Scene 2

(The following day Channa is driving Siddhartha in the chariot along a different road.)

SIDDHARTHA: Life outside the palace is really beautiful, Channa. Here everything is fresh, charming and soulful.

CHANNA: I am glad that you are enjoying your ride.

SIDDHARTHA: Inside the palace it is all luxury. Outside the palace it is all beauty, nature’s beauty, life’s beauty. (All of a sudden Siddhartha sees a man lying in the street.) Channa, who is this man? He can’t even sit properly. He is lying down in the street. He is pressing his head with one hand and pressing his stomach with the other. His eyes are deeply sunken. He is moaning and shedding bitter tears. What is wrong with him? It seems that he is finding it difficult to breathe.

CHANNA: Prince, that man is sick. He is suffering from severe pain in his head and stomach. Perhaps he has other ailments, too. Prince, everyone falls sick once in a while.

SIDDHARTHA: No! I have never fallen sick. I feel such sorrow for that man. Can I be of any help to him?

CHANNA: No, you cannot be of any help to him, Prince. Only a doctor can help him. I am sure that soon some of his friends will take him to a doctor. Prince, we should move away from this place. As it was yesterday, today also your joy is ruined. The world is full of misery.

SIDDHARTHA: I see. I was totally ignorant of this. Tomorrow we must take another road and drive around the kingdom.

CHANNA: Certainly. Tomorrow we will drive through other streets.

From:Sri Chinmoy,Siddhartha becomes the Buddha, Sky Publishers, New York, 1973
Sourced from https://srichinmoylibrary.com/sbb