Bodhgaya - Religious Significance

After the Great Renunciation, the Bodhisatta approached two ascetics named Alara Kalama and Udakka Ramaputta who taught him to attain the Formless Jhanas. Although they were the highest attainments at that time, still he was dissatisfied because they did not lead to Nibbana. Leaving them, he arrived at an isolated cave on a hill now known as Dhongra hill, where he underwent painful and profitless practices for six years until his body became skeleton-like and he nearly died. Realizing the futility of self-mortification, he adopted the Middle Path and started eating again to regain his strength. His five companions, thinking that he had given up the struggle and reverted to luxury, left him. The Bodhisatta was now alone in his struggle. One day on the eve of Wesak, while waiting to go on alms-round under a Banyan tree, the Bodhisatta was offered milk rice in a golden dish by the Lady Sujata, daughter of the chieftain of the nearby village of Senanigama. After the meal, the Bodhisatta took the dish and went to the Neranjara river, and saying: “If I am to succeed in becoming a Buddha today, let this dish go upstream; but if not, let it go downstream”, he threw it into the water. There it floated to the middle of the river and raced upstream for eighty cubits (37 m) before it sank in a whirlpool.

In the evening, on the way to the Bodhi tree, the Bodhisatta was offered eight handfuls of grass by the grass-cutter Sotthiya, which he placed on his seat under the Bodhi tree. Sitting cross-legged facing the east, the Bodhisatta made a resolution, saying: “Let my skin, sinews and bones become dry. Let my flesh and blood dry up. Never from this seat will I stir until I have attained Buddhahood.” This was the culmination of his Perfections developed over countless aeons, that no being, not even Mara and his dreaded army, could unseat the Bodhisatta from the Aparajita throne. When challenged by Mara, the Bodhisatta called upon the earth to bear witness to his Thirty Perfections, by touching the ground with his right hand. Instantly, the earth responded with a great quake that shook and scattered Mara and his forces until they fled in defeat. Before the sun had set, the Bodhisatta had vanquished Mara and his forces. Then with mind tranquilized and purified, in the first watch of night, he developed the Knowledge of Past Lives; in the middle watch, the Divine Eye; and in the last watch, he developed the Knowledge of Destruction of Taints and attained Supreme Enlightenment. A Supreme Buddha (Samma-sambuddho) had arisen in the world on the full moon day of Wesak in 588 BC).