Buddha and the Conquest of Death

Buddha and the Conquest of Death

Kisagotami

When her only child died, the mother was distraught, disconsolate, and disoriented. She refused to accept that her child was no more. He is very ill, exhausted, and in deep sleep, she insisted. With the dead child in her arms, she moved from village to village in search of the vaid who would administer a magic potion to awaken her child from stupor. Hearing that Buddha had miraculous powers, she appeared before the Enlightened One.

‘O Divine One, please cure my child. Awaken him, for he has not sucked by breast for several days. He must be very hungry.’

Buddha, the Compassionate One, gently caressed the child’s forehead. He did not say the child was dead or chide her for being mad with grief but said, ‘Sure. I can cure him. For the medicine, fetch a few grains of mustard seed from a home where no one has ever died.’

The mother went from village to village and from house to house and soon returned to place her son’s corpse under the Buddha’s feet. She realised that Buddha had gently led her to find for herself the truth about life and death. Kisagotami became a bhikkhuni.

Therigatha

Therigatha: Poems of the First Buddhist Women has a poem where Kisagotami sings about her enlightenment:

“One should know suffering,

The origin of suffering and its cessation,

The eight-fold path….

I followed the noble eightfold path

That goes to that which is without death,

Nibbana is known at first hand.

I have seen myself in the mirror of dhamma.”[i]

 

Link for my previous blog on Therigatha is given in end notes.[ii]

When Siddhartha Gautam was conceived, his mother Queen Mahamaya had seen in her dream a luminous white elephant. The omen indicated that the prince would either become a Chakravarty Emperor or renounce the world, said the royal astrologers. The king was advised to shelter Siddhartha from awareness of human sufferings – disease, decrepitude of old age, and death. The gated-life of the prince in the palace hid the reality of the human situation only for some time.


Buddha Sculpture- 9th to 10th Century AD

Source: WikiCommons; ASI Museum, Bodh Gaya

Humans are the only animals aware of death and tormented with thoughts of morbidity. All religions endeavour to provide solace against the inevitability and finality of death.

Dhammapada

Dhammapada, a compilation of 423 maxims culled mostly from Sutta-Pitaka, is a reverred book for the Buddhists. A few verses from the book, relating to life and death, are given below (Source-The Dhammapada: The Buddha's Path of Wisdom translated by Acharya Buddharakkhita):

“There are those who do not realize that one day we all must die. But those who do realize this settle their quarrels.” (Chapter.Verse: 1.6)

“Better it is to live one day virtuous and meditative than to live a hundred years immoral and uncontrolled.” 8.110

“Better it is to live one day wise and meditative than to live a hundred years foolish and uncontrolled.” 8.111

“Better it is to live one day strenuous and resolute than to live a hundred years sluggish and dissipated.” 8.112

“Better it is to live one day seeing the rise and fall of things than to live a hundred years without seeing the rise and fall of things.” 8.113

“Better it is to live one day seeing the Deathless than to live a hundred years without ever seeing the Deathless.” 8.114

“Better it is to live one day seeing the Supreme Truth than to live a hundred years without ever seeing the Supreme Truth.” 8.115

“This city (body) is built of bones, plastered with flesh and blood; within are decay and death, pride and jealousy.” 11.150

Finally,

“You yourselves must strive; the Buddhas only point the way….” 20.276

Buddha pointed the way; Kisagotami gained enlightenment.



[i] Extracts from the poem are from Therigatha: Poems of the First Buddhist Women, translated by Charles Hallisey, Murty Classical Library of India.

[ii] https://pkdash-author.blogspot.com/2023/11/therigatha.html

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