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MAY, 1928)
BUDDHIST WOMEN
the means of attaining sakkayanirodha. Ignorant people take the five upádána khandhas jointly and separately as atti (soul); the learned and noble disciples do not take them in this sense. Those who obtain nirodha sama patti are stopped one after another. The three kinds of vedand are sukha, dukkha and adukkhamasukha (M.N., 1., 299 f.)
There was an upâisika named Suyata who destroyed three bonds and obtained the first stage of sanctification. (8.N., V, p. 356.)
Nanda, sister of the king of Kosala, was a bhikkhuni. While going through the sky at night she instructed Kalasoka and bhikkhusargha to purify bhikkhusariigha by driving out bad bhikkhus and protecting good bhikkhus (Sasana varius, p. 6).
There was another woman named Nanda who was the wife of a householder named Nandasena who lived in a certain village near Sâvatthi. She had no faith in the Buddha. She was very hot-tempered and used to abuse her husband, father-in-law and mother-in-law. On her death she became a peti. One day she appeared before her husband and gave him an account of her past misdeeds. The husband made gifts for her sake to the bhikkhus, and Nandâ was released from her miseries. (P.D. on the Pelavathu, pp. 89-92.)
Revati was the daughter of a householder of Benares. She had no faith in the Buddha, and was very uncharitable. For some days she was forced by her parents to do meritorious deeds in order to win Nandiya, a neighbour's son, as her husband. After marriage, Nandiya made her follow him in his meritorious deeds. Thereafter Nandiya had to go abroad. He asked his wife to continue all the meritorious deeds. Revatî did so for seven days. Then she stopped all meritorious deeds and began to abuse the bhikkhus who had come to her house for alms. Nandiya, on his return, found that all his acts of charity had been discontinued. After death Revatî became a hellish creature. On his death Nandiya became a devata. He saw with his divine eyes that Revati had become a hellish creature. He then went to her and asked her to approve of the meritorious acts done by him. As soon as she did so, she became a devatd and resided with Nandiya in heaven. (B.C. Law, Buddhist Conception of Spirity, p. 79.)
Sámárati was the queen of king Udena of Kosambi. The harem containing Samavatî with 500 female attendants was burnt while Udena was in the royal garden. The matter was referred to the Buddha, who said, "Each updsiká had gone according to her kamma, some have become sotd panna sakadagami and anagami and so forth (Uddna, p. 79).
There was a maid-servant named Binani engaged by Asoka Brahmana to give food daily to the samgha which was enough for eight bhikkhus. This she used to do with devotion, with the result that after her death she was born in avimana in the sky. (Mahavamsa, p. 214.)
Rúpananda was Buddha's step-sister. She thought that her eldest brother renounced the world and had become a Buddha. Her younger brother Nanda was a bhikkhu and Rahulakumara had obtained ordination. Her husband too became a bhikkhu and her mother, Mahapajâpatigotamî, became a bhikkhuni. She renounced the world thinking that so many of her relatives had renounced the world. She did not go before the Buddha as she was proud of her beauty, while the Buddha used to preach the impermanency and worthlessness of form. The other bhikkhunis and bhikkhus always used to praise the Buddha in her presence and tell her that all having different tastes became blessed by seeing the Buddha.
NandA thought of going to the Buddha with other bhikkhunis but she would not show herself to the Buddha. Ananda came to know that Nandå had come with the bhikkhunís. The Buddha desired to lower her pride in her beauty by showing the bad effect of it. By his miraculous power the Buddha created a most beautiful girl who was engaged in fanning the Buddha. NandA seeing her beauty found out that her own beauty was much inferior. The girl was soen gradually attaining youth, the state of a mother of a child and then old age and disease and death. Nanda, seeing this, gave up her pride in her beauty and came to realize the impermanence of beauty. The Buddha, knowing the state of her mind, delivered a suitable sermon and she became an arhat after hcaring it. (D.C., III, pp. 113 f.)
