Focus on books

Books on religion and society
 

by Prof. Sunanda Mahendra

The well-known local publisher Samayawardhana recently came to limelight with the launching of the autobiographical work ‘I dare’ written by Kiran Bedi, the Indian social reformer, who was the recipient of the Ramon Magsaysay award. The Sinhala translation too was launched simultaneously and responded by many a reader at home and abroad.

Perhaps this event may have inspired them to take up quite a number of similar works to be published and translated from English and many other languages. The owner-cum-publisher Ariyadasa Weeraman had been a coveted inheritor of the publishing project for a long time running as far back as 1950s and his predecessor had been in the printing industry at least half a century before.

Today one of the livewires in the Samayawardhana publishers is the youngest daughter of the chief publisher, Dinushi Weeraman, who takes a keen interest in keeping track with the most modern book trends of the world inclusive of their hallmark in the publishing field, the religious and inspirational subject areas such as positive thinking, commentaries on Buddhist texts etc.

One such commentarial work is the English translation of an original Sinhala publication [title not cited] ‘The key to the door of Nibbana or the supreme happiness’, by Ven. Boralande Subhoda Meheni and translated by Dr. H. M. Gunasekara.

Loving kindness

This work revolves round the explanation by way of a commentary the salient factors that lay hidden in the well-known sutra of the Buddhists known as karaniya metta sutta or the Sutta on loving kindness. Although this Sutta is recited by many a Buddhist at home and in various places in order to obtain blessings to avert fear and danger.

The meaning of the stanzas are not found fully well grasped and understood. As such the author attempts to give the Pali text together with the meaning and an explanation, line by line.

The author outlines the fact that the stanzas have a meaning deeper than one sees in its superficial form as such the author had tried her best to give an insight into each of the stanzas with as many examples as possible.

In order to illustrate this factor I would like to pick up one of the finest examples I found in the work. Exemplifying the last line in the first stanza in karaniya metta sutta that goes as ‘Sabbe satta bhavantu sukhisatatta’ (may all beings be well and happy) the following commentary is presented briefly.

“After having looked at the universe very clearly and having thus identified different groups of beings separately, (they include beings visible and invisible, those living far and near, the beings born and those unborn seeking birth) a wish is made for the happiness of all of them together.

In so doing all beings living in the 31 planes of existence extending from the hell at the lowest level to the highest plane above the plane of human beings and in the space covered by all the ten directions on the earth, must be included in that wish of well being. (Further) In order to remove the doubt that some beings may get inadvertently excluded, every category of beings were identified separately in the above stanzas.” (p.98).

In this manner all the stanzas are explained in the briefest possible manner at times taking into account some of the terms and concepts. This I perceive as a grand gift to a friend living abroad who may find insights to religious meanings in the modern world. The other religious book that comes from Samayawardhana is titled ‘Friendship the Buddhist view’ by Ven. Deniyaye Pannaloka.

Dhammapada

Having given a general account of the concept as it is used in the worldly conceptual frame, the author outlines what it means in the Buddhist context as visualized in the teachings of Buddha.

The chapter 2 on the Buddhist teachings on friendship goes on to explain taking into account the various suttas, stanzas, Jataka stories, Dhammapada and dialogues that ensued between the Buddha and many people who had come to see Him with questions material and metaphysical.

The noble friendship in the Buddhist teachings is termed as Kalyana Mitta and Kalyana Sahayata. In this manner one sees that the Kalyana Mitta is not only a friend in need but also a noble spiritual friend, who remains with a person with constant good advice on living matters.

This situation is juxtaposed with the qualities of the false friend or the evil friend ‘papamitta’. Such a friend is a person who will spoil the life of another by six evil qualities explained in Singalovada sutta as

1. gambler (dhutta)

2. libertine (sonda)

3. tippler (pipasa)

4. cheater (vekatika)

5. swindler (vanchanika)

6. man of violence (sahasika) (p24)

On further examination the author lays down the fact that false friend who is also a liar should be avoided as much as possible and kept off from close association.

Intimacies with such a person will lead to disasters. The liar is a person who is inferior in morality, concentration and wisdom. Such a person should not be associated, instead sympathised as a degraded human being.

Foul speech

The liar is also known as endowed with foul speech (known by the term guthabhani) From an alternative point of view the person who speaks the truth is endowed with the qualities of speech that emanates the sweet smell of flowers titled as puppabhani.

There is also the good friend who is highly disciplined in his speech mannerisms. This type of friend is titled as madhubhani where the meaning is given as ‘honey speaker’ Though a flimsy volume running to 52 pages the text is full of religious material that would certainly help the reader to know and excavate more details about one’s own friends and well-wishers, thus elevating him from a mere plane of living to a more profound plane of thinking for a purpose. This research work I consider is an ideal gift to a friend.

The third publication is a translation of a book of essays titled ‘Mind Science: a dialogue between East and West’ translated from English into Sinhala as Chitta vidya by Ven.

Mandavala Pannavansa (a writer monk who has brought out quite a number of Sinhala works translated from French, inclusive of a translation of Andre Gide’s ‘La Symphony Pastorale’ and poems of Khalil Gibran, the Lebanese poet philosopher).

In this translation of religious discourse one finds quite a number of religio-scientific insights into the subject of religion and society from the eastern and the western perspectives.

The dialogues have been ensued between Rev. DalaiLama and several scientists (from Harvard University) who had edited the work into a systematized reader. (The two editors are Dr. Daniel Gallman and Dr. Robert A. E. Thurman).

The reader will find an elevated plane of reading on the philosophical standpoints going deeper and deeper into the meaning of such aspects as science, medicine, biology, psychological aspects such as mind-body links, various ideologies connected with living discourses and controversies connected with cognitive factors as laid down in the East and the West with a special emphasis on the aspects of Tibetan Buddhism.

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