in righteousness.[1] Eighty-four thousand years he was a prince, as many he shared in the government, and as many he was sovereign. As such he had lived a long, long time, when one day he said to his barber, "My good barber, whenever you find grey hairs on my head, let me know."
And after a long, long time had passed away, the barber one day found among the jet-black locks one grey hair; and he told the king of it, saying, "There is a grey hair to be seen on your head, O king!"
"Pull it out, then, friend, and put it in my hand!" said he.
So he tore it out with golden pincers, and placed it in the hand of the king. There were then eighty-four thousand years of the lifetime allotted to the king still to elapse. But, nevertheless, as he looked upon the grey hair he was deeply agitated, as if the King of Death had come nigh unto him, or as if he found himself inside a house on fire.[2] And he thought, "O foolish Makhā Deva! though grey hairs have come upon you, you yet have not been able to get rid of the frailties and passions which deprave men's hearts!"[3]
As he thus meditated and meditated on the appearance of the grey hair, his heart burned within him, drops of perspiration rolled down from his body, and his very robes oppressed him and became unbearable. And he thought, "This very day I must leave the world and devote myself to a religious life!"
- ↑ He is mentioned in the Mahāvaŋsa, p. 8, in a list of the legendary kings of old.
- ↑ At p. 81, above, the same idea is put into the mouth of Gotama himself.
- ↑ Ime kilese. The use of the determinative pronoun implies that the king is meant to refer to the particular imperfections known as kilesā. They are acquisitiveness, ill-temper, dullness of perception, vanity, wrong views, doubt, sloth, arrogance, want of self-respect, and want of respect for public opinion.
