{"id":155982,"date":"2026-04-30T15:38:56","date_gmt":"2026-04-30T22:38:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/?p=155982"},"modified":"2026-04-30T15:38:56","modified_gmt":"2026-04-30T22:38:56","slug":"a-memorandum-to-the-ambassadors-of-the-usa-israel-iran-and-all-ambassadors-calling-for-an-immediate-ceasefire-by-the-mahanyaka-theras-of-sri-lanka","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/2026\/04\/30\/a-memorandum-to-the-ambassadors-of-the-usa-israel-iran-and-all-ambassadors-calling-for-an-immediate-ceasefire-by-the-mahanyaka-theras-of-sri-lanka\/","title":{"rendered":"A memorandum to the\u00a0Ambassadors of the USA, Israel, Iran, and all Ambassadors calling for an immediate ceasefire\u00a0by the Mahanyaka Theras of Sri Lanka"},"content":{"rendered":"

Dr Sudath Gunasekara Former Secretary to the Prime Minister Sirimavo Bandaarnayaka<\/em><\/span><\/h2>\n\n\n

The text of the Welcome Address by Venerable Anunayaka Niyangoda Vijitasiri Thera of Malwatta Chapter made at the handing over of a memorandum by the Most venerable four Mahanayaka Theras, to the Ambassadors of the USA, Israel and Iran and all other Diplomats on 26th April. 2026. appealing them to declare an immediate ceasefire.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Venerable Anunayaka Theras, representing the most Venerable Mahanayake Theras of the Three Nikayas, the chief prelate of this temple Gangaraamaya, the members of the Maha Sanga present, the three Diplomatic dignitaries of the warring United state of America, Republic of Israel and the Republic of Iran, Your Excellencies Ambassadors and High Commissioners of all other countries, who grace this occasion and all peace-loving ladies and gentlemen assembled here.<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

 First<\/strong> of all, I have great pleasure in welcoming, you all, at this historic meeting, on behalf of the Most Venerable Mahanayaka Theras, of the Three Nikayas, the Supreme Spiritual Leaders of this country, who are making this most important request to the leaders  of the warring nations in the name of ending death, destruction and disaster and restoring sanity and normalcy and peace in the Middle East in particular and normalcy and peace the world over in general.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Second<\/strong>, I would also like to make few vital and relevant observations that befit this historic occasion.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Venerable Maha Sanga dignitaries and ladies and gentlemen,  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

First and foremost, I would like to thank you all on behalf of the organizers of this event at this temple, including the Nayaka Thera of Gangaramaya and Dr Sudath Gunasekara a senior Civil Servant and Former Permanent Secretary to Prime Minister Mrs. Sirimavo Bandara nayaka, who made this suggestion to me and the Ven Mahanahyaka Thera of Malwatta Chapter on the 6th<\/sup> of April, without whose intervention this noble event would never have been made a reality.<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

I am happy that today it has become a historic mission accomplished. We are fully confident that the diplomatic dignitaries representing the three warring parties will definitely take up this issue as a top priority and  convince their respective Heads of States to declare an immediate ceasefire agreement requested by the four Mahanayaka Theros of Sri Lanka, as a prelude to a complete cessation of the ongoing war as soon as possible, that has already caused unlimited deaths, destructions, displacements, disaster and irreparable loss particularly in the Middle East and it\u2019s ugly consequences spilling all over the whole world in general.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We Sri Lankans as a peace loving  nation also wish to see an end to the worldwide socio-economic crisis and uncertainty, thrust upon millions of people the world over   due the complete breakdown of all modes of global  transport networks due to shortages and spiraling cost of fuel and insecurity in navigation resulting in total misery the world over, leading perhaps to a complete breakdown of day to day to lives of the people on this earth. The Mahanayaka Theros also have called upon the warring leaders to end this self-destructive, irrational and crazy war begun by them on misjudgments and hubris after they had been made mad by their own God, before they were destroyed, as a famous classical Greek proverb had said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

At the same time, we also wish to draw the serious attention of Diplomats of all other countries present here as well to advise their Heads of States to exert diplomatic pressure on these warring countries immediately to stop the war and settle their problems through meaningful negotiations and not by destructive missiles.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We Sri Lankans, as a Buddhist country strongly recommend the best formula on earth, embodied in the Buddhist teaching to end this miserable war. That is the four sublime satiates of, the mind, metta <\/em>(loving kindness) karuna <\/em>(compassion), mudith<\/em><\/a>a (detachment)<\/em> and upekka<\/em> (sympathetic joy) to which we as a nation who are deeply wedded and ethically committed for the past 2668 years or even more.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

These four attitudes are meant to be developed into limitless, unconditional, and expansive qualities in the human mind.  In this exalted backdrop “with malice towards none, but with charity for all” let us jointly resolve to untangle this tangle created by some self -destructive and irrational actions of few mis guided and crazy men in power.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If you find it too technical to do that, then we recommend the basic Five Precepts of in Buddhism for you to 1 Abstain from killing living beings, (Paanaathipaatha) 2. Stealing (adinnadnaa), 3 sexual misconducts (Kamesu michchaachaaraa), 4 lying (musaavaadaa), and 5 intoxications (suraameraya majjapama dhattaanaa). If all the people in this world can strictly adhere to this simple code of ethics from today irrespective of their religions, definitely this world will be a better place for us to live by tomorrow.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Non- Alignment<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Geo-politically, as a nation we are deeply wedded to non-alignment in global political power struggle from 1955, as one of its founder members and we have proved its worth at least in two occasions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

 First, in the Sino-Indian war in 1962 and second, by moving the UN General Assembly resolution2832 (xxvi) <\/a>passed on December 16. 1971, that declared the Indian Ocean as a Zone of peace, aiming to eliminate military bases, nuclear weapons and Great power rivalries, for which the full credit should go to Mrs. Sirimavo Bandaranayaka the great lady Prime Minister of this country and the then Chairperson of the NAM, 1976-77, even though (resolution 2832 (xxvi) had been blatantly and sadly violated by almost all great powers since then thereby discriminating against the smaller nations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Stop resorting to Kautilya Mathshya nyaaya<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

 We also call upon all great powers at least now to stop resorting to the Kautilya Mathshya nyaaya <\/em><\/a>(The big fish taking the small fish as its prey) <\/em>and respect and accept the independence and sovereignty of all nations irrespective of their geographical size and location or the economic and military power.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

In this age of interplanetary rat race  to conquer other planets, we also urge all great powers first to concentrate on the protection of civilization on this planet earth, that had been our dear home for millennia from the beginning of life on earth, without wasting trillions on day dreaming to own and colonize the moon and Venus where there is no water to drink and air to breath, the two most vital requirement for life to exist.  Why can\u2019t these so-called big powers stop this crazy interplanetary rat race and use that money to make this world a better place for we human to live and use such resources for the wellbeing of the life of billions of people annually dying on hunger and disease. 1). Annually 9 million dies without food 2) 1.6 to 3 billion have no houses 3) 6 million dies without medicine on this earth according to a random google survey. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Finally<\/strong>, going back to world history, we also like to remind the leaders of the “War-prone big powers like the President of USA and Israel and also the Republic of Iran,  that King Asoka the Emperor of Magadha from c 268 BCE who was named as the Greatest Emperor in the world by H.G. Wells, had achieved greatness not by conquering the contemporary world by war, but only by spreading the noble message of love and compassion taught by Buddha from Japan in the East to Iran in the West and from Mongolia in the North to Sri Lanka in the South; an all-time moral valid for state craft, to be adhered to by all leaders of the world all over, irrespective of time and place and the size of their countries or religion.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I therefore, earnestly request you all to carry this noble and realistic message in your heads and hearts as the spirit of the noble message from the Mahanayaka Theros of Sri Lanka, the spiritual leaders of this country and the whole Buddhists world, who are making this appeal to you and your leaders on behalf of 500 million Buddhists the world over, when you are leaving this hall today.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Once again, we therefore earnestly request all the Warring Parties to STOP THE ONGOING miserable WAR immediately, without causing any more deaths, distress, destruction, sufferingand calamity to the whole world, in the name of humanity and sanity, the world over.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I beg your pardon to close my welcome address by posing another all-important question to this august assembly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

 Isn\u2019t it really funny, ridiculous and shameless  too, that we human beings with \u2018an advanced mind\u2019 as it is often said, are killing each other just to own another\u2019s oil field, (like President Trump) or for an inch of desert land from the neighbor (Benjamin) and to impose their hegemony on the other, violating all civilized ethics and  democratic principles\u2019 in this world as if they will never die one day, while an innocent  an uneducated animal Aloka a four footed dog\u201d is trotting the globe around selflessly, for world peace at present.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Meanwhile, we also request the Republic of Iran to settle its internal conflicts and form one stable Government as soon as possible to restore peace and prosperity at home and also to deal with the international community in future.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Finally, I would also like to end this note with, what the Buddha had said about torture and death<\/p>\n\n\n\n

1 Sabbe tasanti da\u1e47\u1e0dassa, sabbe bh\u0101yanti maccuno<\/em>,<\/p>\n\n\n\n

   att\u0101na\u1e41 upama\u1e41 katv\u0101, nahaneyya na gh\u0101taye. [129] Dhamma pada<\/p>\n\n\n\n

(Everyone trembles at punishment; everyone is in fear of death<\/p>\n\n\n\n

comparing oneself (with others), one should not hurt or kill (others)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

2 Sabbe tasanti da\u1e47\u1e0dassa, sabbesa\u1e41 j\u012bvita\u1e41 piya\u1e41<\/em>,<\/p>\n\n\n\n

   att\u0101na\u1e41 upama\u1e41 katv\u0101, nahaneyya na gh\u0101taye.\u201d [130] Dhamma pada<\/p>\n\n\n\n

(Everyone trembles at punishment, for all of them life is dear<\/p>\n\n\n\n

comparing oneself (with others), one should not hurt or kill (them)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So, one can imagine the mass killing by war is even worse.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

An all-time universal moral code of ethics for all those who wage war against others and kill others and destroy their properties.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Last but not least<\/strong>, again finally, I thank Dr. Sudath Gunasekara of the Sri Lanka Administrative Service and former Permanent Secretary to Prime Minister Mrs. Sirimavo Bandaranayake, who first made this proposal to me on the 6th of April 2026. at my residence and senior journalist Jayasuriya Udukumbura <\/a>of Rivira paper, who coordinated this feat from A to Z without whose unstinted commitment, patience and support, this event would never have become a reality<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Dr Sudath Gunasekara Former Secretary to the Prime Minister Sirimavo Bandaarnayaka The text of the Welcome Address by Venerable Anunayaka Niyangoda Vijitasiri Thera of Malwatta Chapter made at the handing over of a memorandum by the Most venerable four Mahanayaka Theras, to the Ambassadors of the USA, Israel and Iran and all other Diplomats on […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[46],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-155982","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-dr-sudath-gunasekara"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/155982","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=155982"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/155982\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":155983,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/155982\/revisions\/155983"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=155982"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=155982"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=155982"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}