“If you cannot find a good companion to walk with, walk alone, like an elephant roaming the jungle. It is better to be alone than to be with those who hinder your progress.” …..Gautam Siddhartha Buddha (aka Gautam Buddha/Siddhārtha Gautama/Shakyamuni/the Buddha; 563 - 483 BC) – a spiritual teacher from the Indian subcontinent, and the founder of Buddhism __________________________ GAUTAM SIDDHARTHA BUDDHA Little is known about the early life of Gautam Siddharth Buddha. No biography was written during his lifetime. Only isolated events from his life before he attained enlightenment were preserved. Some of the following anecdotes might probably be mythical in nature. According to the most traditional biography, Gautama Siddhartha was born in a royal Hindu family to King Śuddhodana (Shakya dynasty). Traditional belief is that Gautam Siddhartha was born in Lumbinī (near Kapilvastu, Nepal) in the Terai lowlands near the foothills of the Himalayas. However, considerable archeological evidence now shows that he may have been born at Kapileswara (in Kalinga, now Orissa in India), or even at Piprahwa (Uttar Pradesh, India). There is no consensus either on the date of his birth. Most historians in the early 20th century dated his lifetime as circa 563 - 483 BC. His mother, Queen Maha-Maya (Māyādevī) was a Koliyan princess. Legend has it that, on the night Siddhartha was conceived, Queen Maya dreamt that a white elephant with six white tusks entered her right side, and ten months later Siddhartha was born. As was the Shakya tradition, when his mother Queen Maya became pregnant, she left Kapilvastu for her fathers kingdom to give birth. However, her son is said to have been born on the way in a garden at Lumbini (Nepal), beneath a sal (scientifically, Shorea robusta) tree. As Buddha is believed to have been born on a full-moon day (Sanskrit: Poornima), his birth-anniversary holiday is often called Buddha Poornima. Various sources hold that the Buddhas mother died at his birth, a few days or seven days later. The infant was given the name Siddhartha (in Sanskrit, meaning ‘he who attains truth’). During the birth celebrations, the hermit seer Asita arrived from his mountain-abode and announced that the child would either become a great king (in Sanskrit: Chakravarti) or a great holy man (in Sanskrit: Maha-Muni). By traditional account, this occurred after Siddhartha placed his feet in Asitas hair and Asita examined the birthmarks. His father, King Suddhodana held a naming ceremony on the fifth day, and invited eight brahmin scholars to read the future. All gave a dual prediction that the baby would either become a great king or a great holy man. Kaundinya (the youngest among these eight brahmins, and who later became the first arihant other than the Buddha) was the only one who unequivocally predicted that Siddhartha would become a great sage. Gautama Siddhartha was brought up by his mothers younger sister (named, Maha Pajapati). His father, wishing for his son to be a great king, shielded him from the religious preaching and from his getting acquainted to common human suffering. When he reached the age of 16, his father reputedly arranged his marriage to a cousin of the same age named Yaśodharā. According to the traditional account, she gave birth to a son, named Rāhul. Siddhartha is said to have spent 29 years as a prince in Kapilavastu Nepal). Although provided with everything that he could desire or need, Siddhartha began to realize that material-wealth was not lifes ultimate objective. Thus, 29-year-old Siddhartha started going out of his palace to meet the commoners. During the first trip, he was deeply disturbed upon seeing an elderly, helpless and frail man. On the second, he saw an emaciated and depressed man, suffering from an advanced stage of disease. On the third, he spotted a grieving family carrying the corpse of one of their own to a cremation site. He reflected deeply upon the suffering brought about by old age, illness and death. On his fourth trip, he saw ascetic who led a reclusive life of meditation, and was calm and serene. These sightings moved Siddhartha intensely, and he decided to overcome the distress of ageing, sickness, and death by living the life of an ascetic. Thus one night, he slipped out of the palace in the dead of night, exchanged his splendid silken robe for the simple orange one of a holy man, and cut off all his beautiful black hair, carrying nothing but an alms bowl for people to put food in, he set off on his great search of ‘the truth’. It was an accepted practice in those times for some men to leave their family and lead the life of an ascetic. Siddhartha initially went to Rajagaha (a city, capital of ancient Magadha empire) and began his Spartan life by begging for alms in the street. After the informants of King Bimbisara (the great monarch of Magadha; 558-491 BC) recognized (now an alms-seeker) Siddhartha and the king learned of his quest, Bimbisara offered his empire to Siddhartha. Siddhartha rejected the offer, but promised to visit his kingdom of Magadha first, upon attaining enlightenment. He left Rajagaha and practised under two hermit teachers of yogic meditation – Alara Kalama at latter’s ashram in Vaishali, and later, Udaka Ramaputta who was a Jain hermit saint. Even after having mastered the meditative practices of these two great saints, however, Siddhartha was not satisfied and decided to move on. Siddhartha together with a group of five companions led by Kaundinya (the first disciple of Gautam Buddha; 6th century BC) are then said to have set out to take their austerities even further. They tried to find enlightenment through deprivation of worldly goods, including food, practising self-mortification. After starving himself to near-death by restricting his food intake to around a leaf or nut per day, Siddhartha once collapsed in a river while bathing and almost drowned. The event made him reconsider his path of seeking truth. After realizing that the extreme asceticism didnt work, Gautama opted for what the Buddhists call the Middle Way a path of moderation away from the extremes of self-indulgence and self-mortification. According to another famous legend, after becoming starved and weakened due to prolonged fasting, he is said to have accepted milk and rice pudding from a village girl named Sujata. Such was then Siddhartha’s emaciated appearance that Sujata mistook him to be a spirit that had granted her a wish. Following this incident, Gautama Siddhartha got himself famously seated under a pipal tree (scientifically, Ficus religiosa) – now known as the Bodhi tree (Sanskrit: Bodhi meaning enlightenment) – at Bodh Gaya (Bihar,India) and vowed never to arise until he had found the truth. Surprisingly, Kaundinya and four other companions of Siddhartha began believing that Siddhartha had abandoned his search for ‘the truth’ and had become undisciplined, left Siddhartha’s company. After a reputed 49 days of meditation thereafter, then 35-year-old Siddhartha is said to have attained ‘the truth’ or ‘Enlightenment’. From that time, Gautama Siddhartha was known to his followers as ‘the Buddha’ (Sanskrit: meaning ‘the Awakened-One’ or ‘the Enlightened-One’). At the time of his awakening, Gautam Siddhartha identified the steps necessary to eliminate the cause of suffering. These discoveries became known as the Four Noble Truths, which are at the heart of Buddhist teaching. Through mastery of these truths, a state of supreme liberation, or Nirvana, is believed to be possible for any being. The Buddha described Nirvāna as the perfect peace of a mind thats free from ignorance, greed, hatred and other afflictive states, or defilements (Sanskrit: Klesha). Nirvana is also regarded as the end of the world, in that no personal identity or boundaries of the mind remain. Immediately after his awakening, the Buddha debated whether or not he should teach the Dharma (his path to enlightenment) to others. He was concerned that humans were so overpowered by ignorance, greed and hatred that they could never recognise the path, which is subtle, deep and hard to grasp. However, according to a popular legend, Brahmā Sahampati (Sanskrit: the mythical creator of the universe) convinced him, arguing that at least some will understand it. The Buddha relented and agreed to teach. After his awakening, the Buddha met two merchants, named Tapussa and Bhallika, who became his first lay disciples. They were apparently each given hairs from his head, which are now claimed to be enshrined as relics in the Shwe Dagon Temple in Rangoon (now Yangon, Myanmar). The Buddha intended to visit his former teachers (Alara Kalama and Udaka Ramaputta) to explain his findings but they had already passed away by then. He travelled to the Deer Park (now Sarnath, near Vārāṇasī in Uttar Pradesh, India), where he set in motion what Buddhists call ‘the Wheel of Dharma’ by delivering his first sermon to the five companions (including Kaundilya) with whom he had sought enlightenment. Together with him, they formed the first saṅgha: the company of Buddhist monks. All five become arihants (the primary disciples), and as the astute reputation of the Buddha spread, the strength of Sangha (in Sanskrit, meaning community) swelled to more than 1,000. For the remaining 45 years of his life, the Buddha is said to have travelled in the Gangetic Plain (now Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, northern West Bengal in India, and the southern Nepal), teaching a diverse range of people. From the outset, Buddhism was equally open to all races and classes, and had no caste structure, as was the rule for most Hindus in the-then-society. The sangha (the commune) travelled through the subcontinent, expounding the dharma. The Buddha did keep his promise to travel to Rajagaha, capital of Magadha, to visit King Bimbisara after his ‘Enlightenment’. Upon hearing of his sons awakening, Suddhodana sent, over a period, ten delegations to ask him to return to Kapilavastu. On the first nine occasions, the delegates failed to deliver the message, and instead joined the sangha to become arahants. The tenth delegation, led by Kaludayi (a childhood friend of Gautama Siddhartha, who also became an arihant), however, delivered the message. Nearly two years after his awakening, the Buddha agreed to return and made a two-month journey to Kapilvastu – his native place – by foot, teaching the dharma and begging/seeking alms as he went on his way. According to legends, the Buddhist community (Sangha) was not free of dissent and discord. Devadatta (a cousin of Gautama who became a monk but not a disciple/arihant) tried to kill Gautam Siddhartha more than once. Initially, Devadatta is alleged to have often tried to undermine the Buddha. In one instance, according to stories, Devadatta even asked the Buddha to stand aside and let him lead the sangha. When this failed, he is accused of having three times tried to kill his teacher. The first attempt is said to have involved him hiring a group of archers to shoot the awakened-one. But, upon meeting the Buddha, they laid down their bows and instead became followers. A second attempt is said to have involved Devadatta rolling a boulder down a hill. But this hit another rock and splintered, only grazing the Buddhas foot. In the third attempt, Devadatta is said to have got an elephant drunk and set it loose. This ruse also failed. After his lack of success at homicide, Devadatta is said to have tried to create a schism in the sangha, by proposing extra restrictions on the vinaya (ushering into the fold). When the Buddha again prevailed, Devadatta started a breakaway order. At first, he managed to convert some of the bhikkhus (Buddism-followers), but the Buddhism dharma so effectively expounded that the detractors were won back. At the age of 80, the Buddha announced that he would soon reach Parinirvana (or the final deathless state, according to faith) and abandon his earthly body. After this, the Buddha ate his last meal, which he had received as an offering from a blacksmith (named Cunda). Falling violently ill, Buddha instructed his attendant Ānanda to convince Cunda that the meal eaten at his place had nothing to do with his passing and that his meal would be a source of the greatest merit as it provided the last meal for a Buddha. The precise contents of the Buddhas final meal are not clear, due to variant scriptural traditions and ambiguity over the translation of certain significant terms. Some believe that the Buddha consumed some sort of truffle or other mushroom. [However, a few present day analysts argue that the Buddha died of mesenteric infarction (a symptom of old age), rather than the suspected food-poisoning.] His disciple Ananda protested the Buddhas decision to enter Parinirvana in the abandoned jungles of Kuśināra (now Kushinagar, India). Gautam Siddhartha, however, is said to have reminded Ananda how Kushinara was a land once ruled by a righteous wheel-turning king that resounded with joy. The Buddha then asked his entire attendant Bhikkhus to clarify any doubts or questions they had. They had none. According to Buddhist scriptures, he then finally entered Parinirvana. The Buddhas final words are reported to have been, All composite things (Saṅkhāra) are perishable ! Strive for your own liberation with diligence ! At his death, the Buddha is famously believed to have told his disciples to follow no leader. His body was cremated and the relics were placed in monuments or stupas, some of which are believed to have survived until the present. For example, ‘The Temple of the Tooth’ (or Dalada Maligawa) in Sri Lanka is the place where what some believe to be the relic of the right tooth of Buddha is kept at present. __________________ By AVDHESH SHUKLA
Posted on: Wed, 25 Jun 2014 18:17:26 +0000