The next day (22 November), we drive to Sonauli on the Nepal border. We enter another land through the bazaar of Bhairawha heaped with acrylic blankets and Chinese goods. Vendors surround our coach with offers of lace doilies and velvet mats. The Lumbini grove, the site of Buddha’s birth, is 27 km from Sonauli. Here, Buddha was born to Mayadevi under a Sal tree in 565 BC. Three centuries later, Asoka visited Lumbini and erected the Rummendei Pillar. Most of the area, also comprising the Mayadevi Temple and tank, remains unexplored.
It has been a gruelling two days and we have to travel 150 km back to Gorakhpur station. The roads are bad and the air-conditioning fails. The toilets are alfresco. A hot cup of tea at the dhaba makes us forget we are in the Gorakhpur badlands. We reach the station at about 10 pm. “On the first day I had thought the cabins could do with some cosmetic makeup, but today I feel I’ve come home,” says dapper Japanese artist Tsuyoshi Ozuma, dust in his ears, his hair, his face. Some, however, complain they wanted more time in Lumbini. As for me, I missed my Twinings Darjeeling. Bharti is mean and says I should have put some bags in my hot water bottle.
At 5.30 on Day 7 we reach Gonda station and groan to an otherwise soothing morning call of Sangham Sharanam Gachami, hoping to sleep more. From there, a two-hour bus ride takes us to Saravasti where Buddha spent 19 rainy seasons. He took his begging bowl and preached, but when it rained he stayed. Nearby is Sankisa, where he is said to have performed some miracles. Buddhism, however, scorns at miracles.
The day gets warmer, and at the Lotus Hotel in Saravasti I ask to tour the vegetable gardens. Can I have some fresh radish with some rock salt sprinkled? The obliging staff fetches it, with some homegrown yellow limes.
Saravasti, or Sahet Mahet, is where a rich merchant Sudatta, later known as Anathapindika (incomparable alms giver) lived. On a visit to Rajgir he heard Buddha’s sermon. He invited Buddha and began to look for a place to build a vihara — it came to be known as Jetavahana vihara after a donation from Prince Jeta, son of Saravasti’s king Presanajit. Here too is the Ananda Bodhi tree. It was brought as a cutting from the Bodhi tree at Anuradhapura in Sri Lanka, grown from a sapling of the original tree at Bodh Gaya. At the tree, our Sri Lankan friends have a priest perform a puja.
At a short distance is the site of the only miracle Buddha performed. He is said to have levitated on a lotus with a thousand petals causing fire and water to leap out of his body. A Thai-built golden Buddha smiles upon us as we take photos.
It has been a hectic few days. We are headed for our final destination, Agra, as our foreign companions wanted to see the Taj. Meanwhile I mull over the journey I undertook. It’s amazing that Buddha walked just these few hundred kilometres in his life and yet what he imbibed influenced the minds of men down centuries. Even Al Gore in his documentary, An Inconvenient Truth, says that coexistence with nature is a philosophy derived from Buddha’s teachings, which are now relevant to a nuclear world.
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