LORD BUDDHA

 

          LORD BUDDHA

            Lord Buddha was born as Siddhartha Gautama in a royal family in Lumbini, Nepal, around 563 BCE. His father was Suddhodana, the ruler of the Shakya clan, and his mother Maha Maya, a Kollyan princess.

            Siddhartha  was married to  princess Yashodahra, a cousin, and had  a happy matrimonial life for about a decade. The couple also begat a son named Rahula.

            He was about 30 years old when, while riding a chariot, he witnessed the harsh realities of life in the form of  -- an aged man, a diseased person, a dead body, and a mendicant.

            The impact of these sights was extremely  deep on his mind. He now began to look at the world as a place of pain, suffering, and death;  and resolved to find the most effective ways to get rid of them.

            With this aim in mind, he decided to quit  the princely life.  And on a night when his wife and little son were asleep, he quite silently stepped out of the palace.  

           To begin with, he met many spiritual teachers , spent about six years as a penitent researcher , starved himself almost to the edge of death. But as he found no enlightenment, he started to feed himself again, though moderately.

            According to historical record, it was at the close of one long day of deep meditation under a Bo tree, near Varanasi, that he gained illumination and became the Buddha, the Enlightened one.  He was then about 35 years old.  

            The main teachings of Lord Buddha include: righteousness in all daily activities ; abstention from violence, belief in moderation, adoption of the middle path, focus on the causes of suffering and the ways to end them.

            In his moral code ,he also lays emphasis on the  following virtues :  contentment, kindness, generosity, compassion, renunciation, and faithfulness.

             However, his main message was  : Achieve enlightenment and liberation  from the cycle of life, death  and rebirth.

           

            To conclude, here is Sarojini Naidu’s poem on Lord Buddha.

Lord Buddha, on thy Lotus-throne,
With praying eyes and hands elate,
With mystic rapture dost thou own,
Immutable and ultimate?
What peace, unravished of our ken,
Annihilate from the world of men?
The wind of change forever blows,
Across the tumult of our way,
To-morrow’s unborn griefs depose
The sorrows of our yesterday,
Dream yields to dream, strife follows strife,
And Death unweaves the web of life.
For us the travail and the heat,
The broken secrets of our pride,
The strenous lessons of defeat,
The flower deferred, the fruit denied;
But not the peace, supremely won,
Lord Buddha, of thy Lotus-throne,
With futile hands we seek to gain Our inacessible desire,
Diviner summits to attain,
With faith that sinks and feet that tire;
But nought shall conquer or control
The heavenward hunger of our soul.
The end, elusive and afar,
Still lures us with its beckoning flight,
And all our mortal moments are
A session of the Infinite.
How shall we reach the great, unknown
Nirvana of thy Lotus-throne?

                                                ******

G.R.Kanwal

12^th May 2025

Buddhapurnima Day