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A ministering angel, Ven Amitha Thera visits the sick and the dying at the National Hospital dispensing spiritual strength. Kumudini Hettiarachchi reports
Medicine for the mind
A soft tread, a gentle smile, followed by the pacifying chant of pirith, echoing down the corridor bringing solace. A strange place, with curiously-clad people bowing their heads and reverently clasping their palms together, listening and garnering strength and succour.

Amidst the scrubbed, creamy walls and floors of the National Hospital, Colombo, the green-garbed medics and the all-pervading odour of disinfectant, a lone figure in saffron is dispensing, not medicine for the body but for the mind. The recipients are capped and gowned patients lying on stretchers, with bed head tickets on their knees, awaiting the scalpel.

Following in the footsteps of Lord Buddha, spreading kindness is 23-year-old Pitigala Amitha Thera from the Sanghawasa within the National Hospital, an oasis of peace and tranquillity in the centre of pain, sorrow, disease and death. The Sanghawasa, where a simple shrine room with a white Buddha statue takes pride of place, is also home to Naottune Dinnaga Hamuduruwo. Both monks are "on call" 24 hours a day and will go to the bedside of any patient, irrespective of their race or religion.

Last Tuesday, Amitha Thera was chanting pirith outside the operating theatre after Kanthi Pethiyagoda walked into the Sanghawasa and requested him to hurry to her mother's side before she underwent surgery. "The monks were of great help to me two years ago too when I had a stomach operation at the National Hospital," says Kanthi.
The "hospital service" as Amitha Thera calls their work began way back in 1957 when Ven. Panwila Vipassi Thera of the Vajiraramaya who had been moved to compassion by the enormous suffering of sick people visited them in the wards. "He used to come by bus and attend to the needs of the patients," says Amitha Thera. In 1974, sevava pulul kara (expanded the service) with the unstinting cooperation and support extended by the Dayaka Sabhawa, which set up the Sanghawasa to make the work easier for the Thera.

"With the passing away of the Nayake Hamuduruwo on January 19, 1998, it went into decline and was revived four years ago by Ven. Madihe Pannaseeha Thera who sent us here," explains Amitha Thera. "Vetuna, kedi, bindi giya (It collapsed, broke down). There was distrust and doubt about the sincerity of the monks. In the early days, there were times when we didn't even get our alms."

From rural Pitigala, in the Galle district, Amitha Thera is from a family of six. His father is a carpenter and the Thera's experience with devastating illness came early in life. As a little boy he saw his mother stricken down with a hole in the heart - going to and from hospital many times for a major operation in 1983. "She needs another operation now but is too frail to face it," he says sadly.

When he was about eight or nine, he wanted to become a monk but his family was not in favour. He was ordained nine years ago at 14, and came to the Maharagama Dharmayathanaya for further studies. When he was asked to help out at the Sanghawasa he felt he was on the right path. "I will continue to do my studies but this is where my heart is, helping patients."

Not only do these two monks provide spiritual comfort but, thanks to generous donations, they are also able to help needy patients by providing medicines worth Rs. 2,500 to those who cannot afford to buy them and funds to meet the cost of tests, if they are required to do them outside the National Hospital. They also distribute biscuits donated by Maliban and other sundries like soap, toothpaste, toothbrushes, milk powder and sugar. Those in dire need are also found crutches, wheelchairs and water mattresses.

All 77 wards in the hospital have been issued with an exercise book each, so that the staff can jot down the names and needs of the patients who require a helping hand.
Every evening at 6 p.m. the monks hold a pooja near the bodhiya close to the bhikku ward, mostly attended by heart patients while on Saturday they get 19 monks to deliver a pirith deshanaya.

Daily Amitha Thera does the rounds and chants pirith for those facing surgery and in the evening he visits two wards to listen to the duka sepa of the patients. A lay youth group, under the guidance of the monks, takes tea and snacks every second Wednesday of the month to the Lady Ridgeway Children's Hospital and every fourth week, armed with brushes and mops, they clean up two children's wards at the National Hospital. "They help bathe the children too," he says. The Eye Hospital is the venue of a special programme on poya.

Most importantly, when death is near, these benevolent monks are around to give strength not only to the patients but also to their distraught kith and kin.
On Sunday, Amitha Thera had been at the bedside of a 17-year-old Tamil girl who had set herself ablaze after some problems with her husband. Through her haze of pain with 89% searing burns all over her body, she had promised to get well and come visit the Sanghawasa. She had died the next day.

In another ward, he attends to a 77-year-old man abandoned by his only son. He had been brought to the hospital after an accident. No one had since then come to see him and on a request made that he be sent to an elders' home, the monks were making the necessary arrangements.

As Amitha Thera ties the pirith noola on the wrist of K.D. Kusumawathie, 60, about to undergo a laparoscopy, tears well up in her eyes. Extending her hand in a pathetic gesture of helplessness, she says her family has not come but now she is not afraid. "Budu saranai," she keeps repeating as the young Thera leaves, bringing to mind the lines…….. "When pain and anguish wring the brow, Ministering angel thou."

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