Informative

Gautam Buddha – Compassion so Divine that it Surpassed Death

This GuruPurnima, we bring to you insights from the lives of some of the greatest Gurus who walked the path of spirituality and left treasures of knowledge for us. In this series of 7 blogs, the third blog is about an event that occurred in the life of Gautam Buddha when he was beginning his journey to the divine. 

Gautam Buddha was the founder of Dhamma in the world. It is said that out of the 112 ways to achieve enlightenment taught by Shiva, Gautam Buddha chose one and attained enlightenment. He was born a prince but he renounced his kingdom and left in search of truth. The Buddha was most famous for founding Dhamma, and his teaching of finding the middle path – the balance. It is said that when he achieved enlightenment, he had found his balance. 

The Excerpt 

When Bhagwaan Gautam Buddha was about to leave his body, he asked his ‘Sevak’ Anand that he wanted to rest under a tree as he was very tired and about to pass. They were near Kushinagar and Anand thought that it would be a great disservice to the Bhagwan’s followers if he didn’t let them know of the Buddha’s arrival near their village. So he went to the nearby village and informed people. Soon, everyone from that village and villages nearby flocked to the tree and there was a huge queue of people wanting to see the Buddha before he passed. 

Among these, was a person who came, and said he wants to learn Dharma from the Buddha. He said I have come here to learn Dharma and I shall not leave until the Bhagwan teaches me it. Anand told him that this is not the time. That the Buddha is about to pass and he is stopping the queue – Anand asked him, “Can’t you see how much pain the Buddha is in? He is about to pass and you want to learn Dharma now? Please leave” – but the man was adamant and said I shall leave only when I learn Dharma. 

This is when Buddha spoke, he said to Anand that you can’t expect someone to come to the Holy Ganges and return from the river shore without drinking from the river. Similarly, you can’t expect someone to come to see me and not learn Dharma. This man looks very troubled, please let him in and I will teach him Dharma. 

The Teaching

This was the level of compassion Gautam Buddha carried. Even in the pain, he was in, when he was just about to pass, he understood the trouble the man was going through and was ready to teach him Dharma. 

This is the level of compassion only a spiritually enlightened being gets. This is the level of compassion that helps us forgive people, that helps us understand where they are coming from and understand the pain they must have gone through to cause pain to us. 

Once we achieve this level of compassion, the Universe reverberates in joy and all the spiritual powers start conspiring to help us achieve higher levels of Sadhana and spirituality. 

We hope you felt the joy of compassion upon reading this story. Stay tuned for more such insights on other Gurus. Tell us what you feel about compassion in the comments section.