The  Buddha and His Teachings
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The  Teaching  of  the  Dhamma
The    Buddha  and  Yasadhara

The  Buddha  and  Maha  Pajapati  Gotami
      Maha Pajapati Gotami, was the youngest sister of King Suppabuddha.    Her elder sister was 
Queen Maha Maya.       Both were married to King Suppabuddha.    She had a daughter named nanda and a son named Nanda.  Later, both of them entered the Order.    When Maha Maya died
she adopted her sister's son,  Prince Siddhattha, entrusting her own son Nanda to the charge of nurses.
                Her family name was Gotami, and she was named Maha Pajapati because soothsayers predicted  that  she would be the head of a large following.
      When the Buddha visited the place and preached the Dhammapala Jataka to His father she at-
taned the first stage of  Sainthood.
      After the death of King Suddhodana, as both Princes Siddhattha and Nanda had renounced the
world, she also decided to enter the Noble Order and lead the Holy Life.  When the Buddha visited
Kapilavatthu to settle a dispute between the Sakyas and Koliyas with regard to the irrigation of channles from the river ROhini and was residing at the Nigrodha park, Maha Pajapti Gotami approached the Buddha and begging Him to grant persission for women to enter the Order, pleaded
thus:
           "It would be well, Lord, if women should be allowed to renounce their homes and enter the homeless state ender the doctrine and discipline proclaimed by the Tathagata."
     Without stating His resons, the Buddha straightway refused, saying:
     "Enough, O Gotami, let it not please you that women should be allowed to do so.
           For the second and third time Maha Pajapati Gotami repeated her request, and the Buddha gave the same reply.
      Leter, the Buddha having stayed at Kapilavatthu as long as He liked journeyed to Vesali, and 
arriving there in due course, resided at the Mahavana in the Kutagara Hall.
        Resolute Pajapati Gotami, without being discouraged by her disappointment, got her hair cut off, donned vellow garments, and surrounded by a great number of Sakya ladies, walked from Kapi
lavatthu to Vesali, a distance of about 150 miles, experiencing many a hardship.    With swollen feet, her body covered with dust, she arrived at Vesali and stood outside the porch of the Pinnacled
Hall.      Venerable Ananda found her weeping and learning the cause of her grief, approached the
Buddha and said that:
       "Behold, Lord, Maha Pajapati Gotami is standing outside the porch, with swollen feet, body
covered with dust, and sad.    Please permit women to renounce home and enter the homeless state
under the doctrine and discipline proclaimed by the Exalted One.      It were well, Lord, if women
should be allowed to renounce their homes and enter the homeless state."
             "Enough, Ananda, let it not please you that women should, be allowed to do so!" was the Buddha's reply.
      For the second and third time he interceded on their behalf, but the Buddha would not yield.
             So Venerable Ananda made a different approach and respectfully questioned the Buddha:    "Are women, Lord, capable of realizing the state of a Stream-Winner (Sotapanna), Once-Returner
(Sokadagami).    Never-Returner (Anagami) and an Arahant, when they have gone forth from home to the homeless state under the doctrine and discipline proclaimed by the Exalted One?.
   The Buddha replied that they were capable of realizing Saintship.
         "Encouraged by this favourable reply,  Venerable Ananda appealed again, saying:     "If then, Lord, they are of attaining Saintship, since Maha Pajapati Gotami has been of great service to the
Exalted One, when as aunt and nurse she nourished Him and gave Him milk, and on the death of 
His mother suckled the Exalted One at her own breast, it were well, Lord, that women should be 
given permission to renounce the world and enter the homeless state under the doctrine and discipline proclaimed by the Tathagata."
       "If, Ananda, Maha Pajapati Gotami ecepts the Eight Chief Rules, let that be reckoned to her as the form of her ordination," said the Buddha, finally yielding to the entreaties of Venerable Ananda.     The Eight Chief Rules, are as follows:
     1-A  Bhikkhuni, even of a hundred years.'  standing by Upasampada, should salutte a Bhikkhu,
rise up before him, reverence him, and perform all proper duties towards him though he had received the Higher Ordination that very day.
    2-A  Bhikkhuni should not spend a Retreat ( Vassa) in a place where there is no Bhikkhu.
          3-Every fortnight a Bhikkhuni should ask from the Order of Bhikkhus the time of Uposatha meeting and when a Bhikkhu would come to admonish them.
     4---The Pavarana ceremony after the Retreat should be held by a Bhikkhuni in the presence of
both Bhikkhus and Bhikkhunis (to inquire whether through any of three ways of seeing, hearing, or
suspicion a wrong has been done.)
     5---A  Bhikkhuni who has committed a major offence should undergo Manatta discipline in the
presence of the Order of both Bhikkhus and  Bhiikhunis.
     6---A  female novice (Sikkamana), who is trained in the Six Rules for two years, should recieve
the Higher Ordination from the Order of both Bhikkhus and  Bhikkhunis.
     7---A  Bhikkhuni should on no account rebuke or abuse a Bhikkhu.
     8---Henceforth Bhikkhunis should not give admonition to Bhikkhus, but Bhikkhus should admo-
nish Bhikkhunis.
            These rules are to be revered, reverenced, honoured and respected as long as life lasts and should not be transgressed.
      When Venerble Ananda mentioned them to Maha Pajapati Gotami she gladly agreed to abide
by those eight Chief Rules.   By their acceptance she automatically received the Higher Ordination.
   In founding this Order of Bhikkhunis the Buddha, foreseeing the
future repercussions, remaked:     "If, Ananda, women had not received permission to renounce the
world and enter the homeless state under the doctrine and discipline proclaimed by the Tathagata,
the Holy Life would have lasted long and the Sublime Dhamma would have suvived for thousand
years.   But since women have entered this homeless state, the Holy Life would not last long and 
the Sublime Dhamma would now remain only for five hundred years.
      The Buddha added.   Just as, Ananda, houses in which there are many women and but few men
are easily violated by burglars, even so, under whatsoever doctrine and discipline women are per-
mitted to renounce the world and enter the homeless state, that Holy Life will not last long.
            "And just as a man would in anticipation build an embankment to a great reservoir beyond which the water should not overpass, even so have I in anticipation laid down these eight Chief Rules for the Bhikkhunis, not to be transgressed throughout their lives."
           In making these comments, which may not gernerally be very palatable to womankind, the 
Buddha was not in any way making a wholesale condemnation of women but was only reckonig
with the weaknesses of their sex.
     Although for several valid reasons the Buddha reluctantly permistted women to enter the Order,
it should be stated that it was the Buddha who, for the first time in the history of the world, founded
an Order for women with rules and regulations.    Just as He appointed two chief disciples, Venera-
ble Sariputta and Mogallana for the Order of monks, two chief female disciples -Venerable Khema
and Uppalavanna were appointed for the Order of nuns as well.
     One day Bhikkhus Maha Pajapati Gotami approached the Buddha and invited him to deliver a
discourse so that she may strive alone and achieve her goal.
      The Buddha declared - "Of whatsoever doctrine thou shalt conscious, Gotami, that these things
conduce to passion and not to peace, to pride and not to veneration, to wishing for much and not to
wishing for little, to love of society and not to seclusion, to sloth and not to the exercise of real, to
being hard to satisfy and not to contenment, verily mayest thou then, Gotami, bear in mind: that is
not Dhamma, that is not Vinaya, that is not the teaching of the Master.   But of whatsoever doctrine
thou shalt be conscious, Gotami, that these things conduce to peace and not to passion, to venera-
tion and not to pride, to wishing for little and not to wishing for much, to seclusion and not to love 
of society, to the exercise of real and not to sloth, to contenment and not to querulousness, verily 
mayest thou then bear in mind: that is Dhamma, and that is Vinaya, and that is the teaching of the
Master.
              Before long she attained Arahanship, accompanied by intuitive and analytical knowledge 
(Patisambhida).
       The other Sakya ladies, who received their ordination with her, also attained Arahantship.
              Amongst the female disciples Maha Pajapati Gotami was assigned the foremost pleace in seniority and experience (Rattannu).
      In the Therigatha appear several verses uttered by her after attaining Arahantship.