From my research studies, it came to my understanding that Gautama Buddha who was famously known as the historical Buddha lived in the year between 563 and 483 BC at a place called Indo-Nepalese. Moreover, I also learnt that He is believed to have passed through thousands of existences as a bodhisattva before arriving on earth for transmigration. Gautama was a son to King Sakya Sudhodana and Queen Maya. As I would have personally done if I have lived to yearn for a religious revelation, people rejoiced the birth of their illustrious princess when he was first presented to the temple after 5days.
Another significant lesson that I acquired during my research studies is that despite the religious recognitions that he received from people, his father wished that one day he would grow to be a great king thus he protected him from religious teachings and practices. Moreover, he was also provided with everything that he needed to ensure that he was not involved in teachings about human suffering. Interestingly, despite being nurtured to be a future king by his father King Sakya Sudhodana, Gautama Buddha felt that material wealth was not part of his mission on earth. After spending 29 years in Kapilavastu as a prince, he left his palace to meet his ultimate life goals.

I think that was an exemplary act from Gautama. There are no better ways of describing an individual who prefers his royal life to serving other people in the society other than appreciating their pieces of actions. Thankfully, when he left his palace he realized that his father had been keeping people who were suffering, those who are sick, and the aged away from the public. In fact, he was extremely disturbed when he saw an old man and decided to find ways of overcoming illness, old age, and suffering in the society. Just as it would have happened to me, it was unarguably remarkable that Gautama was sensitive to human suffering.

Far from that, I also learnt that Gautama was extremely brave in his undertakings. He left his royal palace and life and became a mere mendicant. Moreover, I also realized that he was a religious fanatical when he decided to leave with a horse because he believed that the hooves of the horses were muffled by the gods so that it would be difficult for people to reveal his whereabouts. Apart from that, there is no reasonable person who would essentially fail to recommend Gautama’s commitment to his future tasks. From my studies, I learnt that he was willing to do whatever it takes to reach for his lifelong goals. When he arrived at the city gates, he accepted to cut off his hair and handed over his horse Chandaka. Additionally, he gave up the sumptuous robe that he had before he was accepted as a disciple by Brahmans. By then, he had disappeared forever and became a monk.

Gautama is a good example of religious leaders who are willing to learn new things with an aim of providing resolutions that surrounds religious puzzles. As a disciple, he studied the doctrines and visited other places when he felt he needed to learn new things. Thankfully, his teachers had prepared him well to reach deep states of mediation. Despite the knowledge that he had acquired during his religious teachings he still felt that he had failed and had not attained the peace that he had been yearning for throughout his life. It was then that he thought that he had not reached the desired religious insight that he had always wished for and regarded the practices as useless and dangerous.

From my research studies, it was also good to learn that Gautama was even willing to explore any possible place that can help him in his spiritual journey. In fact, he decided to travel to the deer park at Isipatana. At some point, he even sat beneath a tree and meditated about death and birth. After transcending earthly lives, he decided that the next thing to do was to transcend about asceticism. For that reason, he sat under a Bodhi tree and continued to seek wisdom. Mara who was by then described as the demon sent his three daughters to distract Gautama Buddha because he was afraid of the power that he was accumulating. However, that idea never worked and once more he was forced to send an army of devils to destroy him completely. Far from that, Mara also sent a destructive weapon that is capable of cleaving mountains to distract Gautama but the efforts were still useless. The monk remained motionless and continued with his meditation.

From Gautama’s efforts and commitment he deserved some credit. Thankfully his first success came when he learnt that he was given the name Buddha to mean awakening. The awakening had come during a night of meditation where he was passed through several stages of illumination. He learnt about the conditions of all beings and the respective causes of their rebirths. He saw people undergoing births, deaths and transmigration.

Personally I highly appreciate his meditating about people’s pain because it provided a significant breakthrough of understanding different cycles that affects life. Most importantly, Gautama’s religious initiatives provided a remarkable platform for drawing a line of distinction and similarities between Hinduism and Buddhism. Hinduism and Buddhism both believe in the samsara cycle that is famously known as endless cycle of births. In addition, the two religions have been seeking release from the cycle throughout their existence. Also, the two religions are similar in the essence that our past deeds impact our present and future existence.

Furthermore, Gautama’s religious mission has assisted many people to understand that Hinduism and Buddhism are also devoted to developing strong relationship with the spiritual existence. Despite their similarities, Hinduism believe in everlasting souls whereas people who believe in Buddhism have lived to believe that there was no permanent soul but rather a collection of perceptions, feelings, and senses that constituted all living things. In retrospect to that, Hinduism that has thousands of goddesses and gods believes that each of them represent supreme gods whereas in Buddhism people believed that there was no need of committing themselves to a single god. Most importantly, they believed that people were responsible for all their doings and that their supreme god would never intervene and help them under such circumstances.