Heat coming from the Sun seems to be stronger than ever. Nevertheless, the devotees gathered along the road beside Mahamevnawa Amawatura Buddhist monastery were determined to venerate the great relics of the Gautama Buddha brought from Pakistan recently. These people’s only intention is to attain merits and of a lifetime by worshiping these great relics. Their hearts are filled with immense devotion towards their one and only teacher, the Gautama Sammasambuddha. The sun could not shatter their faith and determination. Finding a little shade from the harsh sun rays these devotees stood there with reddened faces and sweaty bodies. Some parents, sick, and even disabled devotees gathered along the line to get this rare chance of seeing the great relics of the Gautama Buddha. It was indeed a miracle to see such a crowd gathering under heat, dust, and smoke coming from vehicles moving on the road next to them… A sudden puff of wind sweeps them lightly soothing their tiredness for a while. Even though they enjoy that moment of comfort, their devotion is not disappeared under the difficulty of next moment.

“Oh! This is a meritorious moment of our lives! It is like our Supreme Buddha has come to let us! Oh! I will not leave this praiseworthy ground without worshiping our teacher’s great relics!” These are some of the wholesome thoughts expressed by these fortunate people.

As Buddhists, we must know the value of merits and the reward of such meritorious actions. Since the Gautama Buddha has taught us the truth of the Samsara (the cycle of birth, decay and death) clearly, the way of life is not be totally alien to Buddhists. A Buddhist knows the suffering that one experiences is due to the impermanent nature of life. In fact only Buddhists are fortunate to know the concept of merit and its immense help for someone wanting to be free from Samsara. The Supreme Buddha’s excellent word on merit is that one should try to add more of it again and again to one’s life and should not be afraid of it. The Buddha taught us this ultimate truth with a most compassionate heart because He knew how unfortunate a life of any being would be without the help of merits. A life incorporated with merits would be an easy and joyful one like butter in a frying pan. That is, even the hardest task of a life would be easy for a person with merits. Furthermore, such a person will be able to focus his mind in attaining the Nirvana without much hardship. He will be able to pluck the fruit of Nibbana easily in the oasis of “the Order of the Gautama Buddha”.

In fact, this is an exceptional period of time we are passing in our motherland right now. Because of our Noble Dhamma Friends, we have become very fortunate to experience such tremendous and worthy time within our lifetime. At first, our noble Maha sangha revealed the true teachings of the Gautama Buddha with a great compassion towards us. We were taught how to become true Buddhists with the refuge under the noble Triple Gem. Also, we got the very rare opportunity of learning a great number of discourses of the Gautama Buddha. These have definitely helped many of us in opening our eyes and hearts truly towards the great wisdom of the Supreme Buddha. In fact, this knowledge was what helped and adjoined us to our devotion to the Gautama Buddha. Furthermore, our Buddha Puttra’s compassionate advice is to obtain merits by performing these wholesome activities and try our level best to attain the first secure state of Nirvana, the Sōtapanna state, in this life. As the fortunate few among the human world and many divine worlds, we should try to make the best use of these fortunate and rare moments…!

Chinthaka Mahesh
Oak Ridge, USA