Our lineage
Acharya Buddharakkhita
Founder of the Maha Bodhi Society: engineer, monk, scholar and meditation teacher, 1922–2013.
A life given to the Dhamma
Venerable Acharya Buddharakkhita was born on 12 March 1922 in Imphal, Manipur. He trained as an automobile engineer in Kolkata and served with the Government of India’s defence ordnance during the Second World War.
The destruction he witnessed in the war turned him towards the spiritual life. He renounced household life on 15 August 1947, received novice ordination at Kusinārā on Vesākha full moon in 1949, and later full ordination in Sri Lanka.
He studied under some of the greatest teachers of the twentieth century, among them Venerable Nyanatiloka in Sri Lanka and the Venerable Mahāsi Sayadaw in Burma, and served on the editorial board of the Sixth Buddhist Council in Rangoon. In 1956 he founded the Maha Bodhi Society in Bengaluru.
Milestones
- 1922
Birth
Born in Imphal, Manipur, on 12 March.
- 1947
Renunciation
Leaves household life on 15 August.
- 1949
Ordination
Novice ordination at Kusinārā; later full ordination in Sri Lanka.
- 1951–54
Study in Burma
Vipassanā under Mahāsi Sayadaw; Abhidhamma with leading teachers; work for the Sixth Council.
- 1956
Maha Bodhi Society
Founds the Society in Bengaluru.
- 1994
Loka Shanti Buddha Vihara
A replica of the Mahābodhi temple of Bodh Gayā opens in Bengaluru.
- 2001
Monastic Institute
Founds the Mahabodhi Monastic Institute to train young monks.
- 2013
Passing
Passes away peacefully on 23 September, aged 92.
Teacher and translator
Acharya Buddharakkhita taught in India and abroad, including at the Nālandā Post-Graduate Institute and at universities in the United States and Taiwan. He was honoured in Myanmar with the title Abhidhaja Aggamahā Saddhammajotika, and received doctorates from Tumkur University and Mahachulalongkornrajavidyalaya University in Bangkok.
His English translation of the Dhammapada is read by students of Buddhism around the world. He wrote many books and articles that made the Buddha’s teaching accessible to ordinary readers.
From the Dhammapada
Manopubbaṅgamā dhammā,
manoseṭṭhā manomayā.Mind precedes all things; mind is their chief, they are mind-made.
