The Life Story of the Great Arahant Theri YASHODHARA - Part 01
The relationship between Prince Siddhārtha and Princess Yaśodarā was not an ordinary relationship. It was coming from an extremely long past and was deeply rooted. Although it is not easy to point out the exact start of their samsaric relationship, in the time of the Dīpaṁkara Supreme Buddha, a strange but amazing thing happened:
At that time, the Bodhisatta was born into an extremely wealthy brahmin family. Once he became young and strong, instead of getting married and ruling his wealth, he wanted to leave the household life and become an ascetic. However, his parents refused. But immediately after his beloved parents’ passing away, he gave up all his luxuries, gave away all his wealth, and became an ascetic. His name was ‘Sumēdha’, hence he became the ‘Acetic Sumēdha’.
………Sumēdha renounced household life, went to the Himalayas, and became an ascetic. He attained the jhānas and the direct knowledges (abhiññā) on his own. One day he was traveling through the sky above the city of Ramma, the city to which he normally went in search of salt and condiments. On that day, he saw the townspeople eagerly decorating a road. Seeing this, he descended to the ground and approached them.
“Friend, why are you decorating this road?”
“Acetic, Dīpaṁkara, the Supremely Enlightened One (Buddha), the Great Sage who frees beings from suffering of existence, is coming to our city accompanied by a large retinue of monks.”
The moment Sumēdha heard the word ‘Buddha’, his whole body quivered with excitement. Sumēdha too asked for an opportunity to help prepare the road. The people then gave him a difficult, muddy section of the road to prepare. With his psychic powers, Sumēdha could have accomplished the task instantly, but he chose to do it by the sweat of his brow. Having taken a hoe and gunny sack, he carried soil and spread it evenly over the muddy section of the road.
Suddenly, an uncanny silence accompanied by peace and calm filled the air. The ascetic Sumēdha looked up and saw an unbelievable sight.
‘The Sage who frees beings from the suffering of existence is coming this way!’
Agitated, Sumēdha thought to himself: ‘Oh no! I still haven’t finished the section of the road assigned to me. What should I do?”
He then glanced back and forth between the Buddha and the muddy road. There was no time to think. Sumēdha laid down on the muddy section of the road with his head toward the Buddha, and palms joined together in veneration. Sumēdha spoke aloud to the Buddha:
“May the Great Sage who frees being from the suffering of existence not tread on the mud but walk across my back instead.”
Standing beside the ascetic Sumēdha, the Buddha Dīpaṁkara addressed the monks:
“Monks, look at this magnificent ascetic lying in the mud, asking me to walk across his back. He is a future Buddha-to-be. For that purpose, he must cultivate the perfections (pāramī) for a very long time. Four incalculable eons and a hundred thousand eons from now, an eon called ‘the fortunate eon’ will arise. In that eon, three Buddhas will arise before him; he will be the fourth.
Monks, that Buddha’s name will be ‘Gotama’. In that life, he will be born in Kapilavatthu, his father will be the king Suddhodana, his mother the Queen māyā. Meditating under the Assattha tree, gaining insight into reality, he will attain enlightenment by defeating mārā.”
(‘Buddha: ‘The Marvelous Sage’ book, Ven. Kiribathgoda Gnānānanda Thera)
While these amazing things were taking place, all the townspeople were gathered there to witness it all. First, they had one amazement: the amazement of the Great Sage, the Enlightened One, the Buddha Dīpaṁkara. And now they have this second amazement too. The amazement of the ‘Ascetic Sumēdha ‘. Now……. he is no more an ordinary ascetic. He has gained the definite word from the Buddha Dīpaṁkara to be one great unique person; a ‘Buddha-to-be (Bodhisatva). He is being blessed by the Buddha Dīpaṁkara to attain Buddhahood in the long future, after another four incalculable eons and a hundred thousand eons by the name – ‘Gotama’. Thus, the townspeople became thrilled by both amazements and were extremely happy to see them. Among them, there was one lady, a ‘paribrajikā’, which means ‘the lady who has gone forth’ (a wanderer). Even though she too was witnessing both amazements just as others she was much more excited to see the ‘Ascetic Sumēdha’ . She was marveled by the incident. She couldn’t take her thoughts away from the ‘Ascetic Sumēdha ‘. Immediately, she offered two bunches of blue lotuses at the foot of the Enlightened one, the Buddha Dīpaṁkara, and made a wish.
‘May these flowers be offered to the Great Teacher, the Buddha. By the merit I accumulate, may I be the women who wholeheartedly helps this incredible acetic to accomplish the great Buddhahood, all throughout the four incalculable eons and a hundred thousand eons. May I be the ‘Yaśodarā’ who bears his only child, ‘Rāhula’. May I be his never-departing shadow and be helpful in every way -by body, speech and mind- to fulfill ‘the perfections necessary to attain the Buddhahood. Just like this ascetic Sumēdha gained ‘the great proclamation of Buddhahood’, so too may the wish of mine come true.’
The story of this paribrājikā is also amazing . It is as follow;
The wife of prince Dīpaṁkara (in the lay life of the Buddha Dīpaṁkara) was ‘queen Padumā’. One day, a noble lady named ‘Sumitrā’ saw the queen and was excited and extremely pleased with her charming qualities and unsurpassed beauty. Her glory and majesty touched her heart deeply. Since the moment she saw her, she couldn’t think of anything else but of the queen ‘Padumā’s glory. She finally came to a decision. While her rich parents and relatives refused, she left everything behind and turned her life into homelessness. She became a paribrājikā. She wanted to collect more merit by living a celibate life. She wanted to accumulate a lot of merit by practicing severe celibacy as followed by very few paribrājikās at the time. She wanted to collect merit and become a queen like ‘Padumā’, the wife of a Buddha in lay life.
It is really amazing that even though she was not aware of a future Buddha, she thought of being the wife of a Buddha in lay life; for that, she thought collecting merit was the way to win her goal. In order to collect merit, she chose living a life of celibacy. Isn’t it wonderful? Even before she learned about a future Buddha, she had already prepared herself for a Buddha-to-be. She was not aware of how long a Buddha would have to strive to fulfill the requirements for Buddhahood. But she was ready for the journey to come. She didn’t know that she would have to bear up immense sacrifices. She didn’t know that she would have to bear all the sorrows and devote herself like no one else. She didn’t know that children born from her own blood would be given away by the Bodhisatva as alms. She didn’t know that she would have make these sacrifices not just once but numerous times in numerous lives. She didn’t know that she would have to sacrifice her life by being the food for the porisādas (cannibals), ferocious monsters, and wild beasts. She didn’t know that she would have to give up all her possessions—money, ornaments, clothes, houses, kingdoms, palaces, servants,and all wealth. She didn’t know that she would have to keep bearing all this sorrow and pain in countless lives for countless eons with no intermission. And she didn’t even know that from now on, she is destined to face all the hardships as specially destined for a Bodhisatva’s wife, which would never be matched by any other women in the world.
So, while she was wandering with that aspiration, she happened to witness this amazing event. That’s why, at first sight, she became inspired by the incident and immediately made her wish.
Both the ascetic Sumēdha and the paribrājikā Sumitrā’ made separate wishes, which are actually destined to occur in the future together. But in that very life, they never met each other again. The ascetic became a monk in Dīpaṁkara Buddha’s dispensation, and the paribrājikā continued her celibate life all alone.
So that is how it started the story of our Bodhisatva and his beloved wife Yaśodarā.
Since the life Sumitrā’ made that strong aspiration, she continued performing an abundance of meritorious deeds again and again over a long period of time with the mere determination of getting in unison with her life-like husband. Our Bodhisatva continued collecting enough merit to accomplish Buddhahood, and she, Sumitrā’, continued helping him to collect those merit. She, being like his shadow, was behind him every time; being like his mother provided him with energy and courage; being like a friend provided encouragement and strength; being like a sister sacrificed everything just to see his success; being like a daughter was so humble and obedient ; being like a servant endured hardship and difficulties. Being a real wife, she did everything and there was absolutely nothing that she couldn’t do for him. She helped him in all aspects and pumped breath for the fulfillment of the ten perfections. In brief, she fertilized the field of merit, which was cultivated by the Bodhisatva for Buddhahood. For a period of four incalculable eons and a hundred thousand eons, she continued doing it. It was an ocean of tears, an ocean of patience, an ocean of endurance, an ocean of blessings, an ocean of caring, an ocean of love -after all, a great ocean of merit.
In numerous lives, she renunciated into the forest with Bodhisatva, abandoning a much wealth, lovely cousins, children, parents and relatives, kingdoms, palaces, and all luxuries. In numerous lives for an incalculable number of eons, when he wished to give, she never hid anything but let him give everything away. When he wished to be celibate , she too lived likewise.
In the past, there were numerous eras in which people had hundreds of years of life span, hundreds and thousands of years of life span. hundreds of thousands and thousands of years of life span. In such eras, she devoted her life to celibacy, or lived gracefully with one husband. She never ever acted against her husband, nor did she even think to go against him. She, in full devotion, helped her husband in all aspects.
When the Bodhisatva was guarding the six sense faculties, she never troubled him, instead she too practiced the same. When the Bodhisatva was striving to complete the ten perfections, without obstructions she too practiced perfection. Sexual misconduct is something that she has never done. She sacrificed her life to death but never engaged in sexual misconduct.
The determination of Sumitrā to become the consort of a Buddha in lay life was not something she merely wished. She didn’t do it simply by imitating the queen; it is an extraordinary fact that cannot be comprehended by a worldly mind. In modern days, we see only imitations and attempts taken in imitation, which obviously doesn’t make much sense. Just by seeing and hearing, people tend to imitate those they like. They imitate so many characters: actors and actresses, heroes and fighters, cricketers and players, politicians and famous characters, and sometimes even smugglers and criminals. But none of them could bring them inner peace, nor could they give them at least some satisfaction. In them, there cannot be seen loving kindness, compassion, generosity, equanimity, virtue, or any such qualities that could bring them goodness and real happiness. But there can be seen enough jealousy, immorality, conceit, lying, arrogance, deception, selfishness, delusion, violence, dishonesty, ego and envy, greed, hatred, unreliability, and many more. But it’s amazing that in Sumitrā’s wish there didn’t exist a single bad quality as such. It was truly pure, as pure as a washed conch shell.
Beyond that, today it is really hard to find people who innocently develop virtues and make wishes with sincere altruism. They don’t even realize that their desires are so firmly embedded in their egos. Today, men and women are both trapped in the midst of a million wishes and dreams aimed at building something around themselves, and finding happiness and success for them. But the wishes of our ascetic Sumēdha and Sumitrā’ are quite different, they were absolutely pure, as pure as a washed conch shell. There is neither a slight scar nor a little dirt to be seen or pointed out in the purity of their wish.
Sumitrā’s journey, which started at the foot of the Buddha Dīpaṁkara, never changed until she gained the position of ‘Rahula Mata’. . Like a fine stream that flows through the mountain range of Himalaya ends its journey at the great ocean, her determination, which was deeply engraved in the bottom of her heart, led firmly towards her birth as ‘Yaśodarā’. Her determination was unshakable, like the great Himalaya, the king of mountains. There was not a slight hole in her determination, nor was there a little taint. It was completely taintless, free of self-view.
It’s not an exaggeration to say that SHE was the LIFEBLOOD of the fulfillment of the ‘Ten Perfections’ that our Bodhisatva needed to attain Buddhahood. Who else but our Great Teacher, The Lord Buddha alone knows well about the Yaśodarā and her sacrifices she made for the sake of the great benefit of our Bodhisatva!
In the first year of enlightenment, after seven years from the great renunciation, for the first time, our Lord Buddha came to Kim̆bulvatpura, to his native country, with a great compassion to help his relatives with pure Dhamma.
On the second day, the Lord Buddha and his great retinue of arahants were walking along the main street, begging for alms. On the previous day, neither the royalties nor the king Suddhodana remembered that they should first invite the Lord Buddha for tomorrow’s alms. Instead, they were in hurry to arrange alms in the king’s palace and were really busy organizing the alms hall
The Buddha did not find it demeaning to go for alms on the royal avenue. It did not occur to him that in his life as a prince he had traversed the same streets by royal horse carriage. The next day, taking his bowl in hand, with a liberated and concentrated mind, full of compassion, the buddha went on his alms round from door to door without skipping houses. When princess Yaśodarā saw this, she rushed to king Suddhodana in tears and told him what was happening. King Suddhodana was deeply agitated on hearing this and left the palace in great haste. Gathering up the folds of his shawl in his hand, he ran to and stood in front of the Blessed One.
“Why, venerable sir, do you bring disgrace upon us? Why do you go about begging for foods? Are we not able to give alms to yourself and the sangha of monks?”
“Great king, it is the customary practice of our lineage to beg for alms from door to door without skipping houses with a detached mind, just for the continuance of life”
“Venerable sir, how can that be? How can there be such a custom in our Mahāsammata lineage, the royal Okkāka lineage? Have you ever heard of even a single khattiya who has gone begging for alms in this way?”
“Great king, the royal Okkāka lineage is your lineage, not ours. Our lineage is the lineage of the Buddhas with liberated minds, who gave up the two extremes and by walking the middle way defeated the armies of Mārā; and having won over all defilements, through omniscient knowledge realized all phenomena like the back of one’s hand. All of those Buddhas went begging for alms from door to door without skipping houses”
(‘Buddha: ‘The Marvelous Sage’ book, Ven. Kiribathgoda Gnānānanda Thera)
Then standing there in the middle of the street, the Buddha preached dhamma to the king. Just by hearing first two verses of the stanza, the king attained the fruition of stream-entry and by hearing last two verses he attained the fruition of once-return.
(in a later time, he attained the fruition of non-return by hearing the ‘Mahā Dhammapāla jathaka story’ and while lying on royal bed under the royal white parasol, attained the fruition of Arahantship and passed into final nibbana in the very same day.)
After the almsgiving, when the Buddha was about to gladden and delight the almsgivers with a dhamma talk, he noticed the conspicuous absence of Yaśodarā. When the Buddha asked the king where she was, the king answered,
“Venerable sir, she says ‘if the Buddha knows me for who I am, he will come see me,’ and has stayed behind in her bed chamber”
Then the Buddha along with the chief disciples Sāriputta and Moggallāna went to Yaśodarā’s bed chamber and sat on the prepared seat. Yaśodarā rushed to the Buddha and clinging to his feet, began to sob with her head resting on his feet. Then king Suddhodana said:
“Venerable sir, since the day of your great renunciation, she has been in tears. When she heard that you were taking only one meal per day, she too began to take only one meal per day. She gave up beds of comfort and slept on the floor. She refrained from using garlands and perfumes. Having taken off her jewelry, she dressed in yellow garments”
The Blessed One said:
“Great king, this princess who lives under your guardianship, having fulfilled the perfections, is of mature wisdom, therefore it does not come as a surprise that she showed such commitment. In a past life when she was born as a kinnari, without anyone to protect her, while staying over her husband who was lying unconscious, she selflessly offered her life to save his.”
Saying so, the Buddha narrated the Canda-Kinnara jataka.
(‘Buddha: ‘The Marvelous Sage’ book, Ven. Kiribathgoda Gnānānanda Thera)
We can’t imagine how Yaśodarā felt once she heard the voice she waited eagerly for seven years, the voice she missed for seven years, the voice that was so familiar to her for hundreds and thousands of eons, and moreover, the voice of a Buddha in his sweetest Brahmasvara (voice like Brahma’s).
Her heart stopped for a moment when she saw the Buddha. Being unable to regain her thoughts, she kept looking at the Buddha for a moment. This is the final state. The long journey of saṁsāra that has come by giving her life for the sake of the Bodhisatva, giving her children away in alms, has now come to an end. She kept looking at the Buddha for another few seconds. With eyes full of tears, she ran to the Buddha, fell at his foot, and started to lament with a big, heavy heart.
The tears she has shed all through four incalculable eons and a hundred thousand eons by the name of the Great Being are now seemingly coming out all at once, in this very moment. Her tears fell at the foot of the Blessed One. She embraced the Lord’s feet tightly and kept lamenting like an ocean that has no shore. Nobody dared to go to her and console her. But since it was the foot of none other but of the Buddha, the king came forward. With great compassion and a finely liberated mind, the Buddha, who knows very well about the pure thoughts of Yaśodarā, spoke thus:
“Great king, let Yaśodarā cry as much as she wants. If she doesn’t have the chance to wash over her sorrow with tears, her heart may burst. Therefore, great king, let her cry as much as she wants. May she be relieved from her sorrow. May she be healed.”
Upon this incident, the king revealed to the Lord Buddha the virtuous life that she had spent in the past seven years.
“Lord, the Blessed One, the moment you gave up your worldly pleasures, she also tried to abandon this palace and renounce, saying that she has no interest in the royal pleasures that you had left behind. Hearing that, I immediately strengthened the guards even more. So, while staying in the palace, she started living like a forest hermit. She tried as hard as you did. She shaved her head and donned rough robes. She laid on the floor without sleeping on the comfortable beds with soft pillows; she slept even without a mat, she. She did not use comfortable high seats; instead, she sat on low seats. She refused all luxuries and left behind all the floral scents and perfumes. She took food in a clay bowl. She ate only in the morning. For the past seven years, she has been practicing austerity like this. Like you, she too suffered a lot.”
“Not only that, Lord, hearing that you have departed, all the kings and princes of this Jambudvīpa sent messengers seeking her hand. Many precious gifts, jewels, and pieces of jewelry were sent. But Lord, she never looked at those messages, and never cared to even listen to them.”
In this way, the king spoke with great admiration about Yaśodarā in the presence of one hundred and sixty thousand Shākyan royalties. Hearing about the virtuous life of Yaśodarā, all those who were not aware of her practice of austerity and her extreme devotion to the Buddha became shocked. They raised their voices and said ‘sādu! sādu! sādu!’ in unison. The Shākyas, who from the beginning were already aware, raised their voices even louder and said ‘sādu! sādu! sādu!’ in unison. Thus, the entire palace went sunk in and resounded with the voices of ‘sadu’ as thousands of Shākyans cried, admiring her virtuous life.
Yaśodarā came back to her senses with the resonating voice of ‘sadu’. She got up immediately, bowed down at the foot of the Buddha and stepped aside.
On that occasion, the Blessed One preached the ‘Canda-Kinnara jataka story’ to the crowd. Hearing that, all the Shākyans cheered loudly and were extremely impressed. Shedding tears, they cried loudly, ‘sadhu!! Sadhu! Sadhu!’.
Yaśodarā once again bowed down at the foot of the Blessed One, asking for ordination in Buddha’s dispensation. The Supremely Enlightened One, who knows the proper time for everything, rejected her plea, and the king too opposed it completely.
On the second day after arriving at Kapilavattu, the buddha ordained his half- brother prince Nanda, the son of queen Mahā Prajāpatī Gotami.
On the seventh day, having taken his bowl and robe in the morning, the Buddha went to the royal residence of king Suddhodana. Then Yaśodarā told her son prince Rahula;
“Rāhula, my son, that there is your father. Go ask him for your inheritance. “
Then prince Rāhula went to the Blessed One and standing in front of him said:
“Monk, your shadow is pleasing to me”
The Blessed One left for Nigroda’s park. The young prince Rāhula, just seven years old, followed behind the Blessed One saying:
“Oh, monk! give me my inheritance. Give me my inheritance, oh monk!”
The Buddha addressed the venerable Sāriputta
thus:
“Well then, Sāriputta, ordain prince Rāhula”
In this way, prince Rāhula too received ordination in the glorious dispensation of the Buddha.
(‘Buddha: ‘The Marvelous Sage’ book, Ven. Kiribathgoda Gnānānanda Thera)
On that very seventh day, before sending her son to the Buddha, Yaśodarā recited ‘Naraseeha Gatha’ to prince Rāhula, extolling the virtues of his father, the Buddha. After arousing faith in his little heart about his never-seen father, she sent him to the Blessed One. Little prince Rāhula in the breeze of the Tathagata said, ‘Lord, I feel great happiness even in your shadow’ and so went with the Buddha holding his finger to the temple.
Prince Rāhula received the highest gift that he would ever receive from his father. In a finely established dispensation as ruled by the great dhamma and discipline as preached by a Buddha, what more should be expected other than monkhood? Little novice Rāhula later attained Arahantship and became the ‘foremost among the monks willing to be disciplined in the order’.
When Yaśodarā heard the news that little Prince Rāhula had been ordained, she started crying again. Yaśodarā ‘s life is absolutely a marvel. It’s like a miracle. Bereavement and tears are like the sap of her life—the sound of her heartbeat. It is what she has inherited from what she has faced in many, countless lives. But the true miracle is that at no time has she shed warm tears, which is caused by anger. She has shed more tears than the amount of water in seven great oceans, but it has never been caused by anger or hatred. Actually, how is it possible to shed warm tears from a person who has no signs of anger? Yaśodarā has never been angry; thus, her eyes have only felt cold tears, filled with loving kindness, patience, compassion, equanimity, and altruism.
At all times when she shed tears, it had a true meaning. Every drop of tears she shed in saṁsāra fertilized the field of perfections of Bodhisatta. And thereby expedited the emergence of the Supremely Enlightened One, who’s appearance is very rare in the world. If we were lucky enough to take refuge in the triple gem in the Buddha’s dispensation in this calendar year, in the name of the Gautama Buddha, we should never forget Yaśodarā, who in silence bestowed us that fortune. Because of her immeasurable sacrifices, unsurpassed love, and incomparable care, the Bodhisatta could accomplish the perfections required for Buddhahood this soon. If she had been cursed by hatred, anger, revengefulness, jealousy, greediness and miserliness, hypocrisy, cruelty, and capriciousness, alike, we would not have been bestowed with the opportunity to at least hear the name of the Gotama Buddha in this era. What more about going into refuge? But Yaśodarā, bearing every hardship and washing away all her sorrows in tears, energized the emergence of the Gautama Supreme Buddha in this world.
Such was the untold story behind her tears. Her tears bore the liberation of the beings, bore the liberation of all beings who attained the fruitions of the path and attained final bliss of nibbana in the past, present, and future in this Gautama Buddha’s dispensation.
It is a definite fact that the arising of the Gotama Buddha and establishing of the Gautama Buddha’s dispensation is something that will sure happen in this world. As it is foreseen by Buddhas and foretold by Buddhas, it would happen exactly was it was told and seen, not otherwise. But that reality was nourished by the Yashodara who endured difficulties, sorrow and pain in helping the bodhisatta to fulfill the ten perfections.
‘May beings listen to the dhamma, try to understand the dhamma, and act accordingly to the dhamma. After all, may they be free from all suffering and attain the final bliss of nibbana in this very Gotama Buddha’s dispensation.
PART : 02