बुद्ध प्रभात

   

dalai lama says his successor 
     may come from india

Gautama Buddha was born in a princely Kshatriya family of Kapilavastu in the Nepalese Tarai to the north of the Basti district in Uttar Pradesh. His father’s name was Suddhodhana and his mother was Maya. She died in childbirth and her son who was given the name of Siddhartha was brought up by his aunt and stepmother, Prajapati Gautami. His family name was Gautama. After the name of the Sakya tribe to which his father belonged he was also called Sakya-Sinha, or lion amongst the Sakyas, and later on, Sakya-Muni or sage amongst the Sakyas.At the age of sixteen he was married to a lady named Yasodhara (also called Bhadda Kachchami, Subhadraka, Bimba or Gopa). For the next thirteen years Siddhartha lived a luxurious life in his father’s palace till at last the vision of old age, disease and death made him realise the hollowness of worldly pleasures and its attractions so intensely that the very night on which a son was born to him he felt the fetters of earthly life growing stronger than before and left his father’s comfortable home, his beloved young and beautiful wife as well as his newborn son and assumed the life of a wandering monk determined to find out a way of escape fi·om the sufferings of disease, old age and death to which all persons were prey. At the time of this Great Renunciation Gautama was only twenty-nine years of age. For one year he studied Indian philosophy, but it gave him no solution. Then for the next five years he practised severe austerities hoping thereby to find the way to salvation. His yogic practices may have included hatha yoga, yogasanas, kriya yoga and other processes to raise the kundalini. He is known to have spent time with many yogic teachers. The samana tradition is an ancient yogic tradition that also included Mahavir Jain, the founder of Jainism. But all proved futile. Then one day as he sat immersed in deep meditation under the famous Bodhi tree of modern Bodh Gaya on the bank of the Niranjana, enlightenment came to him and he realised the truth. Henceforth he came to be known as the Buddha or the Enlightened and decided to spend the rest of his life in preaching the truth as he saw it. He delivered his first sermon at the Deer Park at Sarnath near Benarcs where five disciples joined him. From that time for the next forty-five years Buddha moved about the Gangetic valley in Uttara Pradesh and Bihar preaching and teaching, visiting and converting princes as well as peasants, irrespective of caste, organising his disciples in the great Buddhist Sangha or Order, endowing it with rules and discipline and converting hundreds and thousands to his death which came to be known as Buddhism (q.v.). He died at the age of eighty at Kusinagara which has been identified by many archaeologists with Kasia in the Gorakhpur district. The date of his Parinirvana or decease, like the date of his birth, has not yet been decided with accuracy, though it is admitted by all that he was contemporary with kings Bimbisara and Ajatasatru of Magadha and died in the reign of the latter. According to a Cantonese tradition Buddha passed away in 486 B.C. He was, then, born eighty years earlier, in 566 B.c. Gautama Buddha is a unique figure amongst the founders of religions. First, he is definitely a historical person. Secondly, he claimed no divinity for himself and discouraged any idea of being worshiped. He only claimed that he had attained ‘knowledge’ which again he held could be attained by any other person provided he made the necessary effort. Thirdly, he was the first founder of a religion who organised a brotherhood of monks and started evangelization in an organised manner by peaceful means alone carrying the message of equality, peace, mercy. Lastly, he put reason above everything and exhorted his followers to accept nothing as true unless it stood the test of reasoning. He not only preached the brotherhood of man but also practised it all through his life as a religious teacher accepting as his disciples all who cared to listen to him without any consideration of caste and race and thus founding a religion which eventually passed beyond the limits of India and hecame one of the world’s greatest religions. Buddha QuotesAbout Buddhism Buddhism is commonly mistaken with tantra yoga and kundalini yoga, thanks to the Tibetan Buddhism versions. These are the versions that are associated with the Dalai Lama, mandalas and other such types. But these misunderstandings (tantra yoga itself has nothing to do with sexuality) are only recent. Buddhism the religion founded by Gautama Buddha in the latter half of the sixth century BC. It started with the basic principles of rebirth and karma which were then accepted by Indian philosophers as truths which required no proof. The karma doctrine means that the merits and demerits of a being in his past existences determine his condition in the present life. The doctrine of rebirth implies that at death the body perishes, but the soul which is immortal, takes new births until it attains salvation. But according to the Buddhist view the connecting link between a fiJrmer existence and a later one is not to be fimnd in the soul, the existence and immortality of which are assumed by Hindu philosophers but denied by Buddhism. On the death of a person the only thing thar survives is not the soul, as the Hindus hold, but the result of his action, speech and thought, that is to say, his karma (doings) which docs not die with the body. Buddhism thus came to be based on what was claimed to be the four Noble Truths: (I) There is suffering in lite. (2) This suffering has a cause. (3) Suffering must be caused to cease. (4) Suffering can cease if one knows the right way. Buddhism holds that the suffering inseparably connected with existence is mainly due to desire, to a craving thirst for satisfying the senses. Therefore the extinction of desire will lead to the cessation of existence by rebirth and of consequent suffering. Desire can be extinguished if one followed the Noble Eightfold Path which consists of the following: ( l) right views or beliefs meaning simply a knowledge of the Four Noble Truths and of the doctrine of rebirth and karma implied in them. (2) Right aims implying the determination to renounce pleasures, to bear no malice and do no harm. (3) Right speech implying abstention from falsehood, slandering, harsh words and foolish talk. (4) Right conduct or action involving abstention from taking life, from stealing and from immorality. (5) Right means of livelihood implying occupations which do not hurt or endanger any living being. (6) Right endeavour involving active benevolence and love towards all beings as well as efforts to prevent the growth of evil thoughts in the mind. (7) Right mindfulness meaning complete self-mastery by means of selfknowledge. (8) Right meditation which is to be practised in a quiet place sitting with body erect and intelligence alert and thought concentrated on the Four Noble Truths. This Noble Eightfold Path is also called the Middle Path, for it avoided extremes of luxury as well as of austerity. By the pursuit of it persons will attain Nirvana which is the highest goal of a Buddhist. Buddhism repudiates the authority of the Vedas, denies the spiritual efficacy of Vedic rites and sacrifices, denies the efficacy of prayers and practically ignores the existence of a Supreme Being or God. It holds that the acceptance of the Four Noble Truths and the pursuit of the Noble Eightfold Path which is open to all, irrespective of caste and sex, laymen as well as monks and nuns, will lead to the extinction of desire and this will lead to Nirvana which it is possible to attain even in this life and will free a person from the curse of rebirth. It holds that it is easier for a monk living a secluded life to attain Nirvana but it is also open to lay Buddhists to attain the same. The Buddhist monks are not priests and they can pray neither for themselves nor for others who may wish to employ them. They arc an intellectual aristocracy like the Brahmans and are to be maintained by pious Buddhists. Buddhism requires no church or temple, but it recognises congregational discourses where the teachings of Gautama Buddha are recited and explained. The founder of Buddhism, Gautama Buddha, himself is to be recognised as a supremely wise person who has known the truth, but not as God to whom prayers can be addressed. It was spread by Gautama Buddha during his lifetime in the Gangetic valley of Uttara Pradesha and of Bihar. About 250 years after the decease of Gautama Buddha Emperor Asoka embraced the religion, sent Buddhist missionaries throughout India as well as to many countries outside India and thus started Buddhism on its victorious career which gradually turned it into a world religion. But it eventually disappeared from the land of its birth for a variety of causes. The wealth of the monasteries and the easy life there which soon attracted many undesirable and unworthy inmates, the preponderance of the monks over the laity, the gradual replacement of the earlier ethical idealism ofBuddhism by the ritualism of the Mahayana , the support that later Buddhism gave to Tantricism which was marked by various vicious and immoral practices, the reorganisation and re-vitalization of Hinduism by Sankara and Kumarila and finally the Muhammadan invasions of India-all combined to bring about the decline and fall of Buddhism in India, though it still counts one-third of the world’s population as its followers. Buddhist Councils were held four times. The First Council met at Rajagriha (modern Rajgir) in Bihar soon after the death of Gautama Buddha. It was attended by the Buddhist elders (Theras) and was presided over by one of Buddha’s prominent Brahman disciples, named Mahakassapa. As Buddha had left none of his teachings in writing so at this Council three of his disciples, Kasyapa, the most learned, Upali, the oldest and Ananda, the most favoured of Buddha’s disciples, recited his teachings which were at first learnt orally and transmitted by teachers to disciples and were much later on put down in writing. A century later a Second Council of the Buddhist elders met at Vaisali to settle a dispute that had arisen by that time amongst the Buddhist monks on certain questions of discipline. The Council decided in favour of rigid discipline and revised the Buddhist scriptures which were still unwritten. A Third Council met, according to tradition, 236 years after the death of Buddha, under the patronage of King Asoka Maurya. It was presided over by monk Tissa Moggaliputta, the author of the Kathavattu, a sacred Buddhist text. This Council is believed to have drawn up the Buddhist canon in the final form of the Tripitaka or the Three Baskets, and gave its decisions on all disputed points. If the Sarnath Pillar Edict of Asoka is correctly believed to have been issued after the session of this Third Council it can be rightly held that its decisions were not accepted by so many Buddhist monks and nuns that King Asoka found it necessary to threaten the schismatics with dire punishment. The Fourth and last Council of the Buddhist elders met during the reign of Kanishka, the Kushana king (c. A.D. 120-144). It drew up authentic commentaries on the canon and these were engraved on copper-plates which were encased in a stone-coffer and kept for safety in the Kundalavana monastery. These have not yet been found. Buddhist scriptures-have all grown after the death of Gautama Buddha who left nothing in writing. The scriptures known as the Tripitaka are believed to have been first recited by Ananda, Upali and Kasyapa, three close disciples of Gautama Buddha, at the session of the First Council of the Buddhist elders which met at Rajagriha soon after Buddha’s death. For many centu-ries these were learnt orally, being transmitted by teachers to their disciples and it was not till 80 B.C. that these were put down in writing in Ceylon in the reign of king Vattagamani. The Tripitaka consists of the Sutta, the Vinaya and the Abkidhamma. The Sutta contains stories and parables related by Buddha during his preaching tours; the Vitzaya lays down the laws and rules of discipline and the Abkidhamma contains the doctrines and metaphysical views of Buddhism. The Sutta is subdivided into five Nikayas of varying length, one of which contains the Dhammapada, Thera and Tkerigathas and the]atakas; the Vinaya has three sub-divisions, while the Abhidhamma has seven sub-divisions of which the celebrated Dhammasangini is the first. There are now four versions of the Tripitaka, namely the Pali version which is followed in Ceylon, Burma and Siam; the Sanskrit version which is current in Nepal and among the Buddhists in Central Asia; the Chinese version which is a rendering in Chinese of the Sanskrit version and the Tibetan version which is a translation made between the ninth and the eleventh centuries of the Christian era. The whole forms a massive body of literature. The japanese version of it runs into one hundred bound volumes of one thousand pages each. Besides the Tripitaka, the Milindapanka by Nagasena (c. 140 B.c.) and the Visuddkimagga by Buddhaghosha are also important as religious literature of the Buddhists. Buddhist sects arose as a result of the circumstance that none of the teachings of Gautama Buddha was written down during his lifetime. Differences on questions of discipline for the monks and nuns as well as on the significance of what he had taught arose amongst his followers soon after his death and within a century of the Parinirvana the Buddhists became split up into several sects of which the two most important came eventually to be known as the Hinayanists (i.e., followers of the Lower Vehicle) and the Mahayanists (i.e., the followers of the Higher Vehicle). The scriptures of the Hinayana are written in Pali while those of the Mahayana in Sanskrit. Consequently the Hinayana is often known as the Pali school and the Mahayana as the Sanskrit school of Buddhism. Again, the Hinayana prevails mainly in Sri Lanka and Burma and is consequently often called the Southern Buddhism while the Mahayana which mainly prevails in Nepal, China, Tibet, Mongolia, Korea and Japan is called the Northern Buddhism.As all Buddhist canonical literature wherever it might have extended, arose in northern India and the two schools possess traces of mutual influence so the division of the Buddhist Church into Northern and Southern Schools is more or less unjustified. As the two schools represent only different aspects of the same religious system so the use of terms lower and higher is not also justifiable. Indeed many prefer to call the Hinayana as Theravada, that is to say, the opinion of the Theras or older monks. When exactly this division of the Buddhist Church took place, is not definitely known. Mahayanism was not a sudden development; it developed slowly and gradually in the course of some centuries. The origin of the Mahayana thought has been traced by some to the Mahasamghika and Sarvastivadin sects of Buddhism which existed as far hack as 350 B.c. The inscriptions of Asoka (c. 273-231 B.c.) practically show no sign of Mahayanism which also did not have the controlling voice even at the fourth and last Buddhist Council which met in the reign of Kanishka (ace. c. A.D. 120), though Nagarjuna who was a contemporary and protege of Kanishka exposed in his Karika the hollowness of the Hinayana thought. When, however, Fa-Hien came to India in the fourth century A.D. he found Mahayanist monasteries existing side by side with those of the Hinayanists in all the places that he visited in India. It was, therefore, between the second and the fourth centuries of the Christian era that Mahayanism fully developed in India. It was also during this period that many non-Indians were converted to Buddhism. This circumstance has led to the theory that Mahayanism was developed in order to meet their requirements. There are, however, reasons for holding that Mahayanism grew up in order to meet the religious and philosophical needs of the Indian Buddhists themselves though in later times it grew more popular outside India. The differences between the two schools are wide. According to the Hinayana Gautama is the Buddha, the sole Buddha, who now reposes in Nirvana, the absence of desire and striving, having left to mankind a simple rule by which the? also may attain a like bliss, either in this existence or at a later. This creed knows no prayers, invocations or offerings and worships no images, for Buddha is not God, but a man who has attained perfection and thrown off the karma which dooms mankind to successive existences in the world of pain and sorrow. Each is to work for himself and attain Nirvana by overcoming all thirst or attachment by living a good life as indicated by the Noble Eightfold Path. According to the Mahayana, Gautama is merely one reincarnation in a vast series of Buddhas stretching from an illimitable past into an equally infinite future. Not only in this world but in other worlds numerous as the sands of the Ganges, Buddhas have lived and preached at intervals separated by myriads of years from a time past human calculation. This world is but a speck in space and an instant in time; il will pass away and Maitreya will be the Buddha of the next period. Past Buddhas and Buddhas to come are gods of transcendant power, hearkening to the prayers of mankind, responding to invocations and delighting in offerings and incense. Ultimately in China Amida or Amitabha Buddha, a personage unknown to early Buddhist scriptures, became the object of almost exclusive devotion and his pure paradise, called the Western Heaven, the goal to which the pious should aspire. Nirvana and Gautama Buddha were almost forgotten. The Mahayana holds that the ultimate aim of the life of a Buddhist is not the attainment of individual liberation. A person who acquires enlightenment should not remain satisfied with his own Nirvana, but should work for the good of his fellowmen. Such a person is called Bodhisattva (wisdom being). Thus Buddhas and Bodhisattvas came to be worshiped and their images were made and installed in temples where these were worshiped with various rituals and incantations. Every incident of Buddha’s life as well as of his previous births familiarised by the Jataka stories and by later biographical sketches like the Lalitavistara came to be depicted in Buddhist sculptures. Using Sanskrit in its rituals and scriptures and worshiping images of Buddhas and Bodhisattvas Mahayanism tended to shorten the breach that separated Buddhism from Hinduism within the wide folds of which it was ultimately assimilated. In spite of the differences that exist between the Hinayana and the Mahayana there are not two Buddhisms. They are really one and the spirit of the founder of Buddhism prevails in both. Each has developed in its own way, according to the differences in environments in which each has blossomed and grown.

1. You become what you think about or in other words: what you focus on grows in your life and from what you take your focus away from diminishes. This is also the message of the law of attraction, recently very popular by the movie and book "The Secret ". It means that the mind is directing our life in that way that we manifest the life around us by the thoughts and directions we take with our mind. Since everything we created around us is first created in the mind, it is the tool or the interface between our self and the material world.Another quote of Buddha with a similar message here is "He is able who thinks he is able". This also shows the creative power of the mind and if we are able to consciously use it in that way – avoiding negative thoughts and utilizing empowering thoughts – we use it in a supportive manner.
 2. This is the core of personal development. It points towards the need to train and develop the mind and to free it from limits and negativity. The other quote "The mind is the source of happiness and unhappiness." makes the same point with the special notion of happiness. The mind used correctly
– i e . c o n s t r u c t i v e , e m p o w e r i n g , s o l u t i o n - and action-oriented, positive, truthseeking – can create happiness. But used poorly – i.e. blaming, egocentric, negative, blinded by ambition or separation – it will create unhappiness for us. Training the mind is the key here. The quote may also point to a transformation by awakening directly, where the mind becomes the servant of the self and not the creator of a self-image (the concept of the ego) as a replacement for the true self.
3. This points to the abundant nature of reality. The abundance mentality says there is enough foreveryone, we only have to realize and live by it. It is the opposite of a s c a r c i t y m e n t a l i t y, where you have the b e l i e f that you always h a v e t o fight for your part in a limited world. 4. The essence of living in the present moment, the Now, is focusing the mind here and take attention away from thinking about past or future. The present moment is all there ever is to experience life directly. Past and future are only concepts of our mind and therefore are good for learning from the past or conceptual planning when it is useful, but after this there is no need for them. Especially not to dwell in them and get stuck there in the mind by constant thinking loops. I wrote more about this in "What is The Present Moment " and in "Clock Time vs. Psychological Time ". The present moment is the entry point to the spiritual dimension and to life itself. 5. "However many holy words you read, however many you speak, what good will they do you If you do not act on upon them?" Action is what counts. It means to be action-oriented and to actually do what we think, to prove what we believe by applying it in reality. Only if we "walk our talk" we are authentic and truthful to ourselves. To apply yourself and your ideas in reality is like a proof-test for what we think is right and will work. If there is no action and therefore no testing in reality, the words or ideas themselves are of no real sustainable value. Another quote for this message is "A dog is not considered a good dog because he is a good barker. A man is not considered a good man because he is a good talker." 6. Even death is not to be feared by one who has lived wisely. This is the essence of Carpe diem – To seize the day fully means living wisely. It means to live to the highest truth we know and to rise to our highest values and capabilities. Living wisely also means not to believe every thought that comes, but to live more from the space between thoughts, from our essence

Gautama Buddha (approximately 563 BC - 483 BC) (1) was born Siddhartha Gautama (Sanskrit form, or Siddhatta Gotama, Prakrit form); the title Buddha (enlightened one) was later bestowed upon him by his followers. He is also commonly known as Shakyamuni (or Sakyamuni), "The sage of the Shakya/Sakya clan", and as the Tathagata (untranslatable: roughly, "The thus-come one" or "The thus-gone one", emphasizing the nature of a Buddha to go about in the world without adding or subtracting anything from his experience.)
Biographical sketch 
Accounts of his life were passed down by oral tradition and first written a few hundred years after his death. The Buddhist scriptures do contain accounts of metaphysics and magic in the Buddha's life. Some, such as calming an angry elephant his enemies had released to kill him, may be acceptable to materialist readers. Others, such as his conversations with gods or instantaneous teleportation to Sri Lanka, may not. Stripped of these metaphysical or magical aspects, a sketch of his life runs thusly: Prince Siddharta was born in Lumbini (in modern day Nepal), to the kshatriya caste of warrior-aristocrats. (The Indian caste system was also probably somewhat more informal at this time than it later became). He was the heir to the position of "prince" ("village chieftain" may be more accurate) of the Shakya clan's village of Kapilavatthu or Kapilvastu in the foothills of the Himalayas in what is now Nepal. Siddharta married and had a son: Rahula, but at age 29, around 534 BC, having become increasingly dissatisfied with the contrast between a life of aristocratic luxury and the suffering he observed endemic in all people, Siddharta abandoned his inheritance and palace and began living an ascetic life, training with ascetic philosophers, and practicing austere meditative practices. After six years, around 528 BC, he found that the severe practices did not lead to greater understanding, abandoned them and concentrated on meditation and the "middle way" (a practise of nonextremism), and soon afterwards claimed he had realized complete awakening or enlightenment into the nature and cause of human suffering and the steps necessary to eliminate it. This enlightenment is called a state of "Bodhi," and hence the name "Buddha," or "enlightened one." The Buddha emphasized that he was not a god nor the messenger of a god and that Enlightenment was not the result of a supernatural process or agency, but rather the result of a close attention to the nature of the human mind which could be rediscovered by anyone for themselves. For the remaining 45 years of his life, he traveled the Gangetic Plain of central India (region of the Ganges/Ganga river and its tributaries), teaching his meditation practice to an extremely diverse range of people, from nobles to street sweepers, and including many adherents of rival philosophies and religions. He founded the community of Buddhist monks and nuns (the Sangha) to continue the teachings after his death (considered to be the paranirvana or complete ending of the Buddha). After intermittent illness, the Buddha died at Kusinara (now Kusinagar, India) at the age of 80. His last meal was sukara-maddava which he had received as an offering from a smith. The correct translation of this term is unknown; sukara means "pig", maddava apparently means something like "delicacy". Sukara-maddava may mean "tender pork" or "mushrooms or tubers enjoyed by pigs". Vegetarianism is for Buddhists an ideal rather than a mandate, and monks and nuns in particular are enjoined to accept all offerings of food made to them (unless they know an animal has been killed especially to feed them). One account gives the Buddha's last words as: "All things which are made of parts eventually come apart. Be mindful, and achieve Enlightenment!", while another gives, "Subject to change are all things. Strive on with diligence." ascetic philosophers, and practicing austere meditative practices. After six years, around 528 BC, he found that the severe practices did not lead to greater understanding, abandoned them and concentrated on meditation and the "middle way" (a practise of nonextremism), and soon afterwards claimed he had realized complete awakening or enlightenment into the nature and cause of human suffering and the steps necessary to eliminate it. This enlightenment is called a state of "Bodhi," and hence the name "Buddha," or "enlightened one." The Buddha emphasized that he was not a god nor the messenger of a god and that Enlightenment was not the result of a supernatural process or agency, but rather the result of a close attention to the nature of the human mind which could be rediscovered by anyone for themselves. For the remaining 45 years of his life, he traveled the Gangetic Plain of central India (region of the Ganges/Ganga river and its tributaries), teaching his meditation practice to an extremely diverse range of people, from nobles to street sweepers, and including many adherents of rival philosophies and religions. He founded the community of Buddhist monks and nuns (the Sangha) to continue the teachings after his death (considered to be the paranirvana or complete ending of the Buddha). After intermittent illness, the Buddha died at Kusinara (now Kusinagar, India) at the age of 80. His last meal was sukara-maddava which he had received as an offering from a smith. The correct translation of this term is unknown; sukara means "pig", maddava apparently means something like "delicacy". Sukara-maddava may mean "tender pork" or "mushrooms or tubers enjoyed by pigs". Vegetarianism is for Buddhists an ideal rather than a mandate, and monks and nuns in particular are enjoined to accept all offerings of food made to them (unless they know an animal has been killed especially to feed them). One account gives the Buddha's last words as: "All things which are made of parts eventually come apart. Be mindful, and achieve Enlightenment!", while another gives, "Subject to change are all things. Strive on with diligence."
 Personality and character - 
The Buddha as presented in the Buddhist scriptures is notable for such characteristics as: Both a comprehensive education and training in those fields appropriate to a warrior aristocrat, such as martial arts, agricultural management, and literature, and also a deep understanding of the religious and philosophical ideas of his culture. Gautama Siddharta was reported to have been athletic and fit throughout his life, competent in martial arts such as chariot combat, wrestling, and archery, and later easily hiking miles each day and camping in the wilderness. Images of a fat "Jolly Buddha" or Laughing Buddha are actually depictions of the future Buddha, currently Bodhisattva Maitreya. A superb teacher, with a fine grasp of the appropriate metaphor, and tailoring his teachings to the audience at hand. Fearless and unworried at all times, whether dealing with religious debate, a patricidal prince, or a murderous outlaw. He was not, however, past exasperation when monks of his order misrepresented his teachings. Completely temperate in all bodily appetites. Lived a completely celibate life from age 29 until his death. Indifferent to hunger and environmental conditions

In the year 624 BC, in Kapilawaththu (Nepal) Siddhartha Gautama was born as a prince. His father was King Suddhodana and his mother was Queen Mahamaya. When he was sixteen he finished his education and he married Princess Yasodara. King Suddhodana handed over his kingdom to his son Siddhartha. They had a baby name Rahula. When king Siddhartha was 29 years old he decided to renounce lay life. Siddhartha left from his kingdom and went to several well-known teachers to study the ultimate nature of reality. But their teachings didn’t satisfy him and he set out to find his own path. Six years later he went to Bodgaya near the Neranjana River and sat under a tree. Siddhartha's mind was calm and relaxed. As he sat his concentration deepened and his wisdom grew brighter. In this clear and peaceful state of mind he began to examine the true nature of life. "What is the cause of suffering,” he asked himself, “and what is the path to everlasting joy?" In his mind's eye he looked far beyond his own country, far beyond his own world. Soon the sun, planets, the stars out in space and distant galaxies of the universe all appeared to him in his meditation. He saw how everything, from the smallest speck of dust to the largest star was linked together in a constantly changing pattern: growing, decaying and growing again. Everything was related. Nothing happened without a cause and every cause had an effect on everything else. As he realized this, deeper truths appeared to his mind. He looked deeply into himself and discovered that his life as Siddhartha the Prince was but the latest in a series of lifetimes that had no beginning - and that the same was true of everyone. We are born, live and die not one time, but again and again. He saw that death is only the separation of the mind from its present body.After death the importance of Karma is central to the next journey. When one life ends, another begins - and in this way the wheel of death and birth keeps spinning around and around. He also saw one life to the next we are constantly changing and constantly affecting one another. Sometimes we are rich and comfortable; sometimes we are poor and miserable. Occasionally we experience pleasure, but more often we find ourselves with problems. And Siddhartha also saw that as our conditions change, so do our relations with others. We have all been each other's friend and enemy, mother and father, son and daughter thousands upon thousands of times in the past. Then he looked at all of the suffering in the world. And he saw how living beings create their own misery and joy. Blind to the truth that everything is always changing, they lie, steal and even kill to get the things that they want, even though these things can never give them the lasting happiness they desire. And the more their minds fill with greed and hate, the more they harm each other - and themselves! Each harmful action leads them to more and more unhappiness. They are searching for peace yet find nothing but pain. Finally, he discovered the way to end all this suffering. He was filled with a radiant clear light. He was no longer an ordinary person. With a calm and peaceful smile, he arose from his meditation. In the golden daybreak, so it is said, Siddhartha looked up and saw the morning star. And then a great understanding came to him. He saw in his mind all the life of the world and the planets; of all the past and all the future. He understood the meaning of existence, of why we are here on this earth and what has created us.At long last he found the truth; he attained enlightenment and established the principles of Karma. Now he was the Lord Buddha, the fully liberated one, awakened and enlightened. The search of six long years had ended. It was a day when the full-moon shone, casting a bright silver light on the whole countryside, a day in the month of Vesak (May)

RAIS ALI - Editor

President Ram Nath Kovind’s address to the joint sitting of Parliament set out the philosophy and priorities of the Narendra Modi government that has been reelected. It outlined the rupture that has come to characterise Mr. Modi’s politics, marked by his 2014 victory, and pointedly ignored the progress India had made during earlier years. The President said his government was “committed to that very idea of nation-building, the foundation for which was laid in 2014.” Harnessing the thoughts of social reformer Sree Narayana Guru and Rabindranath Tagore to emphasise brotherhood among all sections and the celebration of the human spirit would have been uplifting if only the rest of the speech dwelt on those ideas in some detail and with force. In the absence of elaboration, such grand intent in the initial paragraphs was not reassuring. The Prime Minister’s newly added objective of winning the trust of all governed, Sabka vishwas, was not fleshed out meaningfully. Sardar Patel, Babasaheb Ambedkar and Mahatma Gandhi found mention, but not Jawaharlal Nehru, the founding Prime Minister whose vision and unfailing commitment to secularism, pluralism and progress set the Republic on a sustainable course. The ‘New India’ that the President mentioned is a departure from that founding vision, and there was no ambiguity on that aspect. He struck a chord with the constituency of the government, but not with all. The notion that there is a nonsectarian development agenda that is impervious to identity politics is good to have, and the Prime Minister’s evangelical fervour in driving its schemes is laudable. But triumphalism around many schemes such as the Swachh Bharat Mission has deflected public attention from the serious tasks ahead and an honest discussion on achievements. New focus on water conservation and management and the rural economy is not a moment too early. These are critical areas. Mr. Kovind also spoke of the government’s intent to expand scientific research and higher education. A speech by the President is significant not for the technical details it offers, but for the vision. The cultural nationalist agenda of the ruling dispensation that has made intellectual curiosity and academic integrity dangerous in India is not the route to any of these goals. The restrictions on cattle trade and violence against those employed in it — mostly Muslims and Dalits — have not merely become a protracted communal conflict but are also among the factors that have pushed the rural economy off the rails. Announcing yet another scheme for cattle, as the President did, is not confronting the real, self-inflicted problem. What differentiates one dispensation from another is not the material ambitions but the social purpose and direction of such pursuits. The clarity on that aspect in the address may be stimulating for many, but certainly not good for India.