Shradda and my visit to Sambudda Raja Maligawa.

‘Shradda’ is a Sanskrit word which has no equivalent in English, at best it can be understood as faith with love and reverence.

Why we need to develop Shradda?

    Because we are going  to understand the reality of this life and the world, I would say the universe.

At the beginning we do not have a clue. But we have or aware of some explanations from the dignified person called Lord Buddha. The Lord Buddha taught us the reality of the life and guided us attain a status where time and space do not exists. This status is commonly called Niravana.

So.. why still we need Shardda?

If we want to achieve Niravana  we need to go  the path guided by the Lord one. Since we cannot understand what will be the end, we need to develop a faith about our leader, the dignified one. It is a faith with love and reverence.

Other famous religious beliefs do follow the same ideology. That is they ask followers to have a full faith or total believe in GOD. It is not same as Shradda, it is a devotion (Bhakthiya), selfless affection to the religious theory. Affection is a bond (bandimak). We must not have any bond on our way to Nirvana.

So, we are not devotees of Lord Buddha. We are Shraddawathun of Lord Buddha. Since there is no word to match in English, most people leisurely used the word ‘devotee’.

I visited Sambuddha Raja maha vihara from various websites including Mahamegha and news, we (with my family) thought of visiting there to worship this great ‘ masterpiece ’.

It was 2.00 PM and very hot. When entering the shrine room there was a board saying to remove shoes. Still we have to move about 50m to reach the shrine room entrance.

No trees to shade. Environment concern is zero point. It was a concrete world.   Very hot indeed. We had to run on asphalt layered road.. So we ran.

On our way, a well-built monk announced that we need to raise our hands and place in forehead to get Shradda and also have to pass the hot path to feel how it likes in the hell. I was quick to pick that this is not a Shradda but a devotion.

When we enter a bald headed person asked us to chant ‘Sadu’ and place our hands in the forehead.  I didn’t do anything but smiled with him. Thanks.. he absorbed my dissatisfaction about his command.

The building architecture is really impressive. It do posses modern architectural capabilities. I looked at a drawing in lonely large wall. For me it was like wicked drawing. Anyone can categorise those creation for various artistic roots like Shanchi, Amarawathi...etc.. But, definitely these artists had not had any Sharddha about the dignified once. He might have a good artistic talent but do not have Shradda. So.. how he can express the Lord Buddha’s immense good qualities (Budu Guna) without Shradda.

We stopped at the first Lord Buddha’s statue. My little one came and asked.

‘Thaththi.. ayi budu sadu lipstick ganne. e kaleth ewa thibunada’ (Father why Lord buddha is using lipstick. Was that available at that time also)

That was end. I will never visit this place. Let my beloved country be safe from these ‘Mahayana’ trends.

Earthquake, Tsunami and Sri Lanka

It was around 2.00 PM on 11-04-2012. I was having a small nap after having lunch. I noticed that little bit vibration from the bed. Since no one is around me, I thought that the problem with myself. Again it was happened for a few second. I checked my legs... head and hands all are working properly. So.. I decided the problem with not myself. Again it happened, this time few more extra seconds.. I decided it must be earth  tremor and wanted feel it from the ground. So I layed in the floor and eagerly waiting to feel the earth tremor by my whole body. Unfortunately, there were not any other tremor.


At that time kids were playing, on top of the roof a person was painting it. No one complained about the tremor. so I forget it and continued my nap.


Little later my wife called and asked. They have walked out their office and I was asked to go out from the house with kids. I smiled and asked her not to panic unnecessarily and explained reality of earthquake is. Kids played without any interruptions...


As usual I visited http://earthquake.usgs.gov/ for more information. Yes.. there was a major earthquake in Indonesia. It had happened underwater and there was a possibility to create a Tsunami. If Tsunami created it must hit indonesia within 30 minutes. I was eagerly looking at that information. By 3.00 PM USGS said it was horizontal earthquake where creating Tsunami was not possible. And Indonesia didn’t have any Tsunami effects. So.. by 3.00PM risk of Tsunami was eroded. I updated my wife and few friend that there won’t be Tsunami.


I switched on the TV. My god... they were saying possible tsunami time in colombo. These people had very high probability of Tsunami. They referred the same USGS information as I did. Something wrong somewhere.


We should evacuate beach area as a precautionary measure. That must be. I noticed that people were moving with their belongings. Specially shop owners. People were running here and there with stressful, panic-ridden attitude. I felt Sorry... for them. I knew at the end nothing would happen to them or their properties. If our authorities do their warnings with some kind of severity level, this kind of unnecessary incidents could have been avoided.


By 6.00PM it was all over. Still earthquakes are happening in that region. Normally it call as aftershocks. After 2004 major earthquake, thousands of earthquake happened in that region alone.


Since the possibility of happening vertical earthquake with magnificent power is very rare, I firmly believe there won’t be any Tsunami in Sri Lanka in my lifetime. it won’t happen even in my kids life time as well.

The difference between Octane 90 & Octane 95

Octane number is a standard measure of the performance of a motor or aviation fuel. The octane rating was developed by chemist Russell Marker at the Ethyl Corporation in 1926.
The octane number of a fuel is a measure of its ability to prevent engine knock. In another word it’s ability to resist self-igniting. 

Self-ignition leads to inefficiencies if it occurs during compression prior to the desired position of the piston in the cylinder as appropriate for value and ignition timing. The problem of premature ignition is referred as Engine Knock, which is a sound that is made when the fuel ignites too early in the compression stroke.
Engine knock gets its name because of the sound it produces: a knocking or pinging sound coming from the engine.
Severe knock causes severe engine damage, such as broken connecting rods, melted pistons, melted or broken valves and other components. The octane rating is a measure of how likely a gasoline or liquid petroleum fuel is to self ignite. The higher the octane number, the less likely an engine is to pre-ignite and suffer damage.
But the most typically used engine management systems found in automobiles today monitor the level of knock that is being produced by the fuel being used. In modern computer controlled engines, the timing of the ignition will be automatically altered by the fuel management system to reduce the pre-ignition to an acceptable level. There is no point using fuel with a higher octane rating than the engine was designed for. So long as the fuel doesn't cause engine knock, it's good enough.

Some cars are optimized for higher octane fuel and we must use relevant octane rating fuel for such vehicles.

A common misconception is that power output or fuel efficiency can be improved by burning fuel of higher octane than that specified by the engine manufacturer. The power output of an engine depends in part on the energy density of the fuel being burnt. Fuels of different octane ratings may have similar densities, but because switching to a higher octane fuel does not add more hydrocarbon content or oxygen, the engine cannot develop more power.

Similarly, octane rating do not guide us to purity level of the fuel. It is depend on the external factors such as quality of storage tank, pumping methods.. etc.

We should use fuel with the octane rating recommended by the car manufacturer. For the Toyota Prius it says “Use unleaded gasoline (Octane Rating 87 [Research Octane Number 91] or higher)”
In simple terms, if we used octane 95 instead of octane 92 (which is cheaper) we won’t  get any performance advantage or long life for the Prius engine. Instead it would drain out our pocket money little by little for nothing.

Young generation and the Buddhism

Our young generation is now more affectionate to the Buddhism. Most of the persons now studied or listened Lord Buddha's teaching. Due to this popularity, lot of new concepts are being created. 

There are 'Asapu', 'Mahamewna', 'Aasrama', 'Buddhist centers', 'Mediation centers', ‘Aramaya’ and 'International Buddhist centers'. The suitable word is Hi-Fi Buddhism.

We easily observe that lot of places insetead of Village temple that existed for generations and secure the Dhamma with great sprits.
I feel that the above places like separate segments ('Nikaya') in the main stream Buddha Sasana. The above segments have separate leaders who promote their concepts. 

This new trend is not good for the Buddha Sasana in particular and for the country in general. It is better to go in line with village temple concept rather than new concepts specially designed for personal glory.
If this trend continues, the concerned leaders will get out of the track of the Buddha’s explanation and will sermon what they want to achieve.

Listen very carefully what Lord Buddha said. Understand it correctly. If you understand the Dhamma, then you can see the Lord Buddha in your heart.

Sri Lanka's first Expressway

27th of this month, it is scheduled to open the first expressway in Sri Lanka, i.e. Southern Expressway.

There were negative sentiments from anti-Rajapaksha segments at the construction phase of the road. When one overhead bridge collapsed, it was end of the project for anti-rajapaksha segments. But the Rajapaksha government had the courage to stand up when there is a failure, same leadership quality we have seen during the humanitarian battle against the LTTE. So far, they (the government) have successfully launched several development initiatives.
When president Jayawardhane launched accelerated Mahaweli development project there were more criticism. Actually, there were social and geological impact of the project, but president Jayawardana went ahead with huge success.
Same concerns also exists this expressway projects as well. We must minimize those concerns as much as possible. But, we must continue this kind of project in future as well.
What would happen when an expressway built?.
- Will build investors confidence dramatically.
- will build huge moral high for the Sri Lankan citizens those who so far worshipped Singapore's developments. That will build ‘we can do..’ mind set. During the war period the government has build similar mind set by launching ‘Api wenuwen Api’ program.
- Concentration on town centers would gradually lessen. It affects urban land prices as well.
- with the people blessings government will speed up other major development activities.
So.. this expressway would be a show-gate for the future...

Cholesterol, Diabetic and Marketing tricks

This is a well discussed topic in most of societies, but the problem still exists and more and more people are suffering from. Most of the people ignored (not prioritize) medical practitioner’s advice and eventually suffered and sometimes it is irrecoverable.
Their life is not blessed by the divine power but the prescribed medical pills and tablets. They have to rely on these items probably to the end and has to take care of side effects of these medicine. With the side effects they are developing more and more new varieties of illnesses.
So..what we have to do...
 - We have to do regular exercises (walking is the best form of it). Minimum 5 days week and minimum of 30 minutes per day is required.
 - Any restriction of our normal food pattern is not advisable. But, instant food is not a variety of a normal food. So.. we have avoid instant foods. If you restrict your meal without consulting dietitian, you are risking your life for more illnesses. We can see lot of vegetarians.. fishtarians.. Policy like be a vegetarian is destructive to individual health. Better to focus on nutritional value rather than stick on self-made policy.
 - Need to have plenty of fruits in your diet. That will contribute much needed natural vitamins

Various companies are trying to sell their product by highlighting nutritional value of the ingredients. Though they highlight the importance of regular exercise, most of the people just get the marketed item and use. it can create excess of Vitamin in human body that will lead to unknown new complications.