chtnews.com
News No. 01/2011, January 06, 2011
THE Raj Bana Vihara in Rangamati will celebrate the 92th birth day of Ven. Sadhanananda Mahastabir, popularly known as Bana Bhante, the most revered Buddhist monk in Bangladesh, Vihara sources say.
The great Bhante is believed to have achieved Arhathood which means that he has become fully enlightened and overcome rebirth and death, and to possess hriddhi or supernatural power.
A detailed programme has been chalked out to mark the day on 8 January. This includes, among others, hoisting Buddhist flag, Buddha Puja, rendering of religious songs, accepting pancha sila or five precepts and offering gifts to the monks, prayer for long life for Bana Bhante, religious discourse by Bana Bhante, Pinda dana or serving midday meal to the monks and lighting candles in the afternoon.
The programme will begin at 6:30am with the hoisting of the Buddhist flag.
President Zillur Rahman, Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina and leader of the Opposition Khaleda Zia in separate messages wished him good health and a long life.
The United People’s Democratic Front (UPDF) also wished Bana Bhante good health and a long life.
Bhana Bhante was born Rathindra Chakma on 8 January in 1920 into an ordinary Chakma family in Muroghona village under Boradom Mouza in Rangamati district.
He became a Buddhist monk at the age of 29 at Nandan Kanon Buddhist temple in Chittagong in 1949.
Later, he went through a rigorous meditation in the jungles of Dhanpada and Dighinala for fourteen years, enduring bodily pains and hardships, ignoring extreme heat and cold and braving incessant rain.
Bana Bhante’s contribution to the revival and spread of Buddhism in CHT is immense. He has a distinguished ability to illustrate and explain the Dhamma of the Lord Buddha in plain language, using similes and parables. The devotees listen to his deshana or religious lectures with rapt attention.
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