Here is a Facebook page for Bana Bhante in Bangladesh with many photos (note that "b" and "v" are often interchangeable in Pali):
http://www.facebook.com/pages/Bono-Vante/191946346982" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
Location
Rajbana Vihara, Rangamati, Bangladesh
Birthday
8 January 1920
Biography
His Holiness Ven. Sadhanananda Mahathero(Bana Bhante)
About Ven. Bana Bhante:
Ven. Bana Bhante(the forest monk) is the well-known, famously worshipped, clairvoyant, omnipotent, omniscient Bhikkshu in Bangladesh who has attained the highest magga 'Arahanta'. For over forty years, transcending religious barriers, creed, and other societal divisions, he has been providing directions to people from all walks of life much like Lord Gautama Buddha, about their moral and spiritual developments. As such, Ven. Banabhante has never been beholden to any particualr sects or segments of population nor to any particular individuals for their devotion to him as arduous devotees. Belonging to no one , he truly belongs to ALL of those who come to embrace his edifying ideals to enrich their lives by nurturing and cultivating 'kusala kamma'.
As an Arahanta, His Holiness Ven. Banabhante maintains strict discipline in upholding dictates of Lord Buddha for the 'Sangha' entailed in 'Binoypitok' and he steadfastly avoids any claims of ownership on anything --money, expensive gifts, material property, and 'special devotees' . Individuals by their own merits and contents of inner qualities can endear themselves to Ven. Banabhantee and as such one's nearness to the venerable Bhikkshu cannot be deemed as his personal preferences. Indeed, as a clairvoyant Arahanta, he can instantly view latent merits or 'lack of' among his devotees. For he has risen to the summit heights of immesuarable achievements surpassing normative, ontological boundaries. His fundamental philosophy and teachings emanate from Buddha's teachings as he reminds everyone in quotidian living the importance and needs for observance of Lord Buddha's principles of 'sila'(good conduct), 'samadhi'(right meditation), and 'prajna'(attainment of wisdom).
As life cannot be divorced from diurnal existence, it becomes all the more urgent that we pay attention to our conducts and Ven. Bana Bhante passionately propounds that flourishing of inner virtues lie inextricably intertwined with our mental inclinations. Our actions with putrid predilections will inevitably bring about unwholesome outcomes embodying 'dukkha' meaning sufferings. His teachings are pointed remarks on endless sufferings mired in our cycles of rebirths and stark reminders that our actions yield unavoidable consequences based on its own merits.There is no magic wand by which one's mischievous deeds could simply be, despite infinite wishes, washed away or wiped off by some miraculous quackery. Thus, grounded in scientific reality of inter-connectedness between causes and effects, and in reasonable discernment Ven. Bana Bhante envisions a community of present and future progenies who would adhesively adhere to edifying conducts devoid of 'Ahimsa', hidden jealousy, envy, acrimonious feelings and other conducts borne out of filthy perversities--in thoughts, words, and in all kinds of daily activities. As we yearn to live in peace and harmony, our actions must coincide with our inner state of mind. Negative, unwholesome thoughts with mental defilements will inevitably breed unwanted, undesirable outcome. One needs to investigate into the nature of reality by delving deep into the reality of mind and matter within self, not in the form penance, but in sincere attempts to extricate mind from inward defilements. Careful observations of reality by interrogating the nature of relaity leads to observation of truth. It is to know the self through process of self-examination.That investigation requires vigilence, self-discipline and incisive self-analyses into the contents of our thoughts. This art of living is deeply embedded in Vipassana Meditation
Born in Rangamati, on the auspicious day of 8th January, 1920, Rathindranath bore signs of an occult and astounding greatness. His gaze since childhood was set on a far distant future as though he remained deeply absorbed in compassionate contemplation at humanity's intense sufferings and finding ways to alleviate their pains and incalculable misery. His observations on the world around us gave him the determinations to set out in search of 'Saimyak gyan' or right views. Merely a novice in the Buddhist Sangha, the 'Rathindra Sraman' made a query to his then teacher Sri Dipankar Mahathero who were staying at Chittagong Buddhist temple. His teacher was startled by his disciples' rather audacious inquiry-'how to attain right wisdom' or 'Prajna'. The young 'samana' was discontent at heart as he failed to quench his bubbled up thirst to grasp the infinite, immesuarable, and ineffable. An enormous inward transformation brought about a stupendous, supramental consciousness as 'Rathindranath Sraman' embarked on his unkown journey at nearby Longhadhu Forest adjacent to his childhood residence at Dhanpata forsaking mortal dangers, agonies of sensory deprivations of foods and shelter. He was fearless like Siddharta Sri Goutama whose 'mahaviniskraman' certainly gave him the exemplary impetus to be worth emulating. And, Rathindranath after 12 years of austere practice of Bippassana emerged as the 'Forest Monk', the venerable 'Bana Bhante'. The uniqueness of 'Bana Bhante's' emergence did not simply come from introspective dissection or from intellectual analyses of contents of his vast consciousness. It had gone through a gigantic inward transformation saturated in his unnerving determination like Tennyson's Ulysses--'to strive, to seek, and to find, but never to yield'.
It is difficult to fathom the depth , scope , intensity of this 'great sage' , but one can speculate Sri Aurobindo's eternal words reverberating in the contours of Bana Bhante's enormous psyche--'man is Nature's great item of transition in which she grows Conscious of her aim. In him she looks from the animal with open eyes towards the divine ideal'. It was , indeed, this imperceptible , yet intensely palpable at heart which propelled to remind within him rather incessently the Nietschzean ideal--'If the night and the day are such that you greet them with joy, if life emits a fragrance like flowers and sweet scented herbs, is more elastic, more starry, and more immortal; that is your success''. To Ven. Bana Bhante, life is like Nietschze' s vision which means 'for us constantly to transform into light and flame all that we are and we meet with'. He drew the lesson from Buddha-'Atma Dipa Biharena Atma Sarana Aynya Sarana' meaning 'Know thyself' and entuned his mind, heart and entire being into Shakespearean addage--'To thine own self be true , Then it must follow as night the day'. His significance, therefore, can be discerned not only to those who are initiated but to the values he remotely suggests by this extraordinary manifestation of the superhuman in the process of his 'becoming' into the 'Bana Bhante'. His titanic influence has spread an immense awareness and has compelled a vast sea of humanity in his surrounding region to retreat from habitual walks and to aspire to redefine their lives by 'practices of Bipassana'. Like T. S. Eliot, Ven. Banabhante portrays the stark futility of human existence in his unceasing advocacy for ' continence', 'metta' and 'peaceful co-existence' in a world where blood shook his heart at 'The awful daring of a moment's surrender, which an age of prudence can never retract, by this , and this only, we have existed which is not to be found in our obituaries, or in memories draped by the beneficient spider' (Wasteland, T.S. Eliot). In such a world with full of 'endless duhkkha' Eliot's condign depiction finds a striking resonance in Ven. Banabhante's tireless espousal at needs for inward transformations. As the mortal existence in his view--"Here one can neither stand nor lie nor sit, there is not even silence in the mountains, but dry sterile thunder without rain, there is not even solitude in the mountains"(Wasteland, T.S.Eliot). It must be pointed out that he is not a messanger of gloom and despondency in our present existence but his emphasis is on needs for upliftment so as to eschew fatal consequences of 'Akusala Kamma'--unwholesome actions . He often questions 'how life can be lost in living' so that we engage in our efforts at seeking significance of life in our mortal existence
Discourses of Ven. Bana Bhante:
This body is borne out of 'Abidya' meaning ignorance and 'Tanha'meaning desire. The conjunction of 'Abidya' and 'Tanha' , instantaneously, results in birth of 'Panchaskandha'. So, the utmost efforts must be there to manintain an awareness about the nature of 'Abidya'. It means to be aware of all activities pervading our daily existence. Ven. Bana Bhante lays tremendous emphasis on the 'Satipatthana Vipassana' and is scornful of weak resolves of small motivations. He reminds that a ceaseless stream of efforts and awareness are essential requirements for practice of Vipassana Meditation . It is to cultivate choiceless awareness in the continuous movements of 'seeing', 'hearing', 'thinking' , imagining' etc. A beginner should endeavour to contemplate on 'arising' and 'vanishing' which eventually will give rise to 'insight of illness'.
This human existence in an individual may not take rebirth in human form once again, Ven. Banabhante sternly warns quite often as the next round of re-birth could take place in the unhappy life of lower existence. Everyone ought, therefore, strive to reach the first stage of 'Sottapatti magga' as a minimum achievement in this life. Ven. Bana Bhante's teachings and discourses focus essentially on Lord Buddha's 'Pratitya Samutpada Niti'--the laws of causations. He notes that efforts in mental discipline all too often is accompanied with unwanted tedious labor without delight , but the realization of nature of 'dukkha' and 'impermnance' will bring forth compassionate 'panna' to heal those wounds long-suppressed in the heart.
It is a frivolous exercise of preposterously empty-headed mind to be indulging into confabulation of 'Nature of Nibbana' with adornments of verbal ornamentation, wheareas a mind remains quagmired, inescapbly, in petty calculations of earning a little name and fame of being a 'writer' or 'thinker' in so doing and harboring surruptitiously hidden jealousy, envy and other mental defilements. It is pragmatic rather not to dwell on this imagined state of "Nibbana' but to work with steely determination in attaining 'magga' by delving deep into the practices of mindfulness with an inexorable pace. It is imperative that a mind extricate fully from 'kama'-'lustful thoughts' long before one ponders on the 'state of Nibbana'. From a sloka in Dhammapada, one can discern the fatal consequences of lustful thoughts forewarned by Lord Buddha--'Kamatu jayate shoka, Kamatu jayate bhayang, Kamatu bippimuttassu natthi shoka kutu bhayang'. The ideation and identification of sense of ''me', or 'I' is borne out of misperceived assumptions inbred within us in the form of 'ignorance'. This ignorance is of 'Lokuttara Gyan', which cannot be erased by accumulation of institutional knowledge or by resorting to pedagogy of an instructional curriculum by any self-acclaimed, clever saints espousing various adjectives of religiousity, at times, far-fatched, about the unseen, unfelt qualities of 'Nibbana'. Leaving cacophonies of such self-professed attributes of 'emptiness' from caterwauls of Sadhus aside, Ven. Banabhante once described ' Nibbana' as cessation of all 'dukkhas'. His attainment of "Nibbana' is epitomized in his very self-absorbed, succinct depiction of a sublime state which needed no cliched, tautological , and tortured wordings like crochet cross-gained of a mundane wordsmith. There lurks a hidden danger in such labybrinthine web of ornamentations as it represents an insidious image of vain glory in the guise of substantive discourse. It is also important to decipher the actual meanings of 'Etipiso Bhagava, Arahang, Samma Sambuddho, Bijja-charana samppnna, Sugata, Lokabido, Anuttara, Puriso Dhamma Sarathi, Satta, Deba, Manussacha, Buddho bhagabati'. The critical emphasis, Ven BanaBhante mentions is on the word 'Etipiso' meaning 'This is the'. It refres to 'absolute', uneqivocal, irreconcilable, recondite and 'Adaitavm'. The uniqueness of the Lord Buddha's teachings sets him apart and Ven. Bana Bhante's emanenace as embodiment of Buddha's teachings mark a pronounced departure from teachings of other 'luminaries' amongst our contemporary epoch-makers or trend-setters. After all, all that glitters is not gold and one can think of only Krishnamurti who has ascended to that identical stage of spritual pre-eminence. It will, therefore, be misleading to bring into the discourses of Ven. Banabhante a quixotic and arbitrary relevance of 'others who are temperamentally and philosophically, unrelated to his 'Panna' or 'Wisdom', just beacuse one has read about them 'a little' and can bridge a connection by some melange of words according to one's inclinations to profess to be a reservoir, albeit mini, of infinite knowledge. It must be emphasized here that Lord Buddha counseled humanity to 'expand compassion to all living beings just as a mother distributes her boundless love for her only offspring'. ........'Mata Yata Niyang Puttang, Ayusa Eka Putta Manurakhye, Ebampi Sabba Bhutesu, Manasang Bhavaye aparimang'. As the true disciple of Buddha , Ven. BanaBhante stressed solely on 'peaceful co-existence, on metta, even when he was faced with 'sagacious or practical choices' on numerous occassions as was witnessed by this author. His instructions were on farewell to arms adhering to Buddha's principles of 'peaceful co-existence'. The significance of Ven. Banabhante's emanace, seems to me, lies in averting a cataclysmic maelstorm surrounding his native region where as an apostle of peace he made us aware of 'higher values' in our spiritual journey and in so doing, he resonated teachings of Lord Gautam Buddha. It is in the principles of 'Ahimsa' 'metta' and peaceful co-existence, we can attain some measure of sanity in our daily living.
Ven. Bana Bhante resides at Raj Bana Bihar, Rangamati, Chittagong, Bangladesh. Contents collated and and authored by: Ranjan Kumar Barua, U.S.A, 2008.authored by: Ranjan Kumar Barua, U.S.A, 2008.eschewing all kinds of hostile activities and practising equinimity, ceaselessly, even in the face of extreme provocation and to adjust a living upholding principles of 'peaceful co-existence'. The significance of Ven. Banabhante's emanace, seems to me, lies in averting a cataclysmic maelstorm surrounding his native region where as an apostle of peace he made us aware of 'higher values' in our spiritual journey and in so doing, he resonated teachings of Lord Gautam Buddha. It is in the principles of 'Ahimsa' 'metta' and peaceful co-existence, we can attain some measure of sanity in our daily living.