The
Spread of the Dhamma
Thereafter
the Buddha spent the vassa n28
at the Deer Park at Isipatana, sacred this day to over 600 million
of the human race. During these three months of "rains"
fifty others headed by Yasa, a young man of wealth, joined the
Order. Now the Buddha had sixty disciples, all arahats who had
realized the Dhamma and were fully competent to teach others.
When the rainy season ended, the Master addressed his immediate
disciples in these words:
"Released
am I, monks, from all ties whether human or divine. You also
are delivered from all fetters whether human or divine. Go now
and wander for the welfare and happiness of many, out of compassion
for the world, for the gain, welfare, and happiness of gods
and men. Let not two of you proceed in the same direction. Proclaim
the Dhamma that is excellent in the beginning, excellent in
the middle, and excellent in the end, possessed of meaning and
the letter and utterly perfect. Proclaim the life of purity,
the holy life consummate and pure. There are beings with little
dust in their eyes who will be lost through not hearing the
Dhamma, there are beings who will understand the Dhamma. I also
shall go to Uruvelâ, to Senânigama, to teach the
Dhamma."n29
Thus
did the Buddha commence his sublime mission, which lasted to
the end of his life. With his disciples he walked the highways
and byways of India enfolding all within the aura of his boundless
compassion and wisdom. Though the Order of Monks began its career
with sixty bhikkhus, it expanded soon into thousands, and, as
a result of the increasing number of monks, many monasteries
came into being. In later times monastic Indian universities
like Nâlandâ, Vikramasilâ, Jagaddalâ,
Vikramapuri, and Odantapuri, became cultural centres which gradually
influenced the whole of Asia and through it the mental life
of humankind.
After
a successful ministry of forty-five years the Buddha passed
away at the age of eighty at the twin Sâla Trees of the
Mallas at Kusinârâ (in modern Uttara Pradesh about
120 miles northeast of Benâres).n30
