Rajagha where King Bimbasara, who desired to know the truth, was
living. And he preached to King Bimbasara and converted him, and the
King presented Buddha with a bamboo grove in which he might hold his
assemblies and preach to the many thousands that now came to hear his
sermons.

The fame of Buddha's teachings soon reached his native city and his
father, the old King Suddhodana, yearned to see the son who might have
been a great conqueror but who had chosen to be one of the most
enlightened teachers that the world has ever seen. So he sent a retinue
to greet Buddha and ask him to return to his native city. One thousand
men went forth upon this errand, but none returned, for all were
converted by Buddha and remained to listen to his teachings and then to
spread the faith themselves. Then King Suddhodana sent another
thousand, and these too remained with Buddha. At last, however, he sent
one messenger, the same Channa who had accompanied the Prince when he
left the city, and the faithful Channa bore the message to Buddha.

Buddha decided to visit his father and see his family once more, for he
desired to bring the faith to the land of the Sakyas. With thousands of
his followers accompanying him he went to the royal city and met his
father without the walls. And the father's heart was heavy to see how
the son had changed, for Buddha was no longer young, strong and
handsome, but wrinkled and emaciated, with gray hair and a bent figure
from the hardships he had endured in many years of wandering and
preaching.

Buddha would not enter the city of his countrymen but preached in a
banyan grove without the walls. And when he preached he converted many
of his former friends and relatives. His wife whom he had deserted and
who had grieved for him ever since, gained happiness once more, for she
too, became converted to the Buddhist faith, and entered the Buddhist
sisterhood, becoming a nun. Even the King himself was finally converted
by Buddha's teaching, and we are told that he too entered the faith and
became a disciple. The son that Buddha had only seen once when a day
old became a disciple also, and, when he had mastered the teachings of
Buddhism, was made a monk in the Buddhist order.

Buddha lived to be eighty years old and all the rest of his life was
spent in traveling through the world and preaching the faith wherever
he went. The land that he visited most frequently lay on both sides of
the river Ganges and for th