A friendship that blossomed from childhood days

In 1939 a lovely baby was born in Miripenna, a village in the Southern Province of Sri Lanka – to a school teacher duo.

Even from a young age this child was eager to discover more about the human anatomy and human mind. This was proved when he did a minor “surgery” on the body of a monkey found in a ditch near his home.

I also remember when he went to the Miripenna Ariyakara Vihara how he would contemplate about human life and death, while we would play around with the village youth.

I was his closest neighbour and friend – we would walk about the village enjoying the scenery of the seashore and the bird and animal sanctuary Eluvila within the Waggalmodara salt water exclusion scheme.

We would observe how fish attempted to swim upstream against the flow. This encouraged us friends, Shaman, Wije, Rathna, Mahinda, Wasantha, Lal, Vasu and Palitha to study and prosper. As young men Jayantha and I would discuss subjects such as life and rebirth, love and integrity. Once the two of us came up with a code system where we could write love letters that could not be deciphered by anyone else. This code was known only to me, Jayantha and my girl friend in the village.

Jayantha became a doctor, I an engineer. We did not eat flesh or consume alcohol.

When my only son Priyankara who secured a place in the Engineering Faculty of the Katubedda Campus expressed his desire to become a Buddhist priest I was in a shock. I did not know how to console my family. There were only two people who said ,“allow him to go”. One was my late mother and the other was Jayantha.

I will not mention here all that he did to propagate Buddhist values known to everyone in the island. Our only wish would be for Jayantha to be born again in this world as a noble friend and guide us.

I would like to offer our heartfelt condolences to Mrs. Pathmi his wife, their three daughters and sons in law.

Poojitha Jayaweera