All the restrooms for pilgrims have been fully booked. M P Dharmasena and his family could not find a single room. He felt utterly miserable, but did not lose his faith. That left enough room for courage. Dharmasena came all the way from Colombo with his wife, Priyanthi and two daughters, Sanduni and Kushanya, and he cannot go empty-handed just because there is no room to rest. If everything else failed, they decided to spend the night on road.
They would somehow consummate the pilgrimage to the Ruwanwelisaya. “Strangely, it occurred to me that I should check on the nunnery located close to the Ruwanwelisaya. This was strange because I knew fully well that we are not supposed to stay with the nuns. But believe it or not, the head nun let us in. She had a separate room arranged for us,” Dharmasena recalls that fateful day.
The almost-miraculous incident does not end here. The following day, the head nun prepared a dairy offering for Ruwanwelisaya.
“It is as if she had read our minds. She had used the sandalwood to prepare the offering. I do not forget that incident to this date,” Dharmasena explains.
Dharmasena’s life is full of such miraculous events. Well built in physique, Dharmasena nevertheless commands a soft-spoken nature. He knows neither rush nor haste in speech. You should be a bit patient to hear his words flowing in a slow-paced rhythm.
Employed at Fonterra, Dharmasena makes pilgrimage at least once a year. He drives his own vehicle, a three wheeler never used for the purpose of hire, several kilometers from Colombo to remote sacred sites such as Katharagama and Anuradhapura.
Although he believes in Dedimunda devatha, he gives priority to the temple before devale. At Katharagama, his family offers dairy alms to the Kiri Vehera.
“I don't follow a rigid practice if lighting the lamp for Dedimunda Devatha regularly at one set time. But I light the lamp whenever I am home and pass the merits of good deeds I have done to the devatha," says Dharmasena.
Driving a three wheeler for about over 200 kilometres is a tiresome journey. The journey takes a bit longer as his family stops over in various places, to refresh, before reaching the destination.
“True it costs a lot, but the gain is quite rewarding. It gives me pure joy,” Dharmasena explains.
Dharmasena's project for 2017 was the most ambitious of all. He gathered all his relatives, about 40 in number, to make a pilgrimage to Anuradhapura and Somawathi on a luxury bus which can accommodate about 50 passengers. The whole journey was about 700 kilometres. Together with his family and relatives, he offered a robe to the Somawathiya.
“The Somawathiya is home to the Sacred Right Tooth of the Buddha. Offering a robe to the stupa is like offering a robe to the Buddha himself,” Dharmasena explained. The robe was wrapped around the stupa as a gesture of custom. Before the robe is offered to the stupa, it has to be carried in a reverential procession to the temple. The procession had to begin a kilometre away from the stupa. Most pilgrims abandoned carrying it because they could not stand the scorching heat they felt under the feet. But Dharmasena was not to give in. The spiritual happiness he was feeling was much more powerful than the heat-ache felt under feet. His family and relatives followed him.
Despite sweat trickling down the spine due to the glaring sunshine, Dharmasena felt satisfied looking at the robe wrapped around the stupa.
“I have no words to explain that happiness. It is joy simply beyond words. I wish I could watch over the stupa with the robe wrapped around for ever,” Dharmasena says. Occasionally a drinker, Dharmasena nevertheless makes it a point not to touch alcoholic liquid and stay vegetarian for a week before the pilgrimage. Plus, he would stay devoted to that vow until a day lapses following the pilgrimage. His wife, Priyanthi, was a Catholic turned Buddhist. Dharmasena’s soft nature was one of the reasons that made her choose the Buddha’s teachings. “I used to lose temper easily. My husband would always talk to me calmly, asking me to calm down. That soft-spoken tone is quite contagious. I feel so cool when he speaks. It is simply like listening to a Buddhist sermon, when he frequently asked me to calm down,” Priyanthi analysed the influence of her husband.
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