Question: What happened after Siddhartha attained enlightenment? Did he not see God? Why was it impersonal?³

Sri Chinmoy: The Buddha spoke about Light, about enlightenment. What else is enlightenment, if not God? Illumination is God; Light is God. The Buddha saw the Light and then he became the Light when he attained enlightenment, only he did not use the term ‘God’.

After his enlightenment, the Buddha did not want to come down. He wanted to stay in that state where it is all peace. There are two aspects. One is the extinction of all earthly sufferings. If you can go to that realm, there will be no suffering at all. The other aspect is that if you climb up to the top of the tree and eat the most delicious mango yourself, you do not want to come down; as soon as you reach the foot of the tree again, you will see that there are many, many thorns. You feel that the best thing is to remain at the top of the tree, eat and never come down.

The Buddha attained nirvana. Then, after nirvana, he spoke about parinirvana. First comes the extinction of suffering. Then one becomes so completely immersed in the Universal Consciousness that one does not take human incarnation again. The bird has gone out of the cage; it does not want to come back into the cage any more.

From:Sri Chinmoy,You belong to God, Agni Press, 2012
Sourced from https://srichinmoylibrary.com/ybg