________________
268
cubits in length. The form in which the grass spread was very beautiful. Not even an artist or a skilled craftsman could have produced such a superb thing. The Buddha turned his back towards the bodhi tree, and with a complete concentration of mind, he resolved.
'Even if I am reduced to mere skin, sinews or bones, even if my body, flesh and blood dry up, I shall not move out from this seat till I attain enlightenment',
Having made a resolve like this, he sat in an appropriate posture on his cushion which was proof even against the stroke of lightening.
To remove him from that seat, Māra created storm, rain shower of stones, of weapons, of burning charcoal, of hot ashes, of dust and of mud; he created dark shadows; but he could not be effective. Before the sun was down, he admitted his own defeat and departed. At that time, the sprouts of the bodhi tree were dropping on the Buddha's garment, and it looked as if he was being worshipped by the shower of red ming. During the first one third of the night (yå ma), he received Fnlightenment about his previous birth; during the second one-third, his divine sight became purified; and in the final one-third, he witnessed Dependent Origination (paticca -samuppada). The 8000 space-gaps (lokantara) between the cakravālas, which were never sufficiently lighted even by the rays of the seven suns, became lighted at this time in all the directions. The waters of the great oceans, 84000 yojanas deep, became sweet. The flow of the rivers came to a stand still. The born-blind got vision, the de af had their faculty of hearing restored the lame walked. The hand-cuffs and chains of the convicts broke and dropped down; they were thus liberated. Many surprising events took place at this time (3).
The description of bodhi is much more hype rbolic than that of the kaivalya. In Mahavira's attainment of the kaivalya, we have description of the arrival of gods; in the Buddha's attainment of the bodhi, we have description of the arrival of men. Both the accounts are, however, similar in their description of strange and supernatural events. Conclusion
On the question of omniscience, the Buddhistic view is that whatever the Buddha desired to know, he couid know,
