The Lord Buddha

THE BUDDHA
In the year 563 B. C. on the Full Moon Day of Vaisakha in the kingdom of Kapilavastu, a young prince was born to King Suddhodana and Queen Mahamaya in the royal Lumbini grove under a Sal Tree. On the fifth day of his birth he was named 'Siddhartha' and on the seventh day his mother expired. The younger sister of Mahamaya, Prajapati Gautami who was his step-mother took care of the young child like any other mother would do.
During the formative years of Prince Siddhartha, he received his early education and was trained in warfare, but he was often found immersed in deep - thoughts regarding the suffering and miseries of humanity. He was opposed to exploitation of man by man, inequality, poverty, violence, class and caste system. When he attained the age of sixteen he was married to a very beautiful and charming Princess Yashodhara, daughter of the Koliya King Dandapani of Devadaha.
When Siddhartha was 29 years old Yashodhara gave birth to a beautiful son named Rahula and this he termed as another impediment to keep him attached to worldly life. He left his palace leaving behind his parents, his beautiful wife and the new born Rahula in search of a way that would free mankind or humanity from the cycle of suffering.
Realizing that the practice of severe austerities would lead him to death and left his friends and came to the east bank of the river Niranjana where he was offered Kheer (rice-pudding = cooked rice with milk and sugar) by Sujata, daughter of the chief of the village Senani. Accepting the Dana (offer) of Sujata he crossed the river Niranjana and came to Uruvela on the same day and in the evening he prepared a seat of kusa grass and sat beneath the pipal tree facing eastwards. The Bodhisattva Siddhartha who was determined to reach the truth started his fight against the Mara, the Evil One sitting for meditation with strong determination (adhitthana) that unless and until he would not find out the truth he would not get up from the seat, come what may.
After attaining Enlightenment, the Buddha spent seven more weeks in meditation in seven different places around the Maha Bodhi Tree contemplating his stupendous achievement for this human life as to be born as a human being is very rare.

His Dhamma ( The Teachings)
The Buddha then set out for Varanasi where at the Deer Park (Mrigadaya vana) in Isipattana modern Sarnath where the first sermon (the Dhammachakra pravartana) was expounded or the setting in motion the wheel of the Law to the first five Brahmin disciples who earlier were closely associated with Siddhartha for six long years exhorting them to avoid the two extremes of self-indulgence and self mortification for self-indulgence leads to retardation of spiritual progress and the latter weakness one's intelligence.
The Buddha expounded the Dhamma based on the four Noble Truths i.e., Dukkha (Suffering) , the cause of Dukkha (Suffering), the cessation of Dukkha (Suffering) and the path leading to the cessation of suffering which was through Arya Astangik Marg (the Noble Eightfold Path) consisting of Right Speech, Right Action, Right Livelihood, Right Efforts, Right Mindfulness, Right Concentration, Right Understanding and Right Thought. The Dhamma which is based on the three pillars of Sila (Morality), Samadhi (Concentration) and Prajna (Wisdom) which in other words is also called the Middle Way or the righteous way of life.
The Buddha established the Sangha or the Order of Monks for the creation of an ideal society based on Maitri (loving-kindness), Karuna (compassion), Mudita (sympathetic joy) and Upeksha (equanimity) which was free from class, caste and colour prejudices and maintained equality, freedom, justice, fraternity and brotherhood. The Buddha in course of 45 years of his ministry moved from village to village, town to town, city to city along with His retinue of monks following His own prescribed dictum ' Bahujana Hitaya, Bahujana Sukhaya' and finally at the age of 80 he attained Mahaparinirvana (left His body in meditation) lying between two Sal trees. It is an event of unique significance that all the three events of the Buddha, birth, Enlightenment and Mahaparinirvana all took place in the forest and beneath the trees and all happened at a single day on the fool Moon Day of Vaisakha in Sal grove at Kusinara, modern Kushinagar.