Question

what did Siddhartha gautama do after seeing old age sickness death and finally a holy man in the streets?

Answer 1

Those street scenes are the traditional "Four Sights" (old age, sickness, death, and a renunciant). After seeing them, Siddhartha realized that palace life could not protect him from suffering and resolved to find a way to end it. What he did next:

- Performed the Great Renunciation (left the palace): he secretly left his wife and newborn son, rode out to the city outskirts (traditionally at age ~29).
- Renounced his royal life: he cut off his hair and royal ornaments, donned simple robes, and became a wandering ascetic.
- Sought liberation: he practiced severe austerities and meditation with various teachers for about six years but found extreme self-mortification unhelpful.
- Realized the Middle Way and attained awakening: he abandoned extreme asceticism, meditated under the Bodhi tree at Bodh Gaya, and attained enlightenment (becoming the Buddha) at about age 35.
- Taught others: he then taught the Dharma (including the Four Noble Truths and the Middle Way), beginning with his first sermon at Sarnath.

This sequence is the core of the traditional biography of the Buddha.