Bodu Bala Sena chief joins in to sing the chorus to Wimal’s anti Vesak Gee
REVEALED: The Bodu Bala Sena sham
Wimal Weerawansa is not alone in his May Day call to turn Vesak commemorative bliss to one long spell of black mourning. He has company. Stepping on to this ‘blasphemous’ stage to sing the chorus to Wimal’s revolting anti Vesak refrain is a group of ordained Buddhist monks. No prizes for guessing rightly the name and style under which they practice their religious calling.
Enter Galagodaaththe Gnanasara Thera, the chief of Bodu Bala Sena infamy. As another great Sinhala patriot in the Wimal mould, he needs no introduction. His reputation for launching vicious attacks against the minorities of the country in the name of protecting Buddhism precedes the arrival of his bulky robe clad frame on the stage.
Just as the Vesak moon was waxing to its climax to cast its soothing glow for the two thousand six hundred and fifth time since it beamed on Siddhartha as he attained enlightenment by the banks of the river Neranjana in the year 588BC, Bodu Bala chief Gnanasara Thera addressed the media at the Bodu Bala headquarters last Friday by the side of the Kirulapone canal.
He said: “Those days it was called Preethi Vesak. Today many say it’s Modi Vesak. There is talk of giving the oil tanks to India. Plans have already been laid to make this country an Indian colony. They are covering this with the Buddhist flag. There is a saying the dansala is the front, behind it is the tavern. There is a big doubt amongst the patriots as to the motives of this government. The patriotic forces have great doubts of Modi’s visit. We also have the doubt too. But as Buddhist we do not wish to raise any unwanted issues when this country is hosting the International Vesak Festival because it is not the Buddhist way of doing things. I think Wimal is raising this black flag issue on account of the doubts the patriots have on Modi’s visit and he may be right. Beneath the Vesak decorations, beneath the Vesak flags, beneath the Vesak pandals, beneath the Vesak Bakthi Gee, beneath the dansals, we must be aware of this conspiracy. Thus without hanging black flags outside in our homes we should wear black flags in our hearts. “
Reveals a lot, doesn’t it, of the great sham practiced by this brigand of renegade monks who, in the guise of self appointed guardians of Buddhism, unleashed a wave of religious terror against the Muslims in the reign of the Rajapaksas enjoying immunity from arrest and prosecution?
Gnanasara Thera’s call to the Buddhist public to fly the Buddhist flag on their sleeves and in their homes purely for show during Vesak but to house and hoist the black flag of hate in their heart in secret and have it flutter with each palpitating beat of the heart in vitriolic anger reveals the Bodu Bala humbug.
Inadvertently perhaps, Gnanasara let the Bodu Bala cat out of the bag when he exhorted the masses to flaunt the Vesak flag in the open but harbour hate in one’s heart. culture and civilization and now India’s Modi is bent on using the indigenous papyrus as a palimpsest to draw India’s own cultural map on it. Before this Rasputin of Lanka’s politics, propelled by some misplaced patriotic pride, misleads the masses further and leads them up the garden path to behold the awe of Anuradhapura or the pomp of Polonnaruwa and to hail them all as the outpourings of Lanka’s original genius, it is best to point out that to India, Lanka’s culture and art owe a heavy debt of gratitude.
First and foremost the Sinhala psyche has for over two millennia been influenced by Buddhism. Ever since the day King Devanampiyatissa met the 32-yearold son of India’s Emperor Asoka in Mihintale in 250 BC who carried with him his father’s greatest gift to Lanka – Buddhism – the Lankan people have remained Buddhist to the core. And the soothing, tolerant non violent philosophy of the Buddha had given dynamic impetus to all fields of activity.
The genius of the Lankan mind lay not so much in its originality of thought and artistic creativity but in its willingness to accept with open mind the frankincense and myrrh, of alien thought and wisdom that blew from foreign climes and not to shut the window and bolt the door from foreign influence but to welcome as honoured guests the gusts of humanity’s trove of knowledge and art. The forefathers of this land did not spurn it; they did not condemn it as alien conspiracies to pervert the Sinhala mindset but embraced it and strove to improve on it. They had the foresight and the vision to reap the rewards of the artistic seeds that had blown Lanka’s way other races living faraway had sown to the wind.
But to this political toad recently leap frogging in the Welikada well who had managed to hop out and croak loud his black flag cry, the Palk Strait saved Lanka’s culture from falling under India’s sway. And India’s Prime Minister Modi, in collusion with his Lankan counterpart Wickremesinghe, was arriving to steal the thunder of the Sinhala identity and replace it with a counterfeit Indian coin to pass off in the future as the genuine Sinhala article.
Mahinda Rajapaksa who presided over the Joint Oppositions May Day Rally at Galle Face would, no doubt, have blushed blue, red yellow, orange and turned white with embarrassment when he
Perhaps that explains their past actions. They wore the saffron robe, the sacred shroud of the Buddha to which respect is accorded without question; they used it as their armour of protection from legal reprisals; they arrogated to themselves the mantle of Buddhism’s guardian deity; they assumed liberty and license to attack Muslim establishments in the name of the Buddha but with the protection of the Rajapaksas without fear of legal consequences; they did all that donning the robe of respect, the saffron shroud of tolerance whilst in their black hearts were embedded deep the very emotions of hatred, of intolerance, of violence which flouted and went against the grain of everything the Buddha preached.
Perhaps the most Venerable Malwatte and Asgiriya Nayake Theras should think it fit to summon the Sangha council to inquire whether the Bodu Bala monks have transgressed their Vinaya disciplines by calling on the people to practice such blatant hypocrisy – to wear the Buddhist mask in public and harbour evil in their hearts. And, on the eve of Vesak, to recommend to the Buddhist laity to wear such a sham countenance and promote it as the ideal stance to bear. heard Weerawansa make this reprehensible call to the thousands gathered before him and perhaps would have realised the dangers in giving the erratic primate the barber’s shaving blade. Perhaps he was thinking how he could attend the UN International Vesak ceremony at the BMICH on Friday and say namasthe to Modi when on his stage before him his acolyte was asking the entire nation to hang black flags and drown this nation in a flood of black over Modi’s visit and spitting on the greatest gift his ancestors had given Lanka 2267 years ago when his namesake, Asoka’s son Mahinda arrived with the bowl of the Buddha’s Dhamma.
In the avalanche of protest that followed Wimal’s call to hoist black flags during Vesak, perhaps former twice elected president Chandrika’s comment was the one most to the point which, no doubt, gave expression to the nation’s wrath. In a no- nonsense, short shrift message, she simply said: “I will say to those who called the public to hoist black flags during the Vesak festival that it will be better for them to jump into the Indian Ocean with a rock tied to their legs than to make such utterances.”
With her GROBR call to the vermin that dare desecrate Buddhism’s holiest day to advance their petty political agendas, no doubt, the vast majority of Lanka will concur and raise their own flag of approval to Chandrika’s short shrift to the JVP castaway now JO stowaway.
Especially when the masses realise that there is no real difference between Northern Wigneswaran’s call to ban Buddha statues in the north to advance his utopian Eelam and southern Weerawansa’s May Day call for the masses to roll up during this hallowed Vesak period the bright blue, red, yellow, white, orange five colour Buddhist flag which represents the spectrum of colours the Buddha emanated from his body upon attaining enlightenment, namely BLUE ( Nila): loving kindness or Metta YELLOW (Pita): The Middle Path to enlighten avoiding extremes to reach the goal RED (Lohitha): The practice of wisdom, virtue and its blessings WHITE (Odata): The Dharma’s purity leadinng to liberation from sorrow’ s siege ORANGE ( Manjesta): Wisdom, the Dhamma the Buddha preached and in its stead raise full mast the black flags of hate.