Kaludayi invites the Buddha to return to Kapilavastu, where the Buddha and three hundred monks settle in the Nigrodha Grove. During an alms round, King Suddhodana is upset to see his son begging in the streets, viewing it as beneath their warrior tradition. The Buddha explains that he belongs to the race of monks and that begging is a practice of the Dharma, used to cultivate equanimity, humility, and to restore human dignity without discrimination. Reconciled, the King invites the Buddha to the palace. Lady Yasodhara instructs young Rahula to ask his father for his heritage. The Buddha leads Rahula back to the monastery, where the family reunites with tears of joy.

Nanda, the Buddha’s half-brother, is led to the monastery and ordained, despite his engagement to a beautiful lady. Rahula also asks to become a monk. Being too young for full precepts, he is ordained by Sariputra as a crow-chasing novice. King Suddhodana, grieving the loss of his lineage, tells the Buddha that the separation between father and son is like a knife that cuts through the skin, gets into the flesh, hits the bone, and strikes the marrow. The Buddha comforts his father, explaining that Nanda and Rahula are practicing to realize peace, joy, and to become better human beings.

Inspired by the Buddha, six Sakyan nobles decide to renounce the world: Anuruddha, Bhaddiya, Bhagu, Kimbila, Devadatta, and Ananda. They leave with the barber Upali, giving him their jewelry. Upali, realizing that possessing such treasure brings only fear and anxiety, decides to become a monk as well. The princes request that Upali be ordained first so he becomes their senior in the Dharma, helping them cultivate humility. Later, the Venerable Bhaddiya exclaims Oh my happiness! twice during meditation. He explains that as a governor guarded by soldiers, he lived in fear, but now, having no possessions and sleeping in the forest, he is completely free of anxiety.