Pravarana Purnima of Buddhism

Hope on Prabarana Purnima: Establish Communal Harmony

Prabarana Purnima is the second largest festival observed by the Buddhist community of Bangladesh. Each year, Prabarana is celebrated on the full moon day of the eleventh month of the lunar calendar, usually at the end of October month. This year, the Prabarana day has been observed on 29th of October. The Buddhists celebrate this occasion with lots of joys and amusements. From the time of Buddha, Prabarana ceremony has been observed as a custom by the Buddhist community people. The main attraction of this great occasion is the Fanush Flying festival, which has now crossed the inter-religion barrier and is being celebrated by people of all religions in Bangladesh. Many people, irrespective of their religion, gather at the Buddhist temple on the day of Prabarana to participate and enjoy the beautiful moments of Fanush festival.

In Buddhism, the people who leave their family and house and accept the life of monks are called Bhikkhus (Buddhist monks). Now-a-days, the Bhikkhus stay in temples and pass their life according to the rules and regulations of Sangha, the combined community of Bhikkhus. However, during the times of Buddha, there were no temples and the Bhikkhus did not have any fixed place to stay. They would wander from village to village and beg their foods from the villagers. They used to sleep in jungles, under the trees, and in empty places during nights. Sometimes, they would go to the deep jungles and hills in search of calm and cool places to practice meditation. During the rainy season, it became difficult for them to wander and collect their foods. The Bhikkhus had to pass over paddy fields of villagers which would cause harm to the crops. The village people once went the Buddha and complained against the Bhikkhus of destroying their crops. Buddha then asked all the Bhikkhus to stay inside the temple during the three months of rainy season so that that do not cause any harm to the village people. From then on, this custom has been termed as Barshabash (the Rains Retreat) to be observed by the Buddhist monks.

According to the Gregorian calendar, Barshabash starts at the end of July and ends at the end of October month. In these three months of Barshabash, the Bhikkhus are not permitted to go out of the temple and travel outside. They are bound to stay together inside the temple house and practice religious activities. The Lord Buddha discovered four noble truths of life which are: 1. Life has sufferings, 2. Sufferings have causes, 3. There are ways to end sufferings, and 4. Sufferings can be ended by following meditation. The Bhikkhus practice meditation rigorously during the Barshabash period to remove all sufferings from their life and attain absolute happiness. The general Buddhist community people can also go to the temple to hear religious discussions from the Bhikkhus in the Barshabash period.

During the life of Buddha, all monks would come to Buddha together after the end of their three-month long Barshabash period. Buddha would ask them about their experiences of the Barshabash life. Some Bhikkhus would tell of their good experiences while others would tell about sufferings. One time, a group of monks, after completing the Barshabash period, came to Buddha, and told that they kept silence during the three months of Barshabash to avoid any disputes or conflicts among themselves. Buddha replied them, “Silence is not always the best strategy to avoid dispute. It is not even beneficial for the community. Rather, we should talk and discuss with each other about our problems or wrong doings so that improvements can be made”. From then on, all Bhikkhus were told by Buddha to gather in a meeting at the end of Barshabash period where they would be allowed to discuss about their wrong doings during the Barshabash time, to confess any misdeeds happened, and in broader sense, to discuss about adapting religious practices for the betterment of the Sangha. This meeting is known as the Prabarana meeting. The word Prabarana means “to invite” which tells to invite monks to come together in a place to confess and purify.

Prabarana meeting is a very important one for the Bhikkhus. In this day, Bhikkhus can discuss openly about their good or bad experiences of monastic life, their problems and sufferings. They can take advices from each other each to attain the best path of religious practices. This allows them to adapt their lives with the changes of society. The general Buddhist people celebrate Prabarana with religious activity and great festivity. In this day, the temples are decorated with beautiful colors and lightings. All Buddhist people come to temple for observing traditional Puja. They present foods and alms to the Bhikkhus, light candles, burn incense sticks, and do their prayers. They participate in religious hearings and take Panchasheel oath. The Panchasheel are the five principles of Buddha for the observance of general householders which are: 1. Not to kill any living beings, 2. Not to steal, oppress, and exploit; 3. Not to do any sexual misconduct, 4. Not to drink alcohols, and 5. Not to lie and deceive.

On the day of Prabarana, people start to fly Fanushes in the evening. Fanushes are paper made balloons. The inside air of the Fanush is heated by cloth, usually soaked in spirit, which causes the Fanush to fly up in the sky. The floating candle-lit Fanushes in the dark night sky resembles to be blessing-lamp, the lamp which will remove all darkness of our mind and which will enlighten us to refrain from all wrong-doings. Our country has a large diversity of people consisting of different religions, races, and casts. For a long time, these people are living together with peace and harmony. Religious festivals are observed irrespective of religions. Even though, there have been unexpected occurrences of communal conflicts which prove that we are yet to be completely free of religious darkness. Let all our communal darkness be eliminated by the lights of Prabarana Purnima, let all ill communal powers be destroyed by the combined prayers of Buddhist people, let our faith, love, and trust to each other irrespective of religion be re-established.

Writer: Sukarna Barua, Assistant Professor, Computer Science and Engineering Department, BUET.

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