Khuddaka Nikaya - Buddhavamsa - The Story of Patacara Theri

Khuddaka Nikaya - Buddhavamsa - The Story of Patacara Theri

The Great Chronicle of The Buddhas
by Mingun Sayadaw

Edited and Translated by
U Ko Lay and U Tin Lwin
Yangon, Myanmar

(a) Her past aspiration.

The future Patacara Theri was born into a rich man's family in the city of Hansavati during the time of Padumuttara Buddha. On one occasion while she was attending to a sermon by the Buddha she saw a bhikkhuni being designated as the foremost bhikkhuni among those who were most learned in the Vinaya Rules. She aspired to that honour in her own time and after making an extraordinary offering to the Buddha, expressed her desire for the honour of being designated as the foremost bhikkhu in the matter of Vinaya learning. Padumuttara Buddha prophesied that her wish would be fulfilled.

In her existence as one of the seven daughters of King Kiki

After filling her whole life with meritorious deeds, the Rich man's daughter passed away and was reborn in the deva world and then the human world and the deva world in turns. During the time of Kassapa Buddha she was born as the third of the seven illustrious daughters of King Kiki (of Baranasi) about whom we have said earlier on, her name was Bhikkhuni; she and the six sisters remained spinsters, lived a life of chastity for the whole life span of twenty thousand years and donated a big monastic complex together.

(b) Taking up the life of a Bhikkhuni in her last existence.

The king's daughter, after passing away from that existence, was reborn in the deva world. For the innumerable years of the intervening period between the two Buddhas she enjoyed celestial pleasures. During the time of Gotama Buddha she was reborn as the daughter of the rich man of Savatthi.

When she came of age she fell in love with a servant of her fathers' household. When her parents arranged for her betrothal with the son of another rich man, she warned her lover on the day before the day of betrothal that unless he was prepared to elope her forthwith, their love affair would be ended. The man was true to her. He eloped with her, taking whatever little savings he had set aside, the two lovers ran away stealthily and took shelter at a small village three or four yojanas away from Savatthi.

In due course the rich mans daughter became pregnant and 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 fathers house. The husband was a timid man. He dared not face the consequences of returning to his master's house and procrastinated. The wife then decided that her husband was not going to send her back to her house and chose the absence of her husband to step away alone towards her father's house.

When the husband came back 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 he went after her without delay. He caught up with her on the way but by then she had delivered the child. Then they agreed between them that since the purpose of her returning to her parents was for safe delivery of her child, and now that the child had been delivered safely there "'is no point in going there. So they went back to their small village.

Another child arrived. The wife asked her husband to take her to her parents place. The husband procrastinated as before, and getting impatient, she went alone. On the way she delivered her second child safely when her husband caught up with her. At that time there came heavy rains on all the four quarters. 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 pulling out grass from a mound, not noticing it as such.

The cobra that lay inside the mound got annoyed and struck the man who fell dead on the spot. The wife who was kept waiting in the rickety hut, after awaiting the whole night, thought that her husband had deserted her. She went to look for him and found him lying 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 Savatthi. In front of her she had to cross a shallow stream (which seemed deep). She thought she might not be able to cross it with both the children together. So she left the 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 to the elder boy. Just as she got half-way in the stream a kite swooped down on the infant baby taking it for its prey. The mother became excited and tried to shoo away the kite but her throwing up the hands in the air was mistaken as beckoning to him by the elder child who now ran into the stream. He slipped and was carried away by the swift current. Before the mother could get to her infant child the kite had got it and was lost. She wailed her fate in half a stanza thus:

'Both my two sons are dead and gone!

And my husband too had died on the way!'

Wailing in those desperate words, she proceeded along her way to Savatthi.

When she arrived in Savatthi, she was unable to find her parents' place. It 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 had gone, they answered, "What use is there if you find the house." It has been destroyed by last nights' gale. All the inmates of the house died inside the house that fell down. They all were cremated on a single pyre. And that is the place of their burial," the people showed her the thin smoke from the burnt up pyre.

"What, what did you say?" Those were the only words she could say and she collapsed. When she came round, she was not in her own wits. She could not care about decency with no cloths on, her hands raised in the air wildly, she went near 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, my father and my brother, (Having perished together,)

Have been cremated on a single pyre"

The meaning of the word 'Patacara

The Rich Man's daughter went about the city naked. When other people tried to cover up her body she tore off the clothes. Thus wherever she went she was surrounded by astonished crowds. She came to be referred to as 'The naked woman' Patacara (Or in another sense of the Pali word, 'the shameless woman') As she went absentmindedly wailing in that tragic stanza people would say "Hey go away, mad woman!" Some would throw dirt and refuse on her head, some would throw stones at her.

Patacara finds peace

The Buddha saw Patacara 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 Patacara come to him at the monastery . People tried to prevent her coming to the monastery but the Buddha said to them. 'Don't try to stop her. When she came nearer the Buddha said to her, 'Patacara be mindful.'

As soon as she heard the Buddha's words, thanks to the Buddha's powers, Patacara regained her senses. Knowing 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 down to her a piece of garment which she took up, cloaked herself in, and drew near the Buddha. In worshipping posture, she related the tragic story thus:

"Venerable Sir, may you be my refuge! My younger son was swooped away by a kite. My elder son was drowned in the current of a stream. My husband died on the way. My parents and my brothers were killed in the house that collapsed and they were cremated on a single pyre."

The Buddha said to her:

"Patacara, 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 sons, husband, 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 Bhagava also spoke in verse as follows:

"Patacara, 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 careful."

On hearing the Buddha's discourse containing the perspective of Samsara, grief abated in the mind of Patacara . The Bhagava, knowing that Patacara had been able to control her sorrow, discoursed further thus:

"Patacara, neither son nor husband can protect one on the journey through after life, 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 samsara. Therefore a wise person should purify his morality and get himself or herself established on the Noble Practice leading to Nibbana."

Then the Buddha spoke in verse as follows:

"Patacara, 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 " - Dhammapada V-288

"Knowing this lack of protection against Death, the wise person restrained by morality should make haste to clear the Ariya Path that leads to Nibbana"

At the end of the discourse Patacara burnt up the infinite defilements by means of Stream Entry Knowledge and was established in Sotapatti Magga.

After becoming a Stream-Enterer, Patacara requested the Buddha that she be admitted into the Order of bhikkhuni. The Buddha caused her to be taken to the bhikkhunis and be admitted as a bhikkhuni.

How Patacara attained Arahatship

One day bhikkhuni Patacara 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. Patacara, 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 at 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 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 being are liable to die in their last period of life."

She reflected further that just as all the three streams must end up 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 woefulness (dukkha) of all conditioned phenomena dawned on her conditioned mind, and hence the insubstantiality, the emptiness of all and conditioned phenomena also was then perceived.

Pondering deeply on the three characteristics, she went into her monastic dwelling for a suitable change in the temperature. There she placed the lighted lamp at its usual place and, wishing to extinguish it, she pulled down the wick into oil with a pointed needle.

Just at that moment the Buddha while sitting in his private chamber sent Buddha-rays to Patacara making himself visible to her and said:

"Patacara, you are thinking rightly all sentient beings are subject to death. Therefore it is in vain to be living for a hundred 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:

"Patacara even if one were to live a hundred years without perceiving (with Insight) the arising and perishing of conditioned phenomena (i.e. , 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." Dhammapada, V - 13)

At the end of the discourse Patacara attained arahatship together with the four Discriminative Knowledges.

After attaining Arahatship Patacara learnt the Vinaya from the Buddha extensively and made wise judgments on matters concerning the Vinaya. Therefore on another occasion when the Buddha honoured distinguished bhikkhunis in a congregation at the Jetavana monastery he declared:

'Bhikkhus among my bhikkhunis disciples who are wise (adept) in the Vinaya, Bhikkhuni Patacara is the foremost.'

(Here ends the story of Patacara Theri)