The wisest among them could not teach him true peace,--that profound inward rest, which was already called Nirvana.

He was twenty-nine years old.

Although disapproving of the Brahmanic austerities as an end, he practised them during six years, in order to subdue the senses.

He then became satisfied that the path to perfection did not lie that way.

He therefore resumed his former diet and a more comfortable mode of life, and so lost many disciples who had been attracted by his amazing austerity.