Siddhattha Gautama was born in Lumbini (a city located in modern Nepal near the border with India) on a full moon in May in the Kshatriya Sakya tribe. His birthday is widely celebrated in Buddhist countries as Vesak. Gautama’s father was the king of Kapilavatthu in Magadha, and Gautama was born a prince destined for a life of luxury. It is said that before being born, Gautama visited his mother in a dream in the form of a white elephant. During the celebration of the birth, the seer Asita announced that this infant would either become a great king or a great saintly person. His father, wanting Gautama to become a great king, shielded his son from religious learning and from the knowledge of human suffering. When the boy reached the age of sixteen, his father arranged his marriage with the same age Yasodhara, and she gave birth to a son, Rahul. Although his father provided Gautama with everything he wanted and needed, Gautama remained internally dissatisfied.
Once, after 13 years of marriage, Gautama, accompanied by the charioteer Channa, traveled outside the palace. There he saw «four sights»: an old cripple, a sick man, a decaying corpse, and a hermit. Gautama then realized the harsh truth of life — that death, illness, aging and torment are inevitable, that there are more poor than rich, and that even the pleasures of the rich eventually turn into dust. This prompted Gautama, at the age of 29, to leave his home, family and possessions to become a monk. Renouncing his inheritance, he dedicated his life to learning how to overcome suffering. He followed the path of yogic meditation under the guidance of two hermit brahmins, and although he reached high levels of consciousness, he was not satisfied with this path.
Dressed in the clothes of a wandering monk, he set off for southeastern India. He began to study the life of a hermit and engage in severe self-torture. After 6 years, on the verge of death, he discovered that severe ascetic methods do not lead to greater understanding, but simply cloud the mind and exhaust the body. By abandoning self-torture and focusing on meditation, he discovered a middle way to avoid the extremes of self-indulgence and self-torture. Sitting under the fig tree, now called the Bodhi tree, he vowed not to get up until he discovered the Truth. At the age of 35, he achieved «Awakening» on the May full moon. Then they began to call him Gautama Buddha or simply «Buddha», which means «Awakened One».
He stated that he had achieved full Awakening and realized the cause of human suffering along with the steps needed to eliminate it. This realization he formulated in the Four Noble Truths. The highest Awakening that is available to any being is called nirvana.
At this point, the Buddha had to choose whether to be satisfied with his own liberation or to teach others. He thought that the world might not be ready for such a deep realization, but in the end he decided to go to Sarnath and give the first sermon in Deer Park. This sermon described the Four Noble Truths and the Eightfold Path.
The Buddha emphasized that he is not God. The Buddha is only a mentor for those beings who have decided to walk the path themselves, achieve Awakening and know the truth and reality as it is.
During the next 45 years of his life, he traveled the Ganges valley in central India, teaching his teachings to a wide variety of people from aristocrats to outcasts, including supporters of rival philosophies and religions. His religion was open to all races and classes and had no caste structure. He founded the Community of Buddhist monks and nuns («Sangha») in order to preserve the Teaching after his final nirvana and departure from the world. Thousands of converts followed him.
At the age of 80, he decided to withdraw from the world. He ate his last meal, which was a donation from the blacksmith Chunda, and did not feel well. In the presence of his followers, the Buddha once again became convinced that his Teaching was understood and preserved, and died on the May full moon. The last words of the Buddha were: “Everything that is compounded is subject to disappearance. Try hard!»
Buddha Gautama was cremated in accordance with the rite for the Universal Ruler. His remains were divided into eight parts and lie at the base of specially erected stupas.