Amanda, an eminent disciple of Gaudama, meets an outcaste girl, drawing water at a well. He asks for a draught. She hesitates, fearing she may contaminate him by her touch. He says, “My sister, I do not ask, what is thy caste, or thy descent; I beg for water: if thou canst, give it me.” It is also related that a poor man filled Gaudama’s alms-bowl with a single handful of flowers, while the rich could not accomplish it with ten thousand bushels of rice.
But let us glance at the life of the founder of Buddhism. He is called Gaudama, Siddartha, or Buddha. Gaudama was the name of his family; Siddartha his own individual name, and Buddha, “the enlightened one,” the surname he acquired by his wisdom. He was born about the year 500 B.C., at Kapilivastu, a few days’ journey from Benares, near the base of the Himalayas. His father was an Indian prince, and ruled over a tribe called the Sakyas. Buddha is described as of a gentle, ardent, pensive, philanthropic nature. He was reared in the lap of Oriental luxury, but his earnest nature became weary with pleasure. Intimations of the wretchedness of the peasantry of India penetrated even the palace walls. The winds soughing through the strings of the Æolian harp, seemed to whisper in his ear the miseries of mankind.
“We are the voices of the wandering wind,
Which moan for rest, and rest can never find;
Lo! as the wind is, so is mortal life,
A moan, a sigh, a sob, a storm, a strife.
“O Maya’s son! because we roam the earth,
Moan we upon these strings; we make no mirth,
So many woes we see in many lands,
So many streaming eyes, and wringing hands.”[[17]]