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RENUNCIATION FOR EVER
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After informing Gautama of what had happened at Kapilavatsu, the Parivrajakas said, “There is now no need for you to continue to be a Parivrajaka. Why don’t you go home and join your family ?”
Siddharth said : “I am happy to have this good news. It is a triumph for me. But I will not go back to my home. I must not. I must continue to be a Parivrajaka.”
Gautama asked the five Parivrajakas, what their programme was. They replied, “We have decided to do tapasya. Why don’t you join us ?” Siddharth said, “By and by ; I must examine other ways first.”
The five Parivrajakas then left.
§ 6. The Problem in a New Perspective
The news brought by the five Parivrajakas that the Koliyas and Sakyas had made peace, made Gautama very uneasy.
Left alone, he began to reflect on his own position and to make sure if any reason was left for him to continue his Parivraja.
He had left his people for what?, he asked himself.
He had left his home because he was opposed to war. “Now that the war is over is there any problem left to me ? Does my problem end because war has ended ?”
On a deep reflection he thought not.
“The problem of war is essentially a problem of conflict. It is only a part of a larger problem.
“This conflict is going on not only between kings and nations but between nobles and Brahmins, between householders, between mother and son, between son and mother, between father and son, between sister and brother, between companion and companion.
“The conflict between nations is occasional. But the conflict between classes is constant and
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