How Siddharta Gautama became the Buddha

The historical Buddha was born as Siddharta Gautama to King Suddhodhana and Queen Maya around 560 B.C.E after 20 years of their marriage. Suddhodhana was the king of the Sakya clan and was extremely happy with the birth of his son. However, the joy was shortlived as Queen Maya died just seven days after the birth of the little prince. Mahaprajapati, the queen's sister married Suddhodhana and became Siddharta's foster mother.

The birth of the child spread happiness around and brought a hermit to the palace. He, on seeing the prince, prophesied that the child on growing up would either become a great king or embrace religious life to save the world. King Suddhodhana was initially very happy with the prediction since it anyway reflected the greatness of the child, however, as time passed the anxiety of the king grew. He could not bear the fact that his only son was not as interested in the worldly life as he would have liked him to be. Because of this, he created an environment around Siddharta in which the latter could only see the luxuries and happiness of life. The King's strict instruction were to keep away all such people from prince who could influence him to abnadon his worldly life. He also got the prince married to a beautiful princess, Yashodhara so as to put more of worldly responsibilities on him.

Despite all this, the prince always seemed to be inclined towards knowing more about the misiries of life. It was this urge to know more about the real life that one day saw the prince getting out of walls of his palace alongwith his servant Channa to see what was happening in the lives of other people. What he saw was very disturbing - a weak old man, a sick man, a corpse and finally a monk. This set him thinking that he too was destined to become what he saw. He therefore decided to abandon his worldly life and seek spiritual enlightenment. Even the beauty of his wife and the innocence of his newly born son's face could not stop him from renouncing his family life as was supposed by Suddhodhana.

Siddharta did not achieve instant enlightenment. He struggled to find a solution to the misiries of life. Initially, he took Alara Kalama, a hermit as his teacher, but was just not satisfied with his teachings. He changed his teacher and later went for yogic practices. Siddharta also indulged himself into extreme austerity, not accepting any food. Very soon, he realised that intense asceticism was as harmful and unproductive as the excessive luxuries he indulged in as a prince. He now knew that striking a fine balance between the two was important. He took food in moderation and restarted his meditation under the Bo tree in Bodhgaya. After several hours of meditation, he attained enlightenment. His happiness, on achieving enlightenment knew no bounds and it is said that he danced for seven consecutive days and nights with joy. Siddharta was now the BUDDHA, the awakened one. There itself, He converted two merchants - Tapussa and Bhallika. Later, He travelled to Derr Park in Sarnath and delivered his first sermon to his five ascetic friends.

This was how Siddharta Gautam became the Buddha and set the foundation for what we today know as Buddhism.