Around B.C. 563 on the day of Vaishaki Purnima, King Shudhodhana of Kapil Vastu was blessed with a son, named Siddhartha, who was born near Lumbini in the royal garden under a sal tree. Siddhartha was brought up by his step mother Prajapati Gautami as his mother Mahamaya died after few days of his birth. His father arranged a life of all worldly riches and luxury for him, as Asit Muni's prediction that Siddhartha would become either an emporer or a sanyasi was always on his mind. Indeed, Siddhartha did later abandon his beautiful wife Yashodhara and new born son Rahul in the dead of night to go and do penance in the forest. During the course of his travels on foot from one place to the other in search of the truth, he listened to spiritual discourses from many saints and philosophers and tried to acquire Spiritual Knowledge. Even though he was initiated into tantras, mantras and siddhyoga he could not find the true saint who could initiate him on the spiritual path. At last, he along with his five disciples settled down to do rigorous austerities at a place named Usvela in Gaya. Though he had become extremely weak and thin due to the rigorous regime of penances, he was always dissatisfied and disconted, One day he heard a song, 'Don’t tighten the string so much that it breaks, neither loosen it so much that it makes no sound', being sung by some village girls of Urubilva, near the place of his penance. After listening to this song, Siddhartha was inspired to adopt a middle path. He understood that he was tightening too much the wire of his life through his rigorous penance. One day one woman named Sujata came there to worship the peepal tree. Sujata offered milky rice to Siddhartha, which he ate. His disciples thought that this woman had tempted him and so they abandoned him. Despite this he continued his meditation uninterruptedly. By virtue of his continued meditation on the Divine Knowledge imparted by the spiritual Master Sujata, he achieved enlightenment on Baisakh Purnima under the same tree, on the bank of the river Niranjana, where he had been sitting for meditation. So he is called 'Gautam Buddha', the tree is known as ‘Bodhivriksha’ and the place was called ‘Bodhgaya’. Then the five disciples, who had abandoned him earlier, came back to his shelter near Sarnath and Lord Buddha initiated them into the spiritual path. He inspired his stepmother Prajapati Gautami, his wife Yashodhara and his son Rahul with his teaching and subsequently they all got initiated in the spiritual path and became his disciples. Lord Buddha taught people precepts such as the importance of non-violence and the equity of all creatures. Lord Buddha discoursed at length that the world is full of miseries and about the cause of all troubles. However, he emphatically said that it was possible to wipe out all worldly miseries and thus achieve salvation.
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