The Monks and Dollars
Posted on July 19th, 2010
Mangala Wicramasinghe
ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ Many people were taken surprised when the JHU monk Athuraliye Ratana logged a complaint at the Welikada Police station when he lost 1000 US Dollars. Athuraliye Ratana had lost this money at this extravagant residence -Asapuwa and so far, no one was arrested. Nobody knowsƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ how Athuraliye Ratana got a large amount of US currency (as he told the Police there were some 4,000 dollars in the safe) and even the Exchange Controller seems to have not taken any interest.
ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ The JHU monk Athuraliye Ratana who had humble beginnings first did JVP politics and then changed his path to nationalism. Probably he may have realized that itƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ¢-¾‚¢s easy to address the high emotions of the Sinhala Buddhists and capitalize on their gullibility. Igniting hatred between ethnic groups and creating conflicts between religions Athuraliye Ratana seems to have made his fortune.
ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ With the political patronage, he built a mansion and named it with a religious name ƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ¢¢”š¬…” Asapuwa. If he had not lost millions at the Golden Key debacleƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ Athuraliye Ratana would have been one of the richest monks in Sri Lanka.
ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ Several decades ago, Mr Gunadasa Liyanage wrote a divisive novel based on some actual characters that used Buddhism to accumulate wealth and power and indulge in sensual pleasures. The novel was titled Thevani Sil Padaya Nokadami ƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ¢¢”š¬…” (I will never break the 3ed precept) and it exposed some crafty characters of 1960 s who pretended to be the guardians of the Sinhala Buddhists and misled the masses to fulfill their selfish needs. If Mr Gunadasa Liyanage was alive he would have written theƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ pat two of the novel describing the full scale damage done by these monks to the Buddhism in Sri Lanka.
ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ It is a well know fact that some prominent monks and even some Christian priests are in to moneymaking business by working for the politicians behind the curtain.ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ These clergy are making moneyƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ and in the mean time damaging the national spirit of the country by preaching hate. Therefore, the damage has a double impact and no one dares to printout.
ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ Several years ago, the Divaina newspaper editorial questioned Murruthetuwe Ananda Thero about his income source when Murruthetuwe Ananda Thero made a complaint to the Police that he lost 400,000 rupees that was kept in his Avasa. Also up to date no one has questioned Rev Bellanwilla Wimalaratana who lost millions of rupees at the Golden Key swindle and how he made such a fortune. Apparently, Rev Bellanwilla Wimalaratana owns several houses in Colombo including a mansion in MoorƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ¢-¾‚¢s road Dehiwala.
ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ The politicians in power clearly know about the machinations of these monks and they rather encourage them to practice in illegal and unethical activities. Mark my words, the Exchange Controller will never question Athuraliye Ratana how he got the foreign currency although it is a ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ violation of the Act. But all these moves and dealings are recorded and files are maintained by the politicians. When the time comes, the politicians can use these files to blackmail the monks. In a crucial event that affects the country and people, we can never expect social justice from these egoistic monks who have double standards. They will always do the dirty work of the power hunger politicians. The public must clearly understand this fact.
ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ Any attempts to highlight the unethical work of these monks are interpreted as a conspiracy against Buddhism and it has become their escape route.ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ I think these monks with double standards cause the biggest damage to the Buddhism and probably they may be the biggest conspirators who want to cause utmost damage to the Buddhism in Sri Lanka. Thanks toƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ poisonous work of these monks, today the Western World view Buddhism as a radical and extreme religion.
ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ The most dangerous part in this game is these monks play with the Buddhist nationalistic feelings, showing the public an imperceptible enemy while they make money and enjoy all the earthly pleasures. When the ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ masses are divided by the religion and ethnic groupsƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ and they fight with each other, that toxic atmosphere nourishes these false prophets.
July 19th, 2010 at 8:18 pm
These are not Buddhist monks. They are house holders wearing robes. By wearing the robe, they help to end Buddhism. Therefore they invariably will end up in hell.
July 19th, 2010 at 11:09 pm
Dear Mangala and Nanda,
And to all thos who read the Article,
Both of you have commented and criticized after all a Buddhist monk, and that attitude and disgrace reflects back on we buddhist collectively.
Not only that, disgracing a buddhist monk is also brings you the karma known as Hatred (Dvesha/Vyapada) that will result you in the samsara to contuinue and bring dissastrous results for your own.
Regardless of the validity of the allegation and criticisms in question above, it’s not our duty or responsibility as laymens, whereby if we have the right vision, we should follow the Buddha’s teaching instead.
Whether the Rathana Thero; was right or wrong, there had been insane monks of various types since the Buddha’s time as well, and that did not deter or cause any damge to Buddha’s teachings, it has come long way up to 2559 years so far and will excell even until the end of 5000, and re emerge therefatre too.
We should keep in mind one thing, ever since the Monks ceased to exisit, the great Buddha saasana dissappered from other lands, from middle-east to far east, from Turkey to North Africa which was far spread and practiced and archeologically proved. Even in India it was lost to Hinduism and Islamic invation since the 3rd century of the demise of the lord Buddha, simply because the Sangha ceased to exist, and lost state patronage.
It is abosolutely necessary for the Sangha to exist and afforded to live and facilitated for the Sasana to maintain and carry forward for the future generation. In todays complex society, Sangha is also facing difficulties in maintaining temples for which there is no 100% participation and patronage of the laymen or state, thus they too have to maintain and exist by finding much needed cash to run temples that has wide range of expenditure and for your knowledge, there are temples both in cities and villages today that are not getting their Alms (Dhana) from laity, thus they have to live on their own cooked food.
This has resulted in many Monks are migrating to western countries where they are well lookeafter by both our expat community as well as locals in the very Western countries and conducting Dhamma classes and meditation for Dhamma thursty Westeners specially, and spreading the message of Buddha in those contries that were somewhat hostile to Buddha’s doctrine.
Therefore, if one or some monks may not be to the order of the Sasana or not, regardless they are contributing to save the Sasana despite other threats to Sinhala Buddhists. We should not forget the immense contribution the Sanga (monks like Rathana thero; / JHU) made to drive the govt. to eliminate the Terrorism, at the height of the LTTE Tamil war against the Sinhala Buddhist society. If not for Sanga whatever and whoever they are, today this would have been partly a Vatican rulled country, not to forget.
It is not our business to criticize or disgrace the Sanga and their personal conduct, but to follow the doctrine of Buddha and reach ourself the supreme bills of Nibbana. Any individual attitude and practice of a monk is his own business since they are also not totally sane, (not Arihants who have given up desire, greed and so on) but a vast majority of Sangha today are well regarded both locally and overseas who lives exemplary life, and give us guiding and indstructions to achieve our goals both as lay and beyond.
Attacking Monks on petty issues and agendas, we disgrace ourselves as Buddhists and if this leads to the ceasing of Sanga sasana, your future generations will not have the Buddhism in Sri Lanka and they will only know it as an Archeological monument , eg. Bhamiyan in Afghanistan.
May our Sanga long live, may Sanga Saasana remain until end of the world in this blessed country and protect and carry forward the Buddha Saasana for our future genartions. We humbly respect the Sanga community for protecting the Sinhala Buddhist land from all evil forces. I wish that Rathana Thero; would not be intimidated by such baseless criticism.
July 20th, 2010 at 12:39 am
I know late Mr Gunadasa Liyanage [in short Guli] very well. In his novels Guli wish readers to learn some lesson. The novel titled Thevani Sil Padaya Nokadami – (I will never break the 3ed precept) was to exposed some crafty characters of 1960 s. If Guli was alive he would have written the much better novel describing the full scale damage done by these monks to the Buddhism in Sri Lanka. It is NOT criticize or disgrace the Sanga and their personal conduct, but to expose the damage DONE BY SOME of them are doing to safeguard the susna. Otherwise SOME Monks will disgrace the doctrine of Buddha.
Guli stopped “Upahara Dakma” after giving Upahara to Horana “Nattami”. Likewise those Monks also would have
be careful with their dealing if Guli alive today.
July 20th, 2010 at 12:39 am
I know late Mr Gunadasa Liyanage [in short Guli] very well. In his novels Guli wish readers to learn some lesson. The novel titled Thevani Sil Padaya Nokadami – (I will never break the 3ed precept) was to exposed some crafty characters of 1960 s. If Guli was alive he would have written the much better novel describing the full scale damage done by these monks to the Buddhism in Sri Lanka. It is NOT criticize or disgrace the Sanga and their personal conduct, but to expose the damage DONE BY SOME of them are doing to safeguard the susna. Otherwise SOME Monks will disgrace the doctrine of Buddha.
Guli stopped “Upahara Dakma” after giving Upahara to Horana “Nattami”. Likewise those Monks also would have
be careful with their dealing if Guli alive today.
July 20th, 2010 at 12:39 am
I know late Mr Gunadasa Liyanage [in short Guli] very well. In his novels Guli wish readers to learn some lesson. The novel titled Thevani Sil Padaya Nokadami – (I will never break the 3ed precept) was to exposed some crafty characters of 1960 s. If Guli was alive he would have written the much better novel describing the full scale damage done by these monks to the Buddhism in Sri Lanka. It is NOT criticize or disgrace the Sanga and their personal conduct, but to expose the damage DONE BY SOME of them are doing to safeguard the susna. Otherwise SOME Monks will disgrace the doctrine of Buddha.
Guli stopped “Upahara Dakma” after giving Upahara to Horana “Nattami”. Likewise those Monks also would have
be careful with their dealing if Guli alive today.
July 20th, 2010 at 12:39 am
I know late Mr Gunadasa Liyanage [in short Guli] very well. In his novels Guli wish readers to learn some lesson. The novel titled Thevani Sil Padaya Nokadami – (I will never break the 3ed precept) was to exposed some crafty characters of 1960 s. If Guli was alive he would have written the much better novel describing the full scale damage done by these monks to the Buddhism in Sri Lanka. It is NOT criticize or disgrace the Sanga and their personal conduct, but to expose the damage DONE BY SOME of them are doing to safeguard the susna. Otherwise SOME Monks will disgrace the doctrine of Buddha.
Guli stopped “Upahara Dakma” after giving Upahara to Horana “Nattami”. Likewise those Monks also would have
be careful with their dealing if Guli alive today.
July 20th, 2010 at 3:05 am
I quite agree with Caeser.
To avoid all these critisisms Buddhist monks will have to say nothing, do nothing and be nothing, if that is what we expect. Then, that will be the end of the Buddha Sasana.
We will have to clean our own window first before we make comments on the dirty linen on the next door clothes-line. If the window is clean we will see there is nothing wrong with the washing done on the clothes on the line.
July 20th, 2010 at 8:15 am
Buddhist monks have to undertake different roles to protect the Buddha sasana. Though the Theravada tradition is for monks to not engage in money transactions the Mahayana tradition does not prohibit it. Whichever is the better for the continuation of the Buddha sasana depends upon the needs of the time and the different cultures where buddhism still exist. In todays world, money is essential to manage temples and buddhist activities and sometimes these monks have to perform the task of managing the budgets for their respective organisations and establishments due to a lack of trustworthy layman to undertake those tasks. What is of importance for the buddha sasana to continue is for someone to run these institutions efficiently and if that task has to be carried out by a buddhist monk then so be it. I think monks like Ven. Athureliya Ratana thero are performing an important task protecting the rights of the buddhists, though they themselves could be sacrificing the opportunity to uphold vinaya to the letter in having to perform this service with good intent and good results. It is easy to see this monk has not misused the funds in his custody to entertain himself. Also, I have not read or heard of any statement made by this monk to cause hatred towrds other religions or races. If the writer Mr Wickremasinghe is aware of such misconduct then could he please give reference to such statements.