Gautam Buddha - The Originator of Buddhism

The word 'Buddha' is a title and not a name in itself. It means 'one who is awake' (in the sense of having 'woken up to reality'). The title was given to Siddhartha Gautama, who was born in Lumbini (Nepal), approximately 2,500 years ago. He did not claim to be a God and he has never been regarded as such by Buddhists. He was a human being who became Enlightened, understanding life in the deepest way possible.

Gautam BuddhaSiddhartha was born into the royal family of a small kingdom, on the Indian-Nepalese border. According to the traditional story, he had a cloistered upbringing, but was jolted out of complacency when he encountered the harsh realities of life, such as old age, sickness and death.

He left His home in search of the real meaning of life. He practiced meditation under various teachers and then took to asceticism. The rigorous asceticism that He followed virtually led Him to the verge of death. But, true understanding seemed as far away to Him as ever and eventually, He abandoned this path. He sat down beneath a pipal tree and vowed that "flesh may wither, blood may dry up, but I shall not rise from this spot until Enlightenment has been won". After forty days, the Buddha finally attained Enlightenment.

Buddhists believe that He attained a state of being that goes beyond anything else in the world. If normal experience is based on conditions - upbringing, psychology, opinions, perceptions, and so on - Enlightenment is Unconditioned. It was a state in which the Buddha gained insight into the deepest workings of life and therefore, into the cause of human suffering, the problem that had set Him on His spiritual quest in the first place.

During the remaining 45 years of His life, he traveled through much of northern India, teaching the way to Enlightenment to others. The teaching is known as the Buddha-dharma - 'the teaching of the Enlightened One', in the East. Traveling from place to place, the Buddha taught numerous disciples, who gained Enlightenment in their own right. They, in turn, taught others and in this way, an unbroken chain of teaching has continued, right down to the present day.

The Buddha was not God and neither did He make any claim to divinity. He was a human being who, through tremendous efforts, transformed Himself. Buddhists see him as an ideal and a guide, who can lead them to Enlightenment.

Buddhist Religion

Buddhism is a path of practice and spiritual development, providing a person with insight into the true nature of life. Buddhist practices, such as meditation, serve as the means of changing oneself, in order to develop the qualities of awareness, kindness, and wisdom. Buddhism is not about teaching or learning, but about experiencing.

Buddhist ideology does not advocate the practice of worshipping God in a physical form. Hence, quite often, it is not really seen as a religion in the normal sense. The basic tenets of Buddhist teaching are straightforward and practical - nothing is fixed or permanent; actions have consequences; change is possible. It teaches practical methods, such as meditation, which enable people to realize and utilize its teachings in order to transform their experience. They are taught to be fully responsible for their lives and to develop the qualities of wisdom and compassion.

Historical Places

Nepal Buddha

Siddartha Gautama or Gautam Buddha as he is proudly called was born in Lumbini forest in Nepal in 560 BC. He was named Siddhartha and was raised up in the kingdom of Kapilavastu. Her mother Maya gave birth to Gautama in Lumbini in a garden beneath the sal tree. The day on which Gautama Buddha was born is celebrated in Theravada countries as Vasak. He spent 29 years as the Prince of Kapilavastu during the period which he married Yasodhara who gave birth to Rahula. In Hinduism Gautama Buddha is regarded as the reincarnation of Vishnu. Since he was born in Nepal he is also referred to as the Nepal Buddha.

A few years back a teenage boy meditating under a tree in south central Nepal was sighted and is being regarded as the reincarnation of the great Buddha. He has also earned the nickname of Nepal Buddha. The boy named Ram Bahadur Bamjan was witnessed sitting cross legged in posture of Buddha under a peepal tree. The tree under which he has been worshiping is festooned and the air gives the smell of incense sticks.

Besides Nepal Buddha he is also known as the Buddha Boy since he is just a teenager and has drawn curiosity from world over since he has meditated for over ten months without food and water. People have been left wondering whether he is the incarnation of Gautama Buddha or not.

Gautam Buddha Birthplace

It stated that Gautam Buddha was born two hundred years before King Ashoka reign. Birthplace of Gautam Buddha is regarded as Lumbini in Nepal. It is said that when his pregnant mother Maya was leaving Kapilvastu to deliver Gautama at her father’s place she gave birth to a beautiful child in the gardens of Lumbini below the sal tree. The child was named Siddhartha who later on came to be known as Gautama Buddha. It was hermit Asita who declared that the child would either become a great king or a holy man.

The birthplace of Gautam Buddha is situated on the foothills of Himalaya in the kingdom of Nepal and the day on which Siddhartha Gautam was born is celebrated as Vesak. King Ashoka visited the Lumbii forest and constructed four stupas and stone pillars with horse figure on top of it.

Lumbini, the birthplace of Gautam Buddha remained neglected for centuries before a German archaeologist discovered the famous pillars in 1895 in the foothills of Churia range and on further excavation a brick temple and sandstone sculpture was discovered within the temple which depiction of Buddha’s birth.

On the south of the Maya Devi Temple is Puskarni which is the famous sacred bathing pool and it stated that Maya Devi took a bath in this pool before delivering the baby. I 1996 a flawless stone placed by Emperor Ashoka was discovered which was placed in 249 BC to mark the birth of Buddha 2,600 years ago.

A visit to the birthplace of Gautama Buddha not only leads to spiritual enlightenment but also brings peace in life.

Gautam Buddha Biography

Very little is known about Gautam Buddha. The biography of Gautam Buddha has come to know through ancient scriptures which were written after details related to him were passed by generations orally. It is stated that Gautama Siddartha was a North Indian Prince who lived between 563 and 479 BC and later on came to be known as Buddha or Enlightened One. It is stated that Queen Maya died seven days after giving birth to Gautama and Prince Siddhartha is said to have gone to Trayastrimsa Heaven and stayed there for three months to preach supreme knowledge to his mother.

Astrologers had stated that Prince Siddhartha would become a great sage on growing up if he came to know of the sufferings of mankind and in order to prevent this from happening his father King Suddhodana tried to prevent access of the outside world to Prince Siddartha and offered him all the worldly pleasures so that he could turn out to be a worthwhile king but its stated that nothing can change destiny but a visit to the kingdom changed all where he saw the sufferings of mankind and he left his kingdom to go on to become an ascetic.

Lord Buddha tried self mortification for six years but failed and traveled to Gaya and sat under a fig tree to gain enlightenment. Here he achieved what he wanted and became Buddha, a person who was released from consciousness of suffering.

It was at the age of thirty that Gautama Buddha left all his worldly belongings and devoted his life for self denial and spent the rest of his life teaching his disciples the Four Noble Truth and how they could achieve the state of Nirvana. The rest as they say is history and Buddhism spread throughout the world. This is the just of the biography of the great Gautam Buddha

Historical facts

Immediately before birth, the Bodhisattva was the Lord of the Tushita (Tusita) divine realm. There, he had resolved to be born for the last time and to have the attainment of enlightment. During the night of his conception, Queen Maha Maya Devi, the wife of King Suddhodana of Kapilavattu (Kapilavastu), dreamt of a great white elephant entering her womb. On the full moon day of Kason (May or Vesakha) in the year 563 BCE, a noble prince, the Bodhisattva, was born in the Lumbini Park (Garden), 16 km from the Sakya city of Kapilavattu. Emerging from the bath in a pond, with her face looking to the east, she leant her right arm on the Shala (In-ginn) tree and gave birth to the future Buddha. The prince was born to from her right side and immediately took seven steps, in each of the four directions, east, south, west and north. In each direction, the newly born Prince Siddhartha proclaimed as, with a lion’s roar, by holding his right hand with pointing index

Magnificent Mount Everest

One of the highest mountains ever to be climbed is the famous Mount Everest, which can be located in Asia between the border of Tibet and Nepal. Mount Everest is essentially part of the Himalaya range of mountains, but has been greatly publicized due to its immense height that has been recorded at 29,028 feet or 8,848 meters high.

Many local names have been given to Mount Everest in an attempt to recognize it for its majestic height. The origin of Mount Everest's name comes from the British General and Surveyor at that time, Andrew Waugh, who named the mountain after Sir George Everest in 1865. Later the Nepalese government gave Mount Everest a Nepalese name Sagarmatha in 1960. It was an Indian mathematician, Radhanath Sikdar, who first measured and identified Mount Everest as the highest mountain in the world in 1852.

Mount Everest was first recognized for its sheer height in 1953 when Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay made the first successful attempt to ascend to the top of this daunting mountain on the 29th of May. These two men did not have the advanced technology and climbing equipment that climbers have today, they completed this daunting task with no fixed ropes and basic ice climbing equipment. Previously there had been an attempt by two men Andrew Irvine and George Mallory from the United Kingdom thirty years before. However, whether they ever made it to the top or not, no-one knows as they never returned to relate their adventures.

The easier of the two main routes up Mount Everest is the southeast route that can be accessed from the NepalMount Everest between the months of April and May before the unstable, monsoon season hits with its high wind speeds. side of the mountain and the other main route comes from the north on the Tibetan side of the mountain. Apart from these two routes there are a total of fifteen other routes that will take you to the top. Most climbers will attempt to climb

One thing that can definitely be concluded about Mount Everest is that each and every person who attempts to climb this magnificent mountain does so taking their life in their hands. In 1996 a total of fifteen people lost their lives in an attempt to get to the top of the highest mountain in the world due to various freak weather conditions.