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Gautama Buddha was the founder of Buddhism.
His original name was Siddharth (meaning one who
has accomplished). He was also called Sakyamuni,
i.e. the sage of the tribe of Sakya. He was
born in the year 563 B.C. in the village of
Lumbini near Kapila Vastu, within the present
borders of Nepal.
According to legend,
an astrologer foretold his father, the king, that
young Gautama would give up the throne and luxury
and renounce the world the day he would see four
things (i) an old man, (ii) a sick man, (iii) a
diseased man and (iv) a dead man. Hence, the king
confined Gautama in a special palace which was
provided with all worldly pleasures. He was
married at the age of sixteen to Yasoddhra.
At the age of 29
after the birth of his first son, Gautama on the
same day saw an old man, a sick man, a diseased
man and a dead man. The impact of the dark side of
life made him renounce the world that same night
and he left his wife and son and became a
penniless wanderer.
He studied and
practised Hindu discipline initally, and later,
Jainism. For several years he observed rigorous
fasting along with extreme self-mortification. On
realising that tormenting his body did not bring
him closer to true wisdom, he resumed eating
normally and abandoned asceticism.
At the age of 35, one
evening as he sat beneath a giant fig tree (Bodh
tree), he felt that he had found the solution to
his problem and felt that he had attained
enlightenment. Thus, he came to be known as ‘Gautama’,
‘The Buddha’, or 'The Enlightened One'.
Later, he spent 45
years in preaching the truth that he felt he had
discovered. He travelled from city to city
bare-footed, clean-headed, with nothing more on
his self than his saffron robe, walking stick and
begging bowl. He died at the age of 80 in the year
483 BC.
Buddhism is divided
into two sects viz. Hinayana and
Mahayana. |
