Go now, and travel for the happiness of many

After his enlightenment, the Buddha spent the rainy season vassa in the Deer Park at Isipatana. In the first week of that rainy season, the Buddha proclaimed his Teachings to the first five monks[1] and preached his first discourse -- 'Setting the Wheel of Truth' S56-011. During the first speech, one student obtained the first degree of holiness sotapatti; during the second discourse [2] that the Buddha gave shortly afterwards, all five attained the highest degree of holiness arahatship and thus became the first five arahat disciples of the Buddha. Before the rainy season was over, fifty-five others in the same manner. And so the Enlightened One made known the Dhamma and set in motion the 'Mighty Wheel of Law'. With the announcement of the Dhamma for the first time and with the conversion of the five ascetics, the Deer Park at Isipatana (Sarnath) became the birthplace of the religion of the Buddha and of the Sangha, the community of monks, the initiated disciples.

The Buddha addressed his disciples, the perfected ones arahat, and said: "Freed am I, monks, from all bonds, human or divine. You too are freed from the bonds saññojana, human or divine. Go now, and travel for well-being and happiness of many, out of compassion for the world, for profit, well-being and the happiness of gods and men. Don't let two of you go in the same direction go up. Proclaim the Dhamma which is excellent in the beginning, excellent is in the middle, is excellent at the end, is meaningful, literally and absolutely perfect. Proclaim the life of purity, the holy life, perfect and pure. There are creatures with little dust in their eyes who will be lost if they do not hear the Dhamma. But there are also beings who will understand the Dhamma. I myself will go to Uruvela (Bodh Gaya), to Senanigama to teach the Dhamma ."

Thus the Buddha began his lofty mission which he continued until the end of survived his life. He walked the highways with his disciples and roads of Jambudipa, the land of the Rose-Apple (another name for India) surrounded by the aura of his boundless compassion and wisdom.