Alec Robertson
Erudite scholar in Buddhism
The 17th death anniversary of Alec Robertson falls on December 31. His passing was lamented by all Sri Lankans, as well as his numerous foreign friends and acquaintances, who had, at some time or other, benefitted from his guidance, friendship, and exemplary life—and more than anything else, from his deep understanding and propagation of the Buddha Dhamma.
They are unable to balance their obsessions with the precepts with even minimum practice. How many of us, while claiming to be Buddhists (and even highly-critical of others for their shortcomings), pay scant attention to the most basic five precepts—not to speak of a lesser pursuit of higher states of spiritual achievement.
My own association with Alec Robertson, at a personal level, was short and would not go beyond his last years. On the other hand, as a longstanding Buddhist scholar, I have followed his politic at writings and radio broadcasts. His son Prashantha happened to be a close friend of our eldest son, and it was through this fortuitous circumstance that I was able to establish personal association with Prashantha’s father.
On my few visits to his home, I observed the simple and modest life of the Robertson family. In my young days, I had aspired to a life of few worldly possessions, sans houses and property. Seeing the Robertson family, I felt envy, in having by choice and circumstances, changed my life almost irrevocably. In Robertson, I saw the epitome of a life of few worldly attachments, nevertheless living a life of contentment devoid of lobha, dosha, and moha.
Looking back on Alec Robertson's life, one could assume that he had been fortunate in many ways: his long sojourn as a servant of the Buddha and the Dhamma. His father, Christian-born, was working in Dodanduwa, in close proximity to the Dodanduwa Island Heritage, which was the reclusive abode of the Ven. Gnanatiloka and Gnanaponika Maha Theras. They were by birth, of German origin.
Young Alec had accompanied his father on his occasional visits to the hermitage, and these encounters had left an indelible impression on the son, perhaps more than in his farther. With that initiation to the Dhamma, while living and working in Colombo, young Alec continued to seek the guidance of Maha Theras such as Ven. Pelene Vajiragnana, Ven. Narada, Ven. Piyadassi Kassyapa, and Ven. Soma Theras, all from the Vajirarama in Bambalapitiya.
Alec was too young to have known and interacted with Anagarika Dharmapala (1864 – 1933), but his adult life seemed to suggests that at a later and more mature age, Anagarika may have stirred his feelings and even shaped his mission in raising the level of understanding and practice of the dhamma by his fellow men and women.
Another person who may have drawn Alec into the Dhamma discourse was late Prof. Gunapala Malalasekera, a Buddhist activist and doyen of Pali and Buddhist scholarship. Akin to Anagarika, Alec also had a remarkable ability to expand, through his efforts, his knowledge of the Dhamma through the mastery of Pali and deep understanding of the three Pitakas. His remarkable memory was the other forte that adorned him as an armour in his many engaging discussions on the Dhamma, often in the company of others of greater eminence and erudition.
All who have penned their appreciations of Alec Robertson and assessed his many contributions in the service of the Dhamma, have been emphatic on his dexterity in responding to probing questions and clarifications on the dhamma and the life of the Buddha.
What was most remarkable about Alec were his unhesitating responses and their clarity in delivery. This, indeed, was a rarity among many contemporary Buddhist scholars, who when confronted with such verbal challenges, would wonder as lost sheep, groping for credulous answers.
Only persons who are steeped deeply in the Dhamma, based solidly on the Pitakas in their original Pali rendering, could be in complete control of such situations. Among those living among us, Ven. Harispattuwe Ariyawan Salankara Maha Thera is one such person
Let me end this short appreciation with the following quote by Asoka Jayasinghe (writing in 2005) who considered himself as an adult sishya of Alec:
We are left with the memory of this great Buddhist layman whose life was that of an ideal Buddhist; both in erudition and practice.
Sabbadanam dhamma danamjinati.
Prof. W.M.K. Wijetunga,
Former Vice Chancellor,
Vidyodaya University
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