By Sokayatapath Ananada –

Kohila Dharmay became famous due to a relationship that he had with a particular magistrate. The magistrate was on such good terms with this man, who acquired the nickname Kohila Dharmay as a youth when he became a convicted criminal, to an extent that when auctions were held on court premises for confiscated goods, Kohila Dharmay would get the best of items for the cheapest price. Unfortunately for the magistrate, this was exposed and the magistrate lost his job. Both Kohila Dharmay and the magistrate were good talkers and could create an image of themselves as innocent, simple people.

Sarath N. Silva and Mohan Pieris

Listening to Chief Justice Mohan Pieris preaching Buddha dhamma, one could not help but to imagine a reincarnation of Kohila Dharmay. Not only in personality but also because the dhamma he preached is better called kohila dhamma and not Lord Buddha’s dhamma.

The Chief Justice also talked about seela. He said that one such seela was not to take other people’s things. He did not acknowledge that taking Dr. Bandaranakaye’s place as CJ was just that.

He talked only of three seelas and forgot the fourth – the one about musavada; not telling lies. Perhaps it was a Freudian slip of the memory – he may not have forgotten how he lied blatantly before an official United Nations session, in which he said that he has reliable information that Prageeth Eknaligoda was living abroad. Later, when asked in court about the source of his information, he said that he had forgotten it.

Such is the great dhamma of the man who conspired with the President to destroy the independence of the judiciary altogether. That again is no surprise as another Chief Justice, Sarath Silva (who had until this man done more than anyone else to destroy the legal system and judiciary) was also a great preacher of what should be called the same kohila dhamma.

To pretend to be impressed by the great teachings of the Buddha without batting an eyelid, while at the same time destroying everything that is decent, just and legal in the country itself, suggests a kind of mental aberration that only psychopaths are capable of.

Someone compared the experience of watching Mohan Peiris’ extreme hypocrisy in preaching Buddhism to that of a victim of abuse seeing mass being performed by a pederast priest.

For Sri Lankan citizens, listening to Mohan Peiris hypocritical rubbish was a similar experience.

Many forms of abasarana Buddhism

The infamous Gnanasara Thera of BBS has introduced a new form of Buddhism, which may be called abasarana Buddhism. It is a Buddhism that pursues violence in order to obtain the properties of opponents. In essence, greed is the highest virtue of abasarana Buddhism.

In essence, Mohan Pieris’ and Sarath Silva’s Buddhism is also the same. Sarath Silva persecuted innocent people, such as Tony Fernando, who requested that the case he filed should not be heard by Sarath Silva and was sentenced to rigorous imprisonment for one year.

In the same way, he first used his office to punish the opponents of Chandrika Bandaranaike and later tried to do the same for Mahinda Rajapaksa. Intimidating lawyers and litigants was also part of his idea of practicing Buddhism.

Now, as Mohan Pieris talks about Buddhism, the life of the President of the Bar Association is being threatened, causing alarm among the lawyers of Sri Lanka.

So for everyone there is this abasarana Buddhism.

The Dalai Lama preaches the Buddhism of compassion and love for everyone. He recently said that, ‘The Buddha preaches love and compassion. If the Buddha is there, he will protect the Muslims who the Buddhists are attacking.’

In India, Dr. B.R. Ambedkar embraced Buddhism, saying that Buddhism stands for non-discrimination and for the dignity of everyone, including India’s most discarded section of society, then called Untouchables. Now they call themselves Dahlits, a word derived from the Sanskrit for ‘the poorest’. The uplifting of the oppressed and bringing peace and harmony for all is the aim of that Buddhism.

Sri Lanka’s best-known novelist and writer, Martin Wickremasinghe, in his great work Bhavatharana talked about Buddha’s search for liberation for everyone, as against the cruelties and repression of the princes and other powerful elements in society in his day.

However, what has come to prevail through Gnanasara, Sarath Silva and Mohan Pieris is abasarana Buddhism, which may also be called the kohila dhamma.