4. Ven. Paṭācārā
Aspiration in the Past
The future Paṭācārā was reborn into a rich man’s family in the city of Haṁsavatī during the time of Buddha Padumuttara. On one occasion, while she was listening to a discourse by the Buddha, she saw a nun being named as the foremost among those who were most learned in the Vinaya Rules. She aspired to that honour. And after making an extraordinary offering to the Buddha, she expressed her desire for the honour of being declared as the foremost female monastic in Vinaya learning. Buddha Padumuttara predicted that her wish would be fulfilled.
One of the Seven Daughters of King Kikī
After filling her whole life with meritorious deeds, the future Ven. Paṭācārā passed away and was reborn in the Deva realm and subsequently the human world or the Deva realm in turn. During the time of Buddha Kassapa, she was reborn as the third of the seven illustrious daughters of King Kikī of Bārāṇasī. Her name was Bhikkhunī. She and the six sisters remained spinsters, living a life of chastity for their whole lifespan of 20,000 years. Together with her sisters, they donated a big monastic complex.
Ascetic Life in Her Final Existence
The king’s daughter, the future Ven. Paṭācārā, after passing away from that existence, was reborn in the Deva realm. For the innumerable years of the intervening period between the two Buddhas she enjoyed celestial pleasures. During the time of Buddha Gotama, she was reborn as the daughter of a rich man of Sāvatthī.
When she came of age, she fell in love with a servant of her father’s household. When
Soon the rich man’s daughter became pregnant and she said to her husband: “My lord, this is a desolate place for us to give birth to my child. Let us go back to my father’s house.” Her husband was a timid man. He dared not face the consequences of returning to his master’s house and he therefore procrastinated. The wife then decided that her husband was not going to accompany her back to her father’s house and she chose, during the absence of her husband, to return alone.
When the husband returned from his short trip and learnt that his wife had gone back to her parents’ house, he felt pity for her. “She has to suffer because of me,” he repented and went after her without delay. He caught up with her on the way but by then she had given birth. Then they agreed that since the purpose of her returning to her parents was for the safe birth of her child, and since she had given birth safely, there was no point in going there. So they went back to their small village.
When she was pregnant again, she asked her husband to take her to her parents’ place. Her husband procrastinated as before, and getting impatient, she went alone. On the way, she gave birth to her second child safely before her husband could catch up with her. At that time, there were heavy rains everywhere. The wife asked her husband to put up some shelter from the rains for the night. He made a rickety shelter from whatever faggots he could find. He then went in search of some tufts of grass to build an embankment around the little hut. He started carelessly pulling out grass from a mound.
A cobra, which lay inside the mound, was annoyed and bit the husband who fell dead on the spot. The wife, who was waiting in the rickety hut, after waiting the whole night, thought that her husband had deserted her. She went to look for him and found him dead near the mound. “Oh, me! My husband met his death all on account of me!” She wailed. And holding the bigger child by the hand and putting the infant on her waist, she took the road to Sāvatthī.
On the way, she had to cross a shallow stream which seemed to be deep. She thought she might not be able to cross it with both the children together. So she left her elder boy on this side of the stream and after crossing it, placed the infant on the other side, wrapped up snugly. She waded the stream back for the elder son, but just as she was half-way through the stream, a hawk swooped down on the infant baby taking it for its prey. The mother became excited and tried to frighten away the hawk, but her throwing up her hands in the air was mistaken as beckoning by the elder son who ran into the stream. He slipped and was carried away by the swift current. Before the mother could reach her infant child, the hawk had flewn away with it. She wailed her fate in half a verse thus:
“Both my two sons are dead and gone! And my husband too had died on the way!”
Wailing in these desperate words, she proceeded along her way to Sāvatthī. When she arrived in Sāvatthī, she was unable to find her parents’ home. This was partly due to her intense grief but there was a substantial reason for her failure to recognize her own childhood home. For, as she asked the people where the rich man’s house which used to be somewhere there, they answered: “What use is there if you find the house? It has been destroyed by last night’s gale. All the inmates of the house died inside the house when it collapsed. They were cremated on a single pyre, and that is the place of their burial,” the people showed her the thin smoke from the burnt pyre.
“What, what did you say?” Those were the only words she could say and she fainted. When she recovered, she was not in her own mind. She could not care about decency: With no clothes on, her hands raised in the air wildly, she went towards the burnt-up pyre and wailed:
“Both my two sons are dead and gone! And my husband too has died on the way! My mother, father and brother have been cremated on a single pyre.”
The rich man’s daughter went about the city naked. When other people tried to cover up her body, she would tear off the clothes. Thus, wherever she went, she was surrounded by astonished crowds. Hence, she came to be referred to as the naked woman (Paṭācārī); or in another sense of the word, the shameless woman. As she went about dazed and confused wailing the tragic verse, people would say: “Go away, mad woman!” Some would throw dirt and refuse on her head, and others would throw stones at her.
Meeting with the Buddha
The Buddha saw Paṭācārā roaming about aimlessly while he was making a discourse to an audience at the Jetavana monastery. Seeing that her faculties had now ripened, the Buddha willed that Paṭācārā come to him at the monastery. People tried to prevent her going into the monastery but the Buddha said to them: “Don’t try to stop her.” When she went nearer, the Buddha said to her: “Paṭācārā, be mindful.”
As soon as she heard the Buddha’s words, Paṭācārā regained her senses. Aware of her nakedness, she sat down on her closed knees and remained with her body bent, and trying her best to cover up her naked body with her hands. Someone then threw to her a garment which she picked up, clothed herself, and drew near the Buddha.
In worshipping posture, she related the tragic story thus: “Venerable sir, may you be my refuge! My husband died on the way; my younger son was taken away by a hawk; my elder son drowned in the current of a stream; my parents and my brothers were killed in their house which collapsed and they were cremated on a single pyre.”
The Buddha said to her: “Paṭācārā do not vacillate. You have now come to one in whom you can take refuge. Just as you have shed tears for the loss of your husband, sons, mother, father and brother, so also had you shed much tears, even greater than the waters of the four great oceans, throughout the beginningless round of existences.” The Buddha also spoke in verse as follows:
“Paṭācārā, the waters of the four great oceans are little when compared to the amount of tears shed by one person on account of the grief suffered for loss of his or her beloved ones. Now, my daughter, why are you so negligent? Be mindful.”
On hearing the Buddha’s discourse containing a perspective on Saṁsāra, grief abated in the mind of Paṭācārā. The Buddha, knowing that Paṭācārā had been able to control her sorrow, discoursed further thus: “Paṭācārā, neither son nor husband can protect one on the journey through the afterlife, nor are they one’s refuge; that being so, even though sons or husband may be living, they are as good as non-existent for a wayfarer in Saṁsāra. Therefore a wise person should purify morality and be established in the noble practice leading to Nibbāna.” Then the Buddha spoke in verse as follows (Dhp 288-299):
“Paṭācārā, when one falls victim to death, neither one’s sons nor parents nor close relations can protect one; one’s kith and kin have no power to give protection.
Knowing this lack of protection against Death, the wise person restrained by morality, should make haste to clear the noble path that leads to Nibbāna.”
At the end of the discourse, Paṭācārā burnt up the infinite defilements and was established in Stream-entry (Sotāpatti-magga).
After becoming a Stream-enterer, Paṭācārā requested the Buddha that she be admitted into the Saṅgha of female monastics. The Buddha caused her to be taken to a nunnery and be admitted as a nun.
How Paṭācārā Became an Arahat
One day, Ven. Paṭācārā was washing her feet. As she poured down the water on her feet, the water flowed to a short distance and then stopped there. When a second cup was poured, the water flowed to a place slightly farther away than the first stream and then stopped. When a third cup was poured, the water flowed to a place slightly farther away than the second stream.
Ven. Paṭācārā, already a Stream-enterer, meditated on this phenomenon of the three streams of water, and applied it to the three periods of life thus: “Just as the first stream of water stopped after a short place, sentient beings are liable to die during their first period of life; just as the second stream flowed slightly farther than the first stream and then stopped, so also sentient beings are liable to die during their middle age; and just as the third stream flowed farther than the second stream and stopped, so also sentient beings are liable to die in their last period of life.”
She reflected further that just as all the three streams must end and disappear, so also living beings must give up their tenure of life and perish. Thus, the impermanence of things gave her insight into all conditioned phenomena. From that insight into impermanence, the characteristic of the suffering (dukkha) of all conditioned phenomena dawned on her conditioned mind and hence the non-self, the emptiness of conditioned phenomena was also perceived.
Pondering deeply on the three characteristics, she went into her monastic dwelling for a suitable change in temperature. There she placed the lighted lamp at its usual place and, wishing to extinguish it, she pulled down the wick into the oil with a pointed needle.
Just at that moment, the Buddha, while sitting in his private chamber, sent the Buddha-radiance to Paṭācārā making himself visible to her and said: “Paṭācārā, you are thinking rightly: all sentient beings are subject to death. Therefore, it is in vain to be living for 100 years without the right perception of the five aggregates, of their arising and dissolution, whereas it is really worthwhile to live even for a day with a full understanding of the five aggregates.” The Buddha put this point in verse as follows (Dhp 113):
“Paṭācārā, even if one were to live 100 years without perceiving with insight the arising and perishing of mind and body, yet more worthwhile indeed is a single day’s life of one who perceives the arising and perishing of mind and body.”
At the end of the discourse, Paṭācārā became an Arahat together with the four discriminative knowledges.
Foremost Title Achieved
After attaining Awakening, Paṭācārā learnt the Vinaya from the Buddha extensively and made wise judgments on matters concerning the Vinaya. Therefore, on one occasion when the Buddha named distinguished nuns in a congregation at the Jetavana monastery, he declared:
Etad-aggaṁ bhikkhave mama sāvikānaṁ bhikkhunīnaṁ
Vinaya-dharānaṁ yad-idaṁ Paṭācārā.
“Monastics, among my female monastic disciples who are wise and adept in the Vinaya, Paṭācārā is the foremost (etad-agga).”