Seeking Enlightenment
Prince Siddhartha spent years seeking enlightenment, and after reaching his goal became known as the Buddha (enlightened one). The princess took her son to see his father and when they found Buddha she told her son that he was his father and that he should ask him for his inheritance. The princess does not seem to have realized that Buddha possessed only one thing to offer his son – the path to enlightenment. When Rahu asked for his inheritance, Buddha took his son to teach him what he knew about the spiritual path that he was on. This brought sorrow to the family of the Buddha since they had now lost two generations of princes.
Buddha and his teaching to his son
The Buddha spent a lot of time teaching his son what he had learned as if trying to make up for the time he had lost. Rahu was the Buddha’s personal student and quickly became known as being very eager for the teaching of his father.
One of the legends of Rahu was that he would fill his hand with sand every morning and wish that he could have as many words of wisdom from the Buddha as he had grains of sand. The Buddha spent a great deal of time teaching his son the importance of honesty in order to understand the rest of his teachings and emphasizing that those who intentionally lie are spiritually empty regardless of other accomplishments.
The Lucky Rahula
At the age of 18, Rahu was fully ordained and became known as “lucky Rahula.” The followers of the Buddha said that Rahula was lucky because he had received enlightenment directly from the Buddha and that he was the son of Buddha. Rahula made every effort to make his own way without currying any special favor from the other followers because the Buddha was also his father. This had the unfortunate side effect of leaving little information behind on the rest of Rahula’s life and
