Siddhartha’s Great Transformation

Dr. SANJNA DEV

Like all benign mothers
Maya Devi too
Was a benign mother
She gave birth
To prince Siddhartha
At Lumbini
Siddhartha was
As bright as the sun
His eyes were resplendent
With transcendental glow
His father king Suddhodana
Was in immense affection
With Siddhartha
Along with his growth
The boy’s awareness grew immensely
­But alas!
Siddhartha was not content
With the princely enjoyments
An indistinct shadow of sorrow
caught hold of his psyche
The song of an unknown melancholy
Used to silently sound in his interior
His parents, wife Yasodhara
And son Rahul did fail to delight him
Both his mental and elemental planes
ceased to inspire him
In addition
To this clandestine agony
He happened to witness
the scenes of many a suffering
Thus these adversities of
Incessant sorrow and suffering
Did prompt him to renounce
The palace and the palace - dwellers
In intensive quest after
The perennial emancipation
From all that was ephemeral
And agony - oriented.
He made his elopement
To the solitudes of wilderness
Where he spent futile time
In various traditional practices
Of penance and religious rituals
For years and years
But alas! all in vain
As he proceeded on his pseudo-path
His ultimate goal receded farther and farther
each image did turn into mirage
At long last
Siddhartha was delighted
To witness the effulgent enlightenment
While meditating
Under the pipal tree
Which later came
To be known as Bodhi tree
With the realisation of enlightenment
Siddhartha got transformed into Buddha
The doctrine of righteousness
Preached by Buddha
Did spread the world over
conveying the radiant message
Of compassion and Wisdom
Which liberate humanity
From sorrow and suffering
Thus ultimately Siddhartha
Transformed himself
Into Buddha the Awakened One.

‘If thou art rich, thou art food. For like an ass whose with ingots bows thou bearest thy heavy riches but a journey and death unloads thee!’
–Shakespeare