Lord Buddha
Lord Buddha
Buddha Jayanti, also known as Buddha Poornima, is the most sacred festival of Buddhists. It falls on the full moon of the fourth lunar month Vaisakh i.e. during April or May. This day commemorates three important events in Buddha’s life:
- His birth
- His enlightenment i.e. attainment of supreme wisdom
- His attainment of Nirvana i.e. his passing away at the age of 80
Lord Buddha was the founder of the Buddhist religion and is said to be the ninth avatar of Vishnu. Buddha’s original name was Siddhartha Gautam. Siddhartha Gautam was born about 543 BC in Kapilvastu of Nepal (नेपाल).
Birth and birth place of Lord Buddha
Siddhartha was son of King Suddhodhan Gautam and queen Maya Devi. Buddha was born in garden of Sal trees (Shorea robusta), situated in the beautiful and peaceful Lumbini zone in Rupandehi district of Nepal.
UNESCO has listed Lumbini, Nepal as a world heritage site and birthplace of Gautama Buddha.
- Buddha means “Awakened One”. Gautama Buddha is also known as Shakyamuni
- It is believed that immediately after his birth, Siddartha took seven steps towards the north and raising a finger in the air, indicating ‘he was the supreme of the world and that was his final birth’.
- When Buddha was 80 years old, he told his friend and cousin Ananda that he would be leaving them soon. And so it came to be that on the night of full moon, in Kushinagara, he ate some spoiled food and fell ill. He went into deep meditation under a grove of sala trees and died. His last words were…
- “Impermanent are all created things; Strive on with awareness.”