Gautama, as we all know, left home to discover a way to end all human misery. He became Buddha, the enlightened one, when one day in a flash the truth downed on him as he sat meditating under the Bodhi tree in Gaya.

He came back with practical solutions which even a layman could adopt. Those who followed him had to first accept and comprehend the four Noble Truths:

That worldly existence is full of misery;

That desire and attachment are the cause of worldly existence;

That worldly existence could be ended by keeping out desire and attachment;

That there is a way to do this.

The path he advocated was the well-known eight –fold path. Right speech, right  action mean of livelihood to achieve control on the physical plane; right-mindedness and right meditation to achieve mental strength and right resolution and right point of view for intellectual development.

That these guideline, when adhered to, bring peace of mind is borne out by the Buddhist tales that have came down to us. A few such tales, retold from the Buddhist literature have been included in this Chitra Katha.