When he was about to abandon the privileged Kshatriya life to follow the strictest asceticism, the young prince Siddhartha Gautama offered totally nonliteral interpretations of a premonitory nightmare experienced by his wife, Gopa. According to tradition, the prince who would one day be Buddha was avoiding his wife, who was suffering terrible distress.

When she finally managed to get to sleep, she dreamed that the mountains were trembling under a wild gale that was tearing trees out of the ground. On the horizon, the stars had poured down from the sky. Gopa saw herself naked, stripped of her garments, adornments, and crown. Her hair had been cut, her marriage bed was broken, and the prince's clothes, covered in precious gems, were scattered all over the floor. Meteorites were falling on a dark city.

The prince smiled. "Rejoice, Gopa," he said, "Rejoice. You saw the earth shake? Then one day the Gods themselves shall bow before you. You saw the moon and the sun fall from the sky? Then you shall soon defeat evil, and you shall receive infinite praise. You saw the trees uprooted? Then you shall find a way out of the forest of desire. Your hair was cut short? Then you shall free yourself from the net of passions that holds you captive. My robes and jewels were scattered about? Then I am on the road to deliverance. Meteors were speeding across the sky over a darkened city? Then to the ignorant world, to the world that is blind, I shall bring the light of wisdom, and those who have faith in my words will know joy and felicity. Be happy, O Gopa, drive away your melancholy; you will soon be singularly honored. Sleep, Gopa, sleep; you have dreamed a lovely dream."

Days later, Siddhartha slipped quietly out of the house during the night.

EDITOR'S NOTE

So he slipped off to the woods to fast and meditate for six years. No reason for Gopa to be upset! Oh, good came of it; Buddhism is arguably the only major religion explicitly focused on helping people, and it's rarely perverted that goal (on a large scale, at least; remember Sri Lanka); millions gained from Siddhartha's ordeal in the woods.

And he's not lying. She was honored. But is fame what she wanted? Siddhartha smiles and reassures Gopa--as he plans to abandon her. Emotionally he already has--he treats her as just a symbol, one more luxury he's outgrown. Her childish feelings don't matter; he has a greater cause.

Gopa's nightmare tells the truth. She faces disaster: her marriage is broken. She's stripped naked: her true feelings are bared. For her, his quest is a nightmare. Her husband's off to save the world--by abandoning her.

--Chris Wayan

EPILOGUE FROM WIKIPEDIA

Throughout his six-year absence, Princess Yaśodharā followed the news of his actions closely. When the Buddha visited Kapilavastu after enlightenment, she did not go to see her former husband but asked their son Rāhula to go to him to seek inheritance. For herself, she thought: "Surely if I have gained any virtue at all the Lord will come to my presence." In order to fulfill her wish, Buddha came into her presence and admired her patience and sacrifice. King Suddhodana told Buddha how his daughter-in-law had spent her life in grief, without her husband.

Some time after her son Rāhula became a monk, Yaśodharā also entered the Order of Monks and Nuns and within time attained the state of an arhat. She was ordained as bhikkhuni... [and] died at 78, two years before Buddha's death.

SOURCES: The Oracle of Night by Sidarta Ribeiro, p. 64. His main source: The Life of Buddha According to the Legends of Ancient India, Herold & Blum, 1927; page not stated.
DATE: Siddhartha was 29; most books date his birth to c.563 BCE. But revisionists date his birth a generation or two later, as late as 490, putting Gopa's dream as late as 461.
NAMES: early sources (translated before the 5th Century) seemed to consistently identify her as 'Gopī', but after a period of inconsistency (Gopā, Mrgajā, and Manodharā), 'Yaśodharā' emerged as the favored name for texts translated in the latter half of the 5th Century and later; she's best known under that name.

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