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kingdom. The charioteer who had gone to see him off at the boundary of his kingdom was an ordinary servant, but even he said, "Please excuse my impertinence but I can't help telling you that what you are doing is absolutely stupid. Have you gone mad? The whole world craves for such a palace and for such a kingdom. You are fortunate enough to have them but you are giving up all these things. Where else will you get such a beautiful wife? Where else will you get this wealth, these comforts, these luxuries, this type of family and this respect? You had better come back."
Certainly the old charioteer is more worldly wise than Buddha, so he is giving this advice.
Buddha said, "I quite understand what you are saying. But where you see the palace I see only flames of fire; where you are seeing beauty I see death; what you see as wealth is only a deception of wealth for me. I am in search of real wealth, I am in search of a real home which cannot be snatched away one day. My search will continue until I get it. For the sake of this search I am ready to stake everything, because why not stake something which is eventually going to be taken away, it is only a matter of time? If I attain something which cannot be lost by staking something which is going to be lost, then this deal is not bad. It is just a matter of time. If I can stake what is to be snatched away tomorrow anyway for something which can never be taken away, it is not costly.
Good sense has prevailed upon Buddha and the charioteer is just worldly wise indeed.
Buddha became enlightened and returned home after twelve years. But his father was angry. He said, "Don't be stupid! Come back home. You have deceived me, deceived your wife and the newborn child. In spite of all these things I will forgive you, because I have the heart of a father. Come back, your begging on the road does not look right. And why do you beg? You can give alms to thousands of beggars every day."
Even now Buddha seemed stupid to his father. The religious intelligence always appears as stupidity to the worldly wisdom, and people generally think it to be utter madness. But to the person who has this religious
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