NAMAMI BUDDHAM GUNASAGARANTAM
I WORSHIP THE BUDDHA, AN OCEAN OF VIRTUE

To all Buddhists around the world, Vesak is a season of special holy significance.Vesak Full Moon is the holiest of all the full moon days. This particular full moon is associated with a whole series of events connected with the life of the Supremely Enlightened Buddha and with the progress of the Buddha's Dispensation.

These sacred events of the Vesak Full Moon season can be classified this way:

 The Buddha's birth as Prince Siddhartha took place on this day at Lumbini in Kapilavatthu (modern Nepal).

Ascetic Siddhartha Gautama attained Supreme Enlightenment on this day at Buddha Gaya under the sacred Bodhi Tree.

The Supreme Buddha's Great Demise (Parinibbana) happened on Vesak Full Moon day at Kusinara. In terms of the evolution of the Supremely Enlightened One in the course of His migrations in Samsara (Cycle of Rebirths) Vesak Full Moon possesses a tremendous significance.

The Aspirant Buddha, in His existence as Ascetic Sumedha, received his confirmation of the attainment of Buddhahood from Buddha Dipamkara on a Full Moon day.

The Supreme Buddha's display of His psychic powers through the performance of Yamaka Maha Patihariya (The Miracle of the Twin Wonders) took place on a Vesak Full Moon day. This event is a crucial turning point in His Dispensation as this convinced numerous skeptics  "doubters" - about the Supreme Buddha's Enlightenment.

In practical terms Vesak is celebrated mainly for the three-fold events in the life of the Buddha - Birth, Enlightenment and the Great Passing Away. In the whole of mankind no one else's birthday has been so regularly and without an interruption, celebrated for over 2,500 years. 

Generally, mankind does not celebrate year after year the spiritual victory won by an outstanding human hero. Even shattering military and political victories are not celebrated by mankind for so long and with such pageantry. These worldly victories tend to get forgotten and neglected with shifting military and political changes. But the celebration of the Buddha's Birth, Enlightenment and His Great Demise (Parinibbana) continues without a break, with ever-increasing vigour. 

To those who do not follow the Buddhist faith, the Birth and Enlightenment of the Buddha is also of the greatest significance when one considers the unique contribution made by the Buddha over 2500 years ago to the various branches of modern knowledge. 

Moreover, one marvels, whether he be a Buddhist or non-Buddhist, at the rational and scientific teachings of Buddhism, which indeed is in keeping with the scientific temper of this modern age. It is no wonder then that the brilliant minds and thinkers of the East and West have bowed their heads in reverence and acknowledged Gotama the Buddha as the greatest man ever born, beyond compare, the greatest combination of heart and mind that ever existed.

On this hallowed day, our hearts and minds are naturally directed to the Blessed One who through countless aeons strove earnestly and strenuously to gain supreme enlightenment, and proclaim the Dhamma for the benefit of gods and men. His Enlightenment at the Bodhi Tree, at Buddha Gaya, on this of memorable full moon day is of tremendous importance. It is an epoch making event in the annals of history, because He discovered the remedy for the ills of life and death. Moved by deep compassion and boundless love for suffering humanity He proclaimed the Dhamma which is glorious in the beginning, glorious in the middle and glorious in the end, for forty-five years which is unprecedented and unsurpassed by any other religious teacher.

BUDDHA'S ENLIGHTENMENT
The Buddha's Enlightenment is significant to us mortal beings because the Buddha as a man reached the acme of perfection and the pinnacle wisdom through his own inherent Powers without the aid of any supernatural agency or an omniscient God. This stupendous achievement of the Buddha gives us ordinary men, enmeshed as we are in the storms and tempests of life much encouragement and inspiration in that we ourselves could, if we make the necessary effort attain that glorious state of Buddhahood.

Among the world's religious teachers the Buddha alone has the glory of having rightly judged the intrinsic greatness of, Man's capacity to work out his own salvation without any extraneous aid. If the worth of a truly great man consists in his raising the worth of all mankind, who is better entitled to be called truly great, than the Blessed One, who instead of degrading man by placing another being over him, has exalted him to the highest pinnacle of wisdom and love. 

Therefore the Teachings of the Buddha holds out hope for the modem man, who is sunk in the mire and morass of drab materialism, by offering a path which leads to spiritual illumination and ultimate deliverance from physical and mental bondage. The Buddha was inviting man to move out of the entanglements of mental and spiritual slavery into the rarefied spiritual atmosphere of peace and perfection, which has been reserved for a specially graced person by other religions. In doing so, he has paid the highest tribute and singular honour to man.