Buddha Jayanti or also known as Buddha Purnima is the most sacred festivals of Buddhist. Buddha Purnima (Buddha Birthday) is celebrated in remembrance Lord Buddha. Lord Buddha is the founder of Buddhism. This day is the birth anniversary of Lord Buddha. It falls on the full moon of the fourth lunar month (month of Vaisakh) i.e. April or May. This day commemorates three important events of Buddha’s life

– His birth in 623 BC.
– His enlightment i.e. attainment of supreme wisdom, in 588 BC.
– His attainment of Nirvana i.e. the complete extinction of his self at the age of 80.

According to the Buddhism, sorrow and desire are the main cause of all the evil and suffering of this world. Lord Buddha advocated the Eightfold Path consisting of precepts like right conduct, right motive, right speech, right effort, right resolve, right livelihood, right attention and right meditation to gain mastery over suffering. It is only after following this path one can reach the ultimate aim of Nirvana. Nirvana is the transcendental state of complete liberation.

Buddha travelled far and wide teaching hundreds of followers. Even after death his disciples continued to spread his teachings.
Rich and poor alike were attracted by the simplicity of Buddha’s teaching and his emphasis on complete equality of all. Sarnath and Bodhgaya are two of the most important pilgrimage centres for the Buddhists. Gautam Buddha was not a god and the philosophy of Buddhism does not entail any theistic world-view. The teachings of the Buddha are solely to liberate human beings from the misery and sufferings of life.

Though Buddhism originated in India and the religion has gained tremendous popularity throughout the Far East in Asia, there are very few practising Buddhists in the country. The number of Buddhists in the world ranges “from less than two hundred million, to more than five hundred million, with the lower number closer to reality.”