About ten months after her dream of a white elephant, Queen Maha Maya travels to her father’s country to give birth. On the way to the Koliya country, the great procession passed a garden called Lumbini Park, which lay in the foothills of the Himalayas. It was a beautiful grove of Sāla trees with scented flowers and busy birds and bees. Since the park was a good resting place, the queen ordered the bearers to stop for a while. As she rested underneath one of the sala trees, her birth began and a baby boy was born. It was an auspicious day. The birth took place on a full moon (which is now celebrated as Vesak, the festival of the triple event of the Buddha’s Birth, Enlightenment and Death).
The baby took seven steps and proclaimed:
I am superior among the living beings of the three worlds! I am the greatest among the living beings of the three worlds! I am the most exalted among the living beings of the three worlds! This is my last birth! There is no more rebirth for me!