Sri Lanka Champions Vesak as a UN Holiday

Foreign Minister to the fore at 54th UNGA

A wise observer of history and the penchant of our planet’s diverse peoples to slaughter each other, in the names and causes of ideologies, once remarked that ‘humanity’ has only enough religion to make itself hate… but not such a sufficiency of it as to generate universal love.

Once in a while though, an enlightened being arises in the world order – one who transcends the proclivity of Homo sapiens to wage war on itself. And through disciplined reflection and rigorous study of the nature of the cosmos, he or she comes to a more apposite point of view.

One such human was the Tathāgata, a Shakyan prince who meditated on life’s quiddity in the quiet groves of a subcontinental universe around the 6th century BC. That being left his legacy to the world in the form of a philosophy that eventually gave rise to at least three variants of what now – sadly – often descend from the sublimest of thoughts into the most rabid pseudo-religion: corrupted by myths, legends, folkore, tradition and cynical politics.

Yes, the Buddha’s teachings and way of life have been honoured more in the breach than their observance – in far-flung corners of the Mahayana, Theravada and Vajrayana planes of existence!

That a purer, wiser and more benevolent form of the philosophy exists is not contested. And yet again, ever so rarely, there arises another enlightened being; one who is bound to champion its merits, as well as its acceptance and observation, in the courts of public opinion and praxis.

Of course, the latter being was the late Sri Lankabhimanya Lakshman Kadirgamar, who was instrumental in having Buddhism’s foremost commemoration – Vesak (the day marking the birth, death and enlightenment of Gautama Siddhartha) – adopted as a UN holiday.

At the 54th session of the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) in 1999, Sri Lanka’s then foreign minister proposed that the UN implements the formal observance of Vesak in its offices planet-wide as a mark of respect to the Buddha and in recognition of the transcendent spirituality he had gifted the world.

The UNGA unanimously adopted his resolution to honour the Shakyamuni’s contribution to human spirituality. And today, Vesak is celebrated on the United Nations calendar every year as an established UN Observance Day.

At the 54th session of the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) in 1999, Sri Lanka’s then foreign minister proposed that the UN implements the formal observance of Vesak in its offices