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VENERABLE ELLAWELA MEDHANANDA TELLS PARLIAMENT WHO IS A VASALAYA OR AN OUTCASTBy Walter JayawardhanaOn Thursday it was the turn of the archeologist Buddhist monk and leader
of the Jathika Hela Urumaya Venerable Ellawela Medhananda Thero to hit
back. He was simply preaching from the Discourse on the Outcast or Vasala
Sutta in the Sutta Nipata in the Khuddaka Nikaya. In an obvious reference
he was describing who a Vasalaya or an outcast is in the parliament
in Sri Jayawardhanapura Kotte. The leader of the Jathika Hela Urumaya is in the Center of a political
storm these days after leader of the Opposition and the United National
Party called him as a monk riding in a Mercedes Benz to travel along
the ‘Noble Eight Fold Path’. The seemingly uncouth statement not only made the usually neutral Malwatte
Maha Nayaka Thero to express his displeasure but also gave the Mahinda
Rajapaksa government some political weapons to criticize Ranil Wickremesinghe
as “anti-Buddhist” and generate letters of demand against
the leader of Opposition from a lay leader of the party with the intention
of settling the score in the courts of law. Protesting over that the
UNP treasurer Thilak Karunaratne tendered his resignation. The controversy started , after Wickremesinghe devalued the victory
of the armed forces at Thoppigala and called it a mere capture of a
barren jungle. He even said the Mahinda Rajapksa government allowed
the Tamil Tigers to escape with all their heavy weapons. But due to
some unknown misfortune of the UNP leader hidden in the vast stretches
of Thoppigala jungles underneath the brush and in the caves thousands
of weapons including multi-barrel rocket launchers and anti-aircraft
missiles were found on the very next days. The issue of the Mercedes Benz was probably brought in by Wickremesinghe
as a red herring to draw the attention somewhere else. But Wickremesinghe
with his erstwhile lawyer colleague Ravi Karunanayaka are entangled
more in the web as they struggle more to get out of it. The Roman Catholic
Minister Jeyaraj Fernandopulle said in Kurunegala that for born Christians
Ranil and Ravi like him it was wrong to attack a priest of another religion.
He lamented, “It goes against my grain.” Fernandopulle raised
the issue how is it wrong for a parliamentarian like Wickremesinghe
to import one vehicle when Wickremesinghe has imported four vehicles
ever since his uncle Junius Richard Jayewardene started this scheme
of importing tax free vehicles for parliamentarians. Venerable Medhanada said in the parliament according to the Vasala
Sutta (stanza 134) “He that runs down the enlightened one, his
disciples Those gone forth and householders is an outcaste.” Explaining
the pali stanza which he read Venerable Medhananda said one who who
insults a Buddhist monk or even a priest of another religion is called
an outcaste or a vasalaya. The colloquial Sinhala term for an outcast
is “Rodiya”, he said. |
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