Buddha, meaning 'one who is awake' in the sense of having 'woken up to reality' was the title first given to Lord Buddha. It was about 2500 years ago when Prince Siddhartha Gautam left all the worldly pleasures to attain the reality of life, and became the Buddha - the enlightened one. It was a state in which the Buddha gained an insight into the deepest workings of life and therefore into the cause of human suffering, the problem that had set Him on his spiritual quest in the first place.
The word 'Buddha' is a title and not a name. It means 'one who is awake' in the sense of having 'woken up to reality'. Buddha, means 'the enlightened one'. And Gautam Buddha was one of the greatest religious teachers that the world has seen. His teachings expounded in Buddhism, are immensely popular in India ,Thailand ,Burma, China, Japan and other South Eastern Countries. The Buddha was born in 563 B.C. as Siddhartha to Shuddhodana the king of Kapilavastu in Nepal. His mother Mayadevi expired when he was just 7 days old and he was brought up by his stepmother Gautami. Siddhartha was made to lead a very sheltered life as the astrologers had predicted that he would give up worldly pleasures to follow a different path. The King wanted to avoid this at all costs and so did not let him out of the palace. He hoped that Siddhartha would one day become king. The royal family belonged to the Gautama Gothra of the Sakya clan of the solar race. Their kingdom Kapilvastu was between the Nepalese foothills and the river Raptu. The Shakayas were priestly-warriors, wealthy knights and landowners.
Gautam Buddha is also known as Sakyamuni and his teachings were passed orally and his collection teachings were mentioned in Triptika few centuries after his death. The main source of information regarding Lord Buddha be had from various Buddhist texts. It is said that Gautam Buddha was born in Lumbini forest in Nepal under Sal tree and he was named Siddhartha on his birth.
The birth date of Gautama Buddha is celebrated as Vesak in Theravada countries. The name Siddhartha means one who achieves his aim and it was seer Asita who stated that Gautama Siddhartha would either become a great king or a holy man.
It is stated that Gautama Siddhartha led a pretty luxurious life as a prince and at the age of sixteen was married off to Yasodhara who gave birth to a son named Rahula and after staying in Kapilavastu for 29 years Lord Buddha left all worldly pleasures to live the life of the ascetic. After witnessing illness, old age, death and ascetic while moving on his chariot in his kingdom he decided to leave all the worldly pleasures and escaped with the help of his charioteer Channa on his horse Kanthaka and it is said that the hooves of the horse were muffled by the gods to prevent the guards about the leaving of Gautam Buddha and this particular event is termed as The Great Departure.
After leaving his kingdom Gautam Buddha lived the life of austere for six years and realizing that it was doing no good sat under the Bodhi Tree in bodh gaya where he achieved Enlightenment and came to be known as the Buddha or Awakened One. He is also referred to as the Sakyamuni Buddha. For the rest of forty five years Gautama Buddha traveled across Gangetic Plains and taught his doctrine to numerous people. This is how Buddhism spread across the world and Gautama Buddha came to be regarded a revered saint.
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