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VENERABLE ELLE GUNAWANSA SAYS NINE JHU MONKS BROUGHT INSULTS AND RIDICULE TO 20,000 OTHER MONKS IN SRI LANKA
By Walter Jayawardhana reporting from Los Angeles
June 10, 11.30 AM: Venerable Elle Gunawansa Thero, a leader of the Patriotic National Movement said the activities of nine Buddhist monks of the Jathika Hela Urumaya (JHU), brought insults and ridicule to 20,000 other Buddhist monks of the island nation.
The JHU is the first political party in Sri Lanka to be headed by Buddhist monks and is having nine MP’s in the present Sri Lanka Parliament.
A strong critic of Buddhist monks contesting elections from the beginning Venerable Gunawansa said that Buddha had preached that monks should frequent only places suitable to them and the recent incidents indicated the politically tense parliament was not a suitable place for monks to enter.
In a case filed in the District Court of Colombo, the leadership of the JHU was accused by another Buddhist Monk that they kidnapped him and forced to sign a letter of resignation from a seat of the Parliament. Immediately after the incident the replacement Buddhist monk was taken to the parliament to swear in disregarding an interim District Court injunction to stop it. The controversy started a melee in the parliament in which two Buddhist monk members of the JHU, a sitting member and the one who was brought in to swear in were allegedly injured.
Obviously, different from the serene monastic life of a traditional Buddhist monk in Sri Lanka, the tense and sometimes violent parliament is seen by many Buddhist monks in Sri Lanka as no suitable place for them. The foremost leader of all Buddhist monks in Sri Lanka, who passed away two days ago the Malwatte Maha Nayaka Thero the most venerable Rambukwelle Sri Vipassi few weeks before his passing away said, “Since time immemorial the Buddhist monks of this country have been involved in counseling kings and ministers as how to run the country. Apart from that, we definitely need not get ourselves in to the Parliament to rule the nation.”
During the bicameral days of Sri Lanka’s parliament, the Most Venerable Madihe Pannaseeha Maha Nayaka Thero, who later became the head of the Amarapura Maha Nikaya was nominated by the government to the Senate. Rejecting the offer he was quoted to have said, “For me the seat of the Buddhasasana was very much greater than a seat in the Senate.”
Interviewed by the Sandeshaya, the Sinhala service of the BBC, the Venerable Elle Gunawansa said, the entering of the Buddhist monks into the Parliament was a deathblow to the Buddha Sasana.
Asked whether it was proper for laymen parliamentarians to assault the monk parliamentarians the Venerable Elle Gunawansa said he could not express any idea about it since he did not witness the incident and the other side had said absolutely there was no assault taken place. The other side said there was only pushing and pulling in the melee.
Asked whether he could be described as partial to the governing party the Venerable Elle Gunawansa said as far as he was concerned there were only two parties in Sri Lanka and they were only the laymen and bhikkus (gihi pevidi) throughout the Sri Lanka history .
He said he had been always against Buddhist monks becoming members of political parties and entering the parliament. When the Buddhist monks did not realize judiciously that they should enter only institutions fit for them unfortunate incidents could occur making them subject to ridicule and insults, the Venerable Gunawansa said.
Venerable Gunawansa further clarified, that Buddha had very clearly preached that Buddhist monks should frequent and dwell only in suitable places. The parliament is certainly not a suitable place, as these incidents further indicated, the Venerable Elle Gunawansa said. He further said it was certainly harmful to the Buddhist monk hood.
( go2lanka.com) 