The Buddha was born on the Vaisakh Purnima, over two thousand and five hundred years ago, as the son of King Raja Suddhodana. The astrologer prophesied that the infant, who they named Siddhartha- would grow to be either a Chakravarti Raja [an Emperor] or a Sage who would bring inner enlightenment to thousands. The father surrounded the prince with luxuries and comforts. But the thought of world-sorrow entered his heart.
Siddartha was married to one of the prettiest girls in the realm - Princess Yashodhara. A son was born to them. But nothing could bind him to the world. One dark night he renounced the palace, cut his long, beautiful hair, donned the robes of a mendicant, and entered a forest of meditation, in search of a cure to the world's sorrow.
For six years he lived a life of intense asceticism. But it brought him no help. Asceticism is not the answer to the problem of the world's sorrow. This realisation came to him as he sits under the Bodhi tree, near Gaya. He became the Buddha, the Enlightened One. And it was his thirty-fifth birthday. The full moon of the Vaisakh Purnima which greeted him on the day of his birth, shone in the heavens above.
Gautama, the Buddha gave the message of the Middle Path for forty-five years. And to the people he said: Rites and ceremonies will not save you, what is needed is right thinking and right conduct.
On the Vaisakh Purnima, at the age of eighty, the Buddha bade farewell to his dear ones and entered maha-parinirvana. To them, he said: "Strive with diligence. Hold fast to the lamp of dharma.'' The lamp of dharma, as he repeatedly taught, is maitri, is friendliness with all, is fellowship with the poor and outcast, and is compassion to all living things.
The Buddha adjourned all violence. These hands are given to us not to slaughter but to save. These hearts are given not to hate but to love. Have reverence for all life. Kill no living creature. And in the power of love and compassion, of sympathy and service, move forward to build new humanity, a new world order.
*May 16 is the sacred Vaisakh Purnima, the day Gautama Buddha was born, received enlightenment and passed away.
(Dada J.P. Vaswani is humanitarian, philosopher, educator, acclaimed writer, powerful orator, messiah of ahimsa, and non-sectarian spiritual leader.)
