#(Buddha) 08 Sight Of An Old Man Poem by Rajaram Ramachandran

Life in the pleasure palace
Became stale for the prince.
For a change, quite often,
He visited the pleasure garden.

These visits gave him not
The experience what he sought.
He looked for something else
Outside the palace four walls.

How long his father
Could act as a barrier
Against his son’s desire
To go out everywhere?

He gave one chance,
Allowing the prince,
To have a short visit,
In a decorated chariot.

He ordered his subjects,
“All unpleasant objects
Should be kept far away
From his son’s pathway.”

“No monk, sick, old, or dead
Shall move on the roads,
When he goes in his chariot,
On his maiden visit.”

All roads were cleaned.
And houses decorated.
Welcoming his arrival,
People celebrated as a festival.

In a four-horse-driven-chariot,
Siddhartha left by the East gate.
The outside world’s smell
Gave him a kind of thrill.

People had a glimpse
Of their royal prince,
Some gave him cheers.
Some shed joyful tears.

To the lovely prince,
It was a new experience.
He was looking around
With joy and spellbound.

Suddenly he had seen,
At a distance, an old man,
Who had an ugly look,
Walking with a stick.

His charioteer, he asked then
“Who’s that odd looking man?
Why are his eyes sunken?
Where’ve his teeth gone? ”

Channa, his charioteer told,
“He’s a man, now too old
To do any kind of work,
Also cannot steadily walk.”

“As a child he was born.
He grew up as youth then.
Later, he became an old man.
This is end of man or woman.”

With this first experience,
He returned to the palace.
He was curious to find
More from the outside world.