Now at that time the priests as they sat were magnifying the Renunciation of the One Mighty by Wisdom. Then the Teacher entered the assembly, and sat down in his place, and addressed the brethren, saying, “What is the subject on which you are talking as you sit here?” “On no other subject, Lord! but on your Renunciation,” said they. “Mendicants, not then only did the Successor of the Prophets renounce the world; formerly also he did the same.” The monks asked him to explain how that was. Then the Blessed One made manifest an occurrence hidden by change of birth. * * * * * Long ago, in Mithilā, in the land of Videha, there was a king named Makhā Deva, a righteous man, and ruling in righteousness.[272] Eighty-four thousand years he was a prince, as many he shared in the government, and as many he was sovereign. As such he had lived a long, long time, when one day he said to his barber, “My good barber, whenever you find grey hairs on my head, let me know.” And after a long, long time had passed away, the barber one day found among the jet-black locks one grey hair; and he told the king of it, saying, “There is a grey hair to be seen on your head, O king!” “Pull it out, then, friend, and put it in my hand!” said he. So he tore it out with golden pincers, and placed it in the hand of the king. There were then eighty-four thousand years of the lifetime allotted to the king still to elapse. But, nevertheless, as he looked upon the grey hair he was deeply agitated, as if the King of Death had come nigh unto him, or as if he found himself inside a house on fire.[273] And he thought, “O foolish Makhā Deva! though grey hairs have come upon you, you yet have not been able to get rid of the frailties and passions which deprave men’s hearts!”[274] As he thus meditated and meditated on the appearance of the grey hair, his heart burned within him, drops of perspiration rolled down from his body, and his very robes oppressed him and became unbearable. And he thought, “This very day I must leave the world and devote myself to a religious life!” Then he gave to the barber a grant of a village whose revenue amounted to a hundred thousand. And he sent for his eldest son, and said to him, “My son! grey hairs have appeared on my head. I am become an old man. I have done with all human hopes; now I will seek heavenly things. It is time for me to abandon the world. Do you assume the sovereignty. I will embrace the religious life, and, dwelling in the garden called Makhā Deva’s Mango-park, I will train myself in the characteristics of those who are subdued in heart.” His ministers, when he formed this intention, came to him and said, “What is the reason, O king! of your giving up the world?” Then the king, taking the grey hair in his hand, uttered this verse--