Born in a Garden

As the time for delivery approached, Maya Devi, Queen of King Shuddhodana and a princess from the royal house of Koliya, wished to return to her family home to give birth, as was customary during that time. Some accounts suggest that she paused to rest in Lumbini Garden, locatedroughly thirty kilometers from Kapilavastu, while others indicate she went there after visiting her family's home in Devadaha, the capital of Koliya, for her health. While Queen Maya Devi was strolling in the garden, accompanied by her attendants, she suddenly began to experience labor pains. According to legend, when the queen reached to pluck a flowering branch from an ashoka tree, a perfect child was born. It is said that Brahma and Indra, two of the chief Hindu deities, descended from heaven to take the infant in their arms reverently. Upon his birth, the infant is believed to have taken seven steps in each of the cardinal directions, with his right hand raised toward heaven and his left hand extended toward the earth in a gesture of fearlessness and charity, declaring, “I alone am honored, in heaven and on earth.”

Prophecy as a Great Being 

Following the customs of the time, King Shuddhodana summoned several eminent seers shortly after the birth of Siddhartha to predict the child's destiny. The seers unanimously declared to the king, “This prince possesses strong facial features that indicate he will become a great man in the future. If he ascends to the throne when he matures, he will be a great king who rules the world, not through armed might, but through virtue. However, if he renounces his throne to pursue a life of religious devotion, he will become a Buddha and help alleviate the suffering of all people in the world.” 

This prediction was further confirmed by the renowned hermit-seer Asita, who lived far away in the mountains. With his keen perceptive abilities, Asita learned that the future Buddha had been born in Kapilavastu. Accompanied by his disciple, he journeyed to the palace. Upon holding the prince in his arms, Asita broke into tears and exclaimed, “At last, a great man has appeared in the world!” 

Confrontation with Suffering

Mahaprajapati, his mother’s sister, raised Siddhartha after his mother, Maya Devi, passed away on the seventh day of his birth. He was brought up with great care as he was said to be a sensitive and contemplative boy. He was from the outside world, but as a young man, he came across four humans who changed his perspective when traveling outside the palace. The first one was an older adult, the second a diseased person, the third a dead person, and finally a monk. After inquiring with his charioteer, Siddhartha went into a deep contemplative mode. After a long confusion, he finally left his family, including his newborn son, to seek solace in the forest at the age of twenty-nine.  

Siddhartha then went on to seek teachers to learn from them, including hermit-sages like Arada-Kalama and Udraka-Ramaputra. After learning from them, he embarked on a further journey as he felt that enlightenment was still far away. He went to Gaya and sat under a Bodhi Tree for undisturbed meditation. Various accounts differ on the exact time of his attainment of enlightenment, which happened while meditating under the Bodhi Tree. And thus, he became Buddha.