::3. His Birth ::
1. To Suddhodana was born Siddharth Gautama and this was the manner of Gautama's birth.
2. It was a custom among the Sakyas to observe an annual midsummer festival which fell in the month of Ashad. It was celebrated by all the Sakyas throughout the State and also by the members of the ruling family. 3. It was the usual practice to celebrate the festival for seven days.
4. On one occasion Mahamaya decided to observe the festival with gaiety, with splendour, with flowers, with perfume, but without drinking intoxicants.
5. On the seventh day she rose early, bathed in scented water, bestowed a gift of 4,00,000 pieces of money as alms, adorned herself with all precious ornaments, ate choicest food, took upon herself the fast-day vows, and entered the splendidly adorned royal bedchamber to sleep.
6. That night Suddhodana and Mahamaya came together and Mahamaya conceived. Lying on the royal bed she fell asleep. While asleep she had a dream. 7. In her dreams she saw that the four world-guardians raised her as she was sleeping on her bed and carried her to the tableland of the Himalayas, placed her under a great sal tree and stood on one side.
8. The wives of the four world-guardians then approached and took her to the lake Mansarovar. 9. They bathed her, robed her in a dress, anointed her with perfumes and decked her with flowers in a manner fit to meet some divinity.
10. Then a Bodhisatta, by name Sumedha, appeared before her saying, " I have decided to take my last and final birth on this earth, will you consent to be my mother?" She said, "Yes, with great pleasure." At this moment Mahamaya awoke.
11. Next morning Mahamaya told her dream to Suddhodana. Not knowing how to interpret the dream, Suddhodana summoned eight Brahmins who were most famous in divination.
12. They were Rama, Dhaga, Lakkana, Manti, Yanna, Suyama, Subhoga and Sudatta and prepared for them a befitting reception.
13. He caused the ground to be strewn with festive flowers and prepared high seats for them.
14. He filled the bowls of the Brahmins with gold and silver and fed them on cooked ghee, honey, sugar and excellent rice and milk. He also gave them other gifts such as new clothes and tawny cows.
15. When the Brahmins were propitiated, Sud-dhodana related to them the dream Mahamaya had, and said, " Tell me what it means."
16. The Brahmins said: " Be not anxious. You will have a son, and if he leads a householder's life he will become a universal monarch, and if he leaves his home and goes forth into a homeless state, and becomes a sanyasi, he willbecome a Buddha, a dispeller of illusions in the world." 17. Bearing the Bodhisatta in her womb like oil in a vessel for ten lunar months, Mahamaya, as her time of delivery was coming nearer, desired to go to her parents' home for delivery. Addressing her husband, she said : " I wish to go to Devadaha, the city of my father."
18. "Thou knowest that thy wishes will be done," replied Suddhodana. Having seated her in a golden palanquin borne by couriers, he sent her forth with a great retinue to her father's house.
19. Mahamaya, on her way to Devadaha, had to pass through a pleasure-grove of sal trees and other trees, flowering and non-flowering. It was known as the Lumbini Grove.
20. As the palanquin was passing through it, the whole Lumbini Grove seemed like the heavenly Cittalata grove or like a banqueting pavilion adorned for a mighty king. 21. From the roots to the tips of the branches the trees were loaded with fruits, flowers and numberless bees of the fine colours, uttering curious sounds, and flocks of various kinds of birds, singing sweet melodies.
22. Witnessing the scene, there arose a desire in the heart of Mahamaya for halting and sporting therein for a while. Accordingly she told the couriers to take her in the sal-grove and wait there.
23. Mahamaya alighted from her palanquin and walked up to the foot of a royal sal tree. A pleasant wind, not too strong, was blowing and the boughs of the trees were heaving up and down and Mahamaya felt like catching one of them.
24. Luckily one of the boughs heaved down sufficiently low to enable her to catch it. So she rose on her toes and caught the bough. Immediately she was lifted up by its upward movement and being shaken, she felt the pangs of childbirth. While holding the branch of the sal tree she was delivered of a son in a standing position.
25. The child was born in the year 563 b.c. on the Vaishakha Paurnima day.
26. Suddhodana and Mahamaya were married for a long time. But they had no issue. Ultimately when a son was born to them his birth was celebrated with great rejoicing, with great pomp and ceremony by Suddhodana and his family and also by the Sakyas. 27. At the time of the birth of the child it was the turn of Suddhodana to bethe ruler of Kapilavatsu and as such was in the enjoyment of the title of Raja. Naturally the boy was called Prince.
1. To Suddhodana was born Siddharth Gautama and this was the manner of Gautama's birth.
2. It was a custom among the Sakyas to observe an annual midsummer festival which fell in the month of Ashad. It was celebrated by all the Sakyas throughout the State and also by the members of the ruling family. 3. It was the usual practice to celebrate the festival for seven days.
4. On one occasion Mahamaya decided to observe the festival with gaiety, with splendour, with flowers, with perfume, but without drinking intoxicants.
5. On the seventh day she rose early, bathed in scented water, bestowed a gift of 4,00,000 pieces of money as alms, adorned herself with all precious ornaments, ate choicest food, took upon herself the fast-day vows, and entered the splendidly adorned royal bedchamber to sleep.
6. That night Suddhodana and Mahamaya came together and Mahamaya conceived. Lying on the royal bed she fell asleep. While asleep she had a dream. 7. In her dreams she saw that the four world-guardians raised her as she was sleeping on her bed and carried her to the tableland of the Himalayas, placed her under a great sal tree and stood on one side.
8. The wives of the four world-guardians then approached and took her to the lake Mansarovar. 9. They bathed her, robed her in a dress, anointed her with perfumes and decked her with flowers in a manner fit to meet some divinity.
10. Then a Bodhisatta, by name Sumedha, appeared before her saying, " I have decided to take my last and final birth on this earth, will you consent to be my mother?" She said, "Yes, with great pleasure." At this moment Mahamaya awoke.
11. Next morning Mahamaya told her dream to Suddhodana. Not knowing how to interpret the dream, Suddhodana summoned eight Brahmins who were most famous in divination.
12. They were Rama, Dhaga, Lakkana, Manti, Yanna, Suyama, Subhoga and Sudatta and prepared for them a befitting reception.
13. He caused the ground to be strewn with festive flowers and prepared high seats for them.
14. He filled the bowls of the Brahmins with gold and silver and fed them on cooked ghee, honey, sugar and excellent rice and milk. He also gave them other gifts such as new clothes and tawny cows.
15. When the Brahmins were propitiated, Sud-dhodana related to them the dream Mahamaya had, and said, " Tell me what it means."
16. The Brahmins said: " Be not anxious. You will have a son, and if he leads a householder's life he will become a universal monarch, and if he leaves his home and goes forth into a homeless state, and becomes a sanyasi, he willbecome a Buddha, a dispeller of illusions in the world." 17. Bearing the Bodhisatta in her womb like oil in a vessel for ten lunar months, Mahamaya, as her time of delivery was coming nearer, desired to go to her parents' home for delivery. Addressing her husband, she said : " I wish to go to Devadaha, the city of my father."
18. "Thou knowest that thy wishes will be done," replied Suddhodana. Having seated her in a golden palanquin borne by couriers, he sent her forth with a great retinue to her father's house.
19. Mahamaya, on her way to Devadaha, had to pass through a pleasure-grove of sal trees and other trees, flowering and non-flowering. It was known as the Lumbini Grove.
20. As the palanquin was passing through it, the whole Lumbini Grove seemed like the heavenly Cittalata grove or like a banqueting pavilion adorned for a mighty king. 21. From the roots to the tips of the branches the trees were loaded with fruits, flowers and numberless bees of the fine colours, uttering curious sounds, and flocks of various kinds of birds, singing sweet melodies.
22. Witnessing the scene, there arose a desire in the heart of Mahamaya for halting and sporting therein for a while. Accordingly she told the couriers to take her in the sal-grove and wait there.
23. Mahamaya alighted from her palanquin and walked up to the foot of a royal sal tree. A pleasant wind, not too strong, was blowing and the boughs of the trees were heaving up and down and Mahamaya felt like catching one of them.
24. Luckily one of the boughs heaved down sufficiently low to enable her to catch it. So she rose on her toes and caught the bough. Immediately she was lifted up by its upward movement and being shaken, she felt the pangs of childbirth. While holding the branch of the sal tree she was delivered of a son in a standing position.
25. The child was born in the year 563 b.c. on the Vaishakha Paurnima day.
26. Suddhodana and Mahamaya were married for a long time. But they had no issue. Ultimately when a son was born to them his birth was celebrated with great rejoicing, with great pomp and ceremony by Suddhodana and his family and also by the Sakyas. 27. At the time of the birth of the child it was the turn of Suddhodana to bethe ruler of Kapilavatsu and as such was in the enjoyment of the title of Raja. Naturally the boy was called Prince.
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