In plain words
Once, when a maharṣi came to his court, Śuddhodana showed him the child. That great soul's word was a word of amṛta. ‘Śuddhodana! This child will turn into a man of fierce detachment. Not only that: he will turn into a great renouncer who gives a divine message to all the people.’ The moment he heard these words, Śuddhodana took great fright. Fearing that Vairāgya might come to his son from something he saw in the outer world, he would not send him out anywhere. At 18 he had him married. Not only did he have him married, he crowned him crown prince. After he became crown prince, Siddhārtha: ‘I must see my kingdom for myself. A king is not just to sit in the inner palace; he must survey the whole kingdom. So I shall go out to see the kingdom,’ he said to his father. His father was afraid all the while. But there was the blind belief: he is married, so he will go nowhere. One day Siddhārtha sat in his chariot and went some distance. On the way an old woman was coming along, a stick in her hand, stooping and stooping as she walked. He saw her. He asked the charioteer: ‘What is it? This animal looks very strange,’ he said. ‘No, my lord! She is a human being; by the time the years run on, she bends like this,’ he said. Siddhārtha asked again, ‘Does everyone come to this state when they grow old?’ ‘There is no escaping it. It is the nature of creation,’ said the charioteer. He went on a little farther. A man sick with consumption sat under a tree, coughing and coughing, short of breath, crying out ‘Ah!’ ‘What is it? Why is he suffering this plight?’ asked the prince. ‘The body has many kinds of disease. In fact the human body itself is a basket of ailments. When, to whom, what disease will come, and to whom it will not come, no one can say,’ explained the charioteer. A great change came over Siddhārtha's mind. He went on a little farther still. Four men were carrying a corpse on their shoulders to the cremation ground. ‘Charioteer, what is this? They are carrying it away?’ asked Siddhārtha. ‘A corpse, my lord,’ he said. ‘What does a corpse mean?’ he asked. ‘What has no prāṇa is a corpse. We are śivam. Śivam means that prāṇa is there. What lacks that prāṇa is a corpse,’ he said.