There was silence. And presently Siddhartha answering the subtle voice said:
“Go from me, thou Ancient Evil! The snare is set too plain. For all their wealth this miserable people must suffer and decay and die like all the world and their riches are but a pang the more. Truly one day I may come to Ayodhya and as a conqueror bringing great riches in my hand for their good, but not thus—not thus!”
And in his heart the subtle voice was stilled and he rose and went on his way with bleeding feet. And as he went he said this to himself:
“Before the days when I considered the terrors of re-birth, old age, disease and death, I sought after such merchandise as the merchandise of Kosala, subject to all these lures. But now, seeing the danger, awake and alert, let me seek only after the things which have no part in these, even the supreme joy and security of the Peace.”
But though he did not know it, that Tempter followed, for who is immune from his arts, and he thought, watching the serenity of the Prince:
“This time he has conquered, but sooner or later even if riches fail some hurtful or malicious thought will burn within him and then—then he is mine.”
And from that hour he crept behind the Prince on the watch for sin, cleaving to him like a shadow which follows the object from which it falls.
So after long journeying he came to Rajagriha—name never to be forgotten because once the Light of the world sojourned there. And this was the capital of King Bimbisara, King of Magadha, and it lay very pleasantly in an eastern valley of holy Ganges, surrounded by the five mountains of the Vindhya range, and these are beautiful though but as foothills comparing them with those great ramparts of the Gods—the mountains beyond Kapila.
Now in these Vindhya mountains are caves in the lower hills, all grown about by trees, in the solitude yet not so far but what an ascetic may go to the city if needful, and in these caves certain learned and holy Brahmans had established themselves and to each came disciples, counting this world as husks if they might rise to the heavens on strong wings of knowledge and belief.
Coming wearily through the forest, pale and worn with unused hardships, the Prince climbed upward to the caves shaded by great trees and in an excellent quiet, and at last before him he saw the mouth of a cave hung with vines and grown about by bushes in blossom, and before it sat a man clothed in a garment of red bark, and he was in the lotus posture to ward off evil, and the Prince seeing him thus meditating passed around him respectfully three times and took his seat in silence at a proper distance, waiting his pleasure.