Convention to stress for global peace

This story was one luckier one. When I had been to the Bhopal airport to cover the arrival of some political person from New Delhi to sort out the difference between the warring factions in the then Digvijay Singh led Congress government in Madhya Pradesh. It so happened that I saw more than a dozen of Buddhist monks waiting for their religious leader who is the President of the Mahabodhi Society of Sri Lanka an also the Sanchi Stupa in Madhya Pradesh. After speaking to them and asking them the importance of the visitor, I approached him on his arrival and spoke to him for 20 minutes standing at the arrival exit door.

Fifty two-year old president of the Mahabodhi Society of Sri Lanka Ven. Banagala Upatissa would be leading 1000-odd delegates to the Buddhist convention starting here in Bhopal tomorrow. The venerable priest disclosed the convention would focus on global peace and other issues which would make the world a better place.
Ven. Banagala spoke to Hindustan Times at the Bhopal airport on his arrival here today. He said the rise in terrorism globally is alarming for priests like him all over the world. Only faith and religion can change the mindset of the hard-core terrorist, he said, adding hatred was being created by a few political parties, which are using religion to achieve wrong ends. He said conventions, such as the one in Bhopal, would enlighten people about faith in God and not political leaders.
As to why Sanchi was not chosen for the convention, Ven Banagala replied bad roads, acute shortage of water supply and shoddy telephone lines there had posed a major problem. “It took me two days to get through to some Japanese delegates on telephone from Sanchi”.
He said he had apprised the State Government, which needs to act on the problems. As it is, he said very few travelers are visiting Sanchi these days, and if the situation continues even they would not be seen, he said.
Asked what the Mahabodhi Society of Sri Lanka would achieve through this maiden convention, Ven. Banagala replied “we will seek to send a message to the world that we would like to have peace,” adding he had invited other religious leaders too for the two-day convention.
He was all praise for the then Home Minister Mahendra Baudh of the Congress Government, and said that he was organizing the convention and added that the minister readily agreed to the idea of the Golden Jubilee convention and had even attended a few courses in Buddhism in Sri Lanka.
Born to a family on Sri Lanka, Ven. Banagala has five sisters and four brothers. He also has some roots in Bhopal, having attended college in the State Capital and completed his Masters at the SSL Jain College in Vidisha in 1975.