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 my 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.
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
“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.
