By Professor Jayadeva Tilakasiri

(Emeritus Professor of Sanskrit, University of Peradeniya and Vice-President, German Dharmaduta Society)

Venerable Mitirigala Dhammanisanthi Thera, who passed away on July 2, 1999 aged 80 years, spent his entire life, practising the Dhamma in the most exemplary fashion and setting an example so difficult for ordinary Buddhists to follow.

His was a life of’ dedication, fulfilment and achievement of the highest aims he nurtured and developed from his childhood. Even in his teens he demonstrated a strong will to shun the material comforts which other children yearned for – although he had them in ample measure -and attempted to follow the five Buddhist precepts.

He always impressed on all of us that mere lip-service to Buddhism would not suffice but that we should try to live as true, practising Buddhists.

Indulgence in sport and entertainment, as a youngster, had no appeal to him, as to others of his age, because he was prone to reflection and the cultivation of the mind in the Buddhist way.

He received a good education at Mahinda College where his strong Buddhist convictions and ethical values were further strengthened in the peaceful religious environment of the school which had acquired a reputation of imparting education combined with a firm grounding in essential Buddhist principles. It was easy for Asoka Weeraratna, as a layman from a respected and affluent family, firmly established in the watch and jewellery business to have embarked on a business career and amassed wealth.

Though he and his brother Dharmasena, later ran a profitable jewellery business, Asoka undertook the project with the sole aim of collecting funds for the laudable aim he had of setting up a forest hermitage for the practice of meditation under the guidance of an experienced teacher monk following the successful completion of the work of a Buddhist missionary.

Often arguing with his brother on the worthlessness of the secular life bringing sorrow and misery as against the realisation of selflessness in the pursuit of the Dhamma, he prepared himself for the renunciation of all that was near and dear to him. It led to the decline of their flourishing business and the ultimate closure of the establishment P. J. Weeraratna & Sons. Maradana, in 1965.

While engaged in business and undertaking foreign tours to meet business clients in the early 1950, he had the opportunity of coming into contact with persons interested in the study and propagation of Buddhism, particularly, in Germany.

The idea of establishing a Buddhist Mission in Germany took shape and after obtaining the support of interested parties he came up with the idea of forming a Society, called the German Dharmaduta Society, on land donated by the Government of the time.

He next proceeded to win over genuine German Buddhists to support his cause of setting up the Centre, in Berlin – Frohnau in Dr. Paul Dahlke’ s house, which he, as Secretary of the Society, had succeeded in purchasing with funds collected in the Million Rupee Trust Fund campaign, again personally undertaken by him among the Sri Lankan people.

The German Dharmaduta Society which he was able to establish with the support of leading Buddhists here provided the groundwork for the next step in his dedicated effort to organise the Mission in Germany. Leaving nothing to chance, he made trips to Germany and found the ideal location for the Buddhist Centre combined with a Vihara for resident monks who went on the first Buddhist Mission to Berlin, in 1957.

He worked with great zeal and in an indefatigable manner to develop programmes of religious and propagation work in Colombo to provide the necessary support for the missionary activities planned for the Berlin Vihara.

The Society, in Colombo, and the Vihara in Berlin, set up for the spread and promotion of Buddhist activities contributed also to the establishment of strong links between interested German and Sri Lankan Buddhists as we often hear from the reports and news emanating from the Berlin Vihara and its influence among German people.

These two institutions would have been adequate as achievements in the life of any citizen of this country. But Asoka Weeraratna, as I knew him from his childhood, would not give up the ultimate goal he sought, that is the total renunciation of the material life and the development of the spiritual in him.

In the search planning, setting up and running of the Mitirigala Forest Hermitage, too, was meticulous and he attended to every detail-so well-planned and executed it has been that even today (after 32 years) it remains an ideal place for meditation and practice of. self -discipline leading to the ‘fruits of the Path ‘ – Maggaphala. It is indeed a unique institution founded by an extraordinary personality. The ‘Daily News’ (1968) summed up his work for the Mitirigala Nissarana Vana (Hermitage) thus:

“He has not only pioneered the construction of this unique institution but he also treads the Path himself, setting an example in true renunciation.”

When one considers the two aspects of his life, one as a layman, determined and hard-working to achieve success as an entrepreneur and businessman, up to the time of preparation for , renunciation’ and the other as vana-vasi. ‘forest-dwelling’ recluse, homeless and meditative, it appears that he had in him spiritual qualities which made it easy for him to forego material comforts and take to a path of detachment.

Although the contribution he has made in establishing international links for the spread of the Teachings of the Buddha in Germany sacrificing a great deal must be considered as a laudable achievement comparable with the missionary work of pioneering missionary leaders like Anagarika Dharmapala, he must, in his own reckoning, be judged as a seeker of Truth, who set himself rigorous standards of moral conduct to achieve and attain a state beyond our mortal reach.

May he realise the fruits of his search.