Back to Bodhgaya - Sujata temple

Bodhgaya is the place of the buddha's enlightenment. Here also Asoka built a temple and put a golden throne at the exact place where the buddha was siting. I met again my friends Bikki and Manoj.



The legend (difficult to know at which point it is accurate) says that buddha was meditating in this mountain, which is called Mahakala (the big black) by Hindus and Dungeshwari otherwise. He was with five friends performing very painful exercises and eating very few things.



I went there with Manoj last time. They spent a very long time in these caves. Suddenly Siddharta understood that this path of mortification was not successful. He decided to adopt the middle way, that means without looking for sensual pleasures nor painful ascetic exercises. But his friends didn't have the same understanding. They believed he was renouncing to their common quest. So he left them and walked alone.



He walked a few kilometers along the river and arrived at this spot.






This is the Dungeshwari hill from Sujata temple.



Siddharta had almost eaten nothing for several years. He was very skinny.



This is how looks nowadays the village where Sujata lived. No major change.



The surroundings.


After this light meal, Siddharta crossed the nearby river which separates Bodhgaya from Sujata's village. In order to find a proper place to meditate, he threw the bowl in which he had just eaten in the river, following its movement. But the bowl went at counter-current and came back to the edge nearby. Finding there a Bidhi tree, he sat with the very strong determination that he wouldn't change his posture until he got fully enlightened, which took about 40 days.