BUDDHA stamp released on 02 05 2007
| Denomination :500,500,500,500,500,500p Stamps Printed : 0.6 Million each Date of Issue : 02-05-2007 Theme : Personality
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“The Kind of seed sown will produce that kind of fruit. Those who will do good, will reap good results.
Those who will do evil, will reap evil results.
If you carefully plant a good seed, you will joyfully gather good fruit.”
A spiritual teacher and the historical founder of ‘Buddhism’, Siddhartha Gautama is universally recognized by Buddhists as ‘Supreme Buddha’ of our age. Any person, who has awakened from the ’sleep of ignorance’, is called a Buddha. Siddhartha Gautama, the Buddha, is thus only one among many other Buddhas before and after him. His teachings are oriented towards attainment of this kind of awakening, also called enlightenment, bodhi, liberation of nirvana. Any person achieving this state through the teachings of a Buddha becomes an arahant. The personal name of Buddha, ‘the Enlightened’, was Siddhartha, but he was better known by his gotra name Gautama. He was also called Sakyasimha, the Lion of the Sakya, and Sakyamuni, ‘ the Sakyan sage’, as he was born in the Kshatriya clan of the Sakyas, of which his father Suddhodana was the chief. The latter’s capital was at Kapilavastu. Buddha was born in Lumbini(in present day Nepal) and died around 80 years later in Kushinagar(India). He was born in 563 or 566 B.C. In the five centuries following the Buddhas’s passing, Buddhism spread like a wave throughout the Indian subcontinent, and in Asia where it has flourished for over two millenia. Today Buddhism continues to attract followers around the globe, and is one of the major world religions.At the age of 80, buddha announced that he would enter ‘Parinirvana’ or the final deathless state, abandoning the earthy body and attaining freedom from the cycles of birth and rebirth.Ever since ,Kushinagar in India has been turned into a glorious memorial site of the Mahaparinivana-vihar and Makutabandhana-vihara built by devot Kings and followers.In fact,the purnima or full-moon in the month of Vaisakha is connected with three important events in the life of the Buddha,his janana or birth,his attainment of jnana or enlightenment, and his mahaparinivana or achievement of the unconditioned state.It is therefore,the most sacred day in the Buddhist calendar. The Department of Posts is proud to release a set of six postage stamps on the ‘Buddha’ to commemorate the occasion.
The first stamp depicts a statue from the Gandhara period of Siddhartha when he was still a prince.
The second stamp shows a sculpture from Myanmar where Buddha is an ascetic having renounced royal luxuries to meditate on the essential Truth.
The third stamp depicts the blissful head of the meditating Buddha from sarnath India,also done in the Gandhara style.
The fourth stamp depicts the Bhumisparsha Buddha holding the nector of immortality in a jar.
Some of the numerous incarnations of Buddha,past and future as well as part of the cycle of creation and dissolution of the many worlds feature in the fifth stamp.
Himalayan symbols such as the Lotus indicating the blossoming of inner harmony which is the basis of all existence, and the dharma chakra with the various stages of development is shown in the sixth stamp.
