23 July, 2013

Childhood and Education of Child Siddhartha Gautam


  • When Siddharth was able to walk and speak the elders of the Sakyas assembled and asked Suddhodana that the boy should be taken to the temple of the village goddess Abhya. 
  • Suddhodana agreed and asked Mahaprajapati to dress the boy. 
  • While she was doing so the child Siddharth, with a most sweet voice, asked his aunt where he was being taken. On learning that he was being taken to the temple he smiled. But he went, conforming to the custom of the Sakyas. 
  • At the age of eight Siddharth started his education.
  • Those very eight Brahmins whom Suddhodana had invited to interpret Mahamaya's dream and who had predicted his future were his first teachers.
  • After they had taught him what they knew Suddhodana sent for Sabbamitta of distinguished descent and of high lineage in the land of Uddikka, a philologist and grammarian, well read in the Vedas, Vedangas and Upanishads. Having poured out water of dedication from a golden vase, Suddhodana handed over the boy to his charge, to be taught. He was his second teacher. 
  • Under him Gautama mastered all the philosophic systems prevalent in his day.
  • Besides this he had learned the science of concentration and meditation from one Bhardawaj, a disciple of Alara Kalam, who had his ashram at Kapilavatsu.

No comments:

Post a Comment