Nepal - Land of Heaven: Birth Place of the 'Lord of Nothingness'

Lumbini - Birth Place of the Lord of Nothingness 'Gautama Buddha'

According to the ancient history Lumbini in Sanskrit refers to 'lovely' , which is the pilgrimage site of Buddhist located at Kapilavastu in Nepal. This place is based on one of the four major events in Buddha's life and very interestingly it is believed each of these event have taken place under the trees. The three other places which is in India are: Bodh Gaya(Buddha attained Enlightenment), Sarnath (Budhha gave his first discourse), and Kushinagar (Buddha died).

As per the tradition of Buddhist the story goes like this, Yashodhara (Maya Devi) feels the onset of the labor pains and gives birth to Buddha on the journey to her parent's home in Devadaha in the year 642 BC in the month of May. During her labor pain she grabs hold of the branches of Sal tree where Siddhartha Gautama Buddha is born.

 The marker stone in the picture where Buddha was after his mother stepped on it after holding the branch of the tree. It is also believed that as soon Buddha was born he declared that this was his last birth and walked seven steps and under each step a lotus flower was bloomed.

In the year 249 BC, King and Buddhist convert Emperor Ashoka took a visit to Lumbini who constructed a stone pillar and four stupas. It is found that Ashoka's Pillar bears inscription which translates as: "King Ashoka (Piyadasi) - beloved of devas himself has made a royal visit which being the birth place of  Sakyamuni Buddha. As per the ancient history and beliefs even today there is a stone railing built with pillars erected in due respect to the God (Buddha) having taken birth here.

This pond where Buddha was given birth when emptied contained two perennial sources of water which were very deep. This one end where one of the sources spring from.

Buddha's  birth garden had been lost for more than 1000 years and was rediscovered in 1895 while a archaeologist from German, came across the Pillar of  King Ashoka which was then identified by it's inscriptions. Apart from this  there was records which was made by one of the Chinese pilgrim Fa Xian which on identifying this acclaimed religious site. Lumbini is now a World Heritage Site as designated by UNESCO in 1997 

Various other monks came to Lumbini for meditation and lived here and spend sometime. These are the remains found at the above locations dating back to various ages starting from 1st century onwards.

I have been having the most amazing experiences at every step of my spiritual expeditions... You can only understand them if you believe in them. Just the way I saw this amazing writing at one of the Buddhist Monastery - "The Buddhist way of life  is a graduated path; it has  to be followed  during every moment of our waking life, to enable us to do this, there must be Sati or Awareness, constant mindfulness in all that we think or do or say. Religion is not for temple only for the Uposatha day (are times of renewed dedication to Dhamma practice, observed by lay followers and monastics throughout the world)... It is for always". 

After experiencing a beautiful guided walk through of this divine land, we were taken to visit the Monasteries and temples which was being set-up by Buddhist community from different countries. It was scorching hot and after having experiencing the real divine presence, I was not interested to see the super-structures which is just an architectural splendor.

However on insistence from my guide that I should atleast visit the German Monastery which is supposed be the best amongst the rest. And yes it was truly beautiful as you see these intricate paintings in my picture…

And then was very happy to be dropped off  in an exotic tri-cycle bumpy ride and retired for an early flight back to Kathmandu and for one of the most awaited destinations in my life which was unraveled not until before I listed this place as a part of my itinerary..

So stay tuned to unravel the Truth of Bhaktapur!!!