THE TREE WHERE WISDOM SPROUTED

By Satyameet Singh

The first temple was built by Emperor Asoka in the 3rd century B.C., and the present temple dates from the 5th or 6th century.

CENTER OF THE BUDDHIST WORLD

A place where the 5 Rs. Coin still holds value, where fruit vendors line up to sell Bael ka Sherbat (wood apple squash) and e-rickshaws buzz around, taking pilgrims and tourists across a maze of Pagodas, hotels and Oriental restaurants. A town where locals walk unfettered amongst travellers from across the world, all coming to visit the Center of the Buddhist world.

Maha Bodhi temple on a full night.

Welcome to Bodh Gaya, a town where legend has it, more than 2,500 years ago, a man on a quest for enlightenment finally transcended human limitations.

His trysts with truth fructified under a sacred fig tree, and it is in Bodh Gaya where he unravelled the enigma around the cycle of birth and death. It is here where a mendicant ascetic became a religious leader and one of the world’s greatest philosophers – it is here where Gautama Siddhartha became the BUDDHA.

THE DAYS LEADING TO HIS ENLIGHTENMENT

Situated 115 km south of Bihar’s capital Patna, he arrived in Bodh Gaya (known as Uruwela then) after years of meditation, asceticism and incomprehensible abstinence.

As per Buddhist texts, here he met a milkmaid Sujata. When Sujata met Gautama, he was in an emaciated state due to years of self-mortification. Seeing his physical state, Sujata offered him a bowl of kheer (rice pudding), which he accepted. This acceptance marked an end to his six-year practice of asceticism. The bowl's nourishment allowed him to pave forward, but it was not without paying the price. Siddhartha was accompanied by his five friends, who, as fellow ascetics, found the act of him accepting kheer as unacceptable. Believing that Siddhartha had abandoned his search for knowledge and become undisciplined, his companions left. Siddhartha continued though with a new path in his mind. He called it the 'middle' path, which neither suggested indulgence in temporal pleasures (like a prince) nor the practice of severe asceticism (living in austerity to practice self-denial).

Legend goes, Gautama Siddhartha during his quest for truth, lived on one grain of rice a day. He is seen here practicing extreme asceticism.

Photo: Akuppa John Wigham.

PERCHED UNDER A PIPAL TREE

As per Buddhist texts, it is believed that with this path in his mind, he took shelter under a pipal tree (sacred fig tree). However, before sitting down under the tree to meditate, he vowed never to arise until he had discovered the Truth! Legendary biographies like the Mahavastu and Lalitavistara depict an attempt by Mara (a celestial being who, as per different scholars, represents death, destruction and ignorance) to prevent the Buddha’s Nirvana. Described by Buddhist Monk - Nyanaponika Thera as “the personification of the forces antagonistic to enlightenment, ” the story goes that the tempter Mara’s three daughters – Arati, Raga and Tanha appeared in front of the Buddha & attempted through the snare of lust to bind the Buddha and bring him under their control. As per Māra-saṃyutta, the three daughters mounted many attempts to entice Siddhartha but failed as he stood at a stage of unsurpassed extinction of acquisitions.

That was not all that the Bodhi tree bore witnessed. Seeing his daughters be unable to win the battle against Siddhartha, the legend goes that Mara sent an army of demons to attack and dethrone him from under the Bodhi tree. Siddhartha did not move, and the army’s weapons turned into flowers. In the eye of the storm, not being impassive, it is believed that he remained still. Now enraged, Mara asked Siddhartha to relinquish this seat for it, as all of Earth belonged to Mara. Mara went on to ask who would testify that Siddhartha, of all, was worthy of attaining this wisdom? Siddhartha said nothing but, with his right hand, reached down to touch the ground on which he sat. As his fingers touched the Earth, he replied, “it is Earth that bears witness to my right to enlightenment. ”

THE EARTH SHUDDERED, MARA’S DEMONS FLED & SIDDHARTHA CLOSED HIS EYES TO MEDITATE

What must have opened in him and what must have been his visceral clairvoyance is beyond explanation, but at the age of 35, under that pipal tree, a man achieved enlightenment to become a Buddha – the “awakened one. ” The title implies that unlike most people who live asleep, Buddha has woken up to see the world for how it really is.

As per Buddhist texts, after achieving enlightenment, he sat without moving, under the Bodhi tree for 7 days, feeling the bliss of deliverance. Over the course of the next few weeks, he roamed around the tree and thought about what to do with his revelations - whether to spend his life in this place of blissful solitude or step out into the world and go teach the Dhamma at the risk of being ridiculed. His concern was that humans were overpowered by dust of ignorance and greed and would find it difficult to pursue a path that was subtle, deep and hard to grasp. What did he do next, did some divine intervention encourage him, what do the texts say, did this happen, or was this a grandeur of delusion?

I hope you allow your curiosity to research what happened next, and if your research brings you to the unplanned town of Bodh-Gaya, I have a feeling you will like the shade that the Bodhi Tree offers.

They had come to him glittering with beauty –. Taṇhā, Arati, and Rāga. But the Teacher swept them away right there. As the wind, a fallen cotton tuft - Samyutta Nikaya 4.25

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