By Rohana R. Wasala

Please ensure that none of these monks, not a single one, get exploited by politicians in the fast approaching election time and ever again in the future. No monks should be allowed to offer themselves as candidates or to collect funds for that purpose from donors. No monks should be allowed to canvass voters on behalf of any political party or candidate, in public or private, or appear on political stages. Your Reverends, please consult experts (suitably qualified monks and lay Buddhists) about how to enforce your injunctions effectively.

This is the second part of my article published under the title ‘Monks driven from pillar to post with the Mahanayakes pandering to politicians’ in Lankaweb on July 26, 2024.. It was also simultaneously run in The Island daily (Sri Lanka) under the same title. 

At the outset, I would like to remind my lankaweb readers that I added an important postscript to the end of the first part of my column. Below is that Postscript:. 

‘The writer believes, now that Gnanasara Thera has been released on bail pending the hearing of his appeal, further unnecessary humiliation of the concerned monks being driven from pillar to post is, hopefully, not likely.

‘By the way, he finds it very important to stress that he hates to be thought to be associated with the so-called Ravana Balaya Organisation or as a purveyor of the absurd Ravana myth, or as a sympathiser of Ven. Gnanasara’s unwise belligerent approach.’ 

Please also let me stress that no right-minded observer can question  the authenticity of this monk’s revelations about actual and threatened excesses of Islamist (not Islamic) and other forms of religious extremism that are clandestinely plaguing the country at present, because he produces credible evidence to substantiate his arguments. He is not disliked by ordinary Muslims for he  seems to have many who come to him for help to escape from coercive extremist  groups. I have never met this monk or others of his kind, and don’t expect to, in the future either, and I am not a supporter of the organisation he heads, the Bodu Bala Sena. But I can understand and I appreciate his selfless dedication to the traditional role of the Buddhist monk in the country, which is perfectly righteous, peaceful and nonviolent, and which is in agreement with the Buddha’s own initial admonition to his earliest disciples. 

However, there is something seriously wrong with Gnanasara Thera’s own conception or interpretation of that role. Further, I completely condemn his belligerent approach to his self arrogated crusade. In addition to this disclaimer that I am articulating here, I wish to state that I hate to be taken to be linked with the so-called Ravana Balaya Organisation or to be identified as an imbecile believer in any egregious Ravana myth based history. Not that Gnanasara Thera has anything to do with that childish fiction either.

Actually, I started writing this essay before I got the news of Ven. Gnanasara’s release from prison on July 22, 2024. I heard  his off-the-cuff remarks to journalists after he was set free  on bail, as recorded by the Dasatha YouTube channel on the same day. To be frank, I was deeply disappointed, when I heard him, not by the substance of what he said, but by the accustomed undisciplined manner of  his ineffectual protesting. I thought to myself: ‘Years of undue harassment including litigation and prison terms have not taught this fool a lesson; he will get behind bars again, with his legitimate but misconceived cause incarcerated in his seething helpless heart’.  I remembered how Anura Kumara Disanayake MP taunted him once once, about a year ago, quoting lines from the Dhammapada: ‘kayena sanvaro sadhu, sadhu vacaya sanvaro…..Restraint in body is good, Restraint in speech is good.’ 

My immediate impression on observing Gnanasara Thera just emerging from prison spewing out his pent up anger was ‘This man Gnanasara Thera is incorrigible. He is going to spoil everything for the bhikkhus’ current  awareness raising movement (disorganised though it is) conducted to ensure the survival of the Buddha Sasana’. That movement consisting of a number of lone voices against unprovoked attacks on the traditional Buddhist cultural heritage of the country needs to streamline its activism with the help of Nayake monks with authority; the fact that not all monk agitators are equally well informed, educated, honest, or genuine is a drawback that remains to be remedied.   

The four monks who visited Kandy told the Mahanayakes that Gnanasara Thera must be freed, especially at this time, meaning he has a role to play in electing a president and a parliament that will be conducive to answering their concerns (although they didn’t spell this out explicitly). However, the more discerning among the genuinely concerned can see the obvious truth: these immature young monks are pathetically mistaken; I, for one, totally disagree with their reasoning. Partisan politics doesn’t go well with their historic Guardian of the Nation role at all. At the 2019 and 2020 elections, candidates who were favoured  by a majority of the majority Buddhist Sinhalese community and by a minority of the other communities gained power with an overwhelming approval rate. It was a democratic victory, no doubt. 

Though the politically active handful out of the estimated 42,000 monks in the country congratulated themselves on making a substantial contribution to that ‘nationalist’ achievement, the truth probably is that those comparatively few monks were more a hindrance than a help in reaching that final outcome. The SLPP’s victory was mostly due to the failure and unpopularity of the Yahapalanaya of 2015-19, and least due to the involvement of the monks, because the majority Sinhalese Buddhist voters are neither religious extremists nor racists to rely too much on monks; they do not want monks to provide them political leadership. This is a fact hardly known to the thoroughly misinformed outside world.

The opening part of my writeup under the bold title ‘Monks driven from pillar to post with the Mahanayakes pandering to politicians’ articulated a common complaint against the Ven. Mahanayake Theras frequently heard these days, especially among middle-aged and older Sri Lankans in and outside Sri Lanka. (It was not with any intention of insulting the Most Venerable Mahanayake Theras that I adopted that casually accusatory title. I humbly beg their forgiveness.)  I have been drawing attention to this common complaint  for well over ten years now, that is, for almost the whole of the period of BBS founder Gnanasara Thera’s solitary involvement in a mission against the activities of religious extremists from certain non-Buddhist faiths.

The Island newspaper of May 6, 2014 published an article of mine about the Bodu Bala Sena organisation  under the title: ‘The Bodu Bala Sena: Other side of the coin’. On a later occasion, I hinted at the principal theme of that column thus::

 ‘The BBS, widely misunderstood because of its founder’s fiery temper, was a target of severe criticism both among friends and foes. Had the Mahanayake theras played a more active role regarding issues raised by the BBS, the plight of our monks today would not be so bad’.

Later, in a feature article entitled ‘Please don’t forget people who elected you, Mr President!’ carried in The Island of November 02, 2021, I criticised ousted president Gotabaya Rajapaksa’s appointment of Gnanasara Thera as the chairman of his One Country One Law Presidential Task Force (PTF) which he had set up to advise him on how to implement that policy. My article concluded with the following words.(These words proved prophetic as subsequent events demonstrated.):

‘In my humble opinion, the appointment of this task force will prove a suicidal move both for the Gotabaya presidency and the SLPP government. The negative image of the monk who heads it, whether justified or not, the apparent mediocrity of the rest of the members, and the suspicion of an anti-Tamil bias generated by the initial imbalance of its communal composition (though set right later) will be major setbacks for its success. The PTF appears to me to be a hastily but cunningly devised contraption designed by a saboteur so as to be dysfunctional from the beginning, and to ultimately kill the project it was purportedly set up to bring to fruition (i.e., the one country, one law project). It seems to be the sinister proposition of an evil genius within the president’s inner circle.’ 

Who this evil genius was is no secret to those sufficiently capable of rational thinking. I believe I need not add any explicit clarification of what I said here (in the above quote from an article written by me almost three years ago) for the examination of my intelligent and informed adult readers whose opinions are going to matter in this time of existential crisis threatening the independence and sovereignty of the Sri Lankan state which is required to tide over the mighty geopolitical currents it is being pitted against due to its vulnerable geographical location.  .

It must also be emphasised that I have no political, personal or monetary motives for my writing. And I have a deep aversion towards politicking monks, as I have explained in previous articles. Among politician monks there are some who are duly ordained, but are pitifully misguided or justifiably frustrated, and (as can be expected in the present dangerously volatile situation) an increasing number of fake monks including non-Buddhist imposters donning the yellow robe that Buddhists treat with reverence as the Arhat Dhajaya (Victory Flag of the Arhat). I think Gnanasara Thera, strictly speaking, is not a politicking monk, unlike the rasputin Rathana Thera, for example.

Unfortunately, immediately after release from jail, among other things, he denounced Rathana Thera, once his colleague, as a ‘kahakadaya’ or ‘yellow ragged hippy’ (The latter ‘stole’ the national list seat in parliament that he deserved in the 2020 general election, as we can remember.) and expressed a desire to get into parliament for a very short term to confront, convince, and defeat his opponents there and get out!  Gnanasara Thera has already repeated his limited ambition of being sent to parliament as a candidate from any political party or alliance whatsoever including the TNA and SLMC! He just wants to have a temporary break with his preferred policy of avoiding parliamentary politics while in robes. Having watched the activities of this monk from afar for more than ten years as already indicated, I am sure he will readily accept the proper leadership of the Mahanayake Theras when it is available.

A few days ago, I watched a YouTube video interview of a Sri Lankan monk named Ven. Shantha now resident in  California, USA, who knew Gnanasara Thera closely. According to him, Gnanasara Thera has a very warm heart that is revealed in his enchanting voice. If he were a different monk (with a mercenary bent) he could have used that voice in religious chanting to earn popularity and riches and could live a life of luxury as a star monk. But he didn’t do that. He is dedicated to the mission that the Buddha admonished bhikkhus to fulfill for the welfare of the many, for the happiness of the many (bahujana hitaya, bahujana sukhaya). Gnanasara Thera and other young monks demonstrate on the streets because relevant authorities do not address their problems. Instead the monks get exploited by politicians who make false promises to cheat them. Media people also exploit them. What Shantha Thera (clearly of the worldly type) proposes for Gnanasara Thera is that he needs to change his ways, and use his potential for his own (material) benefit, advice that he is not likely to follow. The most relevant piece of advice that Shantha Thera gives his erstwhile friend is Avoid getting used’. Gnanasara Thera  has already shown his deep disillusionment with the rascally Rajapaksas.    

The purpose of writing this essay is to make the following urgent but humble appeal/proposal, with the greatest reverence, to the four Most Venerable Mahanayake Theras of the Three Nikayas who collectively are responsible for all the  42,000 bhikshus and bhikshunis of the country including Gnanasara Thera and who manage  the extensive properties spread throughout the island and benefits accrued from them dedicated to the Buddha Sasana (that constitute Buddha Bhoga) that they enjoy:

 Please ensure that none of these monks, not a single one, get exploited by politicians in the fast approaching election time and ever again in the future. No monks should be allowed to offer themselves as candidates or to collect funds for that purpose from donors. No monks should be allowed to canvass voters on behalf of any political party or candidate, in public or private, or appear on political stages. Your Reverends, please consult experts (suitably qualified monks and lay Buddhists) about how to enforce your injunctions effectively.

Concluded