Linda Gann
The first time I heard about the Save the Society Organization, Nanda was talking about it as a project that he wanted to do himself as a moral obligation to help his society. This idea came to him as he travelled around, studied and received help from the Buddha’s teaching and different communities after becoming a monk.
As a donor and sponsor of one monk, I have watched this organization go from an ‘idea’ to reality in less than a year. My fellow classmate and friend, Praggannanda or ‘Nanda’ to his friends, wanted to help the younger generation in his home country, Bangladesh, to be aware of a better way of life and how to help society. Nanda’s constant effort to get support for his organization was an admirable thing to observe. He began by asking his friends to sponsor a monk for one week. I was one of those friends. He asked a temple in Thailand that has a branch in Perth, to donate some robes. They donated 35 sets of robes for this project. This seemed to get the ball rolling. Soon he had many donors from the Thai community in Perth and from different parts of the world that visit his website. Within weeks of receiving these donations the date was set for the ordination. The call went out to all the surrounding villages within 120 kilometres of his home town, Comilla, for anyone interested in being a monk, to live in the temple for one week to experience what this is like and to go to school. Nanda organized every detail of this project and worked tirelessly as did his family and relatives in Comilla, carrying out his instructions.
Despite the robes being held up in customs, where they still are to this day, to having to change the date twice, the day finally arrived. December 25th through the 31st was the time. Seeing the first pictures come through from the ordination day made me cry with a mixture of joy and sadness that Nanda couldn’t be there to ordain them himself. Even I wanted to be there to be a part of the ceremony and enjoy the fellowship. There were 22 monks in total and they looked so wonderful in their robes that were donated from the surrounding temples. I can’t wait for this coming years’ project. It is a great feeling to be a small part of such a great thing. I feel that in a small way I am helping the younger generation to carry on the Buddhist way of life.
Seeing this project from beginning to completion was a wonderful thing. It made me aware of the needs of this country and many other developing countries in a way that I never would have understood otherwise. Just sponsoring one monk and seeing the results have changed me and my understanding of Buddhism. Thank you Nanda for the opportunity to be of help.
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