Ananda- Buddhist FigureMortal"Guardian of the Dharma"

The Buddha's Cousin

Ananda was born the same day as Prince Siddhartha, his cousin in the Shakya royal family. His name means "bliss" in Sanskrit. For the Buddha's first twenty years of teaching, various monks served him on rotation, but the arrangement proved unsatisfactory. When the Buddha asked for a permanent attendant, the great disciples declined in favor of Ananda. He accepted on conditions: he would receive no special robes or food, would not attend meals where he might receive gifts, but could bring visitors to the Buddha and ask him to repeat teachings he had missed. For the next twenty-five years, until the Buddha's death, Ananda was at his side. He remembered every word.

Champion of Women's Ordination

When the Buddha's stepmother Mahapajapati Gotami and five hundred Shakya women sought ordination, the Buddha declined. Ananda interceded, approaching the Buddha three times. He asked whether women could achieve enlightenment. The Buddha said they could. Ananda pressed: then they should be allowed to pursue it within the monastic community. The Buddha relented, and Mahapajapati became the first Buddhist nun. The nuns' order revered Ananda for this. Some later traditions criticized him, saying he had shortened the Dharma's time on earth.

The Final Journey

The Mahaparinibbana Sutta records the Buddha's final days. As the Buddha lay dying between twin sala trees in Kushinagar, Ananda wept, unable to bear it. The Buddha called him over: "You have served me with loving acts of body, speech, and mind. You have done well, Ananda. Keep making the effort and you will soon be free from the taints." Yet Ananda, for all his closeness to the Buddha and his vast knowledge, had not yet attained enlightenment.

The First Council

Three months after the Buddha's death, five hundred arhats gathered at Rajagaha for the First Buddhist Council. Ananda's presence was essential (he alone remembered every discourse) but he was not yet an arhat, and only arhats could attend. The night before, he meditated fiercely, striving for liberation, but his very effort became the obstacle. Exhausted, he decided to lie down. In the instant between standing and reclining, between effort and rest, he attained enlightenment.

He entered the council hall the next morning and recited every discourse he had heard. Each began with "Evam me sutam," "Thus have I heard." These words open every Buddhist sutra. They are Ananda's testimony that what follows came from the Buddha's own mouth.

The River

Ananda lived to one hundred and twenty years. When he decided to enter final nirvana, he chose a river on the boundary between two kingdoms whose rulers were both his devotees. His body rose into the air and emitted flames that divided his remains equally. The two halves fell on opposite banks, and neither king could claim the other's share.