A monk with a vision for the future

Ven. Daranagama Kusaladhamma Nayaka Thera was hardly known until he took the bold step of setting up ‘The Buddhist’ Radio/ TV channel to propagate the Dhamma. Starting on a small scale, it didn’t take long to be popular first among the Buddhists and later even among non-Buddhists since it carried programmes related to Buddhism but of interest to everyone.

Ven. Kusaladhamma came to reside at Vajiraramaya at the time Ven. Piyadassi was head of Vajiraramaya. He showed his skills when he was given the task of revitalising the Dhamma school at Vajiraramaya.

Ven. Piyadassi later moved over to the small temple occupied by the young monk Ven. Panadure Ariyadhamma after the latter’s untimely death. He had built the temple on a block of land gifted to him by President Ranasinghe Premadasa, and named it Sri Sambodhi Viharaya.

Renowned for his missionary work the world over, Ven. Piyadassi developed the Sambodhi Vihara as a place of worship with regular programmes for devotees to participate. He was assisted in this task by Ven Kusaladhamma who also moved over from Vajiraramaya and became the chief prelate after Ven. Piyadassi passed away.

The Vihara was in a strategic location in Cinnamon Gardens- at Gregory’s Road (now known as R.G. Senanayake Mawatha). In its formative years, the temple provided the basic necessities for the devotees to make their offerings, listen to Dhamma sermons and spend the Full Moon Poya day peacefully. While these activities continued, much more were added on.

Adjoining the Vihara was an international school. The Thera observed how the stu- dents were conversing in English and felt a Dhamma School in English would be useful for them. He promptly arranged to set up a Dhamma school at the Vihara picking up a few who agreed to be teachers. Before long the school attracted around 2000 students who attend free classes every Saturday.

On June 28, 2005, ‘The Buddhist’ - the world’s first and only Global Satellite Television Broadcasting Network was launched dedicated primarily to the dissemination of the Dhamma.

‘The Buddhist’ operates as a non-profit oriented organization. The generosity of both individuals and institutions in the public and private sectors made it a viable operation. Soon he arranged for devotees who wanted to sponsor Dhamma sermons to do so on days suitable for them allowing them to come with a limited number of friends and relations to participate in the programme just as they would be present in the house listening to a sermon.

Ven Kusaladhamma was helped by a pious Tamil Hindu gentleman, Muhundan Kanage, the owner of CBN SAT TV Channel. When his company was acquired by Dialog Television, he insisted on having a Sri Lankan Buddhist channel and made arrangements with the new owners to allocate a channel in their package and donated all the equipment including the studio he owned to Sri Sambodhi Vihara.

In a couple of years an imposing sevenstorey building reminiscent of the days of the ancient kings of Sri Lanka who built palaces and places of Buddhist worship was completed to house the studios of ‘The Buddhist’ TV channel.

‘The Buddhist’ performs the noble task of propagating the Dhamma to mankind and is dedicated primarily to the spreading of the sacred teaching of the Buddha and to discuss subjects associated with the Dhamma. The programmes are distributed via satellite throughout day and night round the globe.

The Thera started a monthly publication, ‘Sambodhi’ with news relating to Buddhism along with selected sermons broadcast over ‘The Buddhist’.

Ven Kusaladhamma used his personality to establish contacts with other Buddhist countries. Due to his strong relationship with the Thai government, the first set of the Pali Tripitaka in Roman script published in the Kingdom of Thailand under royal patronage was formally handed over to President Chandrika Bandaranaike Kumaranatunga in March 2005. She in turn presented the set to Sambodhi Vihara.

‘The Buddhist’ TV Channel also joined in conducting regular programmes to uplift the standard of living of the rural community. Every month school uniforms, text books, exercise books and other school requirements were distributed amongst school children in the remotest areas.

Medical clinics were held regularly in a bid to improve the health of the low income groups in rural Sri Lanka.Physically handicapped individuals were given artificial limbs and crutches.

For a monk who had a vision for the future to depart at the relatively early age of 54 years is indeed a great loss to the country and to everyone across the globe who greatly benefitted by the programmes he started.

May his path in ‘sansara’ be peaceful and fruitful!