Buddha, The Great And His Sermons (Ii) Poem by umaprosad das

Buddha believed unconditional happiness is a state of mind
And ever lasting peace to be achieved by deep meditation
Being completely free from all the emotional attachments
In an isolated quiet place through prolonged concentration

Left royalty at the age of 29, he roamed in forests for 6 years
Met many wanderers, meditators and seers who could show
Immense potential of the mind that he gradually mastered
Different mindset and path, he had initially decided to follow

At last in a place called Bodhgaya, now in Bihar, India
For 6 days and nights under meditation, he remained
And overcoming the mind's most subtle obstacles
Found its true nature, the ‘Enlightenment', he attained

At the moment of realisation, the veils of mixed feelings
Stiff ideas dissolved; past, present, future, near and far
All combined into a one radiant state of the intuitive bliss
Transformed into a pervading awareness, the ‘Buddha' hereafter

Buddha gave his first sermon at Sarnath near Varanasi
To his followers based on the true nature of the universe
Cause of sufferings and how can everyone overcome them
Spread gradually throughout the world over the years

He showed the Shramanas, this ‘Noble Eight-fold path'
Called ‘Dharma' for Buddhists, Buddha's religious doctrine
For freedom from perpetual sense of dissatisfaction
And put an end to the ego-centred desire and suffering

Buddha diagnosed the human conditions for sufferings
First: suffering like physical or mental pain at any moment
Second: suffering produced by change, all things including
Happy feelings or blissful states nothing being permanent

Third: suffering caused by self, as people fail to recognize
That no ‘I' stands alone but everyone and everything
Including our ‘self' is conditioned and interdependent
Attachments, to the people, bring pain and suffering

As Buddhism spread, the Buddhists focused on achieving
The enlightenment, a state of inner peace and wisdom
Instead of acknowledging any Supreme God or a Deity
As followers in other religions seemed to believe on

When the followers of Buddhism achieve this echelon
They are said to have gained the ‘Nirvana', or freedom
From the life cycle of death and rebirth from the world
Treading this path of morality, meditation and wisdom
....to be contd.