Despite their acquaintance with the casts of Govigama, Durava, Salagama, Rada or Karava, every Buddhist attends to sermons on Poya Day in white attire. On such an occasion there is no colour difference in attire. On such a day they are all commonly addressed as ‘Upasaka’ and ‘Upasika’. Their minimal and Individual attire depicts individuality.
Whether they come from the upcountry, down-south, Sabaragamuwa, Sath-korala or wherever, on a Poya Day everyone sits on ‘kalala’ spread on the floor without any discrimination. Does not matter if they come from Sri Lanka, Tibet, India, Japan or China, when they are in the sermon hall they do not rely on traditions. To be concise, they all are Buddhist monks . The cast, tradition or the country of the monks who preach is immaterial. No matter what country or tradition a monk comes from, to the people he’s just another bhikkhu. Regardless of the language, if the communication takes place, the contents of the sermon will be agreed without any hesitation because they are the words of the Gautama Buddha himself. There is no relevance of the country, caste or tradition to which the monks belong to when it comes to accepting Buddhism. Also, the color or pattern of the monk’s robe has no relevance.
In worldly life, people are diverse in terms of wealth, color, caste, nationality or language, but in the Buddha Sasana, they are all united as ‘Buddhists’ with the mission of creating a Buddhist world by respecting the Buddha, following his words. The reality and genuineness of that unified Buddhist world is clearly explained by the unity, harmony and collegiality of Buddhist lay devotees from different countries in the matter of internal Buddhist affairs. Now the time has come to work for such a united Buddhist world.
