Nayone full moon day commemorates(Mahasamaya Sutta Day) It was on the full moon day of the month Nayone that Lord Gotama Buddha discoursed on Maha Samaya Sutta before a great assembly of Devas and Brahmas, celestial beings of all universes. The essence of this famous Sutta was the benefit of harmony and unity. The background history of the discourse on this Sutta is as relevant to our time as it was then. The Buddha gave this discourse after he settled an international water dispute of his time. The Rohini was a small river, flowing between the two countries, Kapilavatthu and Koliya of the same Sakya race. The two kingdoms took turn to water their agricultural lands by controlling the flow of the channel with a single dam. But in hottest summer or when drought visited, water in the dam diminished, causing crops wither. The farmers of the two countries held a meeting to discuss their water problem. Each side claimed to use dam water for its own cultivation without paying heed to other. Their meeting turned into heated debates using abusive languages and insulting each other’s clan and king. When the matter was reported to their respective kings, animosity went out of control and war was declared. With full armed forces the two sides came out to the banks of the River Rohini to fight to monopolize that amount of water for each own interest. Residing in the Jetavana monastery of Savatthi, Lord Buddha perceived that his kinsmen of Kapilavatthu and Koliya would fight a bloody battle for water. Unless he intervened and preached Dhamma of peace and unity, all his kinsmen of the two kingdoms would be destroyed on the battlefield. In the evening the Buddha came alone to the place of hostilities. Sitting crosslegged in the sky above the warring groups to cause them marvel and contrition. Being frightened by that strange phenomenon, the two warring parties wondered why Gotama Buddha of their own clan appeared on the scene and behaved that way. Perhaps he knew our strife. They decided to put down their arms and asked the Buddha why he came there. The Buddha descended and sat calmly on the sand bank of the river. Then began asking questions to oth warring groups. “What is the actual cause of your strife?”Both sides answered, “Water of this river Rohini.”“What is the value of water of the river Rohini?”Both sides answered, “It is just a small value.”“What is the value of theearth?”Both sides answered, “Its value is limitless.”“What is the value of the noble royal, Khattiya race?”Both sides answered, “It is unlimited.”“Then, for some water of this Rohini channel which is of small value, why do you wish to destroy the priceless royal race of Khattiya by waging war upon each other. No pleasure and no benefit in worthless conflicts and wasteful strifes,” the Buddha reasoned to them. Next, the Buddha expounded the endless enmity arising from a minor cause by narrating the jatakas —stories of past lives. First Phandana jataka which taught the lesson of mutual destruction due to endless enmity and hostilities. The Buddha exhorted both sides to behave like the waters of the two Rivers—the Ganges and the Jumna [Yamona] which harmoniously mixing together with lovingkindness. “Therefore, strive only for unity. Every Buddha has praised the values of unity. He who delights in harmonious living, established in the ten modes of good conduct is bound to achieve nothing less than the happiness of Nibbana, the end of all attachments, yogas, which yoke one to rebirth.” After hearing that exhortation and dhamma teaching, both sides laid down their arms and buried their hatchets for good. They were amicably reconciled and reunited. Upon their request, the Buddha went on to narrate more jataka stories such as Duddubha jataka and Latukika jataka to give lesson on the benefit of harmony and unity and Rukkha Dhamma jataka to give lesson for the peaceful settlement of dispute and the end of strife. Both sides realized that because of the Buddha’s dhamma lessons they were spared mutual estructions. So each side made over to the Buddha 250 princes whom the Buddha made monks. The total 500 monks followed the Buddha who returned to Mahavana Forest for retreat. But the five hundred monks were not happy because of their attachment to their families. Therefore the Buddha invited them to the Lake Kundala in the Himalayan Forests and discoursed on “Kundala jataka” whereupon all 500 monks became Sotapan and urged them to practise kamathna dhamma [meditation]. The 500 Sotapan monks attained arahathood. Hearing the happy tidings of the peaceful settlement of water dispute between the two kingdoms and the attainment of arahathood by 500 Sotapan monks of both kingdoms, all celestial beings of all universes, Devas and Brahmars came to assemble in front of the Buddha on the auspicious full moon day of Nayone. They unanimously requested the Buddha to deliver his sermon on the emancipation from Samsara —the endless cycle of births and rebirths, cravings, sufferings, defilements, anger, greed and ignorance. S o t h e B u d d h a discoursed on Mahasamaya Sutta. After hearing and understanding it, countless number of celestial beings became arahat. The Buddha’s dhamma was “peace, lovingkindness and compassion”. Its effects were so profound and far-reaching that all hitherto traditional enemies like dragons and garudas, Sakka deva and Asuya deva. Tiger, lions, elephants etc. became friends and lived peacefully and happily ever after. Such a happy occasion was very rare. Only once in the lifetime of each Buddha that Maha Samaya Sutta was discoursed for unity, reconciliation and peace. The relevance of Maha Samaya Sutta to our time need not be overemphasized. Living in this 21st century of globalization, we enjoy unprecedented opportunities o f s c i e n t i f i c a n d technological information and communication and invention much to human advantages. But at the same time we confront several challenges that accompany these opportunities. The evil effects of our material progress and prosperity upon the elements of nature and natural environment as well as upon human nature and human environment pose still unsolved challenges to us—climatic changes, food shortage, old and new diseases, armed conflicts which Myanmar Buddhists know as three calamities—Hunger, Disease and Killing. We have been pulling our brain and brawn to meet these challenges. Almost every day we hear the news of our multilateral efforts to solve these challenges—how to get enough food to feed our ever growing human population, how to arrest and adjust bad climate changes, how to contain the spread of killer diseases, how to alleviate poverty, how to get sufficient clean water, how to reconcile fighting groups, how to end strife, how to convince that it is peace and not war that can give us happiness. Yet we have bad news of fighting for a piece of land, for fresh water, for food and so on. As the Buddha has said in the Jataka stories and Maha Samaya Sutta mentioned above, the most important secret of meeting these challenges of our time is the goodwill of all of us— human beings. Though many dialogues at international for a, many efforts by international organizations, many implementations of projects and programmes to meet the challenges of our time are encouraging and praise worthy, yet we need to more goodwill at heart to practise what we preach to others. That is the message of Maha Samaya Sutta Day. Maha Saddhamma jotika dhajaSithu Dr. Khin Maung Nyunt
Posted on: Sun, 23 Jun 2013 06:09:33 +0000