Editorial: The Greatest Discovery in All Creation

संपादकीय (Hindi): सृष्टि की महानतम खोज

Abstract

It is well known how Prince Siddhartha, after renouncing household life and undertaking profound spiritual practice, attained enlightenment beneath the Bodhi tree at the age of thirty-five. After attaining enlightenment, the Buddha showered the Dharma upon the world until the age of eighty and showed suffering humanity the path to deliverance. In this sequence, his teachings were classified respectively as his first utterance, middle utterance, and final utterance. His first utterance is quoted below:

Anekajātisaṃsāraṃ sandhāvissaṃ anibbisaṃ,
Gahakārakaṃ gavesanto dukkhā jāti punappunaṃ. ॥153॥

Meaning:

In search of the builder of this house-like body, I wandered ceaselessly through this world over many different births, continually coming and going. To be born again and again in this world is indeed painful.

Gahakāraka diṭṭhosi puna gehaṃ na kāhasi,
Sabbā te phāsukā bhaggā gahakūṭaṃ visaṅkhataṃ;
Visaṅkhāragataṃ cittaṃ taṇhānaṃ khayamajjhagā. ॥154॥
(Buddharakkhita, 1985, Dhammapada)

Meaning:

O builder of the house! O craving! At last, I have seen you. Now you will not be able to build this prison again. All its supporting links have been broken, and its roof-peak has also been destroyed. My mind has become free from conditioned formations. Craving has been extinguished, and arahantship has been attained.

The Buddha uttered these verses beneath the pipal tree at Bodh Gaya after attaining enlightenment. He later repeated them while answering a question asked by Ānanda.

In the forests of Uruvelā, on the bank of the Nirañjanā River, Siddhartha made a firm resolution 2,553 years ago, on the full-moon day of the month of Vaiśākha: “Today, I shall rise from meditation only after beholding the Truth.” Before sunrise, he came beneath the sacred pipal tree, which is now known as the Bodhi tree, and entered meditation.