Buddha, meaning “the Awakened One,” had his yearly birthday celebration yesterday, the 10th of May. His real birthday was on the 9th, the full moon, but the service was celebrated yesterday morning at 11 am at the Ramakrishna Center.
According to Swami Yuktatmananda, “He is born for the sake of all that lives.” The reason the service was held was to acknowledge Buddha coming into this world, as well as the Bhagavad-Gita. We learn of the moment where he was taken away from exposure only to desire, and observes misery for the first time. The Gita wants us to reflect on Buddha’s newfound pain and wants us to be realistic that the body will perish.
From Sanskrit translation, Buddha had said, “May my body wither away in this seat. May my skin, bone, and flesh perish. Without releasing the truth, this body will not move from this seat.” It was on this day of the lunar calendar that he obtained Nirvana under his Bodhi Tree after many years in search of truth and the solution to misery.
His Four Noble Truths (existence of sorrow, cause of sorrow is desire, sensation of sorrow, go beyond sorrow), led to the Eightfold Path, which focused on discipline, mediation, and reflection that all led to Enlightenment and the ultimate reality.
Some of Buddha’s main teachings stated that, “passion is the fiercest fire, wisdom is the best weapon, deliverance is the greatest joy, and that ignorance causes the ruining of the world.”
At the beginning and end of the service, Swami Yuktatmananda would say, “OM, peace unto all, peace unto all.” His service went from 1130-1245. No one stood during the service. We were all crammed together and sitting during the entirety of it. When I had walked upstairs to get escorted to squeeze in somewhere, the choir was on the bottom floor all dressed formally, and the entire building smelled of burned incense.
One of the women’s cell phones went off twice during the service. Some of the people dressed very formally for the occasion, got angered and would turn to give her looks until she noticed they were staring at her. There were two people there taking notes when I sat. One man seemed like he did research with this foundation, because he knew everyone who worked there. The other woman taking notes had her small notebook hidden beneath her jacket. The woman who sat next to me was one of the people very adamant about this service, the same woman who gave the cell phone lady stares…She kept watching my pen to paper, either trying to hint I was being disrespectful, or to make sure I was getting everything down correctly without mistakes.
After the service was given, there were hymns and devotional songs sung by the choir. I was stunned when they went from singing a hymn that I didn’t understand at all, to singing “Dust in the Wind,” by Kansas, and “Dreamer,” by Ozzy Ozbourne. I just didn’t envision a place of worship singing songs from traditional pop culture. I was also shocked that we were all still in our seats when volunteers came out with plates of food for everyone. We passed food and water to the people next to us, like we had passed around the donation basket. Some of it was spicy and some was sweet. What was awful was that I’m waiting to go to the dentist to get a wisdom tooth removed, and I could barely eat. But I was watching as every single person sitting there cleaned their plate. No plate went into the garbage with any food on it. So I ate slowly. The cabbage, beans, greens, and rice wasn’t too bad, but there were some variety of cookies that took me a while. It was quite an eating experience. I think my least favorite was the dried prunes in some fruit sauce. My favorite was the sweet cheese and the rice that tasted very much like tapioca pudding. I had tried to talk to the gentleman next to me, who had been taking notes and seemed to know everyone, but he would barely give me the time of day, and only seemed interested in talking to the volunteers there; the ones he knew, anyway. When everyone was eating, they kind of just kept to themselves, and only a select few who came together conversed. More conversation, at least in my opinion, was struck up in between people waiting on line for the bathroom. Everyone was very friendly and willing to talk then. We would ask if this was our first time there, how long people have been coming, how wonderful Swami Yuktatmananda was; just some amiable banter. I had asked two different people who were working there if I could take a picture or two, but they told me it was disrespectful…even though I saw someone taking a picture during the service!
In India, they have what’s called, Purnima. This holiday occurs at the May/June full moon. The Buddha Purnima festival is a triple whammy celebrating the Buddha’s birth, Enlightenment and death all in one. Buddhist sacred sites and temples all over India are inundated with pilgrims. The crowds tend to be made up of more than just Indians, but devotees from all over the world journey to their favorite place for the Buddha Purnima event. The style of celebrations varies across the sub-continent, but all are awesome to be a part of.
All in all, it was a wonderful, new experience.