On tha t Jettha Full Moon day

by Sumana Saparamadu

To Buddhists every full-moon day is a holy day, but the Full Moon day in the month of Vesak is holier than others. All Buddhists know why it is the most important day in the Buddhist calendar. Two other full-moon days are of special significance to us Buddhists in Sri Lanka.

One is Poson, following Vesak and the other is the full-moon day of Unduvap which is usually in December – the day Sanghamitta Theri brought a branch of the Bodhi tree at Buddha Gaya to Lanka.

On Poson full-moon day on June 2, the celebration is in honour of Mahinda Thera, the son and emissary of Emperor Dharmasoka, whose meeting with the King of Lanka on that full-moon day in the month of Jettha (now Poson) was the turning point in the island's history.

When the King accepted what the Thera preached, the Buddha Dharma, it became the official religion of the country and the people. The Thera and the people had no difficulty in conversing with each other as the language in Sri Lanka and in Jambudeepa (North India) at that time were closely allied. Arahat Mahinda chose appropriate suttas for his sermons in the first two days taking into account the beliefs of the people and used these to make the teachings of the new Dhamma acceptable to the ordinary laymen.

Before the Thera preached he wanted to find out whether the King would understand the Dhamma.

So he asked the King some simple questions. But they were questions to test the King's intelligence. Walpola Rahula Thera says that this is the first intelligence test on record.

Before the King left he invited the Thera and his companions to lunch at the Palace. He called Banduka, the layman who was with the bhikkhus and asked him whether they were humans or some celestial beings who had descended on the hill.
 

The Intelligence Test

Q: What name does this tree bear, O King?

A: The tree is called mango.

Q: Is there another mango tree besides this?

A: There are many mango trees.

Q: Are there any trees other than this mango tree and other mango trees?

A: There are many trees Sir, but they are not mango trees.

Q: And are there besides other mango trees and those trees which are not mango, yet other trees?

A: There is this mango tree.

The catch was in the last question.