Question

From what did the Buddha's father try to protect him from?

Answer 1

At a certain age, about 29, Siddhartha left his former life to become a wandering ascetic. Buddhist tradition says that he left in secret, but this is not certain. He joined the Sramanas, wandering ascetics who had formed sects all over India at the time who renounced the world and conventional religion. For years, Siddhartha lived as an ascetic, searching for something, a way to make sense of human suffering. His asceticism was very severe and at one point he almost died. After trying such extreme asceticism, however, he still had not found the answer. Followers of Buddhism believe that he eventually decided that the answer was not to be found in extreme asceticism any more than it was to be found in living an excessively luxurious lifestyle.