On the day the Prince left the palace Rahula was born and now he was seven years old. He was brought up by his mother and grandfather. On the seventh day after His home-coming Princess Yasodhara gaily dressed up young Rahula. Then she pointed to the Buddha who was then having His meal, said to Rahula,
“Darling, can you tell me who is that?”
“His is the Buddha, mother”
said Rahula.
The mother’s eyes were filled with tears and she said,
“Darling, that golden colored ascetic, looking like Brahma, surrounded by twenty thousand ascetics was your father, and he had great property. Since He life home, we do not know what has happened to it. Go up to him and ask for your presents and say,
“Father, I am prince. When I become the king I will be a king of kings. I want property, for the son is the owner of what belongs to the father.”
Innocent Rahula came to the Buddha, held one of His fingers, looked up at His face and telling Him all that his mother had asked him to say, said,
“Father, even your shadow is pleasing to me.”
After the meal the Buddha left the palace and Rahula followed Him, saying,
“Give me inheritance, I am going to be the king; I want wealth; you have plenty of them; please father, give me my inheritance.”
Nobody tried to stop him. Nor even the Buddha stopped him following Him. Coming to the park the Buddha thought,
“He desires his father’s wealth, but this goes with the world and is full of trouble. I shall instead give him the sevenfold noble wealth which I received at the foot of the Bodhi tree, and make him an owner of an excellent inheritance.”
When they came to the temple, the Buddha asked one of His pupils named Sariputta to make Rahula a monk.
King Suddhodana was deeply grieved to hear of his beloved grandson becoming a monk. He went to the Buddha and very respectfully told Him not to ordain any one without the permission of the parents. He said
“When you left home it made me very, very sad and painful. When Nanda left home my heart began to ache and I was very sad and unhappy. Then I began to concentrate my love on Rahula, my grandson and loved him more than anyone else. Now you have brought him here and ordained him. I am very sorry and most unhappy about this. Please don’t ordain anybody hereafter without the permission of his parents.”
The Buddha agreed and never ordained anybody after that without the parents’ permission.
