The Musical begins inside the opulent palace of Prince Siddhartha. Sensual pleasures abound. The Prince enters with Princess Yasodhara to join the party. But he seems disillusioned, reflecting on the true meaning of life. This leads him to venture beyond the palace walls where he experiences the four signs of old age, sickness, death and holy life. Greatly affected by what he's seen, he decides to renounce worldly pleasures in a bid to realise the supreme truth. So he bids farewell to his royal life and assumes the life of an ascetic, living in the forest, practising extreme austerities for six years. He realises that this way of living is also not conducive to attaining the truth and decides to practise the Middle Path, beyond the extremes of self indulgence and self mortification. On the full moon day of Vesaka he accepts an offering of rice milk from a young woman named Sujata. Being certain that he would attain Enlightenment, he makes a vow "I will not leave this place, until i have attained the highest wisdom" Mara, the lord of darkness, appears and challenges Siddhartha , who remains unmoved. Mara retreats in defeat ...... Siddhartha attains Supreme Enlightenment under the Bodhi Tree. He is now The Buddha. "For the benefit of all, he teaches the Dhamma, which is excellent in the beginning, in the middle and the end"