In a series of books titled as the Life of Gautama Buddha, (Gautama Buddha Charitaya), the sixth is the latest to come out with the authorship of Damayanthi Jayakodi. The book is titled as ‘Asirimat Utum Tisaranaya: Buddha, Dhamma, Sangha’. In this work, the author has attempted to emphasise the significance of the Bhikkhu Order, taking into account the profiles of several Bhikkhu luminaries during the Buddha’s time. In a very simple narrative style, flavoured with a layer of utmost faith, the author elaborates how the monks were instrumental in propagating the Buddha’s teachings.
The reader ascertains as to why the Bhikkhu Order was created: in order to help the laymen achieve a higher degree of knowledge via sermons. As communicators of the Buddha’s teachings, the monks were widely known as bhanaka (reciters or noble communicators).
In Pali Canon (Tripitaka), the emphasis is laid on the two types of bhanakas: mahabhanakas and chulabhanakas. As their work too points out, it is the order of monks (Sangha Sasana) which promotes the Dhamma as it was learned by them through the great teacher, Buddha. The Buddha enlightened his disciples on the value of listening, the value of retaining what was listened and worthy, the value of disseminating the Dhamma, in the way it is received (charatha Dhamma). With these facts in the background, the reader finds that listening to the Dhamma as it is said by the monks via the concept of evam me sutam (thus have I heard) is the worthiest message one can receive during the short span of life one spends as one’s own existence.
Commentarial form
Damayanthi Jayakody adopts basically two methods of narration in the text. Firstly the story form as it is laid down in the Buddhist texts. Secondly, the commentarial form that elucidates the meanings.
One good example is the story of Yasakulaputhra or the young man named Yasa who comes to see the Buddha. Yasa, who leads a luxurious life, gradually becomes disillusioned by the same. The young man is made to meet the Buddha, at Isipathana, in the early hours of the morning. A dialogue ensues between the Buddha and Yasa. This results in the understanding of Yasa the futility of the luxurious lay life.
Yasa comes to know the common factors that create turmoil in the life led by a layman. Through the sensitive listening to the message as voiced by the Buddha, the layman Yasa comes to know the basic elements that create desire and suffering.
Yasa, from here onwards, is seen as a person who contemplates on the four noble truths and the Noble Eightfold Path as taught by the Buddha. When the parents of Yasa come in search of Yasa, they see him as a monk who had entered the order of Sangha under the tutelage of the Buddha.
Following the story of Yasa, the monk is the commentarial explanation pertaining to the subject as depicted in the learned texts.
Two orders
The writer too records that the mother of Yasa and the wife respectively two had entered the order of Bhikkhunis and the pioneer female disciples of the Buddha. In this manner, the reader of the work gets the chance of knowing some of the facts related to the formative stages of the two orders of monks and nuns. The reader gets the feeling that it is not a mere religious organization but a dispensation that is embarked in order to formulate a noble human function of knowledge dissemination that culminates in the most serious understanding of the very existence. Followed by this story of Yasa comes the story of four young men belonging to four treasure clans during the time of the Buddha: Vimala, Subhaha, Pannaji and Gavampathi. They had come to know about Yasa by the time had become a monk and achieved the highest state of spiritual bliss known as arahantship.
The four young men follow suit and reap the highest results of their lives. They get the chance of listening to the Buddha. They come to know of suffering, the cause of suffering and the way to get rid of suffering. Hence they become higher human beings who learn the factors that keep them gripped to a life full of desires and ill-will. They gradually attempt to get rid of listening to the teachings of the Buddha. It is recorded how the Buddha had read their minds, taking one by one into consideration. This enables them to enter the order of monks and receive higher ordination (upasampada).
Followed by these two lively episodes as narrated in the story form, the reader comes to know further events relating to 50 young men who had come to listen to teachings of the Buddha. The 50 young men enter the order of monks gradually through their blissful understanding of the Dhamma. They have the chance of entering the first stage of sainthood.
Highest sanctity
Gradually as time goes on, they enter into other states that culminate into the noble states of highest sanctity called Arahant or the supreme state of mind. The writer Jayakody makes an attempt to create a feeling of faith healing message to the reader via a verve of fantasy. This is observed in the narrative of the Naga king called Erakapatta, who touches his day their songs that evoke sensuous feelings. But on the other hand, she learns songs of healing the mind through the tutorship of a young disciple of the Buddha named Uttara. Those who got enticed by the Naga daughter later become transformed by her blissful songs into a state of higher sanctity devoid of sensuous feelings. This narrative helps the reader to gauge the effect of a song on the healing process via the noble message of the Buddha.
The work as a whole is packed with a central theme of the effect of a noble message leads to sanctified living conditions. The book is quite well illustrated and looks more a gift to the young readers in the country.
Add new comment