The Story of Yashodara, Siddhartha’s Wife
What if awakening had a woman’s voice?
Through Her explores Yashodara’s spiritual awakening through a woman’s own journey of love, motherhood, inner freedom, and self-realization. Inspired by the life of Siddhartha’s wife, the novel imagines a path to enlightenment that unfolds through the fullness of human experience.
For centuries, Yashodara has been remembered primarily as the wife of Siddhartha Gautama, the man who became the Buddha.
But what about her own journey?
What happened to the woman who remained behind? How did she experience love, separation, motherhood, and the search for truth?
What if her story revealed another way of awakening?
Through Her reimagines Yashodara’s life as a profound journey of self-discovery, inner freedom, and spiritual realization.
A journey in which awakening unfolds through life itself.
Two Women. Two Eras. One Journey Beyond Separation.
Shaula, a contemporary painter, begins experiencing mysterious visions of a woman who lived more than two thousand years ago.
That woman is Yashodara, the wife of Siddhartha.
As the visions become increasingly vivid, Shaula finds herself drawn into a story of love, loss, courage, and spiritual transformation.
Across centuries, the boundaries between their experiences begin to dissolve.
Through Yashodara’s journey, Shaula is invited to question her own identity, the nature of consciousness, and the invisible threads connecting human lives.
Two women, separated by time, discover a truth that transcends their personal stories.
Yashodara’s Spiritual Awakening: A Woman’s Own Path
Yashodara’s journey unfolds along a path distinct from that of Siddhartha.
Her awakening emerges through the fullness of human experience: love, motherhood, separation, the wisdom of the body, and the profound recognition of her true nature.
Rather than following an established spiritual path, she discovers her own.
Her journey becomes an exploration of feminine spirituality, where the sacred reveals itself within everyday life, relationships, and the deepest movements of the human heart.
Through Her offers a literary vision of awakening in which freedom arises through the recognition of what we truly are.
Beyond Identity: Consciousness and Non-Duality
Who are we beyond our personal history?
What remains when the identities we have carried throughout our lives begin to dissolve?
Can awakening be recognized in the midst of ordinary human experience?
Through its characters and their transformations, Through Her explores questions that resonate with non-dual spirituality and the ancient inquiry into the nature of the Self.
Rather than offering a philosophical doctrine or a prescribed spiritual practice, the novel invites readers into an intimate experience of consciousness, presence, and inner discovery.
It is a story for those who sense that awakening may be closer than we imagine, woven into the very fabric of life.
A Novel for Readers Drawn to Inner Transformation
Through Her may resonate with readers interested in:
- Feminine spirituality and women’s journeys of awakening
- Consciousness, enlightenment, and self-realization
- Non-duality, Advaita, and the inquiry into the true Self
- Yashodara, Siddhartha, and the spiritual world of ancient India
- Historical and contemporary fiction exploring profound human transformation
Above all, it is a novel about the courage to recognize one’s own truth.
About the Author
Giulia M. Jordan is an Italian author, psychotherapist and spiritual explorer whose work brings together self-inquiry, consciousness, and the experience of awakening in everyday life.
After decades dedicated to personal transformation and the exploration of human consciousness, she turned to fiction as another way of sharing the discoveries that emerge along the inner journey.
Through Her is the first novel in her Awakened Women trilogy, which explores feminine awakening through the lives of women who discover their true nature beyond inherited identities and expectations.
📖 Read an Excerpt from Through Her
Chapter 14 — The Tree and the Secret of Being
A glimpse into Yashodara’s journey
Enter the world of Yashodara, where the search for truth becomes an intimate journey of self-discovery.
In this excerpt, the boundaries of identity begin to dissolve, opening the way to a deeper recognition of consciousness and the Self.
📖 Chapter 14
The Tree and the Secret of Being
That evening, Shaula prepared herself again to enter Yashodara’s world.
Lying on the bed, she looked at the wall in front of her and once again it happened: the wall became a living, vibrant screen on which images flowed as clear as real memories.
She was a spectator, yes, but she knew that if she wanted to, she could pass through that veil and be a protagonist too.
She took a deep breath and let herself be carried away.
She saw Yashodara absorbed in the simplicity of her days, immersed in nature and in the search for herself.
One day, the woman found the fig tree against which she had leaned so long ago, the place where MataJi had rescued her.
Her heart was filled with a sweet and silent joy. She had long wanted to return there, to say thank you.
As she approached, she placed her hands on the rough, sun-warmed trunk and in a low voice, as if speaking to a dear friend, she whispered:
“I am very grateful to you, brother tree, for having welcomed my suffering.
“You were my support when life seemed to want to break me.
“Now, I want to give you something in return: my love and my eternal gratitude.”
She stood there, leaning against the tree, and felt something invisible moving between them—like an ancient embrace, as if the pain poured out in those days had been transformed into something sacred.
At that moment, Yashodara understood deeply: nothing was separate.
Everything was united, intertwined, even if the forms gave the illusion of separation, of distance. After all, everything that exists comes from a single source, Brahman: the sun, the stars, the moon, the earth, animals, plants, and human beings.
At the foot of that tree, she decided that she too would embark on her journey toward the truth, as Siddhartha had done.
She had no external teachers, no human guides to rely on.
But she didn’t need them: she would trust her heart, her inner teacher.
“I will investigate, I will explore,” she told herself.
“I will find out who I am.”
She then sat down on the grass, closed her eyes, and turned inward.
It was time to begin.
Thoughts appeared, like leaves drifting through an open room: entering, stirring, then gone.
Each one different, fleeting, sometimes like crazed birds driven by the wind.
Where did those thoughts come from?
One moment they didn’t exist; then they arose, captured her attention, dissolved, and were replaced by others.
In that incessant flow, she also heard the voice of the “I”—the ego.
A voice that commented, judged, interpreted every newly born thought, every sensation, sound, image.
Where did that voice come from? Was it really her voice, this ‘voice’?
And who was it talking to?
Who was the secret listener behind all this?
Silence. Only silence and peace.
Yashodara remained there, quiet, observing.
Thus she also noticed the fickle nature of thoughts: some laden with fear, others full of hope, still others with no connection to her, like wandering ghosts.
The thoughts seemed to tell a story—her story, perhaps—but she was beginning to suspect that it wasn’t really hers.
It was a discontinuous plot made up of repeated words, inherited ideas, and beliefs that were never questioned.
“Is this story really me?” she asked herself, in a whisper that not even the air heard.
I, I, I…
What is this “I” I speak of, as if it were my very essence?
Am I perhaps this body, which is constantly changing? Just yesterday I was a child, then a girl, a young woman, and now my body is different again. And then…
But if there is an unchanging center, it cannot be the body, which changes and transforms with every breath.
Nor can it be the mind, which slips between thoughts and emotions, like clouds that come and go in the sky.
Perhaps I am the voice that echoes in the silence inside me, but even that is ephemeral, sometimes like a whisper that comes and goes, sometimes like the cawing of crows.
When I was little, that voice wasn’t there. The world seemed like a whole, without borders, without separation. Then, one day, when I was about four years old, something happened.
A thought, as thin as a thread of light, made its way: I.
And with it come the shadow of a detachment, a feeling of separation from the whole. The boundary between me and the world was imperceptibly drawn, and the sense of being united with everything and everyone vanished.
In the silence, as questions opened like mysterious flowers, new practical thoughts surfaced: the things to do, the daily needs, especially MataJi, whose health was becoming more frail every day, like a withered fruit.
She felt that the current of her mind wanted to take her away from that state of deep introspection. She did not resist it.
Then she opened her eyes, gently.
She stood up.
She placed her hand on the trunk of the tree once more, as if to greet it and thank it.
Then, with a light step, she returned home.
That day, without the need for words, Yashodara had glimpsed a truth:
the real journey was not to a distant place, but to the very heart of Being. There was no need to look elsewhere; it was enough to dwell in that silence that had always been there, a quiet witness to everything.
Shaula slowly rubbed her eyes.
The wall in front of her had returned to being just a wall: white, silent, motionless.
Yet, something had changed again.
Yashodara’s vision, her gesture of love toward the tree, her quest without teachers… all this continued to vibrate in Shaula’s heart like a sweet and persistent echo.
She stretched slowly, like someone returning from a long journey.
The room around her seemed larger, as if an invisible layer had been removed from the objects, revealing them for what they were: simple presences, transitory forms of a deeper and vaster reality.
Normal life called her back: the ticking of the clock, the scent of the tea she had left half-finished on the bedside table, the faint noise of the city beyond the window.
Everything was the same, yet everything seemed different to her.
It was not reality that had changed; it was her gaze.
She felt a new stillness within herself, a subtle but tenacious trust: like a thread of light connecting her most ordinary experiences with the vastness of that mystery she had just touched.
Even in the simplicity of her room, in the regular beat of her heart, Shaula now perceived the breath of a single great life, invisible and profound.
She got up slowly.
Every gesture—placing her feet on the floor, arranging the blanket, turning on the light—had a sense of presence, as if every small action were part of an ancient and sacred ritual.
She smiled to herself.
She knew the journey had just begun. Yashodara, in a distant time, had undertaken the same quest that was now also igniting within her. And everyday life was not an obstacle to that journey: on the contrary, it was its fertile ground, its hidden temple.
With a light step, Shaula made her way to the kitchen.
Outside, the night shone silently.
Inside her, a promise glistened.
✨ What Readers Are Saying
Selected excerpts from reviews of the original Italian edition, translated into English.
Diego Ibrahim Manca
“There are books that tell a story, and books that give a voice back. Through Her clearly belongs to the second category.
This novel is not an accusation, nor a polemical reinterpretation. It is something subtler and more courageous: an act of recognition.
Yashodara is portrayed neither as a victim nor as a secondary figure in the destiny of a ‘greater’ man. She is a living consciousness, touched by the pain of abandonment yet capable of remaining whole.
[…]
The novel restores dignity and depth to a spiritual path that needs neither to establish doctrines nor to leave the world behind in order to be authentic.”
Silvia Baroni
“Who are Siddhartha, Yashodara, and Shaula? To me, they are consciousness manifesting itself.
At the beginning of the story, they appear to be three distinct people in time and space, each beginning to ask who they truly are. As the narrative unfolds, space and time dissolve. The three seemingly separate individuals merge and dissolve into consciousness revealing itself.
Ultimately, even the reader dissolves, recognizing through this revelation that separation is an illusion.
[…]
This is not merely a text to be understood; it is a text to be felt with the heart. Understanding and expansion. That is what it brought to me.”
Daniela Volpi
“A beautiful story that I read more than once. The first time, with curiosity, discovering and appreciating the freshness and fluidity of the writing, and a story that has always belonged to the feminine universe.
The second reading came from the heart, with an awareness of a resonance and an awakening that go beyond the feminine and the masculine, embracing the whole.
Yes, an awakening to a new perception of life, of what we truly are and have always been.
A wonderful gift.”
Anna Tonacchera
“Like Yashodara, I too, through the pain of abandonment, searched within my soul for the meaning of life and the essence of existence.
As I read the experiences of these two women with one soul, I found myself feeling a sense of inner peace, something akin to joy, an expansion of the heart.
These are only moments, but they are precious, and I believe they are steps forward on the path to awakening.”
📚 Buy Through Her
Discover the English edition of Through Her: The Story of Yashodara, Siddhartha’s Wife.
Through Her is a work of fiction inspired by the historical and spiritual figure of Yashodara. Its portrayal of her personal journey is a literary interpretation, rather than a historical or doctrinal account.
Also available in Italian: Attraverso lei. Storia di Yashodara, la moglie di Siddharta.
https://www.giuliajordan.com/attraverso-lei-storia-di-yashodara-la-moglie-di-siddharta/