180 / அயோத்திதாசர் சிந்தனைகள்
82. AN APPEAL TO BUDDHIST SOCIETIES
Namo tassa Bhagavata Arahato
Samma Sambuddhassa.
The S.B.S. of Madras.
AN APPEAL
To
- BUDDHIST SOCIETIES
- in
- Europe and America
The Buddhists of Madras met in the Sakya Buddhist Asrama, Royapettah on the 12th May 1911 and celebrated with great rejoicings the Festival of Vesakha Powrnami, in commemoration of the Birth Day of Lord Buddha. It was a day of momentous significance. Such a celebration every year, which 14 or 15 years ago would not have been even thought of, is a clear sign of the revival in the land of its birth of the holy religion of the Tathagato, who is now universally acknowledged to be the greatest man of intellect that humanity has yet produced, and who infact captivated the whole world by his august personality and stupendous wisdom and emancipated the fettered millions from the bondage of evil by enunciating the Noble Eight - fold path which leads to Nirvana - Nirvana, the goal of the Buddhist, which is neither the annihilation of all activities nor the absorption of individual soul in the universal soul but is that ideal state in which the evolved and perfected Ego, in full possession of all human excellences reposes with a full knowledge of its whole being in a perfect realisation of Truth.
There is no doubt that there has been a natural hankering of men of the 20th century - the age of reason - after the scientific religion and with the progress of science, Buddhism the scientific religion is reviving. That the revival in Southern India has mainly been the work of the Sakya Buddhist Society of Madras cannot be denied even by its great opponents.
A brief sketch of the circumstances which led to the establishment of this Society and of the work it has done for the past 14 or 15 years may be of interest to the general public, and is by no means an unpleasant task.
So long back as the year 1890 I came to be convinced, after a long and varied study and research, of the truths of Buddhism. In the year 1898 I sought the late Col. H.S. Olcott of the Theosophical Society, Adyar, Madras, for advice and co-operation in the establishment of a Buddhist Society in the city of Madras. At the instance of that good and great man I journeyed and voyaged to Ceylon. At the Malikaganda Vihara, I obtained the Panchasila at the hands of the Venerable Sri Sumangala Mahanayaka, the High Priest, Principal of the Vidyodaya College, Colombo, in the presence of a large and representative gathering. With the blessings of the High Priest the Venerable Sumangala I returned to Madras and started the Sakya Buddhist Society at Royapettah in Madras.
Dr. Paul Carus of Chicago has kindly consented to be the President of the Association.
Lectures are delivered every week in the Hall of the Society, in addition to occasional lectures delivered here and there in the city of Madras. Thus great interest is aroused in the minds of the people in the
