DAY 2 - ARTICLE 2
- Birth of Siddhattha -
It was a custom among the Sakyas to observe an annual midsummer festival in the month of Ashad for 7 days. It was celebrated by all the Sakyas throughout the State.
On the seventh day - That night Suddhodhana and Mahamaya came together and Mahamaya conceived. Lying on the royal bed, she fell asleep. While sleep she had a dream.
In her dream she saw that the four world-guardians raised her as she was sleeping on her bed, carried her to the Himalayas, placed her under a great sal tree – The wives of the four world-guardians took her to the lake Mansarovar – They bathed her, robed her in a dress and prepared her in a manner fit to meet some divinity.
Then a Bodhisatta, by name Sumedha, appeared before her saying, "I have decided to take my last and final birth on this Earth, will you consent to be my mother?"
Mahamaya agreed with pleasure.
The same moment she awoke.
On the next day, Mahamaya told her dream to Suddhodhana.
He called eight Brahmins who were most famous in divination, to interpret the dream. The bowls of Brahmins were filled with gold and silver. They were fed ghee, honey and royal food.
On asking about the dream, they said, "Be not anxious. You will have a son and if he leads a householder's life he will become a universal monarch, and if he leaves his home and goes forth into a homeless state and become a sanyasi, he will become a Buddha, a dispeller of illusions in the world."
Bearing a Bodhisatta for ten lunar months, Mahamaya, in a golden palanquin borne by couriers, was on her way to her father's city Devadaha for delivery. She had to pass through a pleasure-groove of sal trees and other trees, flowering and non-flowering. It was known as the Lumbini Grove.
Mahamaya alighted from her palanquin and walked up to the foot of a royal sal tree. A pleasant wind was blowing. Mahamaya felt like catching one of them.
Luckily one of the boughs heaved down sufficiently low to enable her to catch it. So she rose on her toes and caught the bough.
Immediately she was lifted up by its upward movement, and being shaken, she felt the pangs of childbirth. While holding the branch of the sal tree she was delivered of A SON IN A STANDING POSITION.
The child was born in the year 563 B.C. on the Vaishakha Poornima Day.
(Now, this day is celebrated as Buddha Poornima. In 2024, May 23 will be observed as Buddha Poornima)
His birth was celebrated with great joy and pleasure by all the family members as well as by all the Sakyas.
Suddhodhana, being the King, naturally, the boy was called Prince.
After that Asita Muni visits Kapilavatthu.
Mahamaya dies.
To be continued in Next Article....
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Namo Buddhay.
