Siddhartha sat down under a tree to reminisce his life and times so far. The watershed moment of the life had arrived. With the dawn his life would enter a new phase.
At last the dawn broke. The birds chirped to herald the beginning of a new day and to urge Siddhartha to begin his new chapter. There was no time to lose, the birds knew from their wisdom of the millions of years of genetic experience.
The sun rose to penetrate the darkness of the dense forest with its rays. Siddhartha followed the sun and entered the forest and walked on. The smell of the moist soil of the dense forest was a strange experience to the nose used to the perfumes of the royal palace.
Some hours of travel brought him in another kingdom. He didn’t know it because there were no border markers. But it didn’t matter because now he was merely a seeker of the truth that has no boundaries and is indivisible.
He had ventured into the great empire of Magadha.
Siddhartha happened to stumble into the hills situated near the capital of that empire. The hills had many caves that had become the homes of many other penance makers and meditation doers. Many well known sages also lived in those hills who ran ashrams and spiritual schools. Siddhartha got himself admitted to sage Alad’s spiritual school to get the training in the basic principles of penance and meditation.
The transition was not easy. A body used to the luxuries of the royal palace could not take to the harsh life of an ascetic without tears. It was a severe punishment. Siddhartha’s body grew weak and impoverished but he bravely endured it.
Emperor Bimbisar of Magadha somehow learnt about the presence of the prince of the kingdom of Kapilvastu in the guise of an ascetic near his capital in the hills. He had a great respect for the king Shudhodhana, the father of the prince. Bimbisar rushed to the place where Siddhartha was meditating under a tree. He wanted to meet the prince.
Finding Emperor Bimbisar before him greatly surprised the meditating prince. He spoke, ‘‘Oh! Your Majesty, the Emperor! Why did you take trouble to visit me in this difficult terrain, sir?’’
‘‘Prince Siddhartha!” Bimbisar said, ‘‘It worried me when I heard that you were living in these hills like an ascetic giving up luxuries of your palace. You are doing penance and meditation. These things are not far royal person like you my dear friend. Your body is soft and tender which can not take the punishment of the thorns and hard rocks.
God has sent you on earth as a prince of the great royal family of our land. He wished you to live like a king and rule. I beg you, prince, please don’t abuse your noble body. Do come with me to my capital. I will abdicate in your favour. Take charge of my empire and live like a prince, an emperor. It makes me feel guilty to see you suffer like this.’’
Siddhartha replied, ‘‘O generous emperor! Had I wish for royal pleasures I wouldn’t have renounced my own kingdom. I am not doing this piqued over some petty incident. Emperor, I am in search of the sublime truth, the real meaning of life and the purpose of our existence. What the emperor supreme, God wishes of us? In the revelation of it lies the eternal peace. I am determined to endure all the hardships to reach to the ultimate truth.’’
Bimbisar stared at Siddhartha. He realised that the prince he was seeing was no ordinary soul but a very superior person. He bowed his head in respect.
With folded hands Bimbisar made a request, ‘‘O Noble Prince! When you find the ultimate truth and the eternal peace, kindly pay a visit to my palace. Show me also the correct path and salvage me. You are bound to see the light of the divine wisdom. I bow to your determination.’’
Siddhartha promised that he would do so if he was able to get enlightened.
Siddhartha meditated for long periods on empty stomach but the spiritual wisdom didn’t dawn.
Then he joined the spiritual school of another sage named Alarkalam. The sage enforced strict discipline and regimeted life in his training. No laxity was ever allowed. Siddhartha endured the rigours and learnt the religious scriptures.
But what he was seeking was not coming.
He went to another school run by sage Uddak Ramputra. One of the daily chores of this school was for all the young monk to go to town for seeking alms. Siddhartha after a few days, noticed that he was getting more alms than his fellow monks. Soon he found out the reason. The alms donors used to be house wives. Siddhartha was incredibly handsome young monk which enamoured the women to give him generous alms. There was no religion behind it. It annoyed him.
He left the school in a huff. Five other young monks walked out with him. They were also feeling disenchanted with the Uddak school. In that school brother monks used to call him Gautam for some reason. May be, he resembled some ex-monk of that school of the Gautam name. He did not find out. But he liked the new name and adopted it. He threw away the old name like all other previous connections.
The band of six young monks reached a fascinating place called Urubela. The scenes around were green and serene. The monks decided to meditate there. Many other penance makers and sages were also there engaged in their own varieties of spiritual exercises. The place was just made for meditation. All nature and no worldly distractions.
Gautam selected a secluded tree under which there was a green patch like a small carpet. He made up his mind to meditate there. He began his spiritual meditation in the most difficult yogic postures. He continued his meditation relentlessly. He took break every day only to ease himself if required and to eat wild berries to survive. This he carried on for six years. Gautam was now only a skeleton held together by paper thin skin. He could not walk. Even lifting a finger took great effort. His mind was becoming unfocused.
Suddenly Gautam realised that such meditation as he had been doing would gain him little. It was merely self torture and destruction of his physical existence. After all physical reality was the solid base which projected up the spiritual experience. He had no right to neglect his body, the primary fact.
He was just thinking on these lines when a young woman appeared there. She looked at the face of young meditating monk and bowed her head in reverence. She put a bowl of kheer in front of Gautam. She was a tribal woman who believed the trees to be incarnations of gods. And every year she put a bowl of kheer under some tree on a certain day. That year she happened to go to that tree under which Gautam used to meditate. The woman had taken Gautam to be the human form of that tree and felt rewarded for her devotion.
Gautam opened his eyes and found a bowlful of kheer in front of him. The flavour was intoxicating. Gautam hungrily started eating the dish. After years he was tasting properly cooked rich food. The life seemed seeping into him.
Just then, five other fellow monks who used to meditate under other trees arrived there. They were shocked to see Gautam gulping mouthfuls of kheer. They spat in disgust.
‘‘What a shame!’’
‘‘Look how hungrily he is wolfing down kheer! Still a slave of sensual desires. Bah!’’
‘‘All that meditation and penance was a put on act. What a farce! Shameless thing.’’
The five decided to move on and not to have anything to do with Gautam anymore.
After partaking kheer Gautam felt rejuvenated. His mind became focussed and intensely purposeful. He felt at peace.
Gautam now meditated with renewed enthusiasm and concentration. He meditated for hours, days, weeks into a stage where time lost its meaning. Spiritually his mind was focussing in ever narrowing circle. Then it became a dot.
Something clicked in the mind of Gautam. The dot sucked him into a dreamy state. He saw a river in spate. On its waves an elephant danced. Then it started drizzling screening that scene. The drizzle made the atmosphere misty. Two eyes peered through the mist. Two loving eyes. That of mother Prajawati? The shadowy faces of Shudhodhana and Yashodhra swam through the mist and dissolved. The river could still be heard. Its gurgling noise sounded like the noise Rahul used to make as baby. The palace shimmered fleeingly on the mist screen. Some fairy like figures flitted about.
A garden unrolled before him like a carpet. The garden in which he played in his childhood and romanced with Yashodhra. The garden faded away and a swan glided in and dissolved into a smile. In the background rainbow appeared.
Then all visual scenes began to fade to create a milky whiteness of the eternal peace which seeped into him lighting up all the inner spaces. He felt an endless tranquility welding him into the power supreme. The long invisible tentacles of his mind could touch the Ultimate Truth.
Gautam had at last gained the enlightenment he was seeking. He had become Gautam Buddha, the one blessed with the ultimate spiritual knowledge.
The tree under which Budhha gained enlightenment still stands and is worshipped as Bodhi tree, the tree of spiritual wisdom. It is the most revered object of Buddhists all over the globe.
Buddha’s wisdom is called ‘Bodhisatva’ which literally means ‘The essence of the spiritual wisdom attained under the Bodhi tree.’’
