Growing up in the shadow of a Prelate

Homage to the Mahanayaka Thera who turned 100:

Punya HEENDENIYA

It is in awe I write about the Most Venerable Prelate, Weweldeniye Medhalankara Thera under whose shadow, guidance and tutelage I had the privilege to grow up as a youngster in my beautiful village Mirigama. This homage is an elevation from mundane to sublime.

Maha Nayaka Thera with all his erudition, and vast knowledge of the Tripitakaya of Buddhist Theravada tradition, lives a very simple life which is in keeping with the teachings of The Buddha. The discipline and self-control which he preaches and practises is the secret of the longevity and good health of the priest. He considered the invitation for alms or sermon to the mansion of a most opulent grandeur of a nobleman of the village or the hovel of mud and daub of the poorest peasant as the same.

He did not travel by white stallion drawn chariots or Mercedes cars in keeping with his most venerable position, for daane but he walked bare-footed through paddy fields and gravel roads followed by the yellow robed retinue of samaneras. That indeed was the most beautiful soothing sight to the eyes of a devout layman.

Even at the ripe old age of one hundred years he still preaches with a silver tongue. In his prime of life he preached to the congregation unaided by microphones and loudspeakers and his voice reverberated in the air like the peal of a silver bell, to be heard for quite some distance. I used to listen to his sermons from home which is in close proximity to the temple. Such was the power of his oratory.

Website

This Saturday morning I saw a front page picture of a Sri Lankan newspaper. It was about the launch of a website of the Sasanawardhana Pirivena where the Maha Nayaka Thera resides. When I saw the picture of the priest launching the website, my mind went back to my childhood days, the life spent in the village attending the Daham Pasala on Sundays at the Pirivena nurtured and guided by this most well-read and virtuous priest who later became the Maha Nayaka of the Ramanna Nikaya sector.

The front boundary of the garden of my parents’ house where I was born and grew up, is the wall that separates the Sasana Wardhana Pirivena where the Maha Nayaka Thera is the chief incumbent. My father and mother were two of the chief dayakayas of the temple and we were part and parcel of the simple village life which was guided by the advice and blessings of this most virtuous priest. We attended the morning and evening pooja, and observed Ata Sil on poya days. My mother made it a point that we all siblings had each a white sil-attire in the almirah among the frills and laces, and shorts and shirts for the girls and boys. I still continue to do the practice here in England on full moon poya days. Now I have up-graded myself from Ata-sil to Dasa sil. Such was the up-bringing we had by my parents, which was inculcated and nurtured by the advice of the priest. My father who used to say that he was related to the priest, considered that he had to get involved in all the activities of the temple. Venerable priest used to address my father as ayiya. When he was conferred the title of Maha Nayaka of Ramanna Chapter in 1998 I had the fortune to have an audience with the most venerable, in pilgrimage as I do every time I visit Sri Lanka. He talked about my father who is no more as saying if Ayiya was living he would have been the happiest about my elevation to the status of Mahanayaka.

Samaneras

My mother a quiet devout Buddhist considered the young Samaneras as her own children and she made it a habit of sending bowls of Kola-kenda ( herbal porridge) early hours of the morning to sustain and nourish them when they were doing their studies. When she visited the temple for the morning service she used to carry sweets for the very young monks, which they were looking forward to. Rather poignantly in my mother’s last days of her life, when she had lost her razor-sharp memory she would walk across the road to the temple and sit in contemplation on the steps of the shrine room, which houses one of the most beautiful Buddha statues in the world.

Both my parents breathed their last in the presence of the priests chanting pirith, which they did in reciprocation and compassion for the service they rendered during their lifetime, under the guidance of the Maha Nayaka Thera.

Come what may, whether it is a birth, marriage, death, exam, foreign trip or career we were at his feet for his blessings, and the Thera very compassionately guided us. I recall one of my earliest childhood memories of the benevolence and caring attitude of the Prelate during a visit to pay our homage on a Sinhala new year’s day.

The village environment was resounded by the noise of fire crackers and the samanera priests of very young age of seven or eight were all agog by the noise of the crackers and whether they were priests or not, they were children. The Thera realised this and as he did not handle cash, he instructed them to use the coins lying in an old paathraya (begging bowl) to use to get down some ratignna (fire crackers). Once I had the rare chance of listening to my own funeral eulogy before my death, at my sister Ramya’s funeral in Colombo in 1995. During the funeral oration by the High Priest of another temple he referred to the deceased as Punya Heendeniya that being the more heard of name rather than Ramya Heendeniya. Our Maha Nayaka Thera intervened and came to the rescue correcting him saying wedimal sahodaree, wedimal sahodaree and thus I was given a second chance.

Centenary celebrations

Perhaps what better note to conclude this homage rather than recording what the simple folks of Mirigama have been thinking at this birth centenary celebrations. They take pride in talking about an era where two great scions of the village soil, D.S. Senanayaka who ushered in the Independence of the country and brought Mirigama to a prominent place in the map of Sri Lanka politically and the Maha Nayaka Thera guiding the community fortunately to date spiritually, for the betterment of the society.

May the Most Venerable Weweldeniye Medhalankara Maha Nayaka Thera be blessed with the noble Triple Gem for good health and mental acumen and continue to serve the Buddha sasana for the uplift of the mankind.