Three years ago I was seated at the very back of the class listening to some commentary made by a teacher. It was on a literary piece which was prescribed for A/L English Literature. If not mistaken it was by Chitra Fernando. I cannot fix the plot into its exact places. I have forgotten. Inevitably . But I remember that the story has much connection to the Buddhist Doctrine.
It is the month of Vesak. The time we commemorate the birth ,enlightenment and parinivana of Siddhartha Gautama. Officialy the day will end in a few hours. But the festive mood will be there. Religious activities will continue. People would have dansals. There will be vesak koodu competitions and even thoran (pandols) which will be open to the public even later in May. Out of all these, the most noted is the shraddha that occupies one’s heart. They give higher respect to “thunuruwana”, the Buddha, Dhamma and Sangha.
Yesterday evening I was invited for a gilanpasa poojawa by a friend of my family. It wasn’t at temple. The poojawa took place at the budu medura, which was built on the roof top of my friend’s house. White – washed , neat and elegant it was. There were a few tiny lanterns hanging in blue , yellow , red , orange and white and some buckets hung on tree pots. They lived in Rajagariya, the road in front of Mc Donalds.Living a little less away from Colombo’s heart , there was lullness preserved. There was moon, round and big in the total black out.
Ven. Mahanama Thero performed the rituals. Gilanpasa was offered to Buddha including the maha sangha. In two hours time the poojawa came to an end with the rathana sutra and maithree bhavanava. There was less crowd. Just their relatives and one or two close friends which included me. There was peace diffused . I was happy.
In this short run a woman made an account of several offerings she has made. This is how it went.
“ sathiyakata kalin man loku loudspeaker ekak pansalata pooja kara. Pereda ape gedara thathage dane thibba. Eka nam hondata thibuna . 200k withara senaga hitiya. Mata hari santhosayi.” ( A week ago I offered a loudspeaker to the temple and day before yesterday we had the alms giving for my father. It went well. Nearly 200 people were there for alms. I am happy)
Swiftly she moved to another topic.
“I found a girl from Nawalapitiya to work for me. Only 12 years old. I look after her like my own daughter. But see what this girl did to me. We made kavum for the alms and there was a lot remaining. I left them inside a tin. Yesterday I realized that half of the kavum was gone. The girl had eaten. I slapped her. Otherwise they try to cling on our shoulders and benefit from us”
This reminded me of Chitra Fernando's Loku Nenda who considers herself to be well conversed in Buddhism yet fails to understand greed. She collects and collects. She never wants others to have her things.
I felt sorry for the little one. She stole probably because she gets less to eat. No wonder. So this is what all the posh aunties who give away big dana do. They call out the entire village for alms, offer loudspeakers to temple, tell the whole world that they are generous and slap their workers for eating kavum when they claim to treat them as daughters. They even prevent from killing thinking that they will have a position in Thusitha Heaven.
There is no shraddha as such today. But there’s a lot of showing off. Showing off one’s religion. Just beguiling to put the notion on others that they follow up Buddha’s words.
It’s simple as this. Just think of those who observe sil. The majority doesn’t know what they've observed even. At the end of the day they have been spending 8 or 9 hours talking about their grand daughters , grandsons , the next door men or the man who married their neighbour’s daughter.The sil redda is a mere token of true shraddha. Their souls are empty.
In two words I would call this religious hipocracy.
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