Asita's Prophecy

"Now that I have such an excellent son born to me, he ought to inherit the throne of a wheel-turning king. As for me — my years are already spent; let me instead go forth and cultivate the holy life, rather than let a son destined for such kingship abandon the world to wander the mountain forests."

Now there was, in a nearby grove, an ascetic seer named Asita, deeply learned in the reading of bodily marks. He came now to the palace gate, and the king took him at first for Brahmā himself come in answer to his thoughts.

Delight in ascetic practice and delight in the true Dharma — both marks showed themselves at once in him, the very marks of one whose holy conduct was entirely complete; and seeing this, the king rejoiced greatly.

He invited the seer within the palace at once, and set out offerings with all due reverence; and once inside the inner hall, his single wish was only to let the seer see the prince.

Though the palace held its whole array of serving women, it seemed to the seer as still as a quiet forest grove; he was seated with honor upon the seat of the true Dharma and served with the deepest reverence — just as King Antideva once served the sage Vasiṣṭha.

The king then said to the seer: "Today I have gained a very great benefit.

You have troubled yourself, great seer, and humbled yourself to come and receive me; whatever there is that I ought now to do, I beg you, instruct me at once."

Having been urged and welcomed in this way, the seer rejoiced greatly: "Well said, ever-victorious king — every virtue is already complete in you.

You delight in those who come seeking you, you give generously and honor the true Dharma, you are wise and compassionate, of the most excellent lineage, and modest and reverent, ever ready to yield to what is right.

The many wondrous causes you planted in ages past show their excellent fruit this very day. Now hear me explain the reason for my coming here today.

I came by the pathway of the sun, having heard a voice out of the sky itself declare that a king had begotten a prince destined to attain the way of perfect awakening.

And having also seen the omens that came before this, I have come here now for this very reason — to look upon the Śākya king, and upon the one who will raise up the very banner of the true Dharma."

Hearing what the seer had said, the king was set entirely free from the net of his own doubt, and ordered the prince brought out, that he might show him to the seer.

The seer studied the prince: the thousand-spoked wheel beneath his feet, the webbed and tapering fingers of his hands and feet, the tuft of white hair standing between his brows, the hidden mark of a stallion concealed at his groin, his whole countenance ablaze with light — and, seeing a birth such as he had never once imagined, he wept, tears streaming, and heaved a long, deep sigh.

Seeing the seer weep, the king, his thoughts flying at once to his son, felt his whole body shudder; a knot of breath filled his chest, and he could not compose himself for the fright that had seized him.

Without even noticing what he did, he rose from his seat and bowed his head to the seer's very feet, saying to him: "This child has been born to us bearing wonders such as have never been seen; his countenance is of the utmost dignity, scarcely different from that of a god — you yourself have called him supreme among men, so why then does such grief and sorrow rise up in you?

Can it be that this son is fated to die young, and that this is what has brought such grief upon me?

Have I thirsted long for the sweet dew of ambrosia, only now to have it snatched away again the very moment I have it?

Can it be that I am fated to lose my wealth, to see my household and my kingdom perish?

If I have this excellent son still living, then the succession of my kingdom has somewhere to rest, and I could die with a joyful heart, at ease in whatever life should come after — as when, of a person's two eyes, one closes in sleep while the other remains open and aware.

Let this not be like the frost-flowers of autumn, which bloom and yet bear no fruit — for among all one's kin, there is no love deeper than the love a man bears his own son.

I beg you, tell me now plainly what this sign portends, and let me draw breath again."

The seer, understanding that the father king's heart was filled with great dread, spoke to the great king: "You need have no fear now. I told you before already — take care not to give rise to doubt on your own account. This sign remains now exactly as it was before; you ought not to entertain any different thought about it. It is only that I myself, considering my own advancing years, have been moved to this grief, and could not hold back my sighing and my tears.

For now, as I myself draw near the end of my life, this child has been born who answers exactly to the world's need — born, indeed, to bring an end to birth itself — and a person such as this is one it is exceedingly hard to encounter at all.

He will set aside the throne of a sacred king, will take no attachment to the realms of the five desires, and, through diligent and unremitting ascetic practice, will open to awakening and attain the truth itself.

Forever after, for the sake of all living beings, he will dispel the obstruction of their ignorance and delusion, and, blazing eternally in the world, will shine as the very sun of wisdom.

Sentient beings are sunk in an ocean of suffering, where their many illnesses gather like foam upon the water, where old age rises as its towering swells, and death itself surges as its vast and crashing waves.

Riding the light, swift boat of wisdom, he will carry them across this dangerous confluence of currents — his wisdom rowing against the very stream, and pure moral discipline standing as its sheltering banks.

Samādhi will be its cool, refreshing pool, right absorption its flock of rare and wondrous birds — so vast and so deep will be this great river of the true Dharma.

All the beings parched by craving will drink from it and be revived; for they cling and are attached to the realm of the five desires, driven on by every manner of suffering, lost in the wilderness of birth and death with no notion of where to turn — and it is for this that the bodhisattva will arise in the world, to open a path clear through to liberation.

The fire of craving and desire blazes in the world, its fuel every object of the senses; and he will raise up the great cloud of compassion, and rain down the Dharma's rain to extinguish it entirely.

The double doors of ignorance and darkness stand shut, and craving and desire are their very bolt and lock, sealing off from every sentient being the gate that leads out to liberation — and he will take up the vajra pincers of wisdom and wrench free that bolt driven home by love and attachment.

Beings bind themselves fast in the net of their own ignorance, destitute and suffering, with nothing at all to rely on — and this king of the Dharma, arising in the world, will be able to loosen every one of these bonds that hold sentient beings fast.

Great king, do not let this son become, for you, a cause of grief and sorrow on his own account — grieve instead for all those beings who cling to desire and turn against the true Dharma.

As for me, now growing old and heading toward death and decay, I stand far removed from this holy achievement; though I have attained every manner of meditative absorption, I shall gain no benefit at all from them here.

For at the side of this very bodhisattva, I will never once, in the end, hear him teach the true Dharma; and once this body of mine has broken apart and this life has come to its end, I am certain to be reborn in one of the three heavens where the Dharma cannot reach."

Hearing what the seer had told them, the king and his whole household understood that his grief and sighing had been on his own account alone, and every trace of their own dread was entirely dispelled.

"That such an extraordinary son has been born to me — in this alone my heart finds the greatest peace.

Only this: that he will go forth, renouncing the glory of the world, to take up the practice of a sage, and so will never, after all, inherit the throne of this kingdom — this alone still leaves me less than joyful."

At this the seer spoke truthfully to the king once more: "It will certainly be exactly as you now fear — he will attain the way of perfect awakening."

Having thus set at ease the hearts of everyone gathered among the king's own household, he then, by his own spiritual power, rose up into the empty sky and departed into the distance.

At that time King Śuddhodana, having seen his son's extraordinary marks with his own eyes and having heard, besides, Asita's own resolute and truthful words,

held his son in the deepest reverence, cherishing and guarding him and thinking of him always; and he proclaimed a great amnesty throughout the whole realm, freeing every prisoner from every jail.

As is the custom among people of the world at the birth of a son, he saw to everything fitting to be taken up or set aside, carrying out every rite in accordance with the scriptures and treatises, leaving nothing undone.

When ten full days had passed since the child's birth, his heart now settled and at peace, he made offerings everywhere to every deity, and gave generously and widely to those of the religious path.

Śramaṇas and brahmins pronounced blessings and prayed for good fortune, and he distributed gifts among all his ministers and to the poor and needy throughout the realm.

To the serving women of every village and town, he gave cattle, horses, elephants, wealth, and coin, providing everything each one might need, holding nothing back.

Having divined and chosen an auspicious hour, he had the child moved back to the main palace, borne by a pair of elephants with tusks of pure white, upon a palanquin adorned with the seven kinds of treasure.

Strings of many-colored jewels hung twined about it, blazing bright and richly lustrous; and the queen, holding the prince in her arms, made her circuit of reverence, bowing to the gods on every side.

Only then did she ascend the jeweled palanquin, attended and escorted by her serving women, while the king and every minister and subject of the realm together formed the procession before and behind.

It was just as when Indra, lord of the gods, is surrounded by his whole retinue of deities — or as when Maheśvara suddenly brought forth his six-faced son.

Every kind of preparation was made, every offering set out, every blessing sought — and now that the king himself had a son born to him, preparations of this very kind, just as full, were made as well.

When Vaiśravaṇa, the heavenly king, brought forth his son Nalakūbara, every one of the gods rejoiced together, without exception.

And now that the king had a son born to him in the country of Kapilavastu, every one of his people, in just the same way, rejoiced together as well.