Anecdotes of Buddha

About the Book

'Gautama, whose equally popular name was Siddhartha, was the heir to the throne of Kapilavastu, a principality at the frontiers of modern Uttar Pradesh and Nepal. He was born probably in 566 B.C. and passed away in 486 B.C. According to legends, even though his father, Suddhodana, took great care in preventing the young prince from knowing any kind of human misery, the sights of an incapacitated aged man, a dead body and an ascetic, on three different occasions, beset him with thoughts concerning the problem of suffering and the possible escape from it. Married and a father, Gautama, at the age of 29, left in search of the truth that will solve the riddle of suffering and after seeking light from several teachers and, passing through several phases of discipline - including severe austerity and subjecting the body to starvation as well as experimentation with a moderate course - during the next six years, got his enlightenment, while meditating under a Bo (Peepal) tree at the place today famous as Bodh Gaya. Thereafter he was known as the Buddha, the Enlightened. He set out to preach what he had realised and his mission began at Saranath near Varanasi.with imparting the right knowledge to five seekers who had once served him. His doctrine is based on the theory that life is full of suffering and man’s actions accrue consequences which cannot be exhausted in one life-time. Hence one is born again. While one exhausts the earlier Karma, a further span of Karma is created because of one’s fresh actions. One is thus caught up in the tangle of birth, suffering and death which goes on repeating.' Filled with several known and lesser known anecdotes, "Story of Buddha" is a wonderful gift from Manoj Das to the children and adolescents, our greatest hopes for tomorrow.