It is not about Splitting - it is all about Cleaning, Uniting and Purifying
by Shamika Soysa

24 March 2004 - “Do not be sad. Do not mourn. Now we got rid of Lord Buddha. There is no one to tell us this is good or this is bad. We were exhausted from number of rules from Lord Buddha. Now we can do what ever we want and we don’t need to do what we dislike”

Hope you have heard the above famous statement by Subhadra Bhikku just after the Buddha Parinirwana. It implied a danger, which the Buddhism will face in future and as a result of that the first Dharma Sanghayana (First Council) was conducted. It lead to the existence of pure Buddhism for about 100 years.

100 years later some party of Bhikkus called Vajji Puttaka, practiced to follow their own Sikkas infringing the original Dhamma Vinaya rules. As a result of that the Second Dhamma Sangayana (Second Council) was conducted and the practices of Vajji Puttaka Bhikkus were rejected. Then these Vajji Puttaka Bhikkus formed another party of Buddhism called Maha Sangika and continued their practices. This was the first time the Bhikkus split into two parties as Therawada and Maha Sanghika. Therwada Buddhism is the pure Buddhism, which follows the exact doctrine, which Lord Buddha preached.

During a period around 130 years after the first council these 2 parties were split into 18 parties, but pure Therawada portion of it existed as it was. However later in the era of King Dharmashoka, there had been lots of corrupt Bhikkus had come into the Buddha Sasana and lots of myths and bad practices had been added to pure Buddhism. Because of the necessity to clean the Buddhism from these dirt it was needed another Dhamma Sanghayana. As a result of the third Dhamma Sanghayana (Third Council), around 60, 000 corrupt Bhikkus were disrobed to purify the Buddhism.

Likewise through out the history due to many reasons Bhikkus were split into parties when the corruption was incorporated into pure Buddhism. In those occasions if corrupt Bhikkus were not eliminated, we will not be having this pure Therawada Buddhism today. In that case it is not fair to call it as splitting because it was needed for the existence of pure Buddhism.

If we come back to present we are experiencing a time, which the existence of Buddhism is in danger. I have discussed about those threats in my previous articles.

When we consider the present situation in Sri Lanka, there is nothing more to split. The whole nation is split by the party politics. Even the Bhikkus have been split into parties. Even though some people says Bhikkus contesting the Election are going to split Buddhists into parties, they have nothing to split this country further as current political leaders already have separated people into several political parties. But someone who watches this without a pre-conclusive mind, will realize that their intention is to merge all these parties who have been separated due to the corrupt political mechanism awarded by the British rulers.

Through out the recent history corrupt Bhikkkus had been supporting these party politics. They were in political stages and except contesting for the Election they did all those things to support their colored party. But none of the politicians or Bhikkus or other laymen who criticize this move by these Bhikkus were not much worried about this earlier. So why are they so much worried about monks entering into politics with a pure intention? The obvious reason is they themselves are extreme party political supporters and they fear about the votes they are loosing because of Bhikkus.

Throughout the history there had been corrupt Bhikkus. Necessity of Dhamma Sanghayana arises because of that. But none of the Government is not sponsoring a Sanghayana. The leader of the country sponsored all the past Sanghayana’s. King Ajasath, King Kalashoka and King Dharmashoka supported the first three Dhamma Sanghayana. But in present no one is there to support such council. If they are asked for such thing they will take it as racism or religious extremism.

If there had not been corrupt politicians, if there had not been corrupt Bhikkus who supports these politicians, if people had not been split into political parties in an extreme manner there is no necessity for Bhikkus to come forward to contest this Election. But it is clearly visible the country is declining day by day because of these destructive politicians.

Some people says if Bhikkus will not be able to get a single seat in this Election it will be the end of Buddhism and in that case these Bhikkus are destroying the Buddhism in Sri Lanka. They define it as the end of Buddhism in Sri Lanka and all the Buddhists will be criticized worldwide. If all people and politicians in Sri Lanka happened to be real Buddhists there is no necessity for Bhikkus to come to the Election. They came to the Election because the amount of real Buddhists gets reduced day by day. Even at the moment it is true that real Buddhists are less in this country. Therefore only those real Buddhists who can understand the value of this effort by Bhikkus will vote for Bhikkus. Other labeled Buddhists, and devotees of political parties, which are the majority, will not vote for Bhikkus and they will support the continuation of decline of this country.

Therefore even if the Bhikkus are unable to win a single seat it will not lead to a special destruction of Buddhism. It only implies the current decline of this country. It is not the destruction of Buddhism, but it will be a clear indication of how worse Sinhala labeled Buddhists are.

Tendency of people to do wrong and be evil is much more higher than to do good. Normally majority of the people have evil more than good. Therefore majority of the people will not understand the pure intention of these Bhikkus, but some considerable less amount of people who are real Buddhists will understand this effort and will act for the sake of Buddhism. They will give some power to these Bhikkus to start their work in the present environment of this country. It is upto Bhikkus to show practical political science preached by Lord Buddha, to stop people splitting into political parties and to unite and purify this country by cleaning the politics from the corruption using the teachings of Buddhism.

In this process corrupt monks and corrupt people will be against this process. To clean this country it is needed to eliminate corruption. It is not separatism or Sangha Bedaya. It is removing corruption to protect the nation and religion.