The Book of Buddha

by Arundhathi Subramaniam

Around 2500 year ago a thirty-five-year-old man named Siddhartha had a mystical insight under a peepul tree in north-eastern India, in a place now revered as Bodhgaya. Today, more than 300 million people across the globe consider themselves beneficiaries of Gautama Buddha insight, and believe that it has irrevocably marked their spiritual commitment and identity. Who was this man who still remains such a vitall figure for the modern-day questor ? How did he arrive at the realization that 'suffering alone exists, but none who suffer; the deed there is, but no doer thereof; Nirvana there is, but no one seeking it; the Path there is, but none who travel it ?

The Book of Buddha traces the various stages of the spiritual journey undertaken by a man who started out as Siddhartha the Seeker, achieved understanding as Shakyamuni the Sage and attained supremacy as Tathagata the Master finally reaching transcendence as Jina the Victor when he was transformed into the Buddha and became the Enlightened One.