Sathyodaya · Truth Awakening

This booklet titled Truth Awakening is a translation of ‘Sathyodaya’ and may be introduced as the key to free thinking. By reading this book, we may acquire the necessary skill and training to think independently. Free thinking is not an ability gained easily through habit. Proper direction and guidance is required to develop this skill. Though the physical body can be easily trained to perform a task, the same cannot be said about training the mind. Progressively cultivating human understanding and judgement through reasoning is a challenging task.

When considering the history of ‘free thinking’, the teaching in ‘Kālāma Sutta’ takes pride of place. This Sutta instructs us to not to accept anything simply because it is based on tradition, or because it is stated in the religious scriptures, or because it was said by your teacher; accept something only if you are convinced that it is wholesome, true and right. While Kālāma Sutta provides the principle based platform for free thinking within Buddhist teaching, Sathyodaya teaches the Sri Lankan society how to put this into practice.

The original Sinhala version of this book was written during the period 1933-34 or about 85 years ago. Many false interpretations of the Buddha’s teaching as well as using Buddhism for personal gain and classifying people according to their birth by the Buddhist clergy themselves, were pointed out in this book. However, the question now is whether the society has advanced beyond the misrepresentations, and falsehoods to a more progressive one based Buddha’s teachings as clearly articulated 85 years ago by Venerable Rahula.

We live in a society where people ask for everything they want by making offerings to the Bodhi tree, the symbolic setting where Siddhartha Gautama let go of all attachments. It is ironic that today, we make offerings (Bodhi Puja) and an endless plethora of large-scale offerings under the guise of many names such as ‘Aba-thel Puja’ , ‘Theseththa Gnana Puja’ , ‘Pichcha-mal Puja’ , ‘Dahaspethi-mal Puja 4, offerings to mother Goddess, offerings of flowers and fruits in such huge quantities that they overflow from the alters they are kept on, seeking favours and benefits and reinforcing their attachments. This emphasizes an increase in ignorance, greed, and fear in our society, signaling its further decline since the 1930s; which is when ‘Sathyodaya’ was first compiled.