Sujata

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

for the Bimal Roy film see Sujata (film)

[edit] Origin

Sujata, means well bred or coming from a good family. It also means, 'one who brings luck'. It is sometimes spelt as 'Sujatha'. Sujata was the name of the girl who gave Gautama, the future Buddha the meal, that allowed him to complete his goal of Nirvana.

Due to the Bodhisats ascetic practices, he had eaten so little that he became like a skeleton. He found that this was not the way to enlightenment. Sujata, thinking the bodhisat to be a god, offered him her meal. It was the full-moon day of Vaisakha (May) he accepted boiled rice and sour milk from Sujata, near Uruvela. Gautama began to eat the food underneath the shadow of a large tree, which came to be called the great Bodhi tree or the tree of wisdom. Gautama sat in a meditative mood underneath the tree from early morning to sunset, with a fiery determination and an iron resolve.