Focus on the virtue of gratitude

Kalaguna Salakamu

Author: Kalasuri, Shastrapathi, Panditha Ven. Narampanawe Nandarathana Thera
A Bo Sevana publication issued free by Sri Lanka Telecom.

Reviewed by R.S. Karunaratne

The book highlights the virtue of gratitude by giving concrete examples from the Buddha's life. During his 45 years of services rendered to society the Buddha paid his gratitude to the sacred Bo tree that gave him shade when he attained enlightenment.

In Buddhism this is known as Animisa Lochana Pooja. Even in pre-Buddhist India, China and Egypt, people were grateful to nature for providing them with food and water. So, they worshipped the sun, rivers, mountains and trees. Such forms of paying gratitude cannot be dismissed as superstition. Even in remote villages people worship the fields and their agricultural implements purely out of gratitude.

With the rapid modernisation of society people have distanced themselves from the practice of paying gratitude. For instance, children dump their old parents in homes for the aged forgetting how they brought them up. Even the respect for teachers is now on the wane. Kalaguna Salakamu reminds all of us why we should practise the art of paying gratitude to our parents, elders, teachers and even nature.

Sri Lanka Telecom has done a meritorious act by distributing the book free to mark the thrice-blessed Vesak Full Moon Poya day.