It was God's plan that was working through the mind of Buddha's father, prescribing for Buddha this solitude. This way of purification, which went on for a long time, from his early childhood to the age when he was a grown-up man, was because the spirit that was going to find the remedy for the freedom of the soul needed that rest, that solitude, and that silence for his great heart to mature. One might think it would be cruel on the part of the parents to even think of such a thing, but it proved to be most kind on the part of the parents. It was because it was meant that it should be so.