Siddharta joined two different hermitages but did not find what he was searching for. Then he made his way to a village named Gaya and began to live in the woods nearby. Like other holy men, he denied himself all food except for a few grains of millet seed. Of course. he soon grew weak and thin but he realized that his weakened state was taking him further from his goal instead of towards it and so decided to eat and grow strong. At exactly the same time, Sujata the daughter of the village chief dreamed that she should prepare a dish of milk and rice and serve it to the holy man on a golden platter. She did so and Siddharta accepted the food, recognizing the golden platter to be a good omen. Siddharta ate his meal then made his way to a special tree known as the Wisdom Tree. A long procession of birds, beasts and spirits who were attracted by his holiness fo llowed him there.
Meanwhile from the opposite direction, Mara the god of evil was marching against Siddharta with the force s of his hideous army of fire-breathing monsters, man-eating serpents and demons who drank blood and chewed bones. Some had a hundred thousand insatiable mouths and others had clinging, misshapen limbs. They were all armed with clubs, spears and bows and heavily protected by armour. Siddharta saw this terrifying army approaching but serenely continued towards the tree and sat down beneath it, vowing never to rise until he had received complete enlightenment.
Seeing that Siddharta was not afraid, Mara retreated and mstead sent a message that Siddharta's cousin planned to take over his kingdom - but this news only made Siddharta even more determmed to forsake the world of pain and suffenng. Then Mara sent his three beautiful daughters to tempt Siddharta but he had no interest in the pleasures they offered. Mara was enraged by the failure of his schemes. Mounting his banle elephant, he hurled hiS terrifying discus at Siddharta but the weapon, which could split mountams in two, simply flew towards Siddhana and hovered above his head, refusing to harm him. Mara then rode up to Siddharta.
'Leave this place,' he thundered, but the prince answered calmly, 'This seat is mine, I have earned it through many rebirths and much meditation. Why should I give it to you who have no merit?'
'My merit is greater than yours,' Mara shouted and commanded his army to confirm it. 'We bear witness for Mara,' they bellowed but Siddharta knew that their testimony was biased, and he touched the ground and asked it to bear witness truly.
Suddenly the Earth Goddess appeared at his feet in all her magnificence. 'I bear witness for Siddharta,' she pronounced in a voice like a cosmic drum. Terrified and convinced, Mara and his demons fled never to plague Siddharta again.
Siddharta remained for seven days and nights beneath the tree, meditating until he had completely remembered his previous existences and was fully enlightened: the meaning of life and faith became perfectly clear to him and he became the Supreme Buddha.
Forty-nine days later, he set out to preach his message, the first sermon being at Sarnath.
Buddhism is now a major religion around the world. Even such foremost thinkers as Mahatma Gandhi, Swami Vivekananda, and Baba Ambedkar were influenced by it. Though Buddhism today is largely associated in the West with the Dalai Lama, Kundalini Awakening, and Tibetan Buddhism, Buddha's are quite different, and featured processes very similar to the yogic techniques.
