BORN a prince, Siddhartha could have gone on to conquer several lands, but destiny had something more eternal and noble in store.

A prince is born
One of the most profound spiritualists the world has ever known, Prince Siddhartha was born to the Shakya dynasty King Suddhodhana and his wife Queen Mahamaya at Lumbini (in current day Nepal, about 27 kms from the Indo-Nepalese border) in Kapilavastu (now called Piprahwa) in the month of May in 642 BC.

Legend has it that the couple was childless for over 20 years and then one day Queen Mahamaya had a dream in which she saw a beautiful white six-tusked elephant entering her body from the left side while she was asleep. Astrologers were consulted to interpret her dream. They said that this meant she would give birth to a son whose fame would spread to all corners of the world.

Soon enough the Queen conceived and as the time of birth approached, it was decided that she would go to her father’s house in Devadaha for the delivery. On the way the entourage stopped at the beautiful Lumbini gardens, which at that time was aflush with beautiful blossoms. The queen while resting reached out with her right arm to pluck a branch from a Sal tree when miraculously a child was born, leaving her body from the right side. This child was named Siddhartha, which in Hindi means “all wishes fulfilled”.

Prince Siddhartha was just about a week old when Queen Mahamaya passed away. So, her younger sister Queen Mahaprajapati, also married to King Suddhodhana, took up the responsibility of rearing the child.

King of Kings or Emperor of Spirituality
After the prince’s birth, royal astrologers were called to prophesize the little prince’s destiny. Most of the astrologers said that Prince Siddhartha would either go on to become one of the greatest conquerors the world had ever known or would become a great spiritual leader. However, one old sage Asita predicted that he would definitely take up the spiritual path and attain the highest of glories.

Apprehensive of his child’s future and scared that he may become an ascetic; the king ensconced him in a protective environment of youth and leisure. The child was not allowed to experience any kind of misery or ailment. He led a life of idyllic pleasure.

However, the king was unable to completely control his son’s environment. When Siddhartha was just about 7-8 years, he went out of the palace with his father into the fields for a plowing festival. That’s when he noticed a bird flying down to the ground and swooping away a little worm which had been thrown out of the ground by the farmer's plough.

This one incident affected him a lot, especially since his mother too had died when he was only a few days old baby. He sat down under tree and wondered to himself whether “all living creatures kill each other?" This was the beginning of his disenchantment with the material world.

Once, Prince Siddhartha came of age, he was quickly married off to a young princess by the name of Yashodara. Incidentally, she was a close cousin of his, being the daughter of the King of Devadaha, the brother of Queen Mahamaya. The couple enjoyed a lavish lifestyle full of all material trappings.

However, the prince yearned to go out and see the world outside the palace. Once, he managed to evade the heavy security and step outside the palace walls. Here he saw some sights - including a sick man, an old man, a corpse and an ascetic – that had a life-altering impact on him. While the first three repulsed him, he felt a calming effect in the demeanor of the holy man. This visit outside his palatial residence set him thinking of the impermanence of youth, health and even life, enhancing his mental turmoil. And, this is when he began contemplating leading the life of a simple ascetic.

Soon enough he heard the news of the birth of his only son, who was named Rahul. But, instead of being overjoyed, he felt that this was another hindrance in his path to seek the truth.

This is when he decided to severe all ties with his family and go out alone in the search of Truth, of what was the real meaning of life.

Prince dons the robes of a Bhikshu
He shaved his royal locks, donned the dress of a mendicant and with a begging bowl of a Bhikshu (a mendicant dependent on others charity for food and water), Siddhartha set out southwards in search of enlightenment. He visited the ashrams of ascetics like Bhagava, Arada Kalama and Udraka Ramaputra to learn their methods of meditation. But he felt that these methods were not enough to take him in the direction of Nirvana. Therefore, he decided to head to the kingdom of Magadh and meditate in the forest there.

He settled in a pleasant forested area, adjacent to the village of Uruvela (Bodh Gaya) next to where the river Nairanjana (now known as Phalgu) flowed. He was joined by five disciples. The mendicant Siddhartha applied the most intense ascetic methods of meditation, sometimes even giving up food and water. However, after six long struggle-filled years he still hadn’t reached his objective. While his body was nearly like a skeleton with exhaustion and lack of nutrition, his spirit hadn’t diminished.

This is when he decided to give up these most severe of austerities. He took a bath in the river and accepted a bowl of kheer (milk pudding) from a woman by the name of Sujata who lived in the nearby village. Seeing this, his five disciples left him as they felt that accepting the offering from the hand of a woman was degrading to a person in the pursuit of the highest truth. They felt that since he had abandoned the path of extreme austerities he would never reach Enlightenment.

Left all alone, the prince sat down to meditate, spreading Kusha grass under a Pipal or Bo tree. It was a huge struggle, his body having become weak and undernourished. But, the resolve was strong, and the will stronger still, it was to know the Truth despite all tribulations.

”Blood may become exhausted, flesh may decay, bones may fall apart,
But I will never leave this place, until I find the way to Enlightenment.”

Prince becomes the Buddha, The Enlightened One
The issue of Buddha’s Enlightenment, as to what exactly did he see, has been a subject of much debate. Although no one has been able to explain it completely, some have attempted to put this experience in words.

It is believed that the Buddha’s Enlightenment happened during the course of one night. The demon Mara tried all tricks to lure the mendicant from his path. He sent him a message saying that his father had been imprisoned and his wife kidnapped by a neighboring king, he tried to scare Siddhartha with rain, thunder and storms; he attacked him with his javelin-like weapon and finally when all failed he sent his three beautiful daughters to entice him. However, nothing managed to break the ascetic’s resolve to seek truth and ultimately Mara admitted defeat and withdrew.

After Mara had left, Siddhartha settled into deeper and deeper states of contemplation. What he saw is summed up best by the great Buddhist authority Ananda K. Coomaraswamy in his book The Life of Buddha: “In the first watch of the night he reached the Knowledge of Former States of being, in the middle watch he obtained the heavenly eye of Omniscient Vision, and in the third watch he grasped the perfect understanding of the Chain of Causation which is the Origin of Evil, and thus at break of day he attained to Perfect Enlightenment. Therewith there broke from his lips the song of triumph.”

The day was December the 8th when the Prince became The Buddha, the Enlightened One. He was 35 years of age at that time.

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