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Half a century ago, in 1956, several important events took place. Among these, Buddhists all over the world celebrated the Buddha Jayanti. At home, the U.N.P., which had been the governing political party since Independence, was defeated at a landmark general election, and S. W. R. D. Bandaranaike became Prime Minister.

Having completed my academic career that year, I sat for the degree examination at the University of Ceylon (Colombo Campus). While awaiting our results, a few of us undergraduates went on a “goodwill mission” to India, funded by the Asia Foundation.

We travelled throughout India by train. One night we stopped at a place, which we were told, was close to Buddha Gaya. Although it was not on our itinerary, we decided to go there the next day. By a coincidence, we arrived in Buddha Gaya on Buddha Jayanti Day. The first thing that struck us on our arrival was the intense heat, felt even in the morning. We were advised not to walk on the tarred road in the afternoon, since there was a tendency for the tar to melt! In fact, on our way we noticed special rooms set up in railway stations to treat people suffering from heat stroke. This was the height of summer, and even now, the pilgrim season ends before Vesak.

We found accommodation in the premises of the Maha Bodhi Society. Shortly before leaving for the temple, I went to take a cold shower, but had to take quick evasive action from the water, as it was scorching hot. By late evening, we walked the short distance across the road to the temple. I have no doubt that all temples in Sri Lanka would have been full of worshippers that night. Yet this was not the case in Buddha Gaya. Admittedly, there was a large number of people including foreigners and those from surrounding areas, but not in the number this premier place of Buddhist worship should have attracted. UNESCO has in fact declared it a World Heritage Site in 2003.

Although there was no great ceremony, the Chaitya, restored by the great British archaeologist Cunningham, was floodlit. The place was not developed as it is now. I quickly sat down, and felt a deep sense of spirituality engulfing me, a feeling I have experienced on all seven occasions I have been there. There was a bright moon in the clear sky. If I remember right, there was an eclipse of the moon that night, which may not have been visible in Sri Lanka.

A short while after entering the temple, some officials requested us to join the others to form a procession to go round the temple. We were told that Prime Minister Nehru had instructed the Indian Film Unit to record the event. So people of several nationalities joined to pay homage to the Blessed One. A copy of this film, Nehru’s tribute to the Buddha, may be available in the archives of the Indian Film Unit.

For my part, I thought I too would try to take a photograph. I had a small Kodak ‘Baby Brownie’ camera, several years old, without any fancy fittings or a flash. I clicked it as we went along. Imagine my surprise when I looked at the film after it had been developed on my return home. There was a discernible picture of the floodlit Chaitya with the moon in the background. I presented an enlarged copy of this to the Chief Monk in Buddha Gaya some years later, and he has carefully stored it. He informed me that copies of this historic photograph are taken to be reproduced in articles and magazines.

Having experienced the intense heat prevailing there at that time of the year, I could not help marvelling at the Buddha’s resolve in enduring such hardships in His quest to end the sufferings of humanity. The Bodhi tree, which gave Him shelter, is unique, in that while its branches sway in the breeze, each leaf flutters independently giving a cooling effect. I then understood why the Buddha showed such gratitude to this tree.

From the banks of the Neranjana Ganga nearby, you can see the Dungeshwari Hills in the distance, where the Buddha underwent great physical torment in His search for the Truth. He left behind all the comforts available to Him as a Prince and underwent extreme hardship instead. In Buddha Gaya, I was able to see and experience the conditions that would have prevailed at the time He achieved Enlightenment.

My next visit to Buddha Gaya was thirty years later. On that occasion, I was pleasantly surprised by what I saw. The whole place had been renovated and landscaped. No doubt, the Indian Government had realised the importance of Buddhist places of worship to attract tourists, and had decided to make them accessible and presentable. In Buddha Gaya there are boards placed at different places in close proximity to each other, indicating the places where the Buddha is supposed to have spent a week at a time for seven weeks after His Enlightenment. Sarnath, where He preached His first sermon eight weeks later on Esala Full Moon Day, is 160 miles away. This was the monsoon season and the terrain would have been rough. The five ascetics in Sarnath saw Him approaching them from afar, on foot. I found it difficult to believe that He could have walked that distance in one week. Poson, the first Full Moon Day after Enlightenment, would have been spent in quiet contemplation, and had no particular significance at that time, although it is important to us on account of Thera Mahinda’s visit.

Later, on my first visit to Jetavanaramaya, an erudite Sri Lankan monk conducted our group round the place. Pointing to a pathway made of stonework, he said that that was the bed on which the Buddha had slept. He stated further that when God Sakra came to meet Him and stood at His feet he could not see the head! This was even more difficult for me to believe. Just a few feet away was the Gandhakuti Vihara, where the Buddha had resided. It was a room of normal size, with a raised platform, where He may have reposed. He would have been a person of average height. The Mulagandhakuti Vihara in Sarnath is the same size. There are similar rooms among the ruins of Nalanda University where the student monks had resided. They are also the same size. On a visit to Stratford-on-Avon, I have seen the bed on which Shakespeare had slept. It was small. The doorways of our ancient ruins are comparatively short. This shows that human beings have got taller and bigger with the passage of time.

However, I did not have to wait long to clear my doubts. I read that recent research indicates that the Buddha had spent only four weeks in Buddha Gaya after His Enlightenment. The first week had been spent with His back to the Bodhi tree, not gazing as it, as some believe. He had spent the next three weeks successively under the Ajapala tree, the Mucalinga (Midella) tree, and the Kiripalu tree. He would have sought shelter under the trees from the sun and the rain. So He had four weeks to walk to Sarnath, 160 miles away, stopping no doubt for rest and shelter. This is most likely what would have happened. I can now erase from my mind the picture of the large hooded snake that sheltered a puny Buddha, as found in Buddha Gaya, to indicate where He is alleged to have spent the sixth week. By then, He would have been halfway to Sarnath.

On my next visit to Jetavanaramaya, I met the same monk who had conducted us round on my earlier visit. On inquiring about the Buddha’s bed, he sheepishly informed me that he had found out that it was a path used for walking meditation!

Before my first visit to India, I read books written by Pundit Nehru. I found his references to the Buddha and his doctrine refreshing and inspiring. Subsequently, I visited his official residence in New Delhi, now preserved as a national monument. I was struck by the number of Buddha statues placed in important places in the house. It is reported that in the hall where the ceremony to grant Independence to India was held, there was a large Buddha statue. Lord Mountbatten had asked Nehru why it was placed there, and Nehru is said to have replied, “The Buddha is the greatest Indian.”

While working abroad in several countries I went to their libraries and read several books on Buddhism written by foreign authors. Their approach was rational and incisive. Inspired by my first visit to Buddha Gaya and what I had read, I felt a strong urge to go in search of the historical Buddha, and visited Dambadiva on several occasions. Thanks to painstaking excavations done in recent times, a large number of places associated with the Buddha have been identified and the events that took place in His lifetime can be visualised.

Of the more important ones is the pond in Lumbini from which water was obtained to bathe the newborn Siddhartha. In Buddha Gaya there is the Bodhi tree, and in Sarnath, places where He delivered His famous sermons have been demarcated. At Mata Kaur on Kusinara there is a statue depicting the pain on the Buddha’s face, at the spot where He rested with His stomach ailment. The Kakutha Nadiya, from where Ananda brought Him water to drink, still flows close by. Finally, there is the Ramabha Stupa where He was cremated after His Parinibbana.

One wonders what impact the Buddha and the great religious leaders of the past would have had on mankind, if they had access to the sophisticated and modern means of satellite communication available today. The Buddha walked from place to place in a part of northern India, over a period of four and a half decades to preach His doctrine. In Kusinara, the statue of the Buddha in the reclining pose after his Parinibbana, done by Haribala, shows the soles of His feet swollen indicating the extent and effect of His walking.

Having associated with the highest in the land as well as the common people, all of whom venerated and adored Him, He chose to conclude His efforts and seek the bliss of Nibbana, in isolation, with only His faithful Ananda in attendance, at the ripe old age of 80 years.

This is not the story of just the greatest Indian, as Nehru had claimed, but surely the greatest human being that ever lived. In Nehru’s own words: “We live in an age of conflict and war, of hatred and violence, all over the world. Never before has the need been greater for all of us to remember that immortal message, which Lord Buddha, the greatest and the noblest of the sons of India, gave to us, and to you, and to all the world. That message of two thousand five hundred years ago is a living message today, enshrined in our hearts, and we draw inspiration from it to face the troubles and difficulties that threaten to overwhelm us.”