Several details regarding Gautama Buddha’s early life are shrouded in mystery. He is believed to have been born in Lumbini (today, modern Nepal) in the 6th century B.C. His birth name was Siddhartha Gautama and he was born as a prince. His father, King Suddhodana, was leader of a large clan called the Shakya and his mother was Queen Maya. His mother died shortly after his birth.

When Siddhartha was a little boy, learned seers prophesized that the boy would either be a great king or military leader or he would be a great spiritual leader. His father wanted Siddhartha to become a great king, so he raised him in the lap of luxury and shielded him from religious knowledge of any kind.

His father did not want Siddhartha to learn about human hardships and sufferings as he was afraid that such knowledge might propel the boy towards spirituality. So, he took great care to ensure that his son was raised in seclusion and kept away from knowledge of processes like aging and death.

Having spent all of his life confined to his palace, young Siddhartha grew curious and asked a charioteer to take him on a tour of the city. While travelling through the city he came across an old crippled man, a sick man, a dead man, and a holy man with no home.

These sights shocked him as he had no prior knowledge about the concepts of sickness, old age, death, and asceticism. The charioteer explained to him that sickness, aging and death were a part and parcel of life, and that some people renounce their worldly life in order to seek answers to questions regarding human sufferings.

At the age of 29, Siddhartha left his palace and family to lead an ascetic life. He thought that living a life of self-denial will provide him with the answers he was looking for. For the next six years he lived a life of extreme austerity, eating very little food and fasting till he became very weak.

Over these years he also gained five followers with whom he practiced rigorous austerity. In spite of living such a simple life and subjecting himself to great physical sufferings, Siddhartha was not successful in getting the answers he sought.

After starving himself for days he once accepted a bowl of rice from a young girl. After having this meal he realized that living under harsh physical constraints was not helping him achieve his spiritual goals, and following a path of balance was better than living a lifestyle of extreme self-denial. His followers, however, abandoned him believing that he had given up on his spiritual quest.

Following this he started meditating under a fig tree (now called the Bodhi tree) and promised himself that he would not move until he had found enlightenment. He meditated for several days and saw his entire life and previous lives in his thoughts.

After meditating for 49 days, he finally realized the answer to the questions of suffering that he had been seeking for so many years. He found pure enlightenment, and in that moment of enlightenment, Siddhartha Gautama became the Buddha (“he who is awake”).

At the time of his enlightenment he gained complete insight into the cause of suffering, and the steps necessary to eliminate it. He called these steps the “Four Noble Truths”. Legend has it that initially Buddha was reluctant to spread his knowledge to others as he was doubtful of whether the common people would understand his teachings. But then the king of gods, Brahma, convinced Buddha to teach, and he set out to do that.

He went to the Deer Park in Isipatana where he found the five companions who had earlier abandoned him. He preached his first sermon to them and the others who had gathered there. In his sermon, he focused on the Four Noble Truths: Dukkha (suffering), Samudaya (cause for suffering), Nirodha (state of mind free from suffering) and Marga (way to end suffering).