Buddha who is the founder
of the Buddhist religion is called Buddha Shakyamuni.
“Shakya” is the name of the royal family into which he was
born, and “Muni” means “Holy One.” Buddha Shakyamuni
was born as a royal prince in 624 BC in a place called Lumbini,
which was originally in northern India now part of Nepal. When
his mother Queen Mayadevi and his father King Shuddhodana saw
the child, he felt as if all his wishes had been fulfilled and
he named the young prince “Siddhartha.” He invited a
Brahmin seer to make predictions about the prince’s future.
The seer examined the child with
his clairvoyance and told the king, “There are signs that the
boy could become either a chakravatin king, a ruler of the
entire world, or a fully enlightened Buddha Buddha Shakyamuni's
was born on a full moon day which is now celebrated as Vesak
(Wesak ). It is an auspicious day according to the legends, the
baby began to walk seven steps forward four directions and
then, at the seventh stride in each directions, he stopped and
with a noble voice shouted: “This is the east: first I will
go to Nirvana. This is the south: I will become the object of
veneration by all wanderers. This is the west: this is the last
of my births. This is the north: I will cross the ocean of
cyclic existence of Samsara ”
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