The Buddha had withstood the worst attacks of Mara. Finally, the Evil One retreated and the angry storm which he had raised died away. Now the mind of the Blessed One relaxed into peace. The great darkness faded away and the full moon and stars reappeared again. The lord passed into deep meditation, passing beyond the limits of human understanding, seeing the world as it is and not as it appears to be. Like an eagle soaring effortlessly to the sun, His mind moved swiftly onward and upward. He saw his past lives and all his former births, with their good and evil deeds with their gains and losses. As His mind soared and death of all mankind. He saw beings born repeatedly and die according to their Kamma.
Those who did good deeds were rewarded with heavenly births. Though these rewards lasted longer than the joys of earth, they were impermanent. Those who were suffering in hells would also continue in the round of rebirth. All being are caught in the world of ignorance and suffering.
As His vision became ever clearer like crystal, he saw the so called soul of man which man claims as his own, broken up into parts and laid before him like the unwoven threads of a garment. He saw the cause of the chain of existence-Ignorance. For the ignorant man, clinging to things that are worthless, transient creates in himself more and more dangerous illusions. But when desire dies, illusion end, and ignorance vanishing like the night, the sun of Enlightenment would shine.
And having understood the world as it is, the Lord was perfected in wisdom, never to be born again. Craving and evil desire had been completely eradicated, as a fire goes out for lack of fuel. Bathed in the brilliant light of all wisdom and Truth sat the Buddha, the Perfect One. And about Him the world lay calm and bright and a soft breeze lifted the leaves of the Bodhi Tree. Filled with compassion, the lord sat beneath the Tree, in deep contemplation of the Dhamma. He was lost in bliss, in the perfect peace of Nibbana. At dawn after His Enlightenment, the Buddha uttered this paean of joy:
"Thro’ many a birth in Samsara wandered I Seeking, but not finding, the builder of this house. Sorrowful is repeated birth. O house-builder, thou art scene; Thou shalt build no house again. All thy rafters are broken, thy ridge pole is shattered. The mind attains the unconditioned. Achieved is the end of craving."
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