The
prince, seeing the ways prepared and watered and the joyous holiday
appearance of the people; seeing too the drapery and chariot, pure,
bright, shining, his heart exulted greatly and rejoiced. The people (on
their part) gazed at the prince, so beautifully adorned, with all his
retinue, like an assembled company of kings gathered to see a
heaven-born prince. And now a Deva-raga of the Pure abode, suddenly
appears by the side of the road; his form changed into that of an old
man, struggling for life, his heart weak and oppressed. The prince
seeing the old man, filled with apprehension, asked his charioteer,
"What kind of man is this? his head white and his shoulders bent, his
eyes bleared and his body withered, holding a stick to support him along
the way. Is his body suddenly dried up by the heat, or has he been born
in this way?" The charioteer, his heart much embarrassed, scarcely dared
to answer truly, till the pure-born (Deva) added his spiritual power,
and caused him to frame a reply in true words: "His appearance changed,
his vital powers decayed, filled with sorrow, with little pleasure, his
spirits gone, his members nerveless, these are the indications of what
is called 'old age.' This man was once a sucking child, brought up and
nourished at his mother's breast, and as a youth full of sportive life,
handsome, and in enjoyment of the five pleasures; as years passed on,
his frame decaying, he is brought now to the waste of age.
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