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Kushinagar
Buddhist Pilgrimage |
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Last of the places of pilgrimage is
Kushinagar, where Shakyamuni entered mahaparinirvana. This was
the furthest he had reached on his final journey, which retraced
much of the road he had walked when many years before he had
left Kapilavastu. When he reached his eighty-first year, Buddha
gave his last major teaching - the subject was the thirty-seven
wings of enlightenment - and left Vulture's Peak with Ananda to
journey north. After sleeping at Nalanda he crossed the Ganges
for the last time at the place where Patna now stands and came
to the village of Beluva. Here the Buddha was taken ill, but he
suppressed the sickness and continued to Vaisali. This was a
city where Shakyamuni had often stayed in the beautiful parks
that had been offered to him. It was also the principal location
of the third turning of the wheel of Dharma.
While staying at Vaisali, Buddha thrice mentioned to Ananda a
buddha's ability to remain alive until the end of the aeon.
Failing to understand the significance of this Ananda said
nothing and went to meditate nearby. Shakyamuni then rejected
prolonging his own life-span. When Ananda learned of this later
he implored the Buddha to live longer but he was refused, for
his request had come too late.
 Coming
to Pava, the blacksmith's son Kunda offered him a meal which
included meat. It is said that all the buddhas of this world eat
a meal containing meat on the eve of their passing away. Buddha
accepted, but directed that no one else should partake of the
food. Later it was learned that the meat was bad. He told Ananda
that the merit created by offering an enlightened one his last
meal is equal to that of offering food to him just prior to his
enlightenment.
Between Pava and Kushinagar the Buddha rested near a village
through which a caravan had just passed. The owner of the
caravan, a Malla nobleman, came and talked to the Buddha. Deeply
moved by Shakyamuni's teachings, he offered the Buddha two
pieces of shining gold cloth. However, their luster was
completely outshone by Shakyamuni's radiance. It is said that a
buddha's complexion becomes prodigiously brilliant on both the
eve of his enlightenment and the eve of his decease.
The next day, when they arrived at the banks of the Hiranyavati
river south of Kushinagar, the Buddha suggested that they should
go to the caravan leader's sala grove. There, between two pairs
of unusually tall trees, Shakyamuni lay down on his right side
in the lion posture with his head to the north. Ananda asked if
Rajgir or Shravasti, both great cities, would perhaps be more
fitting places for his passing. The Buddha replied that in an
earlier life as a bodhisattva king this had been Kushavati his
capital, and at that time there had been no fairer nor more
glorious city.
The noblemen of Kushinagar, informed of the Buddha's impending
death, came to pay him respect. Among them was Subhadra, an
120-year-old brahmin who was much respected, but whom Ananda had
turned away from the monkshood three times. However, the Buddha
called the brahmin to his side, answered his questions
concerning the six erroneous doctrines, and revealed to him the
truth of the buddhist teaching. Subhadra asked to join the
Sangha and was thus the last monk to be ordained by Shakyamuni.
Subhadra then sat nearby in meditation, swiftly attained
arhantship and entered parinirvana shortly before Shakyamuni.
 As
the third watch of the night approached, the Buddha asked his
disciples thrice if there were any remaining perplexities
concerning the doctrine or the discipline. Receiving silence, he
gave them the famous exhortation: "Impermanence is inherent in
all things. Work out your own salvation with diligence." Then,
passing through the meditative absorptions, Shakyamuni Buddha
entered mahaparinirvana. The earth shook, stars shot from the
heavens, the sky in the ten directions burst forth in flames and
the air was filled with celestial music. The master's body was
washed and robed once more, then wrapped in a thousand shrouds
and placed in a casket of precious substances.
For seven days, offerings were made by gods and men, after
which, amidst flowers and incense, the casket was carried to the
place of cremation in great procession. Some legends say that
the Mallas offered their cremation hall for the purpose. A pyre
of sweetly scented wood and fragrant oils had been built but, as
had been forefold, it would not burn until Mahakashyapa arrived.
When the great disciple eventually arrived, made prostrations
and paid his respects, the pyre burst into flames spontaneously.
After the cremation had been completed the ashes were examined
for relics. Only a skull bone, teeth and the inner and outer
shrouds remained. The Mallas of Kushinagar first thought
themselves most fortunate to have received all the relics of the
Buddha's body. However, representatives of the other eight
countries that constituted ancient India also came forth to
claim them. To avert a conflict, the Brahmin Drona suggested an
equal, eightfold division of the relics between them. Some
accounts state that in fact Shakyamuni's remains were first
divided into three portions - one each for the gods, nagas and
men - and that the portion given to humans was then subdivided
into eight. The eight peoples each took their share to their own
countries and the eight great stupas were built over them. In
time these relics were again subdivided after Ashoka had decided
to build 84,000 stupas. Today they are contained in various
stupas scattered across Asia.
 In
later times Fa Hien found monasteries at Kushinagar, but when
Hsuan Chwang came, the site was almost deserted. Hsuan Chwang
did see an Ashoka stupa marking Kunda's house, the site of
Buddha's last meal. Commemorating the mahaparinirvana was a
large brick temple containing a recumbent statue of Buddha.
Beside this was a partly ruined Ashoka stupa and a pillar with
an inscription describing the event. Two more stupas
commemorated former lives of the Buddha at the place. Both
Chinese pilgrims mention a stupa where Shakyamuni's protector
Vajrapani threw down his sceptre in dismay after Buddha's death,
and some distance away a stupa at the place of cremation and
another built by Ashoka where the relics were divided.
Kushinagar was rediscovered and identified before the end of the
last century. Excavations have revealed that a monastic
tradition flourished here for a long time. The remains of ten
different monasteries dating from the fourth to the eleventh
centuries have been found. Most of these ruins are now enclosed
in a park, in the midst of which stands a modern shrine housing
a large recumbent figure of the Buddha. This statue was
originally made in Mathura and installed at Kushinagar by the
monk Haribhadra during the reign of King Kumaragupta (415-56
CE), the alleged founder of Nalanda Monastery. When discovered
late in the last century the statue was broken but it has now
been restored. Behind this shrine is a large stupa dating from
the Gupta age. This was restored early in this century by the
Burmese. Not far away a small temple built on the Buddha's last
resting place in front of the sala grove has also been restored.
Some distance east a large stupa, now called Ramabhar, remains
at the place of the cremation.
On one side of the park a former Chinese temple has been
reopened as an international meditation centre. Next to it
stands a large Burmese temple. On the south side of the park is
a small Tibetan monastery with stupas in the Tibetan style
beside it. Thus also at Kushinagar one can see dharmic
activities alive even today.
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