Why would a boy not yet ten make a choice to leave the comfort of his home and spend weeks in a near spartan living conditions in India for three successive years?
Accommodation has been very bare rooms with just nailed together wooden beds and thin mattresses. Water is cold. If there water heater, it does not often work. The pipes too do not work well. Electricity supply is erratic with power outages common day and night.
The air is always filled with dust and the streets, everywhere is dirty.
Food is simple. No fancy fare. Days on end, it can be cauliflower and cabbage. And it is also just two meals a day, no dinner.
Strict discipline and regiment have also be followed, like waking up as early as 5 am and being out and about by 5.45 am for daily morning chanting.
Any boy that age would not want to make such a sacrifice of his school holidays which would mean endless hours of fun, playing online games, watching movies or TV etc etc etc. But not Samita Lee Kah Peng (left in top picture with Ven Sumedha, the High Priest of Mulaghanda Kuty Vihara and fellow samanera Vajira Nanda).
It is astounding that he chose this, not for one year but so far three in a row! Why is he a picture of contentment and happiness without TV, Internet and the luxuries and comfort of modern living?
I don't have the answer and my guess is that Samita doesn't exactly know either. He just likes it. He will probably know later in age when the purpose of life unfolds for him.
Samita first made his choice in 2007 when he was seven to join the Aloka Novitiate in Lumbini as a pilgrim. I learnt that he wanted to celebrate his birthday at the place where the Buddha was born.
Accompanied by his mother, Samita was just an observer of the goings-on at the Novitiate programme. This cute little boy was resplendent and princely looking in his special white attire on his birthday. He was personally coached by Bhante Mahinda on how to make birthday wishes as well as taught to recite in Pali and English, the first three highest blessings of the Mangala Sutta.
Samita must have been inspiration on his return home that year. The following year, he came to the Aloka Novitiate in Bodhgaya not just with his mother but also grand parents. In his princely white, he participated in the programme, observing the Eight Precepts.
He made up his mind in Bodhgaya that he would be in Sarnath the following year and he would be a samanera, this time observing the Ten Precepts.
This year, Samita went to Sarnath not just with his mother and grand parents but also his father and aunt in tow. Father Lee Siew Kee joined as a samanera while the rest of the family members were pilgrims.
Samita wowed many by keeping to the discipline and regiment -- donning the robes, being mindful as much as he could in his actions and also delivering a speech at the closing ceremony where he recited what he had learnt in Pali for all three Novitiate programmes.
Small as he may be, but he is indeed big in inspiration!
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