what happen to Siddhartha's wife after he became buddha?

Question

Siddhartha left his wife and his son, his royal life then after journey he became buddha, but what happen to his family, they were royal, so what happen to them?

Answer 1

His wife raised his son up in the palace. When Buddha returned to the kingdom about 6 years after his enlightenment, his son followed Buddha and became the first novice monk at the age of 7 (some say 14). He later became Arahant, highest level of Sainthood in Theravada teaching.

His wife and Buddha's step mother, together with other ladies from the palace, wanted to renounce to become nuns when Buddha returned, but were rejected. After Buddha left, their shaved their head voluntarily, and went after Buddha. But were again rejected twice. Buddha was concerned of the impact of females joining in the clergy. Buddha finally agreed after monk Ananda repeated requests. All of them (said to be 500), became Arahant too.

Many others from the royal family also followed Buddha, and became Arahant. Apparently his father didn't.

You can read more about Buddha's story here:
http://www.buddhanet.net/e-learning/buddhism/storybuddha.htm

Answer 2

If I'm remembering this right, if not the wife of the Siddhartha, then her sister, approached the then aged Buddha and asked to join the sanha. The Buddha remained silent. The women (I believe there were more than one) persisted and with the help and coaxing of the Buddha's favorite disciple, the Buddha relented and allowed the women into the sanha. The Buddha then made the pronouncement--- with this act, my teachings will die out in 1000 years.

Answer 3

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Gautama, was born a prince. His horoscope was cast, and he could have been a great king or leader of his people, or he could have taken the mendicants path, and become enlightened. When his father heard this, he wanted his son to inherit, and become a great leader of his people. Not a mendicant and enlightened. Therefore he sheltered him. He was virtually a prisoner in the Palace, and grounds. He was entertained, had playmates, everything he desired was given to him. He matured, a wife was given to him. He knew nothing about sickness, old age and death. One day he asked to go and meet his people. He did but his father, 'Stage set' the town. All sick, elderly, and infirm were banned from the streets. Only young beautiful people were able to be present. But plans go wrong, he saw an elderly person and asked why the person was the way he was. His attendant told him about old age. He saw Lepers, and found out the truth about illness. He saw a dead body and found out about death. At the time this happened he was a grown man, his wife expecting his first born. He obviously was very disturbed, thought about it, and decided he needed to find a way to liberate not only himself, but all beings from the suffering we experience. He then decided to leave the palace and search for the truth. How did his experiences affect him? We are surrounded by all that he saw from birth. He was not, therefore by the sudden shock of this he fulfilled the prophecy of Enlightenment. Would he have done so if he was surrounded by it from an early age? I doubt it, we become very accepting of such things, It is 'Normal'. For him it was not. His father in his ignorance did the right thing, by witholding the information, he created the 'Shock, horror' reaction. This was very necessary. As a Buddhist Nun I am very grateful to his father, without his possessive, selfishness, we may not have Buddhism. May all beings have the causes for peace and happiness.

Answer 4

The poor woman!
Thanks for bringing this up...I have not thought of this before! Almost everybody (on Yahoo! Answer) seems to know how Siddharta became the Buddha but nobody remembered his long-suffering wife & family, imagine that!

Answer 5

Yasodara - wife of Siddhartha, was staying in the Palace when Siddhartha became Buddha and left the palace. She lived there in the palace itself till she became old and dead. -

Answer 6

He saw that his own worldly possessions and power did not bring anything meaningful to the less fortunate. He saw that he, too, was equally mortal and susceptible to illness, just like them. He also saw that the same applied to the preachers who were around at the time. They brought nothing but empty words and hollow thought. His actions after that were basically a case of renouncing his worldly possessions, and choosing to bring more than just empty words to people. He chose to show them the way to truth, rather than just asking them to wish for it. Basically, the story of Buddha shows that we cannot pray and ask for enlightenment, we must find the path to it for ourselves. When we follow the Dhamma of Buddha, we can find this path much more easily. Of course, it is possible without, but much more difficult. ((((hugs))))