z:\ ambedkar\vol 011\vol11 02.indd MK SJ+YS 4 10 2013/YS 18 11 2013 33
FROM BIRTH TO PARIVRAJA
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came out and thronged the gates to meet him as a newly arrived bridegroom.
And when they came up to him, their eyes wide open in wonder, they performed their due homage with hands folded like a lotus calyx.
Then they stood surrounding him, their minds overpowered by passion, as if they were drinking him in with their eyes motionless and blossoming wide with love.
Some of the women verily thought that he was Kama incarnate, decorated as he was with his brilliant signs as with connate ornaments.
Others thought from his gentleness and his majesty that it was the moon with its ambrosial beams as it were visibly come down to the earth.
Others, smitten by his beauty, yawned as if to swallow him, and fixing their eyes on each other, softly sighed.
Thus the women only looked upon him, simply gazing with their eyes. They spoke not, nor did they smile. They surrounded him and stood aghast thinking of his decision to take Parivraja.
With great difficulty he extricated himself from the crowd and entered the gates of the Ashram.
Siddharth did not like Suddhodana and Prajapati Gautami to be present to witness his Parivraja. For he knew that they would break down under the weight of grief. But they had already reached the Ashram without letting him know.
As he entered the compound of the Ashram he saw in the crowd his father and mother.
Seeing his parents he first went to them and asked for their blessing. They were so choked with emotion that they could hardly say a word. They wept and wept, held him fast and bathed him with their tears.
Channa had tied Kanthaka to a tree in the Ashram and was standing. Seeing Suddhodana and Prajapati in tears he too was overcome with emotion and was weeping.
Separating himself with great difficulty from
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