment, domestic strife, or despair. But Siddhartha was not fleeing from any private sorrow. He lacked nothing in the world.
He departed because he realised that the very palace people considered ‘safe’ was, in truth, engulfed in flames!
Jara (old age), vyadhi (illness), and death are not merely the plight of an individual; they constitute the eternal crisis of all humankind.
Siddhartha asked himself: “When this body is destined to rot one day, when these eyes will one day be extinguished, when this handsome form will one day become a heap of bones, is it wisdom to remain lost in this fleeting spectacle? Is there no truth that can carry us beyond this endless cycle of birth and death?”
Had he remained seated in the palace as king, his name, too, would have been recorded after Shuddhodana on some page of Shakya history and ended there. But he stepped out so that he could discover ‘amrita’ (the nectar of immortality and truth) for the whole of humanity.
The Bitter Truth from the Book
Analysing this Mahabhinishkramana (Great Renunciation) in ‘Buddha Dhamma and Bharat’, the co-authors write:
“When a house is on fire, you do not call the man who breaks through the window and runs out a runaway; you call him wise. The charioteer Chhandaka pleaded with Siddhartha at length to turn back: you are still in your youth, this is the age to enjoy worldly pleasures. The Buddha replied—‘Chhandaka! You see a palace; I see funeral pyres burning furiously. You see an empire; I see the gaping jaws of death. Nothing can shake my resolve now.’ The Buddha’s renunciation of home was not an abandonment of his family, but the first leap towards making the entire world his family.”
— ‘Buddha Dhamma and Bharat’ (Vol. 1, pp. 12–14)
What Is the Real Solution?
- Liberation from the Delusion of Blind Pleasure: Accepting the transience of life is the very beginning of true wisdom. As long as we avert our eyes from the reality of death, our life will remain nothing more than a shallow facade.
- Expansion of Empathy: Rising above the narrow boundaries of family, caste, and sect to treat the suffering of all living beings as one’s own is the first step towards Buddha-consciousness.
- Courage in the Quest for Truth: Daring to break through the conventional ruts of tradition, power, and dogma to seek truth through one’s own prajna (wisdom and discernment).
A Question Worth Contemplating (The Book’s Message)
Had Siddhartha not stepped out of the palace that night, would this world have ever received the illuminating light of karuna (compassion), prajna, and the Ashtangika Marga (Noble Eightfold Path) that schooled half of Asia in civilisation?
To gain a profound understanding of this momentous turning point in the Buddha’s life, do read the first volume of the book ‘Buddha Dhamma and Bharat’.
The Buddha did not flee the palaces because he was afraid of life; he stepped out because he saw the truth of death burning and life decaying within those palaces. What the world calls happiness is merely waiting with closed eyes for death to arrive.