The prince of Kapilavastu, son of King Shudhodhan, he was prince Siddhartha. His luxury and royal palace and his lifestyle was unmatched. He was raised with utmost pamper by his father.
Yet when one day he saw an old person, a diseased person and a dead person. He asked his charioteer , “Will I face the same fate?”
The charioteer replied, “How can I say that you’ll suffer the same fate? But master, no one is exempted!”
Just this much if reality and he realized that the world was worthless! If he were were to become old, diseased and ultimately die, then I must find something Tru, some higher reality and bliss.
He then asked his charioteer to take the chariot in the woods. He saw the face change of the prince.
Siddhartha got down of the chariot, he started throwing away his expensive ornaments of gold and gems, and decided to become a renunciate.
The charioteer said, “Master, the kingdom, your wife, your son! They all love you! One has to be fortunate to get all this!”
He said, “If you find it valuable, you keep them, I am independent, I’m going! Give my best regards to my parents. I should have taken the permission of Yashodhara, but I can’t. Tell her my pranaam!”
The charioteer cried, “This is madness! This kingdom and such a family is rare even for the fortunate!”
He replied, “You see it as a fortune, I see it burning and calling me to burn in it! If you are in palace of millions, but if it is on fire, would you stay in it or would you run! I can’t stay even for a second in that world!”
That Siddhartha then became to be known as Lord Buddha.
This, to see the world burning is the vision we need to develop. The things are as they are, but a Saint and a worldly person see them differently.
Swaminarayan Glory 