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Store > Feature Articles > Four sacred locations - Bodh Gaya

Four sacred locations - Bodh Gaya

Bodhgaya (Buddhagayā, Uruvelā)

Buddhagayā, or Bodh­Gayā as the Indians call it, is the most sacred place to the Buddhists the world over. For it was here that the Master at the age of thirty­ five attained Supreme Enlightenment (anuttaraṃ sammā sambodhiṃ). It is recorded in the Buddhist texts that the Prince Gotama, at the age of twenty­nine, renounced wife and child, his father and a crown that held the promises of power and glory, and in the garb of an ascetic retreated into the solitude of the forest in quest of the eternal verities of life. Accompanied by five other ascetics he practised severe asceticism on the bank of the Nerañjarā at Uruvelā near Gaya. Strenuously and zealously struggling for six long years, he came to death’s very door. But selfmortification could not lead him to the desired goal. Abandoning asceticism and extreme fasting, he partook of food. His five companions, disappointed, forsook him. Then, un­aided by any teacher, save fixed determination, unflinching energy, and complete faith in his own purity and power, and accompanied by none, the Bodhisatta resolved to make his final quest in complete solitude. Cross­legged he sat under the Bodhi tree at Uruvelā—“a pleasant spot, soothing to the senses and stimulating to the mind”­ making the final effort with the inflexible resolution: “Though only my skin, sinews and bones remain, and my blood and flesh dry up and wither away, yet never from this seat will I stir, until I have attained full enlightenment Sammā­Sam­Bodhi.” (Excerpt Bodhi Leaf 8 - The Four Sacred Shrines ­ also included in Collected Bodhi Leaves Volume I)

mahabodhi temple
At the time of the Buddha, the Bodhgayā area was called Uruvelā due to the large amount of sand (vala) there. The name was soon replaced with other names evoking the great event, such as Mahābodhi (Great Awakening), Bodhimanda (Area of Awakening), and Vajrāsana (Diamond Throne). When King Asoka visited around 260 BCE, he referred to it as Sambodhi. The name Bodhgayā seems to have come about some time in the 18th century, probably to distinguish it from neighbouring Gayā. (Excerpt, Note 31, Along the Path)

Excerpt from Gotama the Buddha:

When Siddārtha reached Uruvelā, he found the land, the woods, the river and the village delightful. He felt that this was an ideal place for meditation. This makes it clear that he loved beauty in nature. In fact, his narration makes it clear that peaceful and pleasant surroundings are helpful on the journey to the highest goal.

1.4 The Banyan Tree (Nigrodha Sutta) (Excerpt from: The Udana - Inspired Utterances of the Buddha, The Udana & The Itivuttaka)

Thus have I heard. At one time the Lord was staying at Uruvelā, beside the river Nerañjarā beneath the Goatherds’ Banyan Tree, having just realized full enlightenment. At that time the Lord sat cross­legged for seven days experiencing the bliss of liberation. And when those seven days had elapsed the Lord emerged from that concentration. Then a certain haughty brahmin approached the Lord. Having approached, he exchanged polite greetings with him and stood to one side. Standing there that brahmin said to the Lord: “How, good Gotama, is one a brahmin and what are the things that make one a brahmin?” Then, on realizing its significance, the Lord uttered on that occasion this inspired utterance:

A brahmin is one who has discarded evil states; Not haughty, free from stains, self­controlled, Perfect in knowledge, one who has lived the holy life; He might rightly use the word “brahma” Who has no swellings anywhere in the world.

gayasisa hill
mahakala cave
PHOTO LEFT: Pariyatti pilgrims explore and meditate at Gayasīsa (also Brahmayoni) Hill near Bodhgaya. In the Vinaya, the Basket of Discipline in the Pāli Canon (Tipitaka), the Fire Sermon (Āditta­pariyāya­sutta) is the third discourse delivered by the Buddha (after the Dhammacakkapavattana Sutta and the Anattalakkhana Sutta), several months after his enlightenment, on top of the Gayasīsa Hill. He delivered it to a thousand former ascetics who used to practice a sacred fire ritual. Three Cardinal Discourses by Bhikkhu Nanamoli contains these three discourses.

PHOTO RIGHT: Pariyatti pilgrims meditate in the MahāKala cave on Dungeshwari Hill (also Pragbodhi Mountain) near Bodhgaya where the Bodhisatta spent six years before his enlightenment, practicing austerities. The statue shows Siddharta Gotama skin and bones from excessive fasting.

Excerpt from Along the Path:

During the six years between his Great Renunciation and Enlightenment, the Bodhisatta first stayed a short while near Rājagaha, where under the tutelage of Āḷāra Kālāma and Uddaka Rāmaputta. After leaving these teachers, it is believed that Siddhattha spent much of his time in the Mahākala Cave on Pragbodhi Mountain, where he practised extreme austerities such as: clenching his teeth while pressing his tongue against the roof of his mouth as hard as he could; holding his breath; fasting or taking minimal amounts of food (such as one grain of rice or one kola fruit nut per day). Some of his other practices included eating cow or human dung, or only wild foods; wandering naked or wearing refuse rags or tree bark; pulling out his hair; standing or squatting continuously; sleeping on a mattress of spikes; not bathing, letting dust and dirt accumulate until it just flaked off; sleeping outside in all seasons in forests or charnel grounds; and keeping himself so isolated that if he heard or saw people coming, he would run away.

sujata stupa
Pariyatti pilgrims meditate at the Sujātā Temple near Bodhgaya, about one kilometer away through the paddy fields from the Sujātā Stūpa.

There are three stories behind the Sujātā Stūpa. The first and more popular is that it marks the spot of the home of Sujātā, the girl who fed the Bodhisatta rice pudding before his Awakening. The second, according to the Chinese pilgrim Xuan Zang (pronounced Shwandzaang), is associated with the site where the Buddha lived in a past life as the ‘perfumed elephant’ (gandhahasti), with a sweet odour and the strength of ten ordinary elephants. The perfumed elephant’s mother was blind, so everyday he fed and bathed his mother with filial care. One day the king saw the magnificent creature and captured him. The king offered him the finest foods, but the elephant refused to eat. The king asked the elephant why he wasn’t eating, and he replied, “My mother is blind and hasn’t eaten or had anything to drink for days. How can I eat when she suffers?” The king felt pity for the elephant and set him free. The third story, according to some villagers, is that the stūpa marks the site of the Ajapāla Tree where the Buddha spent his fifth week after Awakening.
...

Behind the temple is the tree shrine believed to mark the spot where Sujātā offered rice pudding to the Bodhisatta. About 100 metres behind the Sujātā Tree Shrine on the bank of the Mohane River is a small shrine with a brightly painted Burmese­style standing Buddha statue and an aquatic serpent king (nāga­rāja), claimed to be where the Bodhisatta’s bowl floated upstream after he put it in the river, solemnly declaring, “If this bowl floats upstream, I will become Enlightened.”

Excerpt Bodhi Leaf 1: (Collected Bodhi Leaves Volume 1 - ­Pariyatti Edition)

mahabodhi tree
Theravada monks meditate and pay respect under the Mahabodhi Tree, Bodhgaya

The Buddha did not go far along the main road from the Bodhi Tree before he met a stranger, the ājīvaka (naked ascetic) Upaka, who was struck by the serene personality of the Buddha. Upaka addressing the Buddha said: “Pleasant and fully clear, friend, are your faculties of sense; your complexion is completely pure and bright. With whom have you gone forth? Or who is your teacher? Of whose teaching do you admit? On that, the Blessed One spoke to Upaka the ājīvaka in verse,

"I am one who has overcome all, who cognises all, in all states uncleaving, Who has abandoned all, and who has been released, having by my self understood. Whom should I acknowledge? I have no teacher; one like me is not. In the world with its deities there is not my counterpart: I indeed am the arhat in the world; I, the teacher with no peer, I am the rightly all­enlightened one; I am one become cooled, extinct. To set in motion the wheel of truth I go to the Kasi’s town; In the world of blind beings I shall beat the drum of the deathless."

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