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BPS Newsletter Cover Essay #19 (Summer-Fall 1991)
AN AUSPICIOUS MONTH
by Bhikkhu Bodhi
During the month of July two of the BPS's guiding lights since its
inception passed important milestones in their lives. One of these
is Ven. Nyanaponika Mahathera -- our cofounder, long-term president
and editor, and current patron -- who on 21 July reached his
ninetieth birthday. Fortunately, despite weak legs and impaired
vision, Ven. Nyanaponika has enjoyed general good health, and thus
was able to welcome the many visitors who called on him that day to
pay their respects and to express to him their gratitude for his
lucid exposition of the Dhamma and selfless service to the spread of
the teachings over an illustrious career of so many years.
To commemorate the occasion the management and staff of the Buddhist
Publication Society held an alms offering and felicitation meeting
at the Mahathera's residence, the Forest Hermitage in the
Udawattakele Forest Reserve near Kandy. After the meal offering,
speaking on behalf of the BPS Board of Management, Mr. Harilal
Wickremeratne announced to the Mahathera that as a token of our
appreciation for him, the BPS has established a scholarship fund at
the University of Peradeniya to be called "The Ven. Nyanaponika
Mahathera Scholarship Fund for Postgraduate Research into Theravada
Buddhism." The scholarship, to be generated by the interest earned
from a fixed deposit set up in a commercial bank in Kandy, is to be
awarded to a scholar selected by the University for postgraduate
studies in the philosophy, ethics, or literature of Theravada
Buddhism.
Felicitation for Ven. Nyanaponika was especially prominent in his
native Germany, the land he left so long ago in order to embrace the
monk's life here in Sri Lanka. The University of Konstanz, in its
Buddhist Modernism series, has issued a volume of writings, talks,
texts, photos, and other documents to mark the Mahathera's
completion of his ninth decade. The book, compiled by Professor
Detlof Kantowsky, is entitled //Nicht derselbe und nicht ein
anderer// ("Neither the same nor another"), the famous line from the
//Milindapanha// which Ven. Nyanaponika quoted to the editor when
reviewing photographs of himself as a boy and as a young man. (For
ordering information inquire from: Prof. Detlof Kantowsky,
Universitat Konstanz, Postfach 5560, D-7750 Konstanz 1, Germany.)
In Sri Lanka, his adopted home, Ven. Nyanaponika was recently
accorded special honor when the Prime Minister's office selected him
as one of a hundred "outstanding Sri Lankans" whose image is to be
preserved in bronze in a planned national Hall of Fame. Accordingly,
in late June Mr. Harold Peiris of the Ministry of Finance, who is in
charge of the project, came to Kandy with the talented sculptor, Mr.
Sarath Chandrajiva, to fashion a bust of the Mahathera. The clay
model the sculptor molded in less than two hours was strikingly
faithful to Ven. Nyanaponika's features, and was used to create on
the spot a plaster-of-paris mold from which the finished bust is to
be cast out of bronze. The bust will be exhibited temporarily in the
national art gallery in Colombo, along with those of the other
nominees, until a permanent exhibition hall is built for them.
The other guiding light of the BPS to achieve distinction this past
July is Ven. Piyadassi Mahathera, the editor of our Sinhala Damsak
Series and author of numerous BPS titles both in English and
Sinhala. By unanimous acclamation, in appreciation of his
indefatigable services to the Buddha-Sasana, the Mahanayaka Theras
of the Sangha Council of the Amarapura Nikaya selected Ven.
Piyadassi to be appointed as a Sangha Nayaka Thera -- a leading
elder of the Order -- with the honorary designation //Vishvakirti
Sri Sasanasobhana//, "universally famous glorious ornament of the
Teaching." On 18 July at a ceremony held at his alma mater, Nalanda
College in Colombo, the new Nayaka Thera received his formal notice
of appointment from Prime Minister D.B. Wijetunga before a large
gathering led by the Mahanayaka Theras and President Ranasingha
Premadasa. Although such honors rest lightly on the shoulders of a
monk like Ven. Piyadassi, it is gratifying to us at the BPS to see
this "glorious ornament" of our own Society receive the recognition
he so rightly deserves.
At the age of 90 Ven. Nyanaponika is now in his 55th year in the
Sangha; at the age of 77 Ven. Piyadassi is now in his 58th year. An
inveterate traveler and preacher, Ven. Piyadassi has circled the
globe twelve times and at home can be scheduled to give three or
four sermons a day -- sometimes on one side of the island in the
morning and on the other side in the evening. Ven. Nyanaponika, in
contrast, has remained almost consistently in Sri Lanka since his
arrival here in 1936; yet from the quietude of his hermitage,
through the agency of his publications, he has sent his words of
wisdom and consolation to the far corners of the earth, translated
into more than half a dozen languages.
May these two great elders, who have both in their different ways
toiled selflessly for the welfare of the many, enjoy abundant good
health and happiness. And may they be with us, as noble friends and
advisors for a long time yet to come!
* * * * * * * *