{"id":134082,"date":"2023-04-30T15:09:18","date_gmt":"2023-04-30T22:09:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/?p=134082"},"modified":"2023-04-30T15:09:18","modified_gmt":"2023-04-30T22:09:18","slug":"on-sweeping-close-to-ones-feet","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/2023\/04\/30\/on-sweeping-close-to-ones-feet\/","title":{"rendered":"On sweeping close to one&#8217;s feet"},"content":{"rendered":"<h2><span style=\"color: #0000ff;\"><em><label class=\"components-checkbox-control__label\" for=\"inspector-checkbox-control-99\">Malinda Seneviratne<\/label><\/em><\/span><\/h2>\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image\"><a href=\"https:\/\/blogger.googleusercontent.com\/img\/b\/R29vZ2xl\/AVvXsEgR9LCRKoobzP5eUy1U280yj7VlwXHkEoOOawtGNIYO_xSMA2NCsXjSQ1PBQ34cyBvopGfG7J1ME12lZhSWYdOAvc-yyuPpbpipfyNkWUA4S4xZTCVk16iBy_f7SglpVAWrty-R8PQfVgpW7WuV16Uaa12DBWH4Yeqw2nXBnKykKpDS6dOBcLitRld3\/s766\/sweeping.jpg\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/blogger.googleusercontent.com\/img\/b\/R29vZ2xl\/AVvXsEgR9LCRKoobzP5eUy1U280yj7VlwXHkEoOOawtGNIYO_xSMA2NCsXjSQ1PBQ34cyBvopGfG7J1ME12lZhSWYdOAvc-yyuPpbpipfyNkWUA4S4xZTCVk16iBy_f7SglpVAWrty-R8PQfVgpW7WuV16Uaa12DBWH4Yeqw2nXBnKykKpDS6dOBcLitRld3\/w275-h400\/sweeping.jpg\" alt=\"\"\/><\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>Jayanath Bodahandi (Bodhi), the eldest in his family, would have been just out of school when his father, an illustrator at an advertising agency, passed away. Bodhi could draw and the kind people at the agency offered him a job.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>There was a problem. Bodhi lived in Balapitiya and the salary would hardly cover expenses such as rent, food and bus fare. There was a solution. The&nbsp;<em>hamuduruwo<\/em>&nbsp;of the village temple arranged for him to stay in a temple in Colombo.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Bodhi returned to the temple late after his first day at work to find there was no food for him. The&nbsp;<em>loku hamuduruwo<\/em>&nbsp;had explained that it wasn\u2019t a rich temple frequented by wealthy and generous laity; it was not possible to provide meals. &nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Bodhi went to sleep hungry. He was up early the following morning. He decided that this arrangement wasn\u2019t working. He had just enough money for the bus to Balapitiya. So he went to work. No, not to the advertising agency. The temple.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>He picked up an&nbsp;<em>idala<\/em>&nbsp;(ekel broom) and started sweeping the temple premises. As he was finishing, he noticed the&nbsp;<em>loku hamuduruwo<\/em>&nbsp;watching him. When he was done, he kept the&nbsp;<em>idala<\/em>&nbsp;aside, went up to the&nbsp;<em>loku hamuduruw<\/em>o, worshipped him, thanked him for allowing him to stay and told him that he had decided to give up on his job and return home.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The&nbsp;<em>loku hamuduruwo<\/em>&nbsp;understood Bodhi\u2019s predicament. He dissuaded the young man: &#8216;<em>thiyena vidihakata kaala imu; yanna ona naha<\/em>&nbsp;(you don\u2019t have to go; let\u2019s manage with what we have).&#8217;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Years later Bodhi said that in retrospect the exercise of sweeping the temple compound was like an advertising campaign.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>It was a simple act. An act of gratitude for something simple that he received \u2014 a roof over his head for one night. It led to a career in advertising that saw him become a creative director at a top agency and then starting off on his own. &nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Two things reminded me of Bodhi\u2019s story, a poem and a photograph. First, the poem.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u0db4\u0dcf \u0d85\u0dc0\u0da7 \u0dc0\u0dd2\u0dad\u0dbb\u0dba\u0dd2<br>\u0db4\u0dd2\u0dbb\u0dd2\u0dc3\u0dd2\u0daf\u0dd4 \u0d9a\u0dc5\u0dda \u0d89\u0daf\u0dbd<br>\u0d85\u0dc0\u0dc3\u0dcf\u0db1\u0dba\u0dda<br>\u0d85\u0dad\u0dd4\u0d9c\u0dd1\u0dc0\u0dd2\u0dbd\u0dcf \u0db8\u0dd2\u0daf\u0dd4\u0dbd<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Essentially: the ekel broom sweeps around or close to the feet, but it is an entire compound that has got swept.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The poet throws soft light on the simple and commonplace and makes visible profound truths, as is evidenced in most of the poems in the collection, Suminda Kithsiri Gunaratne\u2019s sixth,&nbsp;<em>Prisma<\/em>&nbsp;(Prisms).<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>And the photo: that of a&nbsp;<em>hamuduruwo<\/em>,&nbsp;<em>idala<\/em>&nbsp;in hand, sweeping the compound of the Buddhangala Monastery in Ampara, apparently belonging to the Digamadulla Kingdom, 4th Century BC. Buddhangala, although located deep in the jungles around Ampara, was brought back to life, so to speak, by a brave young hamuduruwo in 1964, Rev Kalutara Dhammananda Thero. I am not sure if it is this&nbsp;<em>hamuduruwo<\/em>&nbsp;who is captured in the photograph, but most certainly the complex developing to what it is now owes much to the fact that the Thero had focused on sweeping close to his feet.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>On a tree close to where the&nbsp;<em>hamuduruwo<\/em>&nbsp;is sweeping there\u2019s a board with the following line from the Dhammapada:&nbsp;<em>\u2018Appamado amatha padang \u2014 nopamaava nivanata hethu ve,\u2019&nbsp;<\/em>which can be loosely translated as \u2018timely action, i.e. without delay, paves the way to nirvana.\u2019<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>That which needs to be done right now, then, needs to be done with absolute integrity of the faculties, with composure, dedication and unwavering resolve. Large and complex extents, physical and otherwise, get cleared thereby.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Bodhi was sweeping the area close to his feet; the entire compound got swept . Rev Kalutara Dhammananda Thero was sweeping the area close to his feet; and now people know there&#8217;s a place called Buddhangala in Ampara. The&nbsp;<em>hamuduruwo<\/em>&nbsp;in the photograph is sweeping the area closest to his feet; it\u2019s an example, a study in concentration that throws a lot of light on right conduct.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Tharindu, in his photographic endeavours, is essentially covering or rather clearing nearby-ground; he ends up clearing vast areas of the mind, his and (at least) mine.&nbsp; Suminda uses pen as an&nbsp;<em>idala<\/em>. He removes clutter, keeps things tidy. He is in fact casting a thin ray of light on the mind\u2019s prisms which duly disperses and shows things in their true colours.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>All sweepers. Focusing on that which needs to be sorted in the here and now. The rest follows.&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Malinda Seneviratne Jayanath Bodahandi (Bodhi), the eldest in his family, would have been just out of school when his father, an illustrator at an advertising agency, passed away. Bodhi could draw and the kind people at the agency offered him a job. There was a problem. Bodhi lived in Balapitiya and the salary would hardly [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"","sticky":true,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[75],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-134082","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-malinda-seneviratne"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/134082","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=134082"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/134082\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=134082"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=134082"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=134082"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}