Gaatha (ගාථා)
When practicing Buddhism it is customary to say Gaatha (ගාථා) and Suthra (සූත්ර) on a daily basis. This is done to help you find your way through this endless circle of life to Nirvana (නිර්වාන) – the ultimate state of being, the point at which you have finally managed to break through this endless cycle of birth and rebirth.
To a person not familiar with Buddha’s teachings these gaatha and suthra could seem to be a form of prayer, but the truth of the matter is that Buddha required no one to pray to him, or even to pray to any God or Deity.
More Detailed Information
A look at how Buddhists practice their daily devotions.
>> Guidelines for saying GaathaA few basic things to do when saying gaatha.
Buddha’s teachings instead showed that the only being who could help a person out of this cycle of life and suffering, was the person himself. You alone are responsible for your actions and for the effect they have on you. There is no higher being to help to wipe out your bad deeds and give you a clean slate.
The gaatha and suthra Buddha gave are only guidelines which can help a person to become more peaceful within themselves and to help them to do good deeds – Ping (පිං) – and refrain from doing any bad deeds – known as Pauv (පව්).
This is the very basic foundation upon which most Buddhists base their lives. And this is why you will find that most Theravada Buddhists follow these simple steps in their daily lives, even when they are unable to go to a Buddhist temple (පන්සල). They instead set up a small shrine room (බුදු ගේ) within their own homes to help them follow Buddha’s guidelines.
Here we present to you the most basic set of gaatha and suthra that are used by Theravada Buddhist practitioners in their daily lives. It should be mentioned here that there are numerous other gaatha and suthra, but for the purposes of daily worship, they are not essential.
Following is a basic set of gaatha (ගාථා):
To be noted,
Please note, that when saying the gaatha needed to offer ping to the Deviyo, that you are not worshipping to the deviyo.
You are instead giving them the chance to gain some Ping, something which they are not able to do while in their present Godly incarnations.
According to Buddha’s teachings only human beings have the ability to do ping – a matter which makes it imperative that you do the most you can while in your present human form.
- නමස්කාරය
- පන්සිල්
- ඉතිපිසෝ, ස්වාක්ඛාතෝ, සුපටිපන්නෝ
- ඝනසාරප්ප දිට්ඨෙන
- පුජේමි බුද්ධං
- වන්න ගන්ධ
- සුගන්ධි ඛාය වදනං
- යස්සමුලේ නිසින්නොවා
- ඉමිනාපුඤ්ඤ කම්මේ
- එත්තාවාතාච
- ඉදංමේ ඥාතීනං හෝතු
- ආකාසට්ඨාච