While the Prince is bathing in the royal pond, a royal attendant informs him that Princess Bimba has had a son
After Prince Siddhattha had seen the fourth divine messenger, the religious mendicant, and had made up his mind to go forth from the home life and become a religious mendicant himself, he proceeded in his royal chariot, which the Pathamasambodhi states was "teemed with four noble steeds the color of red lotuses," to the royal pleasure garden.
Arriving there, the Prince, surrounded by groups of Sakyan damsels, went down to bathe in the lotus pond which was filled with the five kinds of lotuses.
He stayed at the royal pleasure grove almost the whole day, then, when it was almost evening, an official came from the palace and King Suddhodana with news for Prince Siddhattha, informing the Prince that Princess Bimbayasodhara had given birth to a son.
Buddhaghosa, the author of the commentaries to the Dhammapada, says of this episode that when Prince Siddhattha heard the news that his consort had given birth to a son, a new kind of feeling arose within him that he had never felt before, and that was the love of a child.
That love that had arisen within him weighed on his heart and bound it more than anything else in the world. He exclaimed, "Bandhanam jatam rahulam jatam."
This translates as "A bond has arisen." The word translated here as "bond" in Prince Siddhattha's exclamation is rahulam or rahula, and this word later became the name given to Prince Siddhattha's son.
Prince Siddhattha's exclamation, "A bond has arisen," refers to the decision he was in the process of making to leave the home life and become a religious mendicant. Just when he had cut off other attachments to the lay life, a new attachment had arisen.
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