Reflections on Vesak Day

Māra, the one who attempted to rob the throne of Lord Buddha and claimed himself Bodhisattva (Part - 1)

This article was written in the honor of the Buddha on the coming Vesak Day of 2022, and reflecting the situations of Myanmar today from the perspective of a Burmese Buddhist activist. This reflects only the perspective of the author, and not that of any religious organization or leader. This article is more religiously emphasized and based on an analytical study according to the Theravadin Buddhist tradition meanwhile it is also a critique on the moment of the Enlightened One’s victory over the celestial demon, namely, Mara. This is also partly a satire exposing and criticizing Myanmar's military coup indirectly, from a specifically Theravada Buddhist perspective. I invite all readers from a meditative background to consider what follows.

These days, I have been meditating Buddhānusati-bhāvanā (a meditative practice recalling Buddha’s qualities), which means contemplating by myself about the compassion and loving kindness towards all beings that the Buddha displayed. In doing so, I can understand how this great man passed his journey of 45 years of spreading his human-centric teachings, how he had overcome the worldly conditions of praise or blame, etc. We, the people of today, should deeply look into the incidents which took place in his time, and from these, we can find him as a good model and learn more about his path. This includes his enlightenment (beneath the Bo tree) period, assaults by other religious leaders who started to attack him from the time he first arrived in Rajgir (the capital city of Magdadha Kingdom  in those times), etc. It is always interesting to study the stories wherein these contemporaries gave up their plans and plots to attack Lord Buddha though they tried several times to accuse him and his disciple monks of the murder of Sundarī, the pragancy of beautiful Cinca Manavika, etc. Not only the contemporaries’ attacks, the Lord Buddha also experienced many attacks by Devadatta, his jealousy cousin and brother-in-law, and the revenge of Suppabuddha, his maternal uncle and father-in-law. The Lord Buddha himself was not tormented mentally and physically by all these ignorant acts by these people but he even felt so much compassion for these ignorant people. In other incidents, he was also personally attacked by the beautiful proud Magandiya who put her revenge on him as he did not marry her and for his Dhamma words showing the unpleasantness of the body. The study-worth stories also include Angulimāla, the notorious murderer who had the mother-born nature of kindness and wisdom though he became cruel due to the wrongly-guided teacher, and could walk on the Noble Path finally meeting with Buddha. Not only the human beings’ stories, the drunk fierce elephant Nālāgiri which itself had a great intellectual as a human being but it was made drink liquor by Devadatta and sent out to the way where Buddha was walking alms-round, was well calmed down and tamed. The Enlightened One experienced the debates by his contemporaries such as the famous proud debater Saccaka, and finally the former’s defeats over them with a few words or a single answer or question, and through his converging compassion and loving kindness towards all those who attempted to compete or debate against. By reflecting upon all these experiences of the Lord Buddha and comparing them to ours in our life, we deeply become inspired by the Dhamma Path of the great master, Lord Buddha, and we ourselves can learn how to walk on the path. Through these modeling experiences of Lord Buddha, we become inspired in Dhamma and for our eternal liberation where we will not be shaken by any worldly conditions in this mundane world.

Among all these inspiring experiences of Lord Buddha, we can analytically study the Dhamma philosophies in the very first experience of his, soon after the enlightenment which he was assaulted by Māra, the notorious celestial rebel of Paranimmita-vasavatti Realm, or the celestial terrorist, or the chief leader of celestial terrorists. 

More than 2600 years ago, in the evening of Vesak Full Moon Day in Mahā Era - 103, the soon-to-be Buddha was meditating seated himself in cross-legged lotus position on the Unconquered Throne (in Pali, Aparājita Panlinca) in today’s Bodh Gaya, making a four-fold self-determination …

“(1) Let only the skin remain,

 (2) Let only the sinews remain,

 (3) Let only the bones remain,

 (4) Let my whole body, and all the flesh and blood dry up, 

unless and until I attain Buddhahood, I will not in any way change the cross-legged posture I have now assumed.” In the Great Chronicle of Buddha (the Myanmar State Buddha Sāsana Council’s Version), it defined, such “the Invincible (Aparājita) cross-legged posture (the posture for conquering the enemies, not for conceding defeat) which cannot be destroyed though struck simultaneously by hundreds of thunderbolts.” [According to the “Buddha Sāsanika Geography” written by the Agga Mahā Pandita - State’s Mahā Nāyaka - Venerable Taung Pauk Sayadaw, it states “Gaya(ဂယာ)” but not “Gāya(ဂါယာ)” as most of Myanmar people and some Indians pronounce.]

While he was sitting and meditating in such mighty perseverance, courage and determination, as the story goes, Sakka (in Pali, Indra and the celestial king of the lowermost and second lowermost celestial realms) came to pay homage and stood blowing the Vijayuttara conch (said its sound to be ceased only after four months when once blown), Pañcasikha Deva stood holding Beluva harp, Suyama Deva stood holding the yak-tail fly-flap, Santusita Deva stood holding the circular ruby fan, and Sahampati Brahma stood holding the white umbrella, and many other celestial beings, Brahmas and serpents arrived nearby the soon-to-be Buddha to pay homage. At that moment, Māra of Vassavati Deva World, riding on Girimekhala elephant which was 150-yojanās in size and being followed by the mighty hordes in twelve yojanās in front of him, twelve yojanās wide to his right and twelve to his left, nine yojanās high above him and in the rear it reached as far as the end of the ten thousand world-systems, marched in violence and loud noises towards the soon-to-be Buddha meditating beneath the Bodhi tree. (The term of distance or length ‘yojanā’ is approximately equal to 12 or 13 miles.)The frightening sounds of intimidations, shoutings and exclamations of the great armies of Mara could be heard from a distance of one thousand yojanās, just like that caused by an enormous landslide. As soon as the Mara armies approached to the Bodhi tree, bad omens appear distinctly: such as falling of very violent frightful meteors, falling of total darkness with the rising of haze, falling of mountain tops to the ground, toppling over of trees, blowing of violent storms and winds, appearance of fearful sounds, vanishing of the sun in the darkness and roaming about in the sky of headless bodies, etc.  At this short moment as Mara and his armies approached the soon-to-be Buddha, Indra and all Devas as well as Brahmas fled away from the Bodhi tree, dropping everything they were holding before. [Reference: The Great Chronicle of Buddha (the Myanmar State Buddha Sāsana Council’s Version) - Volume 2.]

Here, there is a question and a piece of note-worthy subject related to the reason why these Devas fled away in the scare of Mara. Indra, who is well known as ‘Sakka’ by Myanmar people and whose name in his former life as a human being was ‘Maga’ (not ‘Māga’), is the lawful chief ruler of the lowermost and second lowermost celestial realms, namely, Catu-mahārāja Realm and Tāvatimsa Realm. According to the Buddhist tradition, these two celestial realms are located very near to humankind. Tāvatimsa Realm is located at the top of Mount Meru. Above it, Yāma, Tussitā, Ninmānarati and Vassavati Realms are located in order. In short, each upper realm is happier than the lower one. For this reason, Indra must be scared of Mara, the demon Deva, in the upper realm than where he lives. Mara is actually not a lawful ruler of Vassavati Realm. The lawful ruler of the realm is ‘Vassavati Deva’. Mara is just a leader of a terrorist group of demon Devas. For this reason, too, other good celestial beings are scared of Mara just as good men are scared of evil men. For the Brahmas, they usually reside in their realms meditating ‘Metta-bhāvana (loving kindness contemplation)’ and hence, they do not just wish to deal with the demons. Also due to the nature of ‘more bad men than good ones’ as well as ‘more demon Devas than good ones’, and due to a huge number of Mara armies, these Devas must have fled. [Reference: “Questions and Answers on the problems in Buddhism” by the most venerable Tee-daw Htee-chyaint Sayadaw.]

After all Devas and Brahmas fled away in fear, the soon-to-be Buddha kept sitting and meditating with no fear, like the bird king Garuda in the midst of birds or like the lion king Kesaraja amidst beasts. This was because of all his merits and Pārami practices which he had fulfilled in all his previous existences. Mara and his armies could not thus enter the immediate vicinity of the Mahā Bodhi tree and approach the noble one. Hence, Mara could just give his hordes command, “O men, there is not a single person to match this Prince Siddhartha, the son of King Suddhodhana; we are unable to make a frontal attack on him; we shall attack from his rear.” However, the Mara armies could not somehow approach the noble one.
On surveying the three sides, the front and left and right, of him, the Bodhisattva did not see anything and any Devas paying homage but shouting Mara’s hordes. He thought to himself thus: “Such overwhelming numbers of Mara’s troops are making great efforts with the sole object of attacking me; there is neither my mother nor father, nor my brother nor any other relatives of mine here at this place. Only the ten Perfections which I have so long developed and nurtured will serve me as my companions and retinue; so relying on these comrades of mine, the ten Perfections, it will be proper to destroy these hordes of Mara through my Pārami weapons.” Then he remained reflecting on the meritorious deeds of his ten Perfections.