Buddha

World knows this sage by many names, some knew him as Shakyamuni, some knew him by the royal name of Siddhartha Gautama and the world know him as Buddha. He was a sage, who quit all his riches of Shakya dynasty and became the enlightened one, upon whose teaching Buddhism was founded.
Siddhartha Gautama is believed to have been lived in between the 6th BCE and 4th BCE and was born to the Shakya King and queen namely Sudhodana and Mayadevi. It is said in the scriptures that Mayadevi had a dream of white elephant with 6 tusks on the day she conceived Siddhartha Gautama, and exactly 10 months later from the day he was born in Lumbini. There is a strange story behind the birth of Buddha as well, as a tradition of giving birth in maternal home, Mayadevi was on her way to her father’s kingdom and on the way she gave birth to Siddhartha Gautama under a sal tree, where it is believed that he took 7 steps as soon as he was born.

Early and married life
Buddha was born as a Kshatriya; a warrior community and had a silver spoon in his mouth as he was next to the throne. Although Mayadevi was believed to have deceased after 7 days of Buddha’s birth, he had been brought up my maternal aunt named Maha Prajapati. He was highly guarded from religious teachings from a very young age, as a consequence of the saints predicting on him to be a sage rather than the king. He was married to one of his cousins named Yashodhara, who was of the similar age, at the age of 16. Buddha and Yashodhara had only one child at the age of 29 and in the form of son and he was known as Rahula.

Later life
Never fascinated by the riches, Buddha left his family and home at the age of 29 and immediately after the birth of his only child. He who was astonished by the aging of a human life, which he did not understand why, had become the most important subject of his life. He left behind whatever he had and went to live the life of ascetic, relying on one time meal and searching the meaning of life.

Siddhartha Gautama on his previous state of aesthetic life begged around cities for morsel and learned yoga and meditation under many yogis and even practiced living a day on a leaf and a nut. After almost starving himself to death restricting and depriving himself from the food, he finally attained a concrete and focused state after a near encounter with death.

Awakening
He left a very hardcore aestheticism after near encounter to death and waking up to a villager’s house with the help of rice pudding made out of milk and jiggery. He then focused on mediocre way of life and not starving himself to find the truth about aging and misery. According to the scriptures in Buddhism, Buddha once meditated under a Pipal tree for continuous 49 days and received the enlightenment on approximately 5th lunar month, at the age of 35. It was said that he attained nirvana and knew the insight into the cause suffering, and ways to elevate it. Since the day he also got his name ‘Buddha’ which means the enlightened one.

Rest of the Life
After enlightenment for the next 45 years, Buddha travelled to the gigantic plains and taught his learning to different communities and people. He without any discrimination taught the servants, the nobles, the outcasts and the cannibals.