Blessings from Most Ven Heenbunne Kondanna Nayaka Thero

VIEWS (1388)

Ven Maha Sangha, Honorable Ministers, Governor of Western Province, distinguished guests, and members of the business community. We are very happy to be here this evening. This is my first experience with a business community. As mentioned earlier, Podi Hamuduruwo was the one who did this presentation since the inception on this stage. Since he is not well, as many of you know, that Ven Assaji and myself are here, wishing recovery to Podi Hamuduruwo soon. I would like to share few words with you. 

First I would like to say thank you to Mr Mathi Parthipan and Glenda Parthipan for inviting us to be here this evening. I was thinking while I was seated, sometimes you may have thought what have monks to do with the business community? At the time of the Buddha, I thought Buddha was also with that community and he provided his guidance and advice on how to be successful. This is what is Podi Hamuduruwo did I believe to many of you, as the head of BT Options appreciated his presentations and advice. 

The Buddha guided people on how to balance their lives and how to balance their businesses. We all need that balance. If you do not have a good balance sheet, you would not be able to be successful. The Buddha’s economic theory was very simple. He did not encourage us to be selfish in business, you all do the business and you all have to have customers. Without customers, there is no business, we have to wish for their wellbeing as well. If we just think of our own profit margin, we will not be able to do that. We have to think in terms of business partners too. The Buddha’s advise was you have to consume one portion, two portions of your income you have to invest, and fourth portion to save for future needs. It is a very simple economic theory. I believe we can still apply this today. This idea was given to the business committee at that time and all the Situwaru, millionaires that time were consulting the Buddha. Even though the Buddha was encouraging us to curtail our cravings, you are not doing the business with craving but with a thought of success. He never discouraged anybody’s success. He always encouraged to work diligently. If there was any loss, he said, look at it, find and examine it and fix the problem. We can apply this and improve our spirituality too. You can do business in a spiritual way and wish the success of your customers. If you have thoughts of metta, not only will you be successful, but your customers will be too. 

There are many things that I believe we can do. There are many untapped areas. I would like to share two thoughts that I had this morning. 

As I was coming from a visit from one of our temples in Avissawella, one young man was driving me. I asked him if he was with a taxi service, he said we do not have those services in the area, there is no business. I only do personal business through personal contacts. However, he said even though there are many people who have smart phones in the area, they do not know how to use it. They do not have apps on their smartphones. Then I thought what we have to do is, we can have small business forums outside of Colombo city in these small towns. We have to educate those people and if we can educate those people by having small forums, they may have the opportunity. Other business partners may also have the opportunity.We must encourage them, so that they can also learn and be a part of these businesses. This young man shared with me this thought. 

The other thought which I had was that business communities can use research. We have universities, and we have university students. According to some of your needs, if you encourage them to do research with their assignments, you can benefit and the student can benefit as well. In the curriculum if we include internships, they will have a new experience and as they graduate from the university, you can benefit from the results of those researches as well. Based on real facts, you can develop the businesses. I believe this would be really beneficial to the student community as well as the business community. That perhaps it can help our country more. 

We know that the business community is providing an enormous strength for the country. Your businesses and encouragement add to the economy of the nation. This is a great contribution made by many of you. 

I was happy to see 30 companies receiving the awards. We appreciate that kind of encouragement from the Head of BT Options for arranging this. This is very invigorative opportunity for us to see and I am very happy to be with you this evening. I wish all of you great success. 

BT Options as well as all the business community members who are here, I wish you great success in this new year in your business world. May you have great opportunities so that you can provide more strength to the country as well as to the communities as in general. Wishing great success and blessings of the triple gem, I remain here. Thank you very much. Theruwan Saranai.