Space: Buddhist world-systems (cakkavālas)

When you're flown off planet through the local scenery of our solar system, its real layout of 42 or more inhabited places may become clear to you, according to John Lear.

Shape of Mt. Meru with 31 planes in cosmos

Cakkavāla is the name given to a whole world-system, and according to Buddhist cosmology there are countless such systems.

Each world-system (roughly a galaxy or solar system in modern terms) is twelve hundred and three thousand, four hundred and fifty yojanas (an ancient measurement of five or seven miles or the distance one can plow a yoked oxen before having to unyoke it and rest it) in extent.

And it consists of an earth, two hundred and four thousand nahutas (10²⁸) of yojanas in volume, surrounded by a region of water four hundred and eight thousand nahutas of yojanas in volume.

• Surrounded by water: The Judeo-Christian Bible states that the firmament separates the waters, one ocean on earth and another in the heaven (singular). Above the bubble of a contoured but largely flat, immovable earth is an ocean.
• Mount Meru is Mt. Sumeru (Buddhism)

Korean world map centered on Mt. Sumeru in Central Asia (saudiaramcoworld.com)

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Agartha, our Hollow Inner Earth

This rests on air, the thickness of which is nine hundred and sixty thousand nahutas of yojanas. In the center of the world-system is Mount Sumeru [which is too big to be a physical mountain but could be magnetic lines of force in a gravitational energy field, according to Wisdom Quarterly], 168 yojanas in height, half (approximately 588 miles) of which is immersed in ocean.

• [A yojana being about 7 miles in length, half submerged would make it 588 miles in height above sea level. How deep, then, are the oceans of this plane? We might imagine that "ocean" refers only to what we see above the crust, but science now knows it goes much deeper, with "oceans" beneath the ocean or bodies of water below the body of seas we call the world's ocean. What if there's ocean even 588 miles down? This is NOT to say that any part of the "ocean" is 588 miles deep. It is only to say that if there can be water below the ocean, then can there be water even beneath that? Are there layers of water below as above? Where does the base of Mt. Sumeru start, and is that base the same as we see at the surface of the plane? Where were the Asuras cast down, to the surface of earth or 588 miles beneath that? Fortunately, brilliant researcher and co-author of The Ark of Millions of Years: Volume Two: 2012 and the Harvest of the Endtimes Dr. Brooks Agnew, understood our world to be hollow. The crust curves, as the ocean curves with it under the crust, at the polar entrance so that one sun disappears and another rises. That other sun is shining at the center of the Hollow Earth. See Hollow Earth Map above. How thick is our crust? Could it be 588 miles to the hollow center? Dr. Agnew does not imagine our world to be flat, but he suspects it is hollow and would have proved it except the government stymied his research expedition as he attempted to book passage on a boat capable of navigating to the pole to find the entrance.]

Around Mt. Sumeru (Meru, Sineru) are seven mountain ranges: Yugandhara, Isadhara, Karavīka, Sudassana, Nemindhara, Vinataka, and Assakanna [these may in fact be mountains ringing the plane that is the planet, which would be largely flat or an oblate spheroid, or they may be islands surrounded by rivers that encircle the polar openings to Agartha, the Inner Earth, or they may be high snow-covered ranges at the Arctic and Antarctic regions].

The mountains are inhabited by the Regent Devas (Catu-Mahārājas, the "Four Great Sky-Kings subordinate to Sakka, King of the Devas of that plane and the plane immediately above it, which is called the "World of the Thirty-Three" or Tāvatimsa] and their subjects, the ogres called yakkhas [highly intelligent Yeti/Sasquatch/Chewbacca-type creatures with psychic powers].

There really are space vehicles (vimana) that can travel through space, like the vril-drive.

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Within the world-system is the Himavā (Himalayan) mountain, one hundred leagues high, with eighty-four thousand peaks (here 84,000 should be read not as literal but rather as "a tremendous number").

Surrounding the whole world-system or cakkavāla is the cakkavālasilā.

Belonging to each world-system is a moon, forty-nine leagues in diameter, a sun of fifty leagues, the Tāvatimsa-bhavana [the World of the Thirty-Three ruling devas], the Asura-bhavana [the world of Titans], the Avīci-mahā-niraya [the "Waveless Deep" Great Downfall perdition], and the four mahā dīpas [Great Islands, Lights, or Continents]: Jambudīpa (India or Earth), Aparagoyāna, Pubbavideha, and Uttarakuru, each mahā dīpa surrounded by 500 [again not literal but to be read "a great number" of] minor dīpas [islands].

Between world-systems (cakkavalas) exist the Lokantarika-Niraya (SA.ii.442f.; DhsA.297f), a most pitiful kind of downfall/hell realm. World-systems are bubbles, and these places are the "interstitial hells" in Buddhist cosmography.

• [EDITORIAL NOTE: They are referred to, for example, in the dhamma-niyama assertion that when a supremely awakened Buddha arises, a limitless light radiates throughout the universe, multiverse, or omniverse (depending on what term one uses to define the everything). Between ball-shaped universes (world-systems), there are small spaces where beings are reborn in what one can say is the worst form of hell (worse in a sense than the torments of Avici or the "Waveless," because here rather than fire and brimstone torture, one is isolated in a dark and lonely place excommunicated from everyone else), and for the first time, these beings or hellions see that others also exist in such interstitial spaces.]

Within each world-system are Four Regent Devas (Cattāro Mahārājās) (AA.i.439).

A sun can illuminate only one world-system, whereas the rays of light from the Buddha's body [on rare, specified occasions] can illuminate all of the world-systems (AA.i.440).

• Could Mt. Sumeru be Tibet's Mt. Kailash? (Ven. Dhammika)
  

COMMENT: (Gustav

Tibet's Mount Kailash (Dhamma Musings)

) I think Mount Kailash is not the Mt. Meru (Mt. Sumeru) that lies in the center of the Indian Buddhist map, which has become well known in recent decades. The map in question must be very old, more than 5,000 years old. In it, Sun and Moon circle around Mt. Sumeru.

Therefore, I propose that Antarctica is Mt. Meru, which lies in the center of our world. The Sun goes above the equator and makes a perfect circle around Antarctica-Meru.

The "continents" around Mt. Meru would be: India, Africa, Australia, and South-America (corresponding to Jambudvipa, Videha, Godaniya, and Kuru). The map predates the invention of the magnetic compass, so the compass directions of the continents are not valid here. According to the compass, the four continents are north from Meru-Antarctica! The North Pole's ice sheet would be the surrounding [ice wall described as the] mountain range Cakravada.

[This makes more literal, physical sense and is in line with Flatlantis author Eric Dubay because he proves the earth is a flat. He further explains that the earth is a round magnet (as we all know), and its two poles are like those of a loudspeaker. One pole set directly in the CENTER, and the other around it, causing movement up and down.]

What do Buddhist and Vedic numbers mean?

Vedic time units

Ancient proto-Indians from the time of the Indus Valley Civilization (IVC) 5,000-10,000 years ago, during the time of the Vedas ("Knowledge Books"), had a passion for high numbers, which is intimately related to Indian spiritual, religious, and scientific thought.

For example, in texts belonging to IVC Vedic literature, there are individual Sanskrit names for each of the powers of 10 up to a trillion and even 10⁶². Even today, the words lakh and crore -- referring to 100,000 and 10,000,000, respectively -- are in common use in English-speaking India.

One of these Vedic knowledge books, the Yajur Veda, even discusses the concept of numeric infinity (purna "fullness"), stating that if we subtract purna from purna, we are still left with purna.

 

The Mahayana Buddhist Lalitavistara Sutra recounts a contest including writing, arithmetic, wrestling, and archery, in which the Buddha is pitted against the great mathematician Arjuna and shows off his numerical skills by citing the names of the powers of 10 up to 1 tallakshana, which equals 10⁵³.

But then it goes on to explain that this is just one of a series of counting systems that can be expanded geometrically. The last number at which he arrived after going through nine successive counting systems was 10⁴²¹, that is, a 1 followed by 421 zeros. More

• G.P. Malalasekera (palikanon.com) edited by Dhr. Seven and Pat Macpherson, Wisdom Quarterly, June 7, 2016

The goddess' vimana (Sirima devi's spaceship)

John D. Ireland (trans.), Sirima: "Sirima's Vimana" (Vv 1.16 PTS: Vv 136-148) edited and further explained by Dhr. Seven, Amber Larson, Pat Macpherson (eds.), Wisdom Quarterly

The devas are beautiful humanoids.

Ven. Vangisa: Those yoked and finely caparisoned horses of yours, strong and swift, are heading downward through the sky. And these 500 chariots [vimanas = spacecraft, aircraft, limitless-vehicles, flying ships], magically created, are following, their horses [horsepower] urged on by charioteers.

You stand in this excellent chariot [flying craft], adorned, radiant, and shining, like a blazing star. I ask you of lovely slender form and exquisite beauty, from which company of devas (lit. "shining ones") have you come to visit the Peerless One (the Buddha)?

• See also Vangīsa Sutta for a story of this thera

I do as I please, assuming whatever form suits me.

Sirima [12]: From those who have reached the heights of sensual pleasure said to be unsurpassed, the devas who delight in magical creation and transformation. A nymph from that company able to assume any desired appearance [a shapeshifter able to wield the power of transformation] has come here to honor the Peerless One.

Vangisa Thera spoke up.

Vangisa: What meritorious karma (good conduct) did you practice (perform) here in former times? How is it that you live in immeasurable glory, having gained such sensuous pleasures? Due to what have you acquired the unrivalled power to travel through the sky? Why does your beauty radiate in the ten directions?

You are surrounded and honored by the devas. From where did you pass away before you came to a heavenly rebirth, goddess? Or of what teaching (dharma, doctrine-and-discipline) were you able to follow the word of instruction? Tell me if you were a disciple of the Awakened One (the Buddha).

Sirima: In a fine and well-built city situated between hills, an attendant of a noble king endowed with good fortune, I was highly accomplished in dancing and singing. As Sirima I was known in Rajagaha [modern Rajgir, India, where the Buddha dwelled on Vulture's Peak].

But then the Awakened One, the leader among seers, the guide, taught me

1. of the origination of suffering
2. and impermanence [how disappointment comes to be],
3. of the unconditioned (asankhata), of the cessation of all suffering (nirvana) that is timeless (ānantariya); and
4. of this path (magga), not crooked, straight, auspicious.

The war in heaven: vimana against vimana

When I had learned of the deathless state (amata = nirvana), the unconditioned, through the instruction of the Tathagata, the Peerless One, I was highly and well restrained in the precepts and established in the Dhamma taught by the most excellent of humans, the Awakened One.

When I knew the undefiled place, the unconditioned, taught by the Tathagata, the Peerless One, I then and there experienced the calm concentration (of the noble path). That supreme certainty of release was mine.

When I gained the distinctive undying, assured, eminent in penetrative insight, not doubting, I was revered by many people and experienced much pleasure and enjoyment.

Thus I am a goddess (devi), knowing the undying, a disciple of the Tathagata, the Peerless One, a knower of Dhamma established in the first fruit, a stream-winner. Henceforth, there is no more bad rebirth for me.

I came to revere the Peerless One and the virtuous monastics [monks, nuns, novices] who delight in what is skillful, to honor the auspicious assembly of wandering ascetics and those worthy of respect [the ariya, the noble ones], the Fortunate One, the Dhamma-king.

I am joyful and gladdened on seeing the sage, the Tathagata, the outstanding trainer of humans capable of being trained, who has uprooted craving, who delights in what is skillful, the guide. I honor the supremely merciful Compassionate One.

Back story: Who is the devi (goddess) Sirima?

G. P. Malalasekera, Dictionary of Pali Proper Names (palikanon.com) edited by Wisdom Quarterly

Deva emerges from gold vimana chariot-mansion

Ven. Buddhaghosa says (SNA.i.244f, 253f) that Sirimā was Sālavati's daughter, who succeeded to her mother's position as courtesan. After passing away from here, Sirimā was reborn in a high celestial plane of existence known as the Yāma World as the wife of Suyāma. When the Buddha was speaking to the monastics at her cremation, she visited the spot with 500 chariots (vimanas).

Janapada-kalyānī Nandā [the most beautiful Scythian "belle of the land," who was the fiancé of the Buddha's half-brother, Nanda, before the Buddha ordained him after showing him his future due to his mixed karma in a famous sutra that reads like a kind of Charles Dickens' A Christmas Carol, the story of Ebenezer Scrooge, who turns his life around after seeing what is to come], who at that time had become a Buddhist nun, was present.

When the Buddha taught the Kāyavicchandanika Sutta, she became an arahant (fully enlightened), while Sirimā became an anāgāmī (non-returner).

The Vimānavatthu ("Vimana Stories," pp.78f., 86) gives the same story, adding that Vangīsa was also present at the teaching of the sutra and, having obtained the Buddha's permission, questioned the shapeshifting devi Sirimā and made her reveal her former identity.

Here, however, Sirimā is said to have been reborn in the Nimmānarati World, and no mention is made of her becoming an anāgāmī (but rather a sotapanna or "stream-winner"), whereas the lustful Buddhist monk is said to have become an arahant.

Sirimā is mentioned in a list of eminent upāsikās (A.iv.347; AA.ii.791). Eighty-four thousand persons realized the noble truth after listening to the Buddha's teaching at the cremation of Sirimā (Mil.350) [most of whom must have been devas]/

The Sirimā-vimānavatthu is the story of Sirimā's passing away and subsequent events (Vv.i.16; VvA.67ff.) More

Slayer: the Executioner who went to Heaven

G.P. Malalasekera, Dictionary of Pali Proper Names (Pali Text Society vis palikanon.com/english) edited, updated, and expanded by Dhr. Seven, Pfc. Sandoval, Pat Macpherson, Wisdom Quarterly

I like killing for the king. It's a job.

Tambadāthika was a public executioner in ancient Rājagaha (the royal hill-rung capital, Rajgir).

He had copper colored teeth, tawny skin, and a body covered with scars. He wanted to join a gang of thieves, but for a long time, the ringleader refused to admit him -- on account of his inordinately cruel looks.

HE was eventually admitted, but when the band of thieves were captured, no one could be found who was willing to kill the large number (500) of them.

But the crowd demanded it and paid me to kill.

Well, that is to say, only one person could be found: Tambadathika agreed to execute his fellow thieves for a reward. He slew all his colleagues.

The backstabbing slayer was afterwards appointed "public executioner" for the kingdom and held the post for 55 years. When however he became too old to behead a man with a single blow, another man was appointed in his place.

The bad karma of killing for everyone involved: bad mental karma yielding bad results.

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Tambadathika was deprived of the four perks to which he had for so many years been entitled:

1. old clothes
2. milk porridge made of ghee
3. jasmine flowers, and
4. perfumes.

Wise Sariputra was compassionate.

On the day he was deposed from office, he gave orders for milk porridge to be cooked. Then having bathed and decked himself out, he was about to eat when Ven. Sāriputra, out of compassion for him [giving him an opportunity to make great merit], appeared at his door.

Tambadathika invited the great disciple (thera) in and showed him great hospitality. When Sāriputta began his words of thanksgiving, his host could not concentrate his thoughts to listen and benefit from the ennobling teaching -- worried and full of misgivings by memories of his terrible past karma.

Yes, harm was done, but good can be done, too.

Sāriputta consoled him by representing to him that he had merely "carried out the king's orders." At the end of the sutra, Tambadāthika developed the qualities necessary for becoming a stream-winner (sotāpanna, the first stage of enlightenment) [which apparently he did not attain due to his muddled state of mind].

Tambadāthika accompanied Ven. Sariputra when he departed. But on his way back, he was gored to death by a mad cow. That cow was possessed by the same yakkhinī (yakshi = ogress) who had killed: Pukkusāti, Bāhīya of the Barkcloth, and Suppabuddha (DhA.ii.35; UdA.289). The Buddha declared that he had been reborn in the celestial Tusita heaven (DhA.ii.203ff). Source

The killer-crowd wants us to.

Tambadathika attained this very fortunate rebirth as a result of the great merit of showing hospitality and giving to the fully enlightened great disciple, who was in the habit of always entering and emerging from an exalted meditative attainment before receiving any gift, out of compassion for the giver, making that giver's offering much more meritorious, for karma depends not only on the state of mind of the giver but also the state of the receiver.

Death penalty: modern mass murderers called British public executioners last century.

Backstory: Bahiya's sudden enlightenment

G.P. Malalasekera, encyclopedia entry in Dictionary of Pali Proper Names (and PTS) derived from the Commentaries; Dhr. Seven, Pat Macpherson, Amber Larson (eds.), Wisdom Quarterly

But, Bahiya, this is the time for gathering alms.

Bāhiya Dārucīriya or "Bahiya of the Barkcloth" suddenly reached full enlightenment. How? The Commentaries (tika) give the backstory.

Bahiya was born in a householder's family Bāhiya (identified as Bhārukaccha in AP.ii.476), which led to his name.

He engaged in trade, voyaging by ship. Seven times he sailed down the Indus River and across the sea, and seven time returned home safely.

On his eighth trip, however, while on his way to the "Golden Land," Suvannabhūmi, he was shipwrecked. He saved his life by floating ashore on a plank of wood, reaching what he thought was an island which was in fact peninsular Suppāraka.

Having lost all his clothes, he made himself a bark garment (daruciriya), and went about, alms bowl in hand, in Suppāraka.

People, seeing his austere garment and struck by his ascetic demeanor, paid him great honor. They offered him costly robes and many other luxuries, and when he refused them his fame increased. Because of his bark garment, he was known as Dārucīriya.

He came to believe that he had attained full enlightenment, but a devata (a "shining one," said to be a brahma from the Pure Abodes or Suddhāvāsa, who had been a celibate companion in the supreme life during the time of Kassapa Buddha, according to the Commentary, MA.i.340), reading his thoughts and wishing him well, pointed out to him his error.

What is the road to nirvana? (NG)

The devata advised him to go see the Buddha in Sāvatthi. By the power of that devatā, Bāhiya reached Sāvatthi in one night, a distance of 120 leagues. But he was told that the Buddha was in the city on alms round.

Bāhiya followed him and pleaded to be taught something for gaining enlightenment. Twice he asked, and twice the Buddha refused, saying that it was not the time for teaching. But Bāhiya insisted, saying that life is uncertain and that the Buddha or he might pass away before it was time for teaching.

The Commentaries say that Bāhiya was too excited by his meeting with the Buddha and that the Buddha wished to give him time to regain his composure, hence his refusal.

But then the Buddha came to know of Bahiya's impending death and also of his potential (upanissaya) for full enlightenment. He was to attain in this very life due to his past karma (a pacchimabhavika).

Map showing ancient western trade routes serviced by this historical ancient Indian port. The gateway city of Bharakuccha is named on the map as Barigaza on the Gulf of Khambhat. The inhospitable mountains and deserts to the north of the Erythraean Sea suggests its importance in trade with ancient Axum, Egypt, Arabia, and the sea-land trade routes via the Tigris-Euphrates Valley and Ancient Rome. More

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Oh yeah, first to reach...eat my dust, ladies!

The Buddha then taught him the optimal method of regarding all sen
se experiences -- namely, as mere (impersonal, disappointing, impermanent) experiences and nothing more.

Even as he listened, Bāhiya became an arhat, and the Buddha seeing this went on his way. Shortly after, Bāhiya was gored to death by a cow with a calf (like the story of Pukkusāti and the others*).

The Buddha on his way back, seeing Bahiya's body lying on the dung heap, directed the monastics to prepare it, cremate it, and erect a sacred burial mound (tope, thūpa, stupa) over the relics.

In the assembly he declared Bāhiya to be "foremost among those who instantly comprehend the truth" (khippābhiññānam) (A.i.24; Ud.i.10).

Let's climb this rock to practice or die trying.

Bāhiya's resolution to attain to this eminence was made in the time of Padumuttara Buddha when he heard the Buddha declare a wandering ascetic foremost in instantaneous comprehension.

In the time of Kassapa Buddha, when the Buddha's teachings were fading from the minds of humans, Bāhiya was one of seven wandering ascetics who climbed a massive rock and determined not to leave it until they had attained their goal of spiritual liberation.

Their leader became an arhat, and the second a non-returner (anāgāmī) -- passing away to rebirth in the Pure Abodes (Suddhāvāsa). The rest were reborn in this age as Pukkusāti, Kumāra Kassapa, Dabba-Mallaputta, Sabhiya, and Bāhiya.

Although Bāhiya had kept the precepts in previous rebirths, he had never given a bowl or a robe to a monk. For this reason the Buddha did not, at the end of his instruction, ordain Bahiya by saying "ehi bhikkhu pabbajā" to him.

The Buddha knew that Bāhiya had insufficient merit to obtain divine robes (from devas). Some say that he was once a brigand and had shot a non-teaching fully self-enlightened one (pacceka buddha) with an arrow and had taken possession of that pacceka buddha's alms bowl and robe.

Bāhiya was killed while searching for a proper robe to receive ordination (UdA.77ff.; AA.i.156ff.; DhA.ii.209ff.; Ap.ii.475ff).

*The violent cow that gored Bāhiya was the same one that murdered Pukkusāti, Tambadāthika the Public Executioner, and Suppabuddha (2). (It is said that the cow was possessed by a yakkhini or yakshi, a female-ogre or inimical spirit; see her story at DhA.ii.35f). Source

• The Fast Way to Enlightenment: Bahiya of the Barkcloth

What happened to the Buddha's WIFE? (video)

G.P. Malalasekera, Dictionary of Pali Proper Names; Samsara film; Dhr. Seven, Crystal Quintero, Amber Larson, Ananda M. (eds.), Wisdom Quarterly

Cool scene in the Tibetan movie Samsara where a wife chews out her husband for leaving home to become enlightened and wrongly cites the plight of Yasodhara and now nobody considers her story or what she went through. It is very beautiful, fierce, and feminist -- but it is just not true, not a historically accurate condemnation.

Of course, the Buddha was not married. Wandering ascetics (recluses, munis, sannyasins) are not married.

But Prince Siddhartha was. His wife's name was Bimba Devi, popularly known as Princess Yasodhara.

Like the words buddha and rahula, yasodhara is not a name but a title. It means "Bearer of Glory" [from yaśas "glory, splendor" + dhara "bearing" from the verbal root dhri "to bear, support"]. 

She has been obscured from history -- her greatness hidden by diffusion -- through all of the different names she is given in the texts [possibly due to Indian sexism that later glorified men and all but erased females and the Order of Buddhist Nuns].

Central Asians blend East and West

The name generally given to her in the texts is "Rāhula's Mother" (Rāhula-mātā, e.g., Vin.i.82) and Siddhartha Gautama's wife.

 

She is also spoken of as Bhaddakaccā* and, in later texts, Yasodharā (BuA., p.245; Dvy.253), Bimbā Devī (J.ii.392f.; DA.ii.422) and, probably, Bimbā Sundarī (J.vi.478 [12]).

• *For example, Bu.xxvi.15; Mhv.ii.24 calls her Bhaddakaccānā. But see Thomas, op. cit., 49; she is also called Subhaddakā, this being probably a variant of Bhaddakaccānā.
• [The Buddha had a sister and brother, or at least half-sister and half-brother, Sundari Nanda and Nanda, who also became enlightened monastics and lost in the shuffle of names. The Buddha got them to ordain on his return to his Scythian homeland, "Shakya Land," seven years after his enlightenment around the time his son, Rahula, was ordained as a Buddhist monk.]

The northern texts [of the Mahayana movement] seem to favor the name Yasodharā, but they also call her the "Daughter of Dandapānī." (See also Rockhill, op. cit., where various other names are given as well).

It is probable that the name of Prince Siddhartha Gautama's wife was actually Bimbā and that Bhaddakaccā, Subhaddakā, Yosadhāri, and all the other names [see below] were descriptive epithets applied to her, which later became regarded as additional names.

It is also possible that in Siddhartha Gautama's court there was also a Yasodharā, a daughter of Dandapānī, and that there was a later confusion of names.

A new monastic name

The captivating Scythian/Central Asian beauty

The Commentarial explanation (AA.i.204) that she was called Bhaddakaccānā because her body was the color of burnished gold is probably correct.

To suggest (e.g., Thomas, op. cit., 49) that the name bears any reference to the Kaccāna gotra ["lineage, clan"] seems to be wrong because that was a Brahmin lineage, and the Sākiyans [Scythians, Sakas] were not Brahmins

• [The Shakyians/Scythians, who were actually outside of the Vedic/Brahminical "Indian" caste system were considered kshatriyas, i.e., fierce warrior princes/princesses, nobles, nomads, soldiers, wanderers from the northwest frontier lands of Central Asia in what is now the Stans west of modern India].

Yasodhara/Bimba was born on the same day as Prince Siddhartha, the Bodhisattva or "Buddha-to-be" (J.i.54; BuA. 106, 228).

They were cousins (or members of the same clan) who married, as nobles/royals tend to do, when they were both 16. The following account is taken chiefly from J.i.58ff:

She was placed at the head of 40,000 females given to Prince Siddhartha by the Sākiyans/Scythians after he proved his manly prowess to their satisfaction.

 

Prince Siddhartha renounced the household life on the day of the birth of his son, Rāhula or "Bond, Fetter." (According to one account, referred to in the Rebirth Tales/Jātaka Commentary, i.62, Rāhula was seven days old at that time).

If I don't go now, I'll never be able to go.

It is said that just before he left the royal palace to become a wandering ascetic on his quest for enlightenment to save all beings (at least all of his Shakyian/Scythian subjects) from suffering, he took one last look at his wife and child from the door of her room, not daring to go nearer lest he should wake them.

After his enlightenment, when the Buddha paid his first visit to Kapilavastu [one of three seasonal capitals of the Shakyians/Scythians], he went about the streets for alms on the second day of that visit.

The news of this spread, and Princess Yasodhara/Bimba Devi looked out of her window to see if it was true.

She saw the Buddha and was so struck by the glory of his personal beauty that she uttered eight verses in its praise. These verses have been handed down under the name of Narasīhagāthā.

On that day, after the Buddha finished his meal in the royal palace of his father, King Suddhodana, who had invited him, all of the ladies of the Shakyian court, with the exception of his former wife went to pay him obeisance as their former prince and future king.

The royals were once in love from the age of 16 on.

Yasodhara refused to go, saying that if she had any virtue in her the Buddha would come to visit her.
 

The Buddha went to her with his two chief male monastic disciples and gave instructions that she should be allowed to greet him as she wished.

Yasodhara fell at his feet and, clasping them with her hands, put her head on them.

King Suddhodana related to the Buddha how, from the time he had left home, Princess Yasodhara/Bimba had herself abandoned all luxury and had lived in the same manner as she had heard that he, her former husband the wandering ascetic, was living:

She had taken to wearing saffron robes of a spiritual wayfarer/wanderer rather than royal raiment, eating only once a day, sleeping on the ground rather than using a high and luxurious bed, and so on [things such as the 13 sane ascetic practices] as the ascetic Siddhartha took on additional austerities, some sane, some severe.

• [This should pause to those who believe that Prince Siddhartha abandoned his family, left them behind, and had no consideration about their feelings. They knew where he was, why he left, and what he was doing. This means his former wife and the mother of his child knew. His father and mother, King Suddhodana and Queen Prajapati, the sister and co-wife of the Buddha's biological mother, Maya Devi, Queen Maya, who passed away seven days after his birth.]

[Though she was free to, she had also, it is said, rejected every offer and proposal to remarry, which came from the richest and most handsome royals around.]

• [It may be that Prince Rahula was not his one and only child. Ananda may have been a son not a cousin, as the Mahavastu states" Ananda's mother's name was Mrigi ("little deer"), who is named in the Kanjur and Sanghabedavastu as one of Gautama's royal harem wives (prior to his renunciation). This points to the strong possibility that Ananda was in fact the Buddha's son (Wendy Garling, Stars at Dawn: Forgotten Stories of Women in the Buddha's Life, Shambhala Publications, 2016, pp. 94-106). In the 20th year of (20 being the minimum age when a male can take full ordination in the Buddhist Monastic Order) of the Buddha's ministry, Ananda became the Buddha's personal attendant, accompanying him on most of his wanderings and taking the part of Socratic interlocutor in many of the recorded dialogues or sutras/discourses.]

Life in one of the three palaces of the Shakyians' three royal palaces for the couple

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The Buddha then related the Candakinnara Jātaka to show how, in the past, too, Bimba/Yasodhara's loyalty had been supreme.
 

On the seventh day of the Buddha's visit, when he left the palace at the end of his meal, she sent Prince Rāhula -- their son and heir apparent -- to him saying: "That is your father, so go and ask him for your inheritance."

Prince Rāhula followed the Buddha and asked for his inheritance. The Buddha took great pity realizing all of the suffering inherent in ruling and living in the world. So he, with the highest welfare of Prince Rahula in mind, requested his chief male disciple foremost in wisdom, Ven. Sāriputra, to ordain him.

Royal family as monks: Rahula, the Buddha, Ananda

The account of this event is given in Vin.i.82 (the Vinaya or Monastic Disciplinary Code, which contains origin stories for each of monastic rule established by the Buddha).

This is probably the only passage in the Three Collections of Buddhist texts (Tri-pitaka) where Bimba/Yasodhara/Rāhulamātā is mentioned by name.

This child-ordination caused an uproar. The prince's mother, Yasodhara, was probably hoping for an inheritance of riches and title, passing down the right to rule the Shakyians/Scythians for her 7-year-old son.

King Suddhodana, moreover, was upset because he intended little Prince Rahula to eventually rule. Now the king, or local ruler of the Shakya clan (this particular band of Scythians), had no proper heir.

Cool! I get to go be with my dad and relatives!

They complained to the Buddha (who is, after all, Rahula's father returned to Shakya Land after a seven year absence), who instituted a new monastic rule on who could ordain.

Prince Siddhartha had gone away to find the way to the end of suffering for everyone, not least his own family and people. He was now called the muni ("sage") of the Scythians/Shakyas or Shakyamuni. They treated the Buddha, the Light of Asia and the World, as if he had returned to rule and lead a home life.

The new rule was that anyone who is not yet an adult (i.e., who is under 20, the age of majority at that time, which is equivalent to our 21 because in Asia people are born 1-year-old for the 10 lunar months they have spent on earth in the womb) should not be ordained by the monastics without parental consent.
 

The Buddha established that rule for all future Buddhist ordinations. But Prince Rahula, with the consent of his father, had already become the world's youngest novice Buddhist monk or little shraman trainee.
 

Princess Bimba (like mother Maya shown as a salabhanjika) giving birth to Rahula.

 

Together at home and wandering

Later, when the Buddha accepted females into the Buddhist Monastic Order, Yasodhara/Bimba became a  Buddhist nun under the tutelage of the world's first Buddhist nun:

Who was the first Buddhist nun ordained by the Buddha? That would be his adoptive mother, who raised him from the time he was 7 days old, Queen Mahā Prajāpatī Gautamī, the sister of the Buddha's biological mother Queen Maya (AA.i.198) King Suddhodana's primary wife.

 

Ven. Buddhaghosa, the greatest Buddhist commentator, identifies (AA.i.204f) Yasodhara/Bimba (Rāhulamātā) with Ven. Bhaddakaccānā who, in the Collection of Numerical Discourses (Anguttara Nikāya, A.i.25) is mentioned as "chief among female monastic disciples in the possession of supernormal powers" (mahābhiññappattānam).

She was one of the four disciples of the Buddha who possessed such an attainment. The others were the chief male disciples Ven. Sāriputra and Ven. Maha Moggallāna, and Ven. Bakkula. She expressed her wish for this achievement in the time of Padumuttara Buddha.

Merit (wholesome and profitable karma) makes one wise and attractive life after life.

 
In this account Bhaddakaccānā is mentioned as the daughter of the Shākyian  [Scythian] Suppabuddha and his wife Amitā.*

*Cf. Mhv.ii.21f. It is said (DhA.iii.44f) that Yasodhara's father, Suppabuddha, did not forgive Prince Siddhartha (now the Buddha) for leaving his daughter; Devadatta [the Buddhist "Judas"] was Bhaddakaccanā's [brother], and it has been suggested that Devadatta's enmity against the Buddha was for reasons similar to her father's.

Yasodhara/Bimba joined the Buddhist Female Monastic Order under Ven. Pajāpatī Gautamī in the company of Janapada Kalyānī (Nandā). And it also states that in the Order of Nuns she was known as Ven. Bhaddakaccānā Therī.

Later, she developed insight [vipassana] and became an arhat. She could, with one effort, recall one aeon of indeterminate length (asankheyya kalpa) and 100,000 [ordinary] kalpas (AA.i.205).

• [The significance of this is that a kalpa (Pali kappa) may in this case refer to "an ordinary human lifespan" rather than a "great aeon." If that is the case then the time between the arising of buddhas is not enormous epochs, ages, and aeons but rather just many lives.]

In the "Stories of Nuns' Lives" or Therī Apadāna (Ap.ii.584ff ) an account is found of a therī [Buddhist "elder," a senior nun, meaning having been a nun for at least ten rains], Yasodharā by name, who is evidently to be identified with Yasodhara/Bimba because she speaks of herself (vvs. 10, 11) as the Buddha's pajāpatī before he left the household (agāra) and says that she was the chief (pāmokkhā sabbaissarā) of 90,000 women.

 

In the time of Dīpankara Buddha, when the Bodhisattva (future Buddha) was born as Sumedha, she was a Brahmin maiden named Sumittā who gave eight handfuls of lotuses to Sumedha, which he, in turn, offered to the Buddha.

Dīpankara Buddha, in declaring that Sumedha would ultimately become a buddha in the distant future, added that Sumittā [Yasodhara/Bimba] would be his companion in several lives/rebirths.

The Apadāna account (vvs. 1ff ) mentions how, just before her passing into final nirvana, at the age of 78, took leave of the Buddha and performed various miracles. It also states (Ap.ii.592f ) that 18,000 fully enlightened (arhat) nuns, companions of Ven. Bhaddakaccana (Yasodharā/Bimba), also passed into final nirvana on the same day.
 

The Abbhantara Jātaka* mentions that Ven. Bimbā (who was called the chief wife of Prince Siddhartha Gautama and is therefore evidently identical with Rāhula's mother/Rāhulamātā) was once, after becoming a nun, ill with indigestion.

 

The kind and swift witted Princess Bimba

When Ven. Rāhula came to visit his mother the nun Ven. Bhaddakaccana, as was his custom, he was told that he could not see her.

When she had suffered from the same trouble at home, she had been cured using fresh mango juice with raw sugar. Ven. Rāhula reported this matter to his monastic preceptor, Ven. Sāriputra [in charge of getting monks to stream entry, the first stage of enlightenment], who obtained mango juice from their royal supporter King Pasenadi.

When King Pasenadi learned why the mango juice had been needed, he arranged that from that day forward that it should be regularly supplied. The rebirth tale (jātaka) relates how in a past rebirth Sāriputra had also come to her rescue.

*J.ii.392f.; cf. the Supatta Jātaka, where Sāriputra, at Rāhula's request, obtained for her from Pasenadi rice with ghee flavored with [presumably savory/umami/fermented digestive aid] red fish. This was for abdominal pain (J.ii.433).

The great Yasodhara by other names

"Was I in the past? Who was I? Will I be in the future? Who will I be?" These four questions are foolish and lead not to liberation from rebirth. "What is suffering? What is the cause of suffering? What is the end of suffering? What is the way to the end of suffering?" These four questions are wise, for reflected on, they lead one out to enlightenment and liberation.

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Buddha as a Central Asian king

Numerous stories are found in the Commentary to the Jātaka [Birth Tales or Rebirth Fables of the Buddha] in which Yasodhara/Bimba is identified with one or other of the characters.

[This shows how she was connected to the Bodhisattva, the Buddha-to-be, from the distant past because we are all often reborn in cohorts due to our karma].

• the queen consort in the Abbhantara Jataka,
• Sammillabhāsinī in the Ananusociya,
• Samuddavijayā in the āditta,
• Udayabhaddā in the Udaya,
• the potter's wife (Bhaggavī?) in the Kumbhakāra,
• the queen in the Kummāsa,
• the queen consort in the Kurudhamma,
• Pabhāvatī in the Kusa,
• Candā, in the Khandahāla,
• the queen in the Gangamāla,
• the female in the two Cakkavāka Jātakas,
• Candā in the Candakinnara,
• Sumanā in the Campeyya,
• the woman ascetic in the Cullabodhi,
• Candā in the Culla Sutasoma,
• the queen in the Jayaddisa,
• Sītā in the Dasaratha,
• the queen in the Pānīya,
• the wife in the Bandhanāgāra,
• Sujātā in the Manicora,
• Manoja's mother in the Manoja,
• Sīvalī in the Mahājanaka,
• Subhaddā in the Mahāsudassana,
• the mother deer in the Lakkhana,
• Visayha's wife in the Visayha,
• Maddī in the Vessantara,
• Suphassā in the Supatta,
• the queen in the Susīma,
• and the smith's wife in the Sūci Jataka.