Buddha

Kelley Park Amphitheater, 1300 Senter Road, San Jose

Can I watch this play if I don’t speak Hindi?

Yes, you can watch the play, and enjoy it. We will provide a libretto, of the sort provided at an opera performance. It will contain the full text of the music, and brief descriptions of what happens in between.

Example:

Tonight, Gautam leaves home to seek Truth

As yet twenty-nine, with many more years before him

Having mounted the horse Kanthak, brought forth by Channa

He surrenders his sword on the banks of the river Anoma

Necklace, ring, gold ear-rings, sash are handed over

The head is shaved, locks cast away

A new birth in ocher robes, the garb of a beggar,

A bowl to accept gratefully whatever is given

All are now strangers – brothers, friends, kin

Now the life of a wanderer, in forest and hill

Having travelled east to Magadh, the monk Siddharth meets King Bimbisar, who directs him to his first mentor, Arad Kalam.

Then Siddharth sat in meditation with Arad

But was unable to unlock the secret of death and disease

From Udrak Ramputra he learned Ved and Upanishad

Yet the mind was restless, the quest incomplete

‘Ved and Upanishad shall not answer my questions’

Thus saying, he departed with begging bowl

Siddharth arrives in Uruvela, an army camp in Magadh, and is entranced by its beauty. Five disciples attach themselves to him. He begins his experiments, alone.

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