April 2022

After wandering around day and night.
Gautama found a big peepal tree in sight.
Something about that tree.
Told him hell be set free.
He decided to meditate till he sees the light.

Many questions, no answers for even one.
Gautama wasn’t moving until he was done.
Sitting in a lotus position.
Finding truth, his only mission.
He started a journey inward, walked by none.

First, Mara, the evil demon came.
Trying to distract Gautama with his game.
Painting pictures of beauty and wealth.
Awful images of poverty and ill health.
Mara tried his best to lure him from his aim.

Gautama stayed undeterred and steadfast.
Mara’s disruptions weren’t going to last.
With Gautama, neither scared nor tempted.
And everything failed that was attempted.
Mara left with no successful spells to cast.

Now sitting deep in meditation so profound.
Gautama felt himself just floating around.
Countless deaths, multiple lives.
Many children, many wives.
No longer to this world or life was he bound.

All his past-births flashed before his eyes.
Where he was born and how he finally dies.
Past roles and professions.
Previous deeds and confessions.
All the good he had done, but also all his lies.

Gautama recognized when we desire things.
They are invariably attached with strings.
We keep coming back to earth.
From birth to death to rebirth.
This cruel cycle is what attachment brings.

And our intentional acts have future effect.
As if, we are reborn to correct past defect.
Each karma has a moral quality.
Karmaphal or its fruit, tied to causality.
And there is no “god” to judge or detect.

But to not collect karma is not life’s true goal.
Consciously control behavior, our one role.
Breaking free from the birth and death chain.
Ridding desires, our purpose main.
This liberation is the final frontier for a soul.

This journey to nirvana was all in his mind.
His body under the tree, one could still find.
His radiating skin.
Glowed from within.
Gautama became Buddha, one of a kind.