

   
   
           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!

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