Ven Nyanavimala, the wandering monk
View(s):Notes from Down Under
It was the late 1980s.The frail but determined ‘Sudu hamuduruwo’ residing at Vajirarama would walk down Vajira Road, turn to Havelock Road and walk a little distance on his alms-round (‘pindapatha’ ) in the morning. In his late 70s, this German monk, Venerable Nyanavimala by then had a hip problem and was unable to walk long distances. Yet he would always go on ‘pindapatha’ and collect his ‘davaldana’ – the only meal he used to take.
I was pleasantly surprised to find an enlarged photograph of Venerable Nyanavimala hanging in the ‘dana saala’ of the Bodhinyana Monastery in Perth along with other great monks including Ajan Chah, the renowned Thai meditation teacher.
“I only met Venerable Nyanavimala once, but the meeting left a lasting impression,” says Ajahn Brahmavamso, the Abbot of the Monastery. It was a chance meeting. In 1990 Ajahn Brahm was visiting Sri Lanka and was staying at the Nedimala temple. One afternoon, Ajahn Bram, along with an English monk and an Australian attendant, decided to walk to Vajirarama to pay their respects to Venerable Piyadassi. “We arrived hot and tired only to be told by Ven. Piyadassi to take a seat and he would arrange some tea. Little did I know that the great Maha thera was to make the tea himself for us! I was stunned by such humility,” he recollects.
He then met Bhikkhu Bodhi who had returned from the US and was staying at Vajirarama. Bhikkhu Bodhi suggested that they should pay their respects to another monk. “He was an ageing German monk called Nyanavimala. I recall Ven. Bhikkhu Bodhi saying that Ven. Nyanavimala doesn’t speak very much so we should just enter the room, pay our respects and then leave. Ven. Bhikkhu Bodhi waited outside.
“It was over an hour before we left that room. What happened inside remains with me today as the best Dhamma Talk that I have ever had the good karma to listen to! It was worth the whole journey from Australia to Colombo to experience. The Venerable Nyanavimala wove quotes from the Suttas together with explanations from his own experience into such a symphony of Dhamma that I left not with stars in my eyes, more like Dhammacakka wheels in my eyes! They would call it today “Awesome”,” is how Ajahn Brahm describes his meeting. “ I never had the good fortune to meet Ven. Nyanavimala again but that one chance meeting will never be forgotten.” He decided to hang Ven. Nyanavimala’s photograph alongside other great and inspiring monks.
It is a rare photograph. I can’t remember seeing a copy in Sri Lanka, Ven Nyanavimala’s home since he got ordained in September 1955 at the age of 43. He was the last disciple of Venerable Nanatiloka (1878-1957), the first Buddhist monk from Europe who founded the Island Hermitage at Dodanduwa. Having led a quiet life at the Island Hermitage for ten years after ordination, Ven Nyanavimala started touring the country as a wandering monk. Carrying his alms bowl and a small bag, for nearly 25 years he walked the length and breadth of Sri Lanka staying in temples and other places for at most three days at a time. This was in keeping with a monk’s life as “a homeless one”. He did not even wear a pair of slippers.
He never had a fixed place to stay. Only during the ‘vas’ season would he stay in a temple for the specified three months in keeping with the ‘vinaya’ rules. It was only when he was troubled with a hip problem that he decided to stay in Vajirarama. When he had to be confined to bed for several years, he was looked after by two attendant monks. One of them, the Danish monk, Venerable Mettavihari told me that he had the privilege of learning so much from Ven Nyanavimala. “He would explain the Dhamma so well,” he said. But he never put anything down on paper.
I had the unforgettable experience of feeding the erudite and pious monk at the General Hospital when he was in the Bhikkhu Ward after eye surgery.
He preferred to move to the Island Hermitage which he did in 1995 and from there to the more secluded island, Parappuduwa where he breathed his last on October 13, 2005. The young layman who looked after him in his last few years is today a meditating monk, Venerable Nyanaloka who spends most of his time in the Himalayas.
Paying a tribute to Venerable Nyanavimala, another foreign monk Bhikkhu Nyanatusita wrote: “When he met people, Nyanavimala would encourage them to practise the Dhamma with the Suttas as a guide. Again and again, he emphasized that the practice of the Dhamma, a simple renunciant lifestyle, and the giving up of all worldly attachments will lead one to the supreme bliss of Nibbana.
He inspired many younger monks and, when he still had physical strength, was happy to give wise counsel to them on how to live the bhikkhu life to best advantage. One hesitates to say : “May he attain Nibbana”, since he might well have already done so, but since that is tradition, let us add our voices to the chorus and say “May he attain Nibbana!” -D.C. Ranatunga
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