Third Scene
[Darkness covers the scene. Distant thunder and lightning. Gradually it grows light again and the scene of Yasodhara’s bedroom becomes visible. All luxury has been removed; she sleeps on a mat on the floor, Rahula in bed.]
R. Mother! Mother!
Y. Sleep my boy, it is almost midnight.
R. Take me up, Mother.
Yasodhara picks Rahula up.
R. Why do you sleep on the floor, Mother?
Y. Because father does so. Let me lay you down on your couch, you must sleep.
R. Tell me more of father.
Y. I will to-morrow.
R. Tell me now. Is father a king?
Y. No, my son. But he is going to found a kingdom.
R. Will he be king of it?
Y. I do not know, my boy, but his kingdom will not be like other kingdoms. It will be the kingdom of truth—a spiritual kingdom, a kingdom of righteousness.
R. Is father rich?
Y. He scorns riches.
R. Why does he?
Y. He seeks other riches, the riches of religion, of the mind, of spirit.
R. Did he find them?
Y. I believe he did.
R. He sends you news through Kala Udayin.
Y. No, Rahula, I send Kala Udayin out to watch him and when Kala comes back he tells me what he saw and heard. Kala does not speak to father.
R. Why does Kala not speak to father?
Y. Grandfather forbade him. When we sent out Devadatta and Ananda, they became attached to the life of a hermit. They joined father and did not come back; but Kala will not turn monk.
R. But this time he will speak to father.
Y. How do you know?
R. I heard grandfather bid him to.
Y. What did he bid him?
R. He bade Kala that he should tell father to visit us.
She can scarcely conceal her joy.
Y. You heard grandfather say so?
R. I did, mother; grandfather said that he became old, and before he died he wanted to see his son again.
Y. Why! did he really say so?
R. He did.
Y. Oh you darling son, then you will see him, too.
R. People say that he will be a Buddha.
Y. Yes, my son, some say he will be a Buddha and others doubt it.
R. Mother, what is a Buddha?
Y. A Buddha is a man who has found the truth.
R. How does a man find the truth?
Y. By enlightenment. He must find out the cause of evil.
R. Why must he find out the cause of evil?
Y. He teaches the people how to avoid evil.
R. Has father found the cause of evil?
Y. Kala Udayin says he has.
R. What is the cause of evil?
Y. Father says that selfishness is the cause of evil and selfishness comes from the belief in self.
R. Self?
Y. Yes, self! Man, as a rule, believes that he is a self.
R. What? A self?
Y. Yes, a being by himself, who lives only for himself, and the thought of self makes him selfish; and selfishness begets all evils.
R. [with a childlike serious conviction] I believe it, mother.
Y. Father says there is no self, that self is an illusion.
R. What does that mean?
Y. It means that we are not separate beings. I think a thought and speak it out and you hear it. I believe in that thought and so do you. Whose is it then, yours or mine?
R. It belongs to both.
Y. But where does the thought come from? If it is true it belongs to the truth, and it was true before I thought it.
R. Yes, mother.
Y. And if it was wrong, it is evil, and it was evil before we thought it.
R. Yes, mother.
Y. And so are all our thoughts, but almost everybody assumes that his self thinks these thoughts and invents them; and that is an illusion.
R. I see.
Y. [to herself] His eyes close. He is tired. [to Rahula] Now go to sleep again, Rahula, and dream of your father. I will sing you one of father’s songs.
Yasodhara lays Rahula down in the high bed and sings:
By ourselves is evil done,
By ourselves we pain endure.
By ourselves we cease from wrong,
By ourselves become we pure.
No one saves us but ourselves,
No one can and no one may.
We ourselves must walk the path,
Buddhas merely teach the way.
The boy sleeps. Then Yasodhara herself lies down on the mat on the floor. Above her appears the vision of her dream. Under the Bodhi tree in a forest landscape Siddhattha sits. He is surrounded by a halo of light. Mara approaches to tempt him.
M. Thou art ahungered, worthy Sakyamuni,
Ahungered art thou from continued fasts,
And thou wilt starve unless thou take and eat.
I bring delicious food, take, eat and live.
B. I shall not eat until my quest be done.
Much better ’tis to die in glorious battle
Than flee and lead a coward’s life, defeated.
I shall not eat, O Mara, take thee hence.
M. Wilt thou not listen to my good advice?
B. The tempter always calls his councils good,
But pleasures which he promises are evil.
M. I will not suffer thee to stay, Siddhattha,
And shall disturb thy daring quest of truth.
I’ll split the Bodhi tree by lightning
And frighten thee away with rumbling thunder.
All is wrapped in darkness, except Siddhattha and the Bohdi tree. Thunder and lightning. After a while the noise abates. It grows light again. Mara’s daughters appear.
M. Go forth my daughters, tempt the holy man,
And lure him from the seat of Buddahood.
Three graceful women, Mara’s daughters, sing in a low enticing voice.
[Melody: The Mermaids’ Song from Weber’s Oberon.]
Sweetest on earth ’tis in pleasure to live,
Love thou must ask for, and love thou must give.
Pain we can soothe and assuage every smart,
Yea, we will grant thee the wish of thy heart.
Power bestow we, enjoyment and mirth,
Health and wealth also, and all that has worth.
Lo, of life’s happiness naught shalt thou miss,
Satisfied longings are greatest of bliss.
While they sing they circle around the Bodhi tree and pose in graceful attitudes.
[Siddhattha does not mind Mara’s daughters. They withdraw, and grotesque monsters appear in threatening attitudes, exhibiting a savage war dance, always approaching the tree and turning their weapons against the Sakyamuni, but as soon as they approach the halo they droop, unable to hurt him. Lotus flowers rain down. Sakyamuni raises his right hand. A flash of lightning and a sudden clap of thunder. The spook vanishes in darkness while the Buddha under the Bodhi tree alone remains visible in a halo of light. The forest landscape reappears in full light as before.]
B. The wheel of life turns round through birth and death,
Its twelve-linked chain of causes takes its start
In ignorance and ends in suffering.
The truth is found, the fourfold noble truth;
All life is sorrow, sorrow’s cause is lust,
But from our sorrow we can escape
If we abandon lust and thought of self.
The eightfold noble path of righteousness
Delivers from all evil: it will bring
Sweet peace of mind and leadeth to Nirvana.
[With music accompaniment]
Through many births I sought in vain
The builder of this house of pain.
Now, builder, thee I plainly see!
This is the last abode for me.
Thy gable’s yoke, thy rafters broke,
My heart has peace; all lust will cease.
[The following words fit exactly the music of Haydn’s Chorus with Soli No. 13B in The Creation, and the spirit of the composition is very appropriate for this scene]
Chorus of Angels.
Behold the great muni,
His heart unmoved by hatred,
The wicked Mara’s host
’Gainst him did not prevail.
Trio of Brahma Vishnu Shiva.
Victorious Buddha
Thou art wise and pure,
The darkness is gone
And enlightenment gained.
Chorus of Angels as above.
Proclaim the truth
To all the world.
Truth will bring salvation.
Glory to the truth!
Chorus of Angels as above.
[Lotus flowers rain down thicker and thicker, clouds cover the scene, but the Buddha under the Bodhi tree remains still dimly but sufficiently visible.]
Yasodhara wakes up. She rises and lights a candle from a rush lamp. She kneels with clasped hands before the vision of the Buddha.
Y. Oh Siddhattha, my Lord and Husband, no longer my Husband, but the Buddha. In thee I take my refuge. In thee and thy word, I believe. Thy doctrine shall guide me. Accept me as thy faithful disciple, a disciple of the Buddha, my Lord, the Tathagata, the great thinker, the Saviour of mankind.
[Curtain.]
Notes
B Peters’ Edition, pp 44-55 “Die Himmel erzahlen, etc.” In a few places where the fugas set in, the words “The wicked Mara’s host” should read “The wicked one’s,—the wicked Mara’s host,” etc.