et our chariot be turned back; for it is not the time or place for pleasure-resorts. For how could a man of intelligence be heedless here in the hour of calamity, when once he knows of destruction? (554)Knowing and learning place him in a state of chaos, and only leave him with more questions. He becomes anxious and overwhelmed by the discovery of the real world. He finds the world to be ignorant, insensitive and displeasing, and he finds it impossible to think it to be acceptable in its current state:He, the supreme man, saw that they had no firm footing in the real truth, and with mind that was at the same time both perturbed and steadfast he thus mediated:- ' what rational being would stand or sit or lie at ease, still less laugh, when he knows of old age, disease and death?. . . . he is just like a being without reason, who, on seeing another aged or ill or even dead, remains indifferent and unmoved. For when one tree is shorn both of its flowers and its fruit and falls or is cut down, another tree in no distressed thereby.' . . . he felt no contentment, he obtained no relief, like a lion pierced deeply in the heart by a poisoned arrow. (555)Contentment and quiet acceptance are the biggest obstacle to action. To do nothing brings no happiness to anyone; therefore anxiety and grief are essential in propelling the prince towards seeking personal fulfillment in this world. Although he realizes that some facts of life are indeed inevitable, he remains unable to simply accept the world as it is:A wretched thing it is indeed that, who is himself helpless and subject to the law of old age, disease and destruction, should in his ignorance and the blindness of his conceit, pay no heed to another who is the victim of old age, disease or death. For if I, who am myself such, should pay no heed to another whose nature is equally such, it would not be right or fitting in me, who have knowledge of this, the ultimate laws. He can never again q...
