MAHABODHI SKILL DEVELOPMENT CENTER
ABOUT MAHABODHI SOCIETY ORGANISATION
Maha Bodhi Society, Bengaluru was founded in 1956 by the Most Venerable Pujya Acharya Buddharakkhita. The objective of the Society is to put into the practice and teach the most sacred and pragmatic teaching of Bhagavan Buddha.
Since its very inception, the Society has been actively engaged in rendering various spiritual and humanitarian services. In keeping with the vision of the founder Most Venerable Dr. Acharya Buddharakkhita, today the Society has expanded its activities in different parts of India and abroad with the message of compassion and unconditional love. Even in his physical absence the most Venerable Acharya Buddharakkhita Bhanteji is the dynamic force behind all the welfare services of the Society, through what he lived, practiced, taught and gave example.
The society has established monasteries for monks and nuns, meditation centers, hospitals, old age homes, educational institutions and published over three hundred Dhamma books benefiting thousands of people around the globe.
MAHABODHI BRANCHES
1. Mahabodhi Society, Bengaluru (Head Office)
2. Mahabodhi Mediation center, North Bengaluru
3. Mahabodhi Mysuru
4. Mahabodhi Hyderabad
5. Mahabodhi Diyun, Arunachal Pradesh
6. Mahabodhi Namsai, Arunachal Pradesh
7. Mahabodhi Nongtaw, Arunachal Pradesh
8. Mahabodhi Tawang, Arunachal Pradesh
9. Mahabodhi Deomali, Arunachal Pradesh
10. Mahabodhi Kanubari, Arunachal Pradesh
11. Mahabodhi Suknachari, Tripura
12. Mahabodhi Chichingchera, Tripura
13. Mahabodhi Nobinchera, Tripura
14. Mahabodhi meditation and cultural centre, Bodhgaya, Bihar.
The Founder
Venerable Acharya Buddharakkhita, founder-President of Maha Bodhi Society, Bangalore and its sister organizations was born in the eastern state of Manipur in India. He was born on March 12, 1922, Phalguna Purnima day, in Imphal.
He was a bright student graduated from the Institute of Engineering Technology, Calcutta (Kolkata) in Automobile Engineering. He joined Government of India Defense Ordinance. The job took him to Malaysia, Singapore and various other places during the Second World War. He saw the destruction of life and property and misery that the war brought in the lives of people, which led him to turn towards spirituality. He resigned his job and left his home in search of truth and freedom. For some years he traveled through the length and breadth of India and studied Indian religions in various institutions.
In 1949 he took ordination as a Buddhist monk under the most Venerable Chandamani Mahathera, Abbot of Maha Parinibbana Vihara, Kushinara, U.P. He then studied Vinaya, Sutta, Abhidhamma and Pali in Sri Lanka and Burma and practiced meditation under the most eminent master like Mahasi Sayadaw. He was a member of the editorial board of the Chattha Sangayana – the Sixth Buddhist Synod held in Rangoon, which brought out a complete edition of the Pali canon.
He taught Buddhology at the Nalanda Pali Postgraduate Institute, Bihar. In order to spread the teachings of the Buddha in his own quite way he resigned the job. A great offering came his way in 1956, when a piece of land was donated to him by Maha Upasika Mrs. Bianca Moonasinghe, a niece of Ven. Anagarika Dhammapala. This land was earlier granted by Shri Nalvadi Krishnaraj Wodeyar, the Maharaja of Mysore way back in 1939-40, for the purpose of building a Buddhist center in Bangalore.
Thus the Maha Bodhi Society, Bangalore was founded in 1956. Since then he has been active in conducting weekly discourses on Buddhism, writing articles and books, creating awareness among the people of Karnataka and India about Buddhism. He extended his activities to other countries of the world to disseminate the noble teachings of the Buddha.
His compassion prompted him to undertake many projects to alleviate suffering of people, like building medical centers, monastic institutes, residential schools in different parts of India for the displaced and poor children.
From his early days he was running Mahabodhi Sangharama – a bhikkhu training center. Many eminent monks got trained under him. In 2001 seeing the urgent need of training good monks in India, he started MAHABODHI MONASTIC INSTITUTE, BANGALORE, on the auspicious day of 2545th Buddha Jayanti Celebrations. Today the institute has the strength of 350 monks from different parts of India who are getting monastic training in Bengaluru and other campuses.
Give even if you only have a little
buddha