Vesak: much beyond the ritual

It was after 10 o’clock on a weekday night last week. The place, a well-lit-make-do sales outlet by the main Colombo - Hambantota road as one was entering the usually busy part of the Matara town. Now quiet for there was no traffic and all the formal shops were closed, the outlet run by four youth, busy selling Vesak tit-bits to passing motorists, stood out strong. It was bustling with colour and was glittery.

The urge for my colleague Nalaka and I, to stop-by to take a look was strong and compelling. We perhaps ‘could even pick-up a few of what was on offer for his children’ was the thought. The ves-muhunu, lanterns, flags, glittering light-bulbs they all made a statement; strong yet somewhat different to what the Buddha word had for us.

What it means

We had, on our way in and out on the road, passed several temples and schools where prominent signs at their entrances displayed ‘2600 Sambuddhathva Jayanthiya, Pilivethin Pelagasemu’. I recalled its meaning as was explained by the learned monk who was invited from Colombo, to our village last week for the maiden event marking our temple’s Jayanthi celebrations. He asked a question from the audience of village devotees as to what the special significance of this Vesak will be. Several children yelled out ‘2600 Sambuddhathva Jayanthiya’. He then asked ‘What does it mean?’

A brief silence and a few of the children answered ‘It is 2600 years since Buddhuhamuduruwo attained Buddhahood’. ‘Good’ said the monk ‘but how can Buddhuhamuduruwo attain Buddhahood again?’ A smart child, undeterred by the trick question posed, got up this time, to yell ‘Ne, Ne Hamuduruwene, Budhu une Siddhartha Kumaraya’. It was much like the conversation between Arihath Mahinda Thera and King Devanampiyatissa on the occasion of their first meeting that led to the introduction of the Buddha Dhamma to this nation of ours.

The child, I was later told was a bright spark at the temple’s Daham School. He was declared correct and the learned monk from Colombo offered to give, those in the audience a gift, for the right answers they had for his questions. He had brought these with him in his car and distributed them at the end of the event. The ‘Dharmadesanawa’ was certainly different to many I had been to before. It was interactive and even had in part a semblance to some of the game shows we see on television.

Be better

He explained that the theme of the celebrations of ‘Pilivethin Pelagasemu’ meant that, the right practise was to be given pride of place during this Vesak and thereafter.

He called on parents to be better than they are, teachers to be better than they are, youth to be better than they are, children to be better than they are and for the Buddha Puthras (monks) to be better than they are. The call was for more dedication and right practise of the Buddhist way of life.

He offered a scholarship to any village child who would work towards preventing his or her father from indulging in the ‘drinking’ habit. The long-term success (over a few months) achieved by the child had to be certified by the village monk, to qualify for the award.

Hard to find

Back to our sales outlet in Matara, I was surprised on close inspection to find that there was virtually nothing that we could buy at the outlet that was made here in Sri Lanka.

The masks were made of plastic and were imports perhaps from China. The lanterns were most certainly Chinese.

The hard board cut-outs of images of the Buddha reflected styles that did not represent any we see in the image houses of our temples and were certain imports from India. The glittering strings of led-lights made in China had instructions for its use printed on the back of each box in English, Spanish, Portuguese and French, representative of the global market place they must be sold in. I inquired from the lad who looked the lead youth at the outlet, ‘Don’t you have card board-pulp ‘ves muhunu’ that’s made locally’ and added ‘Why is everything here imported?’ His answer was ‘No one makes them anymore. It is hard to find’.

Lessons learnt

It brought back memories of the good old days, when we were taught in school to make vesak lanterns and ves muhunu. Several weeks prior to Vesak, we were requested to bring bata paturu and the thangus thread. It was a lesson in geometry, for we had to have the right-sized bata pathuru of the right quantities assembled, to make the various shapes. I recall how one of our Daham School teachers went on to explain the concept of impermanence and urged us not to cover the lanterns with plastic to protect them from the rain. ‘It is an offering we make, with effort and (sardha) piety in our minds, and the lesson to learn is that the natural cycle of life and decay, will take place. These are the concepts of ‘Dharmatha’ and ‘Anithya’’, he said.

For ves mununu, we made moulds of different facial types out of clay, mostly representing animals and plastered them with pulp to make the masks. We later painted them in groups and brought them to life, any which way we desired. The lessons learnt related to being creative, innovative, and it gave us a sense of self-confidence and achievement. Buying it off the sales-outlet would not have given us that pride and confidence. More so I still recall the camaraderie, with which all our friends worked on these tasks. The skills learnt were taken home and with the added support of our parents, we were able to make Vesak lanterns of various shapes and sizes at our homes. Friends from the neighbourhood gathered and it was great fun to work in closely bonded teams.

In Zones

Today, there are special Vesak Promotional Zones designated and innovative and creative decorations are housed within them. Crafted by professionals, environment friendly materials are mostly used and presenting a treat to city folks and the tourist who visit these zones to ‘See Vesak’. Each zone, offers attractive cash prizes to those who win the ‘Koodu’ competitions and spirit of it all finally boils down to being, another sales-outlet of a sort.

It is true that we live in a different age and times now. Everything around us is commercialised and globalised. It’s even called by some, a global village. The ‘village’ in this context is only relevant for ease of communications and connectivity. Not in the sense we in most of Asia understood the village to be; a cohesive social-economic-cultural and spiritual entity.

Our values

In all of its midst, the Buddha word emphasises the need for us to focus inwards, look in the mirror as to say at ourselves. Unity is to be sought within the diversity around us. The call is for us to live our lives treading the middle path, avoiding extremes. Yet, the focus today is more on institutions, organisation and in the might found in size. ‘Big is better’, ‘Greed is good’ and ‘Small is inefficient’ are but some of the dominant beliefs that drive us. In the context of Sri Lanka, we are struggling to regain lost values and are yearning once again to see fair play, transparency, rule of law and justice for all reigning supreme. The pol thel pahan, atapattam, nelum and olu mal or taruka koodu made with such precision and excitement at our homes, the candles inside the bucket koodu of different colour and the effort and piety with which all these were brought together, formed the core and the basis of that system of values.

Our hope

The lead lad at the Vesak sales-outlet at Matara, was not mad at me for the probing questions I asked. Instead he took time to discuss the need for us to get back to making our own decorations and go back to our old ways. We talked of the possibility of youth the likes of him, taking on to initiatives to encourage the production of these items in the future. We discussed about poorer children in our villages, needing support to bring the joy of Vesak to their homes. It was refreshing and brought me hope for our future. We bought a few sets of led lights from him.

As we set out to return, he pulled out a dozen or so of hardboard cut-outs of Buddha images, somewhat discoloured stacked in a box on a side, and told us ‘These are from last year. Please take it and share it with poor children in your village’.

If someone told me that we Sri Lankans do not have hope for a peaceful and desirable future, I would vehemently disagree. That was the lesson this lad taught me and a lesson I would cherish most and go on sharing with others. We do have hope..... Although I regret I forgot to ask his name amidst all that excitement, I know we will find many more like him in our midst in the future. [email protected]