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| Wednesday, 26 September 2001 |
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Much ado over hundred-and-thirty-seven by Aditha Dissanayake Usually the 25th Anniversary is celebrated with much ado. The 50th with great ado. The 100th with even greater ado. But the Hundred and Thirty-Seventh? An anniversary, insignificant and unremarkable. How would the Sri Lanka Maha Bodhi Society celebrate the 137th Birth Anniversary of Anagarika Dharmapala? Certainly not on a low key. On 17th September 2001, at the Agrasravaka Maha Viharaya at Maligakanda, the day is given as much prominence as if it is the golden jubilee. Autobiography The autobiography written by this great Buddhist philanthropist, titled My Life Story, edited by Lakshman Jayawardane, is launched to commemorate the event. The last pages of the book, which the author had not been able to complete before his death, has been filled by the editor - Jayawardane, with the help of diaries, letters and other documents. The book also carries a collection of rare photographs of Anagarika Dharmapala. The students of Ananda Balika Vidyalaya sing the commemoration song. I begin to read the book which had just been presented to the entire gathering - From a Tiny Seed to a Healthy Tree - also edited by Lakshman Jayawardane. Amidst the music, I begin to read the words of Anagarika Dharmapala. "In January 1891, I visited Bodh Gaya, the holy spot in India where the Buddha received enlightenment... My heart swelled with emotion as I rode along the bank of the river and passed pilgrims journeying afoot to the holiest shrine of Buddhism... Perhaps, no other place in the world has been so venerated for so long a period by so many... In Bodh Gaya, when I visited the Bo-tree, an offshoot of the original tree under which the Buddha sat, I had the same winged peace of soul as the humblest pilgrim from Burma. Reverently I visited the brick temple, built in the form of a pyramid, and examined the carvings on the ancient stone-railing. But I was filled with dismay at the neglect and desecration about me... It seemed an outrage that this holiest temple of the Buddhists should be under the management of a man whose ancestors had always been hostile to Buddhism". Mahabodhi Society "I intended to stay a few weeks and then return to Ceylon so I had only a few rupees with me. But, when I saw the condition of the shrine, I began an agitation to restore it to Buddhist control. I communicated with the leading Buddhists of the world and urged them to rescue Bodh Gaya from Siva worshipping Hindu fakirs." Thus writes Anagarika Dharmapala about the circumstances that led to the founding of the Mahabodhi Society, exactly a century ago. Listening to the speeches, a picture of Anagarika Dharmapala begins to form in my mind. Anagarika stands for non-householder. An appropriate name for someone who had spent forty seven years of his life-span of sixty-nine years, in the most noble task ever imaginable for a Buddhist - the restoration and progress of the Buddha Sasana. He had never got married. Why? According to the Director of the National Archives, Dr. K.D.G. Wimalaratne, Anagarika Dharmapala had had a sister who had died at the age of two. "We have not been able to discover her name, but her death caused such grief to his mother, seeing how she suffered Anagarika had decided he would never get married if marriage would mean undergoing such pain." At first it seemed ironic that the second speech at the anniversary celebrations of a scholar who had fought for a national identity should be given to a foreigner - R. Tanaka from Japan. Yet, perhaps he deserved the prominence accorded to him, for, more than a century ago, when Anagarika had visited Japan, he had stayed in the house of the great grandfather of Tanaka. According to Tanaka San, his Great Grandfather together with another Japanese professor had had profound discussions regarding Buddhism with Anagarika Dharmapala, when he was in Japan. Anagarika's wish And finally, to the last words of Anagarika Dharmapala, "May I be born twenty-five times over again to continue the noble task of promoting the Buddha Sasana". May his wish, (if it has not yet been fulfilled), come true. |
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