Gopa Stands in Her Power

Preface and Story

This is a story about the Buddha’s wife. In many Buddhist texts the Buddha’s wife is called Yasodhara, but in this story from the Lalitavistara, a Sanskrit biography of the Buddha, the Buddha’s wife is named Gopa. They may be two names for the same person; in texts from the Theravada traditions, Yasodhara is variously called Bhadda Kaccana, Rahulamata, and Bimba. According to texts in the Tibetan Kanjur and some other northern sources, however, Gopa and Yasodhara were two different wives of Prince Siddhartha, the future Buddha.

The events described in this story are not found in other Buddha biographies. Gopa’s boldness in speaking out and her agency in doing so are striking. While the story and its details may be singular to the Lalitavistara, its general significance obviously is not.

Gopa, the Buddha’s wife, defends herself before the women of the inner court Image from Candi Borobudur, Java, Indonesia Photo by Ven. Anandajoti
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At that time, Dandapani a Sakya gave in marriage his own daughter, Gopa, herself a Sakya girl, to the future Buddha. King Suddhodana had already seen that that princess was special enough for his son, the future Buddha.

After the marriage was consummated, Gopa was consecrated crown princess and she was recognized as superior to all the many thousands of women who also lived inside the women’s quarters of the royal inner city.

No matter who she was with, the Sakya girl Gopa never covered her face or mouth; not when she was with her mother-in-law, nor with her father-in-law, nor with anyone inside the royal inner city. People ruminated over her as they went about their business, thinking, “A young woman who is a new wife should be unassuming and keep back, but this one thinks she’s special and is up front all the time.” When Gopa heard the crude things said about her, she spoke these verses, standing in front of all the people of the royal inner city:

The one not ordinary shines out in the open,
whether sitting, standing, or walking,
Like a glistening gem on top of a parade flagpole,
its gleaming light the first thing seen.
Going or coming, someone not ordinary always shines,
standing or sitting, the one not ordinary shines everywhere.
Making a sound– shining,
silent–also shining,
the one not ordinary is like
the kalavinka bird in looks and sounds.
Someone may wear rough grass made into clothes,
be dressed in threadbare rags, he may be skin and bones,
but if he is virtuous and is adorned with virtues
he shines from within with an intense brightness all his own.
All told, the one not ordinary shines, evil doesn’t exist for him,
while the fool who does evil never shines no matter what he puts on.
There are some who speak sweet words but their hearts are foul,
like a pot of poison sprinkled on top with a tincture that wards off death;
they have hearts as hard as the stone inside rocks
and just as rough to the touch;
even the sight of anyone like that repulses, like seeing a snake.
Those not ordinary refresh, gentle as cool moonlight,
all those who come and bend before them;
they are as welcoming as a shallow river ford to every living thing;
Those not ordinary are like
a pot filled with fresh milk and buttermilk;
just to see people like that, their insides so pure,
is to see a visible sign of an invisible grace.
Those who have chased away evil friends
are ever-surrounded by gems in the form of beautiful friends;
anyone who rejects sin and enters into the teaching of the Buddha
is beneficial, a visible sign of an invisible grace.
Why cover the face or mouth of anyone
who has no bodily flaws because of a guarded body,
who never speaks heedlessly because of a guarded mouth,
whose senses are guarded and whose mind is clear and still?
Anyone can cover themselves with a thousand cloths,
but if when their minds are uncovered,
there is neither shame nor modesty,
neither virtues nor truthful speech,
don’t they wander the world more naked than the naked?
Why cover the face or mouth of anyone
whose mind is guarded, whose senses are always in check,
someone who is happy with her own husband,
without a mind that goes after others,
who shines out in the open, just like the sun and the moon?
Moreover,
Sages, mahatmas,
those who are skilled in knowing the thoughts of others,
and those in the assemblies of gods,
they all know my hopes and wishes;
as long as my morality, my virtue, my restraint,
my carefulness are highly-esteemed by them,
why would I cover my face with a veil?

King Suddhodana heard all of these verses of the Sakya girl Gopa, each of them eloquent and instructive, and as he heard them, he became happy again and was uplifted, he was filled with joy and glad understanding.

He then covered Gopa, the Sakya girl, with a pair of cloths that were set with various kinds of jewels and a golden necklace set with red pearls in strings hanging down, a necklace of the greatest value, and voiced his experience in the following way:

Just as my son is adorned with virtues,
so this girl is well-adorned with her own virtues,
that these two pure beings have come together
is just like butter mixing with ghee. 

Resources for
Reflection

There are many ways to read a text, just as there are many ways to spend time with a good friend. Included here are a variety of resources for reading and reflection. They are like conversation-starters meant to facilitate an encounter between a reader or readers and a text.

Each of the activities can be used to read any one of the stories. Additionally, the same activity can be used to read the same story on separate occasions. If you are reading alone, treat the prompts as opportunities for individual reflection, journaling, or meditation. If you are reading in community, use the prompts as jumping-off points for group discussion.

Feel free to modify any activity based on your own interests and accessibility needs, or to create your own! 

Read through the text, either silently or aloud. Then, turn your mind to the experience you just had. What is memorable for you? What was especially moving or touching? Was there anything that you found yourself resisting or something that was particularly challenging? Do you have any lingering questions? If you have a religious or spiritual practice, do you have a sense of how the text might be of benefit to that practice?

In his introduction to Stirring and Stilling: A Liturgy of Cambodian Dharma Songs, Trent Walker quotes the female Cambodian lay priest Koet Ran as saying, “Dharma songs stir us and still us if we have affinity for the Dharma” (2011, 6).

In Buddhist teaching, “stirring” (Pāli: saṃvega) refers to an unsettling experience caused by the shock of impermanence. “Stilling” (Pāli: pasāda) is a settling of the mind or heart, a feeling of resolution, joy or equanimity.

Read through the text. Then, reflect: What stirs you? What stills you?

Further reading: Walker, Trent. 2011. Stirring and Stilling: A Liturgy of Cambodian Dharma Songs, http://www.stirringandstilling.org. 

Read through the text, either silently or aloud. Then, imagine yourself into the world of the text and tell the story, or a particular moment in the story, from a different point of view. You might focus on the viewpoint of a certain character, explore something that is not explained in the text itself, or re-tell the story in your own way. This activity can be done in written form (prose, poetry, script, interview, etc.), as an embodied practice (a play, a dance), or through any other medium. Be creative!

If you are working in a group, make space for each person to share what they have created, if they wish.

Afterwards, reflect on the activity as a whole. Was it difficult or easy? Was it similar or different from ways that you usually read? Did you gain any insights? Do you have any lingering questions? 

Read through the text, either silently or aloud. Then, formulate a question about something that takes place within the world of the text. You might focus on a moment that surprised you or on something that the text does not explain fully. For this activity, the best questions are ones that do not have clear answers but have a variety of possible answers.

Brainstorm possible answers to your question, taking time to contemplate how any given answer might shift your understanding of the story. If you are working in a group, take turns sharing your questions and offering possible answers or interpretations. 

Buddhist texts come to us from times long ago, but that doesn’t mean they can’t be put in conversation with our world today. In this activity, read one of the Buddhist stories alongside a contemporary work that addresses the topic of gender.

After exploring the contemporary work, summarize or discuss key insights or impressions. Then, read the Buddhist text with attention to the ideas that you just explored. Does anything jump out to you now as you read, perhaps that you hadn’t noticed before? Do you have lingering questions about how gender appears in the text, or about how the contemporary work relates to the Buddhist text?

Some suggestions for contemporary sources on gender:

For this activity, it can be helpful to listen to the text rather than to read it. You might listen to the recording or, if you are working in a group, invite one person to read the text aloud.

As you listen to the text, close your eyes (if you feel comfortable doing so) and imagine yourself into its world. Perhaps you imagine yourself as a particular person in the story, named or unnamed, or simply as an observer.

As the story unfolds, pay attention to your sensory experiences. What do you hear? What do you smell? What do you see? What can you touch, or taste? What information about this world can you gather through your senses?

Afterwards, share your experience with your group, or use your experience as a prompt for individual reflection. Then, consider the activity as a whole. Was it difficult or easy? Was it similar or different from ways that you usually read? Did you gain any insights? Do you have any lingering questions? 

Print out the text onto a piece of paper. Then, use scissors to cut out the individual lines so that each sentence or phrase is on its own slip of paper (in the case of longer texts, choose a shorter section for this activity). Place the slips of paper on a surface with the words facing down so that you cannot see what is written on them.

If you are working alone, choose three slips of paper and place them one below the other in the order you pulled them. If you are working in a group, invite each person to choose a slip, and then place them one below the other in the order they were pulled. If your group is large, you may want to split up into groups of three to five people for this activity.

Read your new text aloud three times or invite each person in the group to read it aloud in turn. Then, reflect on the meaning of your “found poem.” What jumps out at you when you focus on these particular lines? Does the order in which they appear suggest any new meanings? Does the poem invoke new questions, surprises, or delights?

If you are working in a large group, come back together and share your “found poems” with each other. 

Read through the text, either silently or aloud. Then, take some time to reflect on what you have learned from a character in the text, named or unnamed, and to draft an expression of appreciation or gratitude for that person. You might write a letter, a poem, or choose any other medium. Feel free to be creative!

If some guidance is helpful, the following three-part blessing is a place to start:

  1. An expression of thanks (i.e., “Mahaprajapati, thank you for…”)

  2. An acknowledgement (i.e., “You have taught me…”)

  3. A wish for the future (i.e., “May the world know your teachings.”)

If you are working in a group, allow time for each person to share their expression of gratitude, if they wish. 

This activity is best done in a group.

Invite someone in your group to read the text aloud. Then, as a group, choose a particular person in the story whose perspective you will focus on for the duration of the activity. If the story is long, you may also want to choose a particular moment to explore from this person’s point of view.

As a group, brainstorm a list of emotions that you think capture something about the experience of this person (emotions are words like: joyful, awed, grieved, tired, calm, etc.). If you have a whiteboard or large piece of paper, it is helpful to write the list down or to ensure in some other way that everyone in the group has access to the list.

Break up into small groups of three or four people. In your small group, choose one word from the list and create a “body sculpture” that illustrates that emotion in some way. The sculpture should not act out the story itself; it should be a creative or associative interpretation of the word. For example, if your group chose “joyful,” you might depict a scene where a person is picking up a loved one from an airport. Make sure that everyone who wants to participate is included in the sculpture. Each body can represent a person, an object (i.e., a suitcase), an energetic force (i.e., wind), or anything else that occurs to you. Be creative! Be silly! Have fun!

Come back to the larger group and invite a small group to share their “body sculpture.” Treat this sculpture as its own sacred text. Reflect together: What do you notice? What sensations or emotions arise in you when you observe the sculpture? What insights, opportunities, surprises, or questions does it inspire? How might you incorporate these insights into your understanding of the written text?

Allow space for each group to share their “body sculpture,” if they so wish, and to reflect together on their insights and opportunities for interpretation.

Finally, reflect on the activity as a whole. Was it difficult or easy? Was it similar or different from ways that you usually read? Did you gain any insights? Do you have any lingering questions?

Further reading:

Boal, Augusto. 1992. Games for Actors and Non-Actors. Rranslated by Adrian Jackson. London: Routledge.

Rue, Victoria. 2005. Acting Religious: Theatre as Pedagogy in Religious Studies. Cleveland: The Pilgrim Press. 

This activity brings two texts in conversation with each other. You might choose texts that you have read on other occasions so that you already have some familiarity with the stories, or you could use completely new stories.

Read through each of the two texts, either silently or aloud. Then, investigate: How do these texts relate to one another? Do they offer different insights into a particular person? Does one pick up the story where the other leaves off? Does one text make you interpret the other differently? Are the moments where the texts use similar language? What insights, questions or delights arise from their juxtaposition? 

Background
Resources

  1. Dandapani. Dandapani is the father of Gopa. His sisters were Maya, the Buddha’s birth mother, and Mahaprajapati Gautami, the aunt who raised the Buddha, thus Dandapani was also the Buddha’s maternal uncle. These family members on the Buddha’s maternal side all belonged to the Koliyan clan, which was a branch of the Sakya tribe.

  2. Sakya. The Sakyas are the tribe into which the Buddha was born. They were a tribe in the sense of a distinct social division in a society linked by social, economic, religious, and blood ties, and sharing a common culture and sense of identity. The Sakyas lived in northern India and present-day Nepal around the 5th-6th centuries b.c.e. Perhaps most relevant to this particular narrative from the Lalitavistara, the Sakyas are conventionally portrayed in Buddhist literature as extremely proud of their lineage and often as haughty about their identity.

  3. Suddhodana. Suddhodana is the father of the Buddha and the king of the Sakyas. When it was predicted at birth that Siddhartha had two possible destinies, either to become a universal king (chakravartin) or to become a Buddha, Suddhodana did everything in his power to provide his son with a privileged life such that he would not want to become a renunciant, a life choice that would be necessary if he were to become a Buddha. This story, which highlights the excellence of Gopa as a suitable spouse for his son, can be seen as part of those efforts. 

  1. “The future Buddha.” The Bodhisattva. Bodhisattva is one of the most important terms in Buddhist vocabulary, and over the centuries it has acquired a vast array of associations and meaning. Here, the Lalitavistara takes up the enduring use of the term to refer to the Buddha in his previous lives and as a young man in his current life up until he reached enlightenment.

  2. “women’s quarters.” The women’s quarters are those areas of the king’s palace to which entry was restricted to the women of the royal family and their attendants as well as to male family members (partners and sons) and eunuchs.

  3. “royal inner city.” The royal inner city is that portion of a royal city that served as the home of kings and their households. These portions of the inner city were the center of royal private life. There were other areas in the inner city that served as a ceremonial and political center for the public life of the king and for various institutions of state.

  4. Kalavinka. The name Kalavinka may refer to the Indian cuckoo, or perhaps the Indian house sparrow. A Kalavinka, however, is also a creature of Buddhist mythology and art. In art, the Kalavinka is often depicted as having a human head and a bird’s torso, with long flowing tail; see:

    https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Amidakyohenso_Karyobinga.jpg

    The Buddha’s own voice is sometimes compared with the Kalavinka’s. The mythic Kalaviṅka is said to dwell in the Amitabha Buddha’s Pure Land, where it preaches the Dharma with its beautiful voice.

    The two possible meanings of “Kalavinka” are quite relevant to this episode. Is Gopa best seen as someone quite ordinary, like a house sparrow; or is she best seen as quite extraordinary, on a continuum with the Buddha himself?

  5. “the teaching of the Buddha.” The teaching of the Buddha, that is, the Buddhadharma. Dharma is one of the most important terms in Buddhist vocabulary, with many associations and meanings; fundamentally, it refers both to what the Buddha taught and to the True and the Real as it exists in this world.

  6. “assemblies of gods.” Assemblies of gods, devasaṃghāḥ. There are various levels of heavens in traditional Buddhist cosmology and the inhabitants of those various realms ordinarily have supernatural powers, including the ability to know the thoughts of others.

  7. Ghee. Ghee is highly clarified butter, that is, it is butter that has been simmered and strained to remove all water and impurities. It is a mainstay of cooking in South Asia, and it is also used medicinally. Obviously, ghee can mix with butter completely, in a way that oil and water cannot. 

The Lalitavistara (‘The Grace of the World: A Biography’) is an elaborate biography of the Buddha composed in Sanskrit in northern India in the first centuries of the Common Era.

Like many Buddhist texts, the history of the Lalitavistara’s composition is unclear, but there is no doubt that it draws on earlier traditions about the Buddha’s life, many of them very old and held in common across the sectarian divisions that began to acutely mark the Buddhist world at this time. The Sanskrit text itself may have been subject to reworkings and additions up until as late as the seventh century of the Common Era. The Lalitavistara was clearly a very popular text, and it had a broad reception, including four Chinese translations and a Tibetan. It also was a source for the biographical friezes on the great Buddhist monument Borobudur built in Java in the ninth century.

The Lalitavistara’s reception history and some parts of its contents have led some to try to read the biography as a Mahayana Buddhist work, but it is important to remember that it is fundamentally a biography and not a doctrinal work. As a biography, however, the Lalitavistara has much in common with other Buddha biographies, including Ashvaghosha’s classic Buddhacarita, composed in Sanskrit in northern India in the first or second century, C.E, and the equally classic fifth-century Story of the Origins (Jātakanidāna), composed in Pali in Sri Lanka in the fifth century C.E.. 

Like other Buddha biographies, the Lalitavistara is not a biography in the modern sense, the conventions of which often assume a story of a person from birth to death. Rather, traditional Buddha biographies are meant to narrate the coming together of the necessary conditions that would enable the future Buddha(Bodhisattva), Siddhartha Gautama, to become enlightened and to initiate the heritage of his teaching in the world. Like other traditional Buddha biographies, the Lalitavistara begins with the Bodhisattva’s previous life in the Tuṣhita heaven and ends at an early point in the Buddha’s teaching career. In the Lalitavistara, this ending includes the first ordinations of monastic disciples and the first sermon taught by the Buddha. The Lalitavistara thus ends with the Triple Gem—the Buddha, his Dharma or Teaching, and his Sangha or community—visibly gracing the world.

The events described in the passage translated here, however, are not found in other Buddha biographies, and Gopa, the future Buddha’s wife, is not mentioned in them either.

Full translations of the Lalitavistara are available (see list below). Users of this site may want to look at contrasting translations of this episode in Chapter 12 as a way of getting a sense of the depth and richness of the narrative.  

  1. A recent and complete English translation from the Tibetan, with an introduction, by the Dharmachakra Translation Committee:

    Dharmachakra Translation Committee, translators. The Play in Full: Lalitavistara (Toh 95, Degé Kangyur, vol. 46 (mdo sde, kha), folios 1b-216b). Version 2.22. N.p: 84000—Translating the Words of the Buddha, 2013. Digitally Available at:
    https://aryanthought.files.wordpress.com/2014/05/lalitavistara-sutra.pdf

  2. There is an older and complete English translation from the Sanskrit by Rajendrala Mitra:

    Rajendralala Mitra, translator. The Lalita-vistara or Memoirs of the Early Life of Sakyasinha. Calcutta: J.W. Thomas, Baptist Mission Press, 1881. Digitally available at: 
    https://archive.org/details/in.ernet.dli.2015.196141/page/n5/mode/2up

  3. A complete English translation of a French translation of the Tibetan (then checked with the original in Tibetan and Sanskrit), has been made by Gwendolyn Bays in two volumes:

    Gwendolyn Bays, translator. The Lalitavistara Sutra: The Voice of Buddha, the Beauty of Compassion. Berkeley: Dharma Publishing, 1983. 

Patrick Olivelle, translator. Life of the Buddha by Ashvaghosha. (Clay Sanskrit Library). New York: New York University Press/JJC Foundation, 2008.

N.A. Jayawickrama, translator. The Story of Gotama Buddha (Jātaka Nidānakathā). Oxford: Pali Text Society, 1990.

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