- A timely call for nonviolence
The month of May, which is known as the month of Vesak in the traditional Sinhalese calendar, marks the celebration of Vesak Full Moon Poya day which commemorates the birth, enlightenment, and the ultimate passing away of Lord Buddha.
The occasion of Vesak
Vesak is one of the major religious festivals celebrated by Buddhists and people engage in various religious ceremonies on the day.
Our history tells the story of Lord Buddha’s birth as Prince Siddhartha, which is believed to have taken place on a Vesak full moon Poya day in the Lumbini Sal Uyana, and at the age of 29 after being shown the four stages of life known as the ‘sathara pera nimithi’ he leaves his life as a lay person to embark on the search for enlightenment.
On this journey, Prince Siddhartha enters priesthood and engages in his search for six years while following various extreme paths such as the Atta Kilamathanu Yoga and the Kama Sukhallikana Yoga, and eventually discovers the middle path attaining enlightenment at the root of the Asathu Bo tree in Bodh Gaya.
Lord Buddha then preaches his findings to his disciples who then disseminated his teachings to the rest of the world for 45 years with the Buddha passing away at age 80 at the Kusinara Sal grove in Kushinagar, Uttar Pradesh, India. His last words were, “Decay is inherent in all contingent things. Work out your salvation with diligence”. Contingent refers to the ideas of non-self and emptiness – everything is dependent on other things. ‘Salvation’ refers to achieving the state of nirvana.
Vesak in the Sri Lankan tradition
Sri Lankan Buddhists have adopted their own unique way of celebrating Vesak Poya with the making of Vesak lanterns and pandols (thoran) which depict the birth, life, and passing of the Buddha and various other Jathaka stories (stories of Lord Buddha’s past births having moral, instructional content) often taken from the ‘Pansiya Panas Jathaka’ book.
Lankans also set up dansal – a form of almsgiving, where people hand over free refreshments and various other food and beverages to people in their community. Dansal is a way of commemorating the values that the Buddha spoke of in his teachings which includes the importance of giving alms.
However, considering that Vesak Poya is a communal event, one that normally sees a huge amount of community and festivity – from the pandols telling these Jathaka stories and other stories of the Lord Buddha’s life to exhibitions of Vesak lanterns to the dansals dotting the entire island and fostering a sense of celebration and goodwill and people coming together to share in the spirit of Vesak and the Buddha’s teachings – the holiday has been celebrated at barely half capacity for the past three years.
With the tragedy of the 2019 Easter attacks, which was then immediately followed by the global pandemic, which was then again followed by the ongoing debilitating economic crisis, we as Lankans have not been able to celebrate Vesak in the communal way that we are used to. However, the religious aspect of the Poya Day has remained, and often Buddhist families would visit temples and carry out the tradition of giving during the Vesak Poya day to mark the day in a more solemn and insular way than they previously did.
Vesak today
This past week, Sri Lankans all together experienced a great tragedy. They saw many of their fellow countrymen fall, and be subjected to acts of extreme violence. The Buddha has specifically taught nonviolence: “Hatred does not cease by hatred, but only by love,” as stated in the stanza ‘Nahi Verena Verani’ which explicitly teaches the importance of nonviolence and also non-retaliation, providing that, to counter violence there is only nonviolence.
While Sri Lanka is a multiethnic, multicultural, and multireligious nation, a majority of our country remains Buddhist. And if they are to embrace their religion, then Lord Buddha has expressly looked down upon acts of such violence.
Speaking to Brunch, Bosewana Viharaya, Maradana Chief Incumbent Godapitiye Indananda Thera shared similar sentiments, stating that the Buddhist teachings were such that they encouraged those who follow in the Buddha’s teachings to embrace nonviolence.
The Thera added that on this day of Vesak Poya, where we mark the birth, enlightenment, and the passing of Lord Buddha, it was imperative that we spread this message of positivity and the importance of remaining peaceful and spreading the message of peace.
The Thera also highlighted that Sri Lanka was not a homogenous nation and there was no need to differentiate between religion, culture, or race, and that if you were one who believed in remaining peaceful and free of hatred then you were honouring the teachings of the Buddha, since that was the message that Buddhists should embrace and share during these turbulent times.
Vesak in the midst of peaceful protest
Brunch also spoke to a few Buddhist protestors who have engaged in the month-long peaceful protest at Galle Face Green which has since been dismantled by opposing forces and rebuilt. While they wished to remain anonymous considering the nature of the emergency regulations at the time of compiling this article, they stated that peaceful protests were what they believed in and what they had practised for the past month, which was along the lines of what the Lord Buddha instilled in Buddhists. The protests were indeed peaceful, and in the case of GotaGoGama, a centre for knowledge and learning as well. Until 9 May.
The violence on 9 May and the days following it were, to the protestors we spoke with, almost certainly provoked, and they shared that they empathised with those who took up the call for violence because they too were fellow Lankans who were also experiencing the helplessness we all feel.
The protestors shared: “Anyone who accepted either Rs. 5,000, a packet of rice, or even a bottle of alcohol, did so out of desperation. Who are we to say that had we been in their position where our family had not eaten for a few days we would not accept that much money? I think we are in no position to judge.”
Finally, the protestors shared that, as Buddhists, they believed in the Buddha’s teaching of ‘Nahi Verena Verani’ and so they too wished to encourage their fellow protestors to remain calm and get back on track to continue their peaceful protests until they reached their goal.
