[157] Once the Light of the World, the charioteer of men, was dwelling at Vesālī, in the Great Wood, in the hall of the peaked house.
At that time the bhikkhunī Mahāgotamī, the maternal aunt (mātucchā) of the Conqueror (jina), was dwelling right there in that delightful city, in the bhikkhunīs' residence, together with five hundred bhikkhunīs, every one of them liberated.
As she was in seclusion, this thought arose in her mind (citta): "The final Nibbāna (parinibbāna) of the Buddha, or of the pair of chief disciples, or of Rāhula, Ānanda, and Nanda — that I shall not get to see. Relinquishing beforehand the life-formation (āyusaṅkhāra), permitted by the Lord of the World, the Great Seer, let me go out to the quenching."
Even so ran the thought of the five hundred bhikkhunīs as well; and to Khemā and the rest this very same thought occurred.
Then there was an earthquake; the drum of the gods resounded. The deities dwelling in the residence, oppressed by grief, lamenting piteously, shed tears there. All the bhikkhunīs, going with those [deities] to Gotamī, bowed their heads at her feet and spoke these words:
"Noble lady, while we sat secluded there, besprinkled with falling drops — the steadfast earth quaked and shook, the drum of the gods resounded, and laments are heard. What can it mean, O Gotamī?"
Then she told all, just as she had pondered it; and thereupon they all declared what each of them had pondered too:
"If Nibbāna, the supreme bliss, is pleasing to you, noble lady, then we all likewise shall be quenched, once the Buddha has first given leave. Together we went forth, both from home and from existence; together likewise shall we go to Nibbāna, the supreme city."
"To those who are going to Nibbāna, what can I say?" — so saying, she then went out from the bhikkhunīs' dwelling together with them all.
"May the deities who dwell within this residence bear with me: this is my last sight of the bhikkhunīs' dwelling. Where there is no aging nor death, no association with the disliked, no separation from what is dear — to that unconditioned (asaṅkhata) state shall I go."
Hearing that word, the Sugata's offspring who were not yet free of lust, afflicted with sorrow, lamented: "Alas, how scant is our merit! Emptied is this dwelling of the bhikkhunīs, bereft of them; the Conqueror's daughters are seen no more, as stars are seen no more at break of day. Gotamī goes to Nibbāna with the five hundred, as the Gaṅgā with five hundred rivers goes to the sea."
Seeing her going along the street, faithful laywomen came out of their houses, fell at her feet, and said: "Be gracious, O lady of great fortune! Do not forsake us, helpless! It is not fitting that you be quenched!" — stricken with longing, so they wailed.
To dispel their sorrow she spoke to them in sweet tones: "Enough of weeping, children! Today is a day for your rejoicing. Suffering (dukkha) has been fully understood by me; the cause of suffering has been abandoned; cessation has been realized by me; and the path, too, has been well developed."
The first recitation section (bhāṇavāra).
"The Teacher has been served by me; the Buddha's teaching has been done; the heavy burden has been laid down; the conduit to existence (bhavanetti) has been uprooted. The purpose for which I went forth from home into homelessness — that purpose I have attained: the destruction of all fetters (saṃyojana).
So long as the Buddha and his true Dhamma remain unimpaired, so long is this my time to be quenched. Do not grieve for me, little daughters! Koṇḍañña, Ānanda, Nanda, and the rest remain, and Rāhula, and the Conqueror; the Saṅgha is happy and united; the sectarians' pride has been struck down.
The glory of Okkāka's line has been raised on high, crushing Māra. Is it not now, little daughters, the fitting time for my Nibbāna? What I have longed for from of old is fulfilled for me today; this is the hour of the drum of joy — little daughters, what use to you are tears?
If you have tenderness for me, and if you have gratitude, then let every one of you make firm effort, that the true Dhamma may long endure. Entreated by me, the Fully Awakened One gave the going forth to women; therefore, as I have rejoiced in it, so do you follow after it."
Having thus admonished them, with the bhikkhunīs about her, she approached the Buddha, venerated him, and spoke these words:
"I, O Sugata, am your mother; and you, O Wise One, are my father; O protector, giver of the happiness of the true Dhamma — O Gotama, from you have I been born! This form-body (rūpakāya) of yours, O Sugata, was reared by me; my Dhamma-body (dhammakāya), a thing of delight, was reared by you.
By me you were suckled with milk that stills craving (taṇhā) but for a moment; by you I was suckled with the very milk of the Dhamma, whose peace is unending. For the binding and the guarding [of a son], O Great Sage, you stand in no debt to me. Women who long for a son pray and obtain such a son as this!
The mother of monarchs such as Mandhātā — she is sunk in the ocean of existence; but I, O son, sunk therein, have been carried by you across the sea of existence. 'A king's mother,' 'a chief queen' — such names are easy for women to obtain; but the name 'Mother of a Buddha' — that is of all things hardest to obtain.
And that, O Great Hero, has been obtained! My aspiration, whether small or great, has all of it been fulfilled through you. I wish to attain final Nibbāna, forsaking this carcass. Permit me, O Hero, ender of suffering, O Leader!
Stretch forth your feet, strewn with the marks of wheel, goad, and banner, tender as the lotus; I shall pay them homage — I shall show my love for my son. Make manifest that body like a heap of gold; when I have well beheld your body, O Leader, I go to peace."
The Conqueror showed his mother's sister his body, endowed with the thirty-two marks and adorned with splendid radiance, as a bank of evening cloud shows the newly risen sun. Then she fell with her head upon the soles of his feet, marked with wheels, like full-blown lotuses, radiant as the newly risen sun.
"I bow to the Sun among men, the banner of the Solar race — my refuge at the last; I shall not see you again. Women, O foremost of the world, are held to be workers of every fault; if there be any fault in me, forgive it, O mine of compassion. And that I begged again and again for the going forth of women — if therein there be fault of mine, forgive it, O Bull among men. By me, O Hero, the bhikkhunīs were instructed, with your permission: if therein anything was ill guided, forgive it, O you whose strength is forbearance."
[The Blessed One said:] "What should be forgiven where no wrong remains, O you who are adorned with virtues? What more shall I say to you, when you declare that you go to Nibbāna?
While my Saṅgha of bhikkhus stands pure and unimpaired, it is fitting that you should pass out of this world — as at the hour of daybreak, when it has seen [the stars] gone to their vanishing, the crescent of the moon takes its leave."
Then the other bhikkhunīs, like stars in the moon's train circling Sumeru, circumambulated the supreme Conqueror, bowed at his feet, and stood gazing up into his face:
"Never has the eye had its fill of the sight of you, nor the ear of your utterance; and my mind, wholly on its own, has won its fill on reaching the taste of the Dhamma.
Those who behold your face as you roar in the assembly, striking down the pride of disputants — blessed are they, O Bull among men! Blessed too, O you who have reached the end of strife, are those who bow before your feet — beautiful, long-toed, copper-nailed, long-heeled! Blessed too, O supreme among men, are they who hear your words — sweet, gladdening, consuming faults, and beneficial!
Blessed am I, O Great Hero, devoted to the worship of your feet, having crossed the wilderness of saṃsāra through the fair speech of the Glorious One."
Then that lady of excellent vows, having made announcement among the Saṅgha of bhikkhus, and having venerated Rāhula, Ānanda, and Nanda, said this:
"Of this carcass, like a den of vipers, an abode of disease, a meeting-place of suffering, the pasture-ground of aging and death, strewn with the filth and impurity of corpses, dependent upon another, inert — of it I am weary; therefore I wish to be quenched. Consent, my sons!"
Nanda and the blessed Rāhula, freed from sorrow, without taints (āsava), steadfast, unshaken, firm, and heroic, reflected in accord with the nature of things: "Shame upon the conditioned world — essenceless, like the plantain-trunk, like an illusion or a mirage, fleeting, unstable — wherein even she, the Conqueror's mother's sister, Gotamī who nursed the Buddha, goes to her end! Impermanent is everything conditioned!"
But Ānanda, at that time still a trainee (sekha), the [Conqueror's] younger kinsman, devoted to the Conqueror, shedding tears there, lamented piteously: "Even while she speaks, Gotamī is going to the quenching! Surely before long the Buddha too will go, as a fire goes out when its fuel is spent!"
To Ānanda lamenting thus — deep as the ocean in learning, devoted to waiting on the Buddha — Gotamī said:
"It is not right to sorrow, my son, when the hour of rejoicing is at hand; my death, my son, has drawn near — the end that is Nibbāna. It was at your entreaty, dear one, that he allowed us the going forth; do not be downcast, my son: your labor has borne fruit. The state which was not seen by the ancients, nor by the teachers of the sects — that state has been known by tender girls of seven years.
O guardian of the Buddha's dispensation, this is my last sight of you! I go, my son, whither one who has gone is seen no more.
Once, while teaching the Dhamma, the supreme Leader of the world sneezed; and then, out of tenderness, I uttered words of blessing: 'Live long, O Great Hero! Stand fast for the aeon, O Great Sage! For the welfare of all the world, be unaging and undying!'
To me who had spoken so, the Buddha said this: 'Not thus, Gotamī, are Buddhas to be honored, as you now honor them.' 'How then, All-knowing One, are Tathāgatas to be honored? How are Buddhas not [rightly] honored? Being asked, tell me that.' 'Behold the disciples — their energy aroused, resolute, ever firm in striving, in concord: this is the honoring of Buddhas.'
Then, going to the residence, all alone I reflected: 'The Protector, who has gone to the end of the triple existence, delights in an assembly in concord. Come then, let me attain final Nibbāna, lest I behold that calamity!' Having thought thus, having seen the supreme Seer, I announced to the Guide my time of final Nibbāna. Then he gave consent: 'Know your own time, Gotamī.'
My defilements have been burnt up; all existences have been rooted out; like a cow-elephant that has burst her tether, I dwell without taints. Welcome indeed was my coming into the presence of the best of Buddhas! The three true knowledges (vijjā) have been attained; the Buddha's teaching has been done. The four analytical knowledges (paṭisambhidā), and these eight liberations (vimokkha), and the six direct knowledges (abhiññā) have been realized; the Buddha's teaching has been done."
[The Blessed One said:] "There are fools who have fallen into perplexity as to women's realization of the Dhamma. For the abandoning of their view, Gotamī, display a wonder of psychic power (iddhi)!"
Then, having bowed low to the Fully Awakened One, Gotamī rose up into the sky and, with the Buddha's leave, displayed manifold psychic powers. Being one she became many, and being many she became one again; she appeared and vanished; she passed unhindered through walls and through mountains; she went without obstruction; she dived into the very earth; she walked upon unbroken water as upon land; then, cross-legged, she moved through the sky like a bird on the wing; with her body she exercised mastery even as far as the abode of Brahmā.
Making Sineru the staff and the great earth the parasol, turning it over, roots and all, and holding it, she paced up and down in the sky. She made the world glow as at the hour when the six suns rise; as though at the aeon's [end] she made that world one swirling garland of flame. Mucalinda, the mighty crag, Meru, Mandāra, and Daddara — all of them she seized in a single fist, like so many mustard seeds. With the tip of a finger she covered the day-maker together with the moon; a thousand moons and suns she wore as if a chaplet on her brow. The waters of the four oceans she bore in a single palm; she poured down a great rain in the guise of the world-end storm cloud.
She conjured upon the vault of the sky a wheel-turning monarch (cakkavatti) with his retinue; she displayed a garuḍa, a tusker, and a roaring lion. Alone, she created an immeasurable company of bhikkhunīs; then, making them vanish, alone again she said to the Sage: "Your mother's sister, O Great Hero, a doer of your teaching, has attained her own goal; I venerate your feet, O One with Vision."
Having shown her manifold powers, she came down from the vault of the sky, venerated the Light of the World, and sat down to one side. "I am, O Great Sage, one hundred and twenty years from birth. Thus much suffices, O Hero: I shall attain final Nibbāna, O Leader."
Then all that assembly, exceedingly amazed, with palms joined, said: "Noble lady, what was it you did, that yours are such unequalled power and striving?"
[She replied:] "One hundred thousand aeons ago from now the Conqueror named Padumuttara arose, the Leader, possessed of vision into all dhammas. At that time I was born at Haṃsavatī in a minister's family, provided with every comfort, prosperous, flourishing, of great wealth.
Once, going with my father, attended by a troop of serving-women, with a great retinue, I approached that Bull among men — the Conqueror, taintless, raining down the cloud of the Dhamma as Vāsava rains, like the autumn sun, wreathed about with garlands of rays. Seeing him, I made my mind serene; and I heard his well-spoken word as the Leader of men set a bhikkhunī, his own mother's sister, in the foremost place.
Having heard, I gave for seven days a great alms-gift, and many requisites, to that Constant One (tādī), the foremost of men, together with the Saṅgha; and prostrating at his feet, I aspired to that place. Then the supreme Seer declared in the great assembly:
'She who for seven days fed the Leader of the World together with the Saṅgha — her I shall proclaim; listen to my words. In the hundred-thousandth aeon from now, sprung from the family of Okkāka, there shall be in the world a Teacher, Gotama by name. An heir in his teachings, an own-begotten child formed of the Dhamma, Gotamī by name shall she be, a disciple of the Teacher. She shall be that Buddha's mother's sister, the sustainer of his life; and she shall obtain the foremost place among the bhikkhunīs of long standing.'
Hearing that, glad at heart, I served the Conqueror with the requisites as long as I lived; thereafter I died. I was reborn among the Tāvatiṃsa gods, who abound in every pleasure, and there I surpassed the others in ten respects: in forms, in sounds, in scents, in tastes, and in touches; in lifespan and in beauty, in happiness and in fame; and likewise in sovereignty — excelling, I shone; and there I was the beloved chief queen of the lord of the immortals.
Wandering on in saṃsāra, driven along by the wind of kamma, I was born in the domain of the king of Kāsi, in a village of bond-slaves. A full five hundred slaves dwelt there then, and I became the wife of the chief of them all. Five hundred Self-Awakened Ones (sayambhū) entered the village for alms; seeing them, I rejoiced, together with all my kin. Building five hundred huts, waiting upon them through the four months, and presenting the triple robes, we — I together with my husband — were filled with glad faith.
Fallen from there, we went with our husbands to Tāvatiṃsa; and now, in my final existence, I was born in the town of Devadaha. My father was Añjana the Sakyan; my mother was Sulakkhaṇā; then I went to the house of Suddhodana at Kapilavatthu. All [the others], born in the Sakyan clan, went to the homes of the Sakyans; but I was the most excellent of them all: I became the Conqueror's foster-nurse.
That son of mine, having made the great renunciation, became the Buddha, the Guide; afterward I went forth, together with the five hundred heroic Sakyan ladies, and touched the bliss of peace. And those who in a former birth had been our husbands — doers of merit along with us, sharers in the Great Gathering — touched arahantship, favored with the Sugata's compassion."
Then the other bhikkhunīs rose up into the vault of the sky and, mighty in power, they shone like stars gathered in constellation. Manifold powers they displayed, as a smith [displays] wrought ornaments of gold — trained as they were in deeds of merit. Having displayed many and varied marvels (pāṭihāriya), and having gladdened the Sage, [peerless] as the excellent sun, together with his assembly, they came down from the vault of the sky, venerated the supreme Seer, and, permitted by the foremost of men, sat down each in her proper place.
"Ah, compassionate to us all, O Hero, has Gotamī been! Steeped in her merits, we have attained the destruction of the taints. Our defilements have been burnt up; all existences have been rooted out; like cow-elephants that have burst their tethers, we dwell without taints. Welcome indeed was our coming into the presence of the best of Buddhas! The three true knowledges have been attained; the Buddha's teaching has been done. The four analytical knowledges, and these eight liberations, and the six direct knowledges have been realized; the Buddha's teaching has been done.
We are masters of psychic power and of the divine ear-element; we are masters, O Great Sage, of the knowledge encompassing the minds of others. We know our former abodes; the divine eye has been purified; all our taints are utterly destroyed; now there is no renewed existence. Our knowledge (ñāṇa) of meaning, of dhamma, of language, and of perspicacity, O Great Hero, arose in your very presence. You have been served by us with minds of loving-kindness, O Leader: permit us all, O Great Sage, to attain Nibbāna."
"When you say, 'We shall be quenched,' what is there for me to say? Do now that for which you deem it time" — so spoke the Conqueror.
Then those bhikkhunīs, with Gotamī at their head, having venerated the Conqueror, rose from their seats and departed. The Wise One, the supreme Leader of the world, together with a great multitude of people, escorted his mother's sister as far as the gateway. Then Gotamī, together with all the others, fell at the feet of the Kinsman of the World — the last homage at his feet:
"This is my last sight of the Lord of the World; never again shall I behold your face, which bears the semblance of the deathless. Nor shall my homage, O Hero, foremost in the world, touch again your feet so soft and tender: today I go to the quenching."
[The Teacher said:] "What is this form to you, when the Dhamma has been seen as it really is? All this is conditioned only — comfortless, fleeting."
She, going with those [bhikkhunīs] to her own bhikkhunīs' residence, folded her legs in the half cross-legged posture and sat down upon the most excellent seat. Then the laywomen there, devoted lovers of the Buddha's dispensation, hearing tidings of her, drew near to venerate her feet. Beating their breasts with their hands, like creepers cut off at the root, weeping with piteous wail, stricken with sorrow, falling to the ground: "Do not, O protectress, giver of refuge, forsake us and go to the quenching! Falling down, we all entreat you with bowed heads!"
Stroking the head of the laywoman foremost among them in faith and wisdom, she spoke these words: "Enough, children, of lamentation that runs after Māra's snare! Impermanent is everything conditioned; it ends in separation; it trembles and shifts."
Then, dismissing them, she attained the supreme first jhāna, and the second, and the third, and she attained the fourth; and the sphere of space, and likewise the sphere of consciousness, and nothingness, and neither-perception — these she attained in due order. Then Gotamī attained the jhānas in reverse order, back again to the first jhāna, and then the three, up to the fourth. Rising from it, she was quenched, taintless, as a lamp's flame goes out.
There was a great earthquake; lightning fell from the sky; the drums resounded loud; the deities wailed; and a rain of flowers from the heavens showered down upon the earth. Even royal Meru trembled like a dancer in the midst of the stage; and the ocean, as if utterly cast down with grief, sent up a cry. Gods, nāgas, asuras, and Brahmās were stirred at that very moment: "Impermanent indeed are formations, even as she has now gone to dissolution! And these who stood around her, doers of the Teacher's dispensation — they too, without clinging, have gone out like flames of lamps! Alas, unions end in parting! Alas, all the conditioned is impermanent! Alas, life ends in perishing!" — such was the lamentation.
Then gods and Brahmās, approaching the supreme Seer, did what accords with the way of the world, as befitted the time. Then the Teacher addressed Ānanda, that ocean of learning: "Go, Ānanda, announce to the bhikkhus the Mother's final quenching."
Then Ānanda, all joyless, his eyes brimming with tears, said with choking voice: "Let the bhikkhus come together — the sons of the Sugata, bhikkhus dwelling in the east, the south, the west, and the north! She, the bhikkhunī who was a mother to me, she who with devoted care nursed the last body of the Sage — that Gotamī has gone to peace, as a star at the rising of the sun. Leaving established the designation 'Mother of the Buddha,' she has gone to that [peace] which even the five-eyed Leader does not behold. Let each son of the Sugata who has faith in the Sugata, or who is the Great Sage's pupil, pay honor to the Buddha's mother!"
Hearing that, bhikkhus came swiftly even from very far — some by the Buddha's majesty, some skilled in psychic feats. They raised the couch whereon Gotamī lay asleep into a most excellent peaked house (kūṭāgāra), delightful, made all of gold, resplendent. The Four Protectors of the World bore it upon their shoulders; the remaining gods, Sakka and the rest, took up the peaked houses. Five hundred peaked houses there were in all, colored like the autumn sun, fashioned by Vissakamma. All the bhikkhunīs too were there, lying upon couches; borne on the shoulders of the gods, they were carried out in due order.
The vault of heaven was canopied over on every side; moons and suns with the stars, wrought of gold, were emblazoned upon it. Countless flags were hoisted; particolored, they were mantled with flowers; lotuses of the sky hung bending down; from the earth flowers sprang up. Moons and suns were on view, and the stars glittered; and the sun, though gone to the meridian, scorched no one, but was as the moon. The gods made worship with heavenly scents and fragrant garlands, with instrumental music, with dances, and with songs; nāgas, asuras, and Brahmās, each according to his power and strength, made worship to the quenched Mother of the Buddha as she was borne along.
All the quenched daughters of the Sugata were carried in front; behind was borne Gotamī, nurse of the Buddha, honored [by all]. In front went gods and men, with nāgas, asuras, and Brahmās; behind went the Buddha with his disciples, to do honor to the Mother.
The final Nibbāna of the Buddha was not such as this: the final Nibbāna of Gotamī was surpassing marvellous. At the Buddha's Nibbāna there was no Buddha, nor bhikkhus such as Sāriputta; at Gotamī's Nibbāna there were the Buddha and Sāriputta and the rest.
They built pyres made all of fragrant substances and strewn with powdered incense, and there they cremated them. The remaining portions were burnt away; in every case the bones alone were left. And then Ānanda uttered words that rouse a sense of urgency (saṃvega): "Gotamī has gone to her end, and her body has been burned — a sign that before long will come the Buddha's Nibbāna."
Then Ānanda, prompted by the Buddha, presented to the Protector Gotamī's relics, gathered in her bowl. Lifting them in his hand, the supreme Seer said:
"As, of a great tree standing full of heartwood, the mightiest trunk might crumble away — such is impermanence — so, of the Saṅgha of bhikkhunīs, Gotamī has attained final Nibbāna.
Behold, Ānanda: though the Buddha's mother is quenched, and only her bodily [relics] remain, there is no sorrowing, no lamenting. She is not to be mourned by others: she has crossed the ocean of saṃsāra; she has shunned all torment; become cool is she, well quenched. A sage she was, of great wisdom, and likewise of broad wisdom, of longest standing among the bhikkhunīs — know it thus, bhikkhus.
Gotamī was master of psychic power and of the divine ear-element, and master of the knowledge encompassing the minds of others; she knew her former abodes; her divine eye was purified; all her taints were utterly destroyed; there is now no renewed existence. Her knowledge of meaning, of dhamma, and of language, and likewise of perspicacity, was wholly pure: therefore she is not to be mourned.
As of a blazing fire struck by the iron hammer, extinguished stage by stage, the bourn cannot be known, so of those rightly released, who have crossed the flood of the bonds of sense-desire and attained the unshakable state, there is no bourn that can be pointed out.
Therefore be islands unto yourselves, with the establishments of mindfulness (satipaṭṭhāna) as your resort; having developed the seven factors of awakening (bojjhaṅga), you shall make an end of suffering."
Thus indeed did the venerable bhikkhunī Mahāpajāpatī Gotamī speak these verses.
The Apadāna of Mahāpajāpatī Gotamī Therī is concluded.
The eighth: the Apadāna of Khemā Therī (18).
English translation from the Pali (Siam Raṭṭha edition) — under review, not for citation.