Holy Buddha Purnima

Today is the Holy Buddha Purnima, the most sacred and most significant day for Buddhists all over the world. On this happy day the Buddha was born at the Lumbini Garden in 624 BC, attained Enlightenment under the Bo-tree at Gaya in 589 BC, and passed into Mahaparnibbana at Kushinara in 544 BC. The thrice-sacred events of Buddha Purnima are of great significance to the people of the world. It is observed all as the most blessed day with peace, happiness, universal love and purity.

The Buddha, whose name was Siddhartha Goutama, lived in northern India in the 6th century B.C. His father, Suddhodhana, was the ruler of the kingdom of the Sakyas (in modern Nepal). His mother was queen Mahamaya. According to the custom of the time, he was married at the age of sixteen to a beautiful and devoted young princess named Yasodhara.

The young prince lived in his palace with every luxury at his command. But all of a sudden, confronted with the reality of life and the suffering of mankind, he decided to find the solution -- the way out of this universal suffering. At the age of 29, soon after the birth of his only child, Rahula, he left his kingdom and became an ascetic in search of the true solution of the suffering of mankind.

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