Buddha: The Light of Asia

S.M. wijayaratne
(Kurunegala Daily News Corr.)

Most Western readers of the older generation had their impression of the Buddha from this poem.Sir Edwin used the image of a tree to represent mankind, and the Fully-Awakened One was depicted as a flower on that particular tree. This flower blooms only once in a myriad years, which means that humanity would have to wait for an immense period of time for this extra ordinary flower to bloom. But once it blooms, it fills the whole universe with its fragrance of wisdom. And the love and compassion contained in it, is as sweet as honey.The analogy of a flower is apt to describe the Fully-Awakened One. A flower emerges from a tree complete in its own glory.

“This is that Blossom on our human tree
Which opens once in many myriad years
But opened, fills the world with wisdom’s scent
And Love’s dropped honey.”


We find this great verse in Sir Edwin Arnold’s famous poem on the life of the Budha, ‘Light of Asia’. When it was first published, more than a century ago, it took England and the United States by storm.

It ran to sixty editions in England and 80 editions in the United States in the course of a few years.

Few hundred thousand copies were sold at a time when there were neither best-seller lists, nor the Book-of-the-Month Club.

Most Western readers of the older generation had their impression of the Buddha from this poem.

Sir Edwin used the image of a tree to represent mankind, and the Fully-Awakened One was depicted as a flower on that particular tree.

This flower blooms only once in a myriad years, which means that humanity would have to wait for an immense period of time for this extra ordinary flower to bloom. But once it blooms, it fills the whole universe with its fragrance of wisdom.

And the love and compassion contained in it, is as sweet as honey.

The analogy of a flower is apt to describe the Fully-Awakened One.

A flower emerges from a tree complete in its own glory.

Even though it gets strength and sustenance from the tree, it does so off its own effort, without the assistance of any supernatural creator.

It is not necessary to explain why it is enchanting.

The Buddha too, simply ‘is’ the Buddha, the fully self Enlightened One, who depends on no god or follower of his existence.

The fragrance of wisdom and the honey-sweet loving kindness of the Buddha are attested to by many well-known poets, scholars, philosophers, historians, scientists, psychologists, free-thinkers, rationalists and even by agnostics.

They have identified Him as an enlightened and liberal religious teacher who had rendered a great service to the mankind through His rational interpretation of the ultimate truth.

Can he be considered as a human being after enlightenment?

The answer was given by the Buddha to Drona, a brahmin, who noticed his footprints and realised at once that he could be no ordinary being. He went up to the Buddha and asked if he was a god, a heavenly musician or a demon. T

he Buddha answered, ‘No’ to all these questions. when he was asked whether he was a human being, the Buddha again answered that he was not.

When asked who he was, the Buddha replied calmly to the Brahmin Drona that he had eradicated all defilements which condition rebirth as a god, heavenly musician, a demon or a human being. He further said.

‘As a lotus, fair and lovely,

By the water is not soiled,

By the world I am not soiled

Therefore, Brahmin, I am Buddha.”

When the Buddha attained Enlightenment, he could no longer be regarded as an ordinary human being in the normal sense of the world. He had attained the absolute state of the Unconditioned, the Eternal unlike a normal human being who is bound to this planet by time and space.

In addition, his mental state was at the supermundane level, not at the mundane level of unenlightened beings. He did not belong to any category of beings who were still bound in the cycle of births and deaths.

What meaning has the Enlightenment of the Buddha for us?

Firstly, the Buddha made us realize our true potential for Enlightenment, that is, our Buddha nature. He dispelled the darkness of ignorance and encouraged us to develop our wisdom to the fullest.

Through the practise of the Dhamma, we can develop spiritual insights into the real nature of things and hence, be no longer enslaved by delusion and selfish motivations in the mind.

He gives full credit to human intelligence and urges us to awaken the vast potential for spiritual growth and transformation that lie hidden in everyone of us. The great human tragedy is our failure to understand this vast potential.

We are like the farmer who lives a miserable life not realising that there is a pot of gold hidden in his own paddyfield.

Through systematic spiritual cultivation, we can cast away our self-imposed limitations and be totally liberated.

He, the Buddha opens the gate to liberation to all without discrimination. Caste, class, race, sex or religious labels meant little to Him.

All can benefit immensely from the Dhamma if we strive diligently to cultivate various noble virtues, self-discipline and the mind. May all beings be well and happy. May all of you realise the Four Noble Truths in no time.