Mahaprajapati Gautami - Life History

Mahaprajapati Gautami Mahaprajapati Gautami is of great importance in Buddhist history.  Siddhartha - After the death of Mother Mahamaya, if Mahaprajapati Gautami had not brought up Siddhartha, then perhaps we would have been deprived of the world's best Ratan Buddha Dhamma, Sangha.  We are presenting here only a brief biography of such a great woman.

Shuddhodan was a very brave, mighty warrior and just king.  By the way, he was married to 'Mahamaya'.  When Shuddhodana defeated the Pandava caste settled in the mountainous area with his valor in the war, he was allowed to have another marriage.  He chose Mahamaya's sister Prajapati.

On the auspicious occasion of Vaishakh Purnima, on the auspicious occasion of Vaishakh Purnima, a child Siddhartha was born on the holy land of the Terai of Nepal from Mahishi Mahamaya.  The virtuous agar Mahishi Mahamaya left her mortal body on the seventh day after the birth of the child.

Maharaja Shuddhodana was worried about the upbringing of a child with extraordinary qualities, because the child for whom astrologers, oceanographers and great sages had predicted to become the Chakravarti king or the savior of all beings, had to be handed over to the right hands.  Goddess Mahaprajapati had great reverence and affection for her elder sister.  After the parinirvana of Mahamaya Devi, Mahaprajapati became the chief princess.  On those days a son named Nand was also born to him.  But the loving mother, Gautami, entrusted her infant in the hands of a bodhisattva and considered herself blessed by taking the burden of taking care of the infant.  Due to the great devotion he had for his elder sister, he brought up the infant Siddhartha with peace and love.  In his loving motherly love, Kumar Siddhartha practiced Vidya with many qualities like kindness, charity, efficiency etc.  Goddess Gautami's heart swelled with joy after getting Yashodhara-si bride.

The heart of the mother, who was enthusiastic in all the works of son Siddhartha, was pained by the abandonment of Kumar.  Forgetting her sorrow from the misery of the renunciation Yashodhara, she started spending the days of her life.  Siddhartha did severe penance for many years.  After defeating and conquering the Dhammachakra, when Lord Buddha came to Kapilvastu, satisfying the living beings with nectar, then the newly married wife of the only son of Goddess Gautami, and relinquishing the throne, took refuge in the Triratna.  The grandson of Maharaja Shuddhodana and the only son of Yashodhara, Rahul also took Pravajya.  Goddess Mahaprajapati was also very impressed after hearing his welfare teachings.  She expressed the desire to sacrifice everything to walk on the path of human welfare, but Lord Buddha did not allow confused women to come on the path of renunciation.  Yet she did not despair and impressed five hundred women with this auspicious thought.

Once upon a time, Lord Vaishali was doing good to the living beings by showering nectar in the form of a sermon in the garden.  Then Goddess Gautami, with enthusiasm and seriousness in her heart, traveled on foot from Kapilvastu to Vaishali with five hundred Shakya-Sukumaris.  The bodies of Sukumaris were withered.  His feet were swollen and swollen, but he had a high determination in his soft mind, to establish the Bhikkhuni-Sangha.  Ananda, the beloved disciple of the Lord, noticed this and asked the Mahakarunik Lord - "Bhante!  Is there no talk of welfare of women in your sacred religion?  ,

God told for everyone in his auspicious speech.  On the persuasion of Bhante Anand, he gave the auspicious approval of women to be bhikkhunis.  It was a glorious golden day for women, when the first Bhikkhuni-Sangh was established by the hard efforts of Goddess Prajapati Gautami, the leader of equal rights.  Five hundred Shakya Sukumaris took Kashaya clothes (Chevar).  Goddess Gautami became his chief.  These sages pleased the Lord with their spiritual practice and they also got the same rights as the Upasampada and the bhikkhus.

That was the last birth of the Goddess born after doing spiritual practice for many births (stages);  One who had followed a divine son like Siddhartha.  He attained the position of Arhat through concentrated contemplation and supernatural meditation by the teachings of the Lord.  When the Lord was residing in Mahavan near Vaishali's Kutagarshala, she was also there along with the Bhikkhuni-Sangha.

One day after taking care, he thought, how will his loving tender heart tolerate the Mahaparinirvana of God, the parinirvana of Kumar Nand and Rahul?  Therefore he himself should renounce the body before everyone else.  For this he pleaded with God.  The Lord gave him sermons in a calm and serious voice, so that he attained the benefit of the supreme peaceful parinirvana by being in samadhi.

Goddess Gautami had an unwavering faith in the Lord.  She considered him as a great hero of world welfare.  Even today in the Therigatha, the udanas (exclamations that come out of the heart of Harshad), full of his unparalleled devotion, are present.  With so much emotion and succinctness he has said -

 Meaning - Oh Buddha!  O hero!  O best creature!  hello to you  Who has freed me and many other beings from suffering.

Meaning - All my sorrows are gone.  I came to know how sorrows arise.  Now I have dried up the craving for their root cause (cause).  Today, I have touched the path of suffering-control-gami, Arya-Attangaik path, I have walked in it.

Meaning- (Now in this birth) I saw that Lord Buddha (I felt) this is my last body.  My movement has stopped, now I do not have to take birth again.

Prajapati says, "Sugat! I am your mother but, you are my father. Because he followed the teachings of Tathagata. Lord Buddha, like a father, gave him innovative peace with wisdom and unparalleled teachings. Elsewhere she says -

"Ah!  For the sake of Bahujan Hitaya, Mahamaya gave birth to Gautam, he freed all beings from the woes of disease and death.  Today I walk on the Arya-Eightal path leading to the cessation of suffering.

I worship you Buddha, you are the best.  You have given the boon of peace to so many women like me by saving them from the flame of sorrow.  This is my last birth.  I no longer crave for your knowledge.  You have taken away the misery of the living beings."

How much reverence was there, how much devotion was there in the welfare teachings of those great people.  Blessed are those women and gems whose goal was to do good to all the creatures of the world and to liberate life by attaining knowledge.  She was the great heroine of the women's world, who brought women equal to men and did the welfare of the women world by getting the nectar element.