We are 2500 years ago. In the province of Kapilavasdu Queen Maya had a prophetic dream: she dreamed that a white elephant entering her body by the right flank. So the magicians and astrologers of the time they announced him a happy event.Ten months after his dream Queen Maya felt a strong desire to visit his land of origin, the Kingdom of Devadaha. She asked the king agreed to let the palace of his father. Approving the wish of his wife King took the necessary arrangements for his trip: protected by many soldiers it was carried in a palanquin beautifully decorated with gold and flowers. Along the way, while the procession was passing wood Lumbini, the place seduced by the queen ordered the carriers to stop there, to enjoy a break in the cool of the woods. While Queen enjoying a pleasant rest time came to give birth to her child. This Friday of the full moon in May, under a Shorea robusta (sal) tree, Queen Maya gave birth to a child of extraordinary appearance. The child immediately began standing and walking making it fit in September not heading east, then stop standing he said: "I am the most noble in this world, I am the victorious Buddha worthy of praise, I do reborn more in this world, nor in others. I am the Buddha liberated from rebirths And all around him, then around the world and beyond, the message was transmitted. First the wind began to blow and seemed to sing the praises of future victories of the lord. Then the wind browsing the treetops plains and valleys, birds and all nature seemed to be aware of the birth of this exceptional.

As he was recommended to the queen to return to Kapilavasdu not continue its journey, the procession made a U-turn. Once back at the palace, Maya consulted the soothsayers and astrologers: Maya asked what would be the future of his child. The astrologer lives for this child two possible fates: Either a great king who will prosper the kingdom, a great religious leader in spiritual power. In any event whatever the choice that this child will succeed it. The father listened carefully to the soothsayer predictions. Later his parents decided to name the child Shidarta Gautama, which means in Sanskrit, one that achieves all its objectives. His father, very attentive and very attached to the quality of life of his son ( with the objective to become his successor as king of Kapilavasdu) decided and ordered throughout the kingdom that no beggar (lest the sight of poor wake in Shidarta compassion and thereby the religious) that no sick, old or dying Do the kingdom or remain there and especially Do the premises of the palace. The father, aware of predictions, will spare no effort to spare his son any interrogation. Shidarta therefore unaware of old age, poverty, disease and death, and he grew up in comfort and the tranquility of the royal palace. Her education was followed by prominent professors and aimed to make the child be educated in all fields: science, humanities, languages and astrology, mathematics, and especially political, at the request of his father. An officer from the royal guard taught him to ride, shoot archery and fighting with the spear, sword and scabbard. Shidarta was very gifted in all areas and did not need a lesson, indeed rather Shidarta who instructed his teachers! The years spent in quiet and carelessness of childhood, and his father always looked down that nothing can interfere in educating the young prince..



In the evenings he attended theater performances, song, dance and story-telling. Twenty years Yadochara he met a very young and beautiful girl, be friends, then falls in love with her. They were married and the father of Shidarta very pleased three palaces built for newlyweds: a sumptuous palace of cedar and sandalwood for the winter, a marble palace for the summer and a brick for the rainy season . They lived happily. After ten years a child was born, the fruit of their union, they named Rahula. The father of Shidarta Gautama, happy about that, assured of the succession for two generations, held a huge party where all guests can enjoy excellent food, drink and entertainment. But the father of Shidarta is wrong: neither marriage nor fatherhood have subsided in the heart of Shidarta thirst response to existential questions.
Increasingly regularly Shidarta folds solo : Away from the palace further and further, to contemplative walks. And that is where the messengers of his destiny appear before him in the form of four meetings, shocking for those who remain is confined to a life well protected.
He meets a leper in the first leaving Shidarta upset compassion, in tears, he joined the palace where he will cry all night thinking about what he had seen.
Evenings he following the discovery of an old man, and that of a dying. Tripling shocked by these discoveries he takes refuge in solitude and despair, wondering what could be the meaning of all its discoveries. No one brahamane or religious at the time could not give a clear answer on this universal reality. Then he began a fourth exit in secret away from the palace and a little further, near a river, made his religious ablutions. The Brahmin invited to share their meals and they had a conversation that will end very late in the evening. This meeting was very telling of the life choices that Shidarta secretly aspired. The next day he called his servant closest (plus servant friend) and asked him to harness his horse and bring him into the wood.


And there Shidarta told his servant:
Take my clothes and give me yours, take my jewelry: I know that when you return to the palace my father will be angry against you, these jewels of great value, you can the sell at good prices and support your family. Take my horse to the palace. Say goodbye to my parents and my wife also. Tell them that I will not go! The way my name is destiny. You know My friend, last night I had a strange dream: the gods and demons fought and quarreled about me. The gods told me that the destiny of all mankind was in my hands, and the demons I spoke of sovereignty, kingdom of power. And I made my choice, I can not myself to a temporal power since everything is impermanent; when it comes time for my death the kingdom will be totally useless. Only the quest then discover the truth in itself might help and more useful to all mankind living in ignorance. Tell them that I chose my destiny in connection with my motivation. Tell them that I chose the path of virtue and the rigor of a religious life. Tell them that no human or demon can not thwart my destiny. Tell them that I do not.
And
Shidarta away. Sank a teardrop on the cheek of the servant and friend of Shidarta.



Leaving behind his life prince walked Shidarta several weeks to go as far as possible from his former life as a new life began for him. Arrived Suzatha, not far from Bodhgaya, he began to attend shadus ascetics and surrounding areas. Following their example, he led for 6 years a life of asceticism. Diciplina practicing and the posting of any pleasure, it feeds on a single grain of rice per day, slept on the floor and drank water from the river. Very thin, if not skeletal, he fell ill. But then a girl passed through there, from the village of Urail; the girl osa overcome taboos of the time taken pity at the sight of this dying man whose body teeming flies She approached Shidarta dying and offered her a dish of sweet rice pudding. She said:Bagawan Indian term that is used when addressing a person holy , take this food: that you practice compassion, do you no pity for yourself? "And
Shidarta Gautama gradually opening their eyes saw this beautiful face, smiling, white teeth: the face of a teenager who just out of the childhood, his long black hair further embellishing his pretty face. At the sight of this girl Shidarta Gautama was a kind of revelation. Neither the life of luxury palace Kapilavasdu, nor the rigors of life of asceticism did led to the realization of its own truth in itself. Still no change and no real achievement, the Shidarta prince and ascetic Shidarta are not so different than that! Gods and demons, day and night, man and woman, duality is thought Shidarta. Its 6 years of mortification and extreme abstinence only led to this situation: sick and dying. Shidarta While returning from his thoughts ate and ate, drinking all his thirst.



The girl laughed and Shidarta too. So together they laughed all their joy. A shadu watching the scene, discreetly hidden behind a tree. This ascetic returned to the place where his companions remained of practice. He told then that he had seen the scene of a scandalous religious sharing meals with a female! All saddhus and yogis present were shocked. Never in living memory clan saddhus had heard or seen such debauchery. The former religious summoned all religious at an extraordinary meeting that evening. That night they decided by mutual agreement to visit the place of Shidarta and the hunt clan of those who practice austerity and virtue. Indeed, these priests went to the scene, and before Shidarta sitting in meditation posture the oldest wrote to him saying: Will in here, wicked! There you caught in the middle of debauchery with a female, you are not fit to remain among us. Will in far from here and does not excuse our decision is irrevocable. Will it! Will t-in here, you do not religious.