VESAK: Critique and post-scripta

Nipuni Wimalapala

Religion is something we believe in and follow with spiritual devotion. Every religion strives for the creation of a peaceful, humane and perfect society.

Buddhism is recognised as a realistic and truthful religion based on scientific grounds. Vesak is the most important religious festival for every Buddhist around the world. It is the main festival in which the Buddhists celebrate the birth, enlightenment and death of the Buddha.

A competition

Years have passed and everything has changed on earth. Same has happened to Vesak celebrations. Though it is a religious festival which should be celebrated in a peaceful and spiritual manner, the ethos has changed completely. It has become commercialised as people try to market and advertise in terms of earning money.

Today everywhere in the country, people enjoy Vesak in a grand manner with different celebrations. It seems to be a competition rather than a peaceful celebration, sometimes. These commercialised celebrations are common in Colombo and urban areas.

Commercialised

Commenting on the subject, Ven Bellanwila Wimalaratana Thera said: "It is a much discussed topic for years that Vesak festival has been commercialised. Today the whole country is commercialised and everything is based on money. During the Vesak season, there are many who collect money for charity work and also for the Vesak celebration.

Everywhere we can see Vesak pandals, lanterns, candles and bhakthi gee etc. Another very popular item is giving free food (dansala). It creates huge queues and vehicles get stuck as a result which creates in traffic jams. Giving free food is obviously good but it should be done in a better way."

"Years back, children used to make lanterns with very simple materials such as bamboo sticks and tissue papers. They used to go and collect bamboo sticks and prepare everything themselves.

Then they felt that they are doing something spiritual and devotional. But today kids have no time to do such things. They are caught up in a highly competitive education system where they go to school, then go to tuition classes and very much involved in studies.

Especially the kids in urban areas are struggling in a very busy life style. Some of them have never seen the way a lantern is made. Parents used to buy lanterns and other Vesak items from shops and they light them," he mentioned.

Promoting and advertising

According to Ven Wimalaratane Thera, the media plays a major role in commercialising Vesak. All media including newspapers, radio channels, television channels and internet keep on promoting and advertising Vesak. They start advertising about their Vesak programmes a week before and keep on asking the audience to join them to celebrate Vesak. Media has to behave in an intellectual manner to make children aware about such religious festivals other than promoting them in a commercial manner.

"Sometimes the so called dansals have become a nuisance for general public, because they create huge traffic in town areas. And now the government has started monitoring the quality of food given in dansals. However the main responsibility is with parents to make children convinced that it is a peaceful religious festival and let them prepare celebrations themselves," Ven Wimalarathana thera further said.

Grand manner

To get to know more about the Vesak celebration, I walked into some places where famous celebrations took place during the Vesak season. I got the opportunity to talk with some of the guys who organised them. Most of them stressed that it has become a trend and many who organised the things like pandals, lanterns, dansals ect; always try to do it in a grand manner and they want to emphasise that they are doing it for many years. But some of them said that they are involved in it because they really want to do something good for the Vesak festival.

“We do this every year, because we know that people are waiting to see this during the Vesak season and we get a lot of donations from top class businessmen. We organise this and also we promote their names while the celebrations are going on,” said an organiser.

Enjoying the day

Another person, who is making a big Vesak lantern annually, said, “I started doing this, because I was interested in such things from my childhood. And my creativity and inborn artistic talents backed me with different new creations and every year I could come up with a novel thing. Though I started it in a small way today it has become a huge exertion.”

After talking to many individuals, it was revealed that the general public is also fed up with the way of celebrating Vesak. One lady spoke to the Daily News and said, “Today Vesak has become an entertaining festival for most of the people. They do not celebrate it with religious devotion but try to enjoy the day either with the family or friends.”

Another person said, “Vesak is not a festival. It is not there to enjoy. People should not celebrate it with physical displays of objects but should follow the philosophy of Buddhism. Good things taught in Buddhism can be applied on our lives and live a better life is quite possible.”

All the above mentioned prove that today Vesak has become a celebration through which people try to get entertained. Most of them are against it but the system remains the same. But if we are confident and determined, we can change it.

Go out and see who needs support to live. It could be a very little thing that you can do, but if it uplifts another one’s life, go and do it. Observe around and see whether there are animals with difficulties. If so go and help them live free. Do not waste time on frivolous things on Vesak day, but support something really meaningful and give your hand to someone in need to stand on his or her own feet. It will make you a real Buddhist.