Buddha also known as Siddartha was born around 563 BC, in a small kingdom of Kapilvastu. His father was king Suddodana and his mother was queen Maya. He was named Siddhartha meaning ‘a man who achieves his goals’. His mother died shortly after his birth.

Soon after Prince Siddhartha was born, A wise man predicted that this child would be either a great secular ruler or a great religious leader. When the king heard this news he was upset, he wanted his son to become a ruler. “I will make life in the palace so pleasant that our son will never want to leave,” says King to Queen Maya.

Siddhartha grew up in an upper class family. At the age of 16, he got married to a princess, Yosodhara. She conceived in due course and gave birth to a boy, who was called Rahula. The king built them three palaces to live, one for each season. They both loved their life and never thought of life outside of the palace.

Siddhartha’s father Suddhodana wanted his son to become the political ruler predicted at his birth. Siddhartha’s father conspired to protect his son from any religious aspirations by giving him a life of pleasure and privilege, and by preventing him from seeing the harsher sides of reality. His plan eventually failed. Siddhartha managed to explore his society and was profoundly disturbed by finding out about old age, sickness and death. 

Eventually the tensions between cozy and familiar home life and the challenge of suffering and death became too much. Siddhartha left home on his own, as tradition has it slipping away in the dead of night, leaving his family in despair. In a dramatic moment, deep in the wilderness, he abandoned his horse and cropped his hair. He became a religious wanderer, and sought out the company of others doing the same. He traveled south into the neighboring kingdom of Magadha.

Siddhartha learned meditation by teachers, including the masters Alara Kalama and Uddaka Ramaputta. They taught him meditation methods by which his mind could be calmed and enter more and more refined states of 'one-pointed' serenity, in which awareness of the outside world recedes. Although these experiences are powerful and satisfying in themselves, they do not last. Once his meditation was finished, he returned to being as before.

Siddhartha relocated to a spot near this pleasant village in the far west of Magadha, where he took up a completely different course of action. Siddhartha went under exposure to the heat of the sun without protection; avoiding a single physical posture, such as lying or sitting down; holding one’s breath; or fasting by reducing food intake progressively until surviving on tiny amounts of food. The idea was that one could wear down the physical influence of one’s being and release the soul.