ලෝවැඩ සඟරාව - කටුකුරුන්දේ ඤානනන්ද හිමි.pdf

Towards A Better World (ලෝවැඩ සඟරාව) is an English translation accompanied by the original Sinhala text of the renowned 15th-century didactic poem Loweda Sangarawa (ලෝවැඩ සඟරාව), originally composed by the Venerable Vīdāgama Maitreya Mahāthera during the Kotte period. The English rendering is by the well-known scholar-monk Venerable Bhikkhu K. Ñānananda.

The work preserves the original Sinhala verses alongside lucid English prose translations that capture the poem’s timeless exhortations on karma, the rarity of human rebirth in a Buddha-era, the perils of samsāra, and the pursuit of Nibbāna. As noted by the translator, the aim is to remain faithful to the original message while inspiring an inner transformation towards moral and spiritual values.

This first edition was published in the year 2000 for free distribution by the ‘Dharma Grantha Mudrana Bhāraya’ (Dhamma Publications Trust) under the Department of Public Trustee, Sri Lanka.

INTRODUCTION

‘Towards a Better World’ is a translation of the famous Sinhala didactic poem “Lo-wắda Sangarāva” composed by the Venerable Vīdāgama Maitreya Mahāthera (15 th C. A. D.). This venerable poet flourished during the Kotte period of Sri Lankan history, which saw a revival of Sinhala literature. As the head of the Vīdāgama Sri Ghanānanda monastery, a leading educational centre of the Kotte Era, the Venerable Mahāthera made a notable contribution to Sinhala literature and Buddhist culture with his rare poetic talent and eloquence in preaching. “Lo-wắda Sangarāva” is the best known among his literary works, both for its remarkable poetic excellence and the vast impact it has made on the lives of the Buddhists ever since it was composed.

Drawing his inspiration from the Canonical discourses which emphasized the value of birth as a human being in an extremely rare Buddha-age with its prospect of an exit from the samsaric cycle of births and deaths, the venerable poet sounds a clarion call to arouse a sense of urgency in making the best use of that rare opportunity. He makes no pretence in addressing the poem directly to the reader himself, awakening him gradually from common-sense to a deeper sense of values. The purpose of the poem is to instil and inspire, aiming at an inner transformation in the reader and the listener. The language and the idiom used are geared to the benevolent purpose of character- moulding.

Couched in the classical Sinhala metre abounding in alliteration, the poem is a perfect blend of sound and sense. Its powerful diction is marked by an effective employment of stirring metaphors and similes both Canonical and original. The imagery is often so picturesque that most of the verses could well be depicted pictorially. We have resisted the temptation to render the poem into English verse, in order to be more faithful to its contents. Any traces of poetic diction, however, that may have crept into the present translation, are probably due to the very inspiration coming from the original itself.

Lowắda Sangarāva has had an immense appeal to several generations of Buddhists over the past few centuries, mainly because of its lucid presentation of the salient teachings of the Buddha. Within the space of four lines full of rhyme - and - reason the poet would often drive - home a deep truth of Dhamma through homely similes and metaphors. In just four lines he could make one vividly aware of the ironies of one’s present life situation so as to bring about a transformation in one’s total outlook on life. In this respect the poem has the flavour of the ‘come-and-see’ quality of the Dhamma (ehipassiko)as well as the quality of ‘leading-one-onwards’ (opanayiko)

The poem vibrates through and through with a note of compassion for the morally degraded, lifting them up to an awareness of their potential for higher things. The hortative tone of the poem comes-it seems-not from an ‘ivory’-tower but from a heart that almost bleeds for those who have gone astray due to ignorance or ‘non-knowledge’. Clarification has to precede purification, at least initially. So the poet has modestly chosen the common medium of the natives, making a case for its effectiveness rather apologetically in preference to the more fashionable Pali of the elite. True to his promise, the poet has succeeded in portraying vividly the manifold dangers in samsāra (the cycle of recurrent births and deaths) with its relentless law of karma (the moral law of cause and effect), and in highlighting the ideal of the sublime peace of Nibbana as the ultimate goal in life.

At a juncture in which the West is looking up to the wisdom of the East to make its own concept of the millenium a reality, this time honoured didactic poem of the Venerable Vīdāgama Maitreya Mahāthera is presented here in translation in the hope that it will contribute towards a better world. The a-moral and the immoral trends in moden society, wedded as it is to material progress as the hand-maid of prosperity, are leading towards moral anarchy with disastrous consequences. May this translation- ‘Towards a Better World’ -help bring about an inner transformation by an awakening to the true values of life !

[ Note : As the poem has come down with many variant readings, several editions had to be collated for the present text and translation.]

Bhikkhu K. Ñānananda
Pothgulgala Āranyaya
“Pahan Kanuwa”
Kandegedara
Devalegama
Sri Lanka
June 2000 (B. E. 2544)