A STUDY OF ANANDA’S ROLE AS SECRETARY OF THE BUDDHA

Abstract

The objectives of this research were to study 1) secretary role of the present Sangha Order 2) life and behavior of Venerable Ananda Thera and 3) Venerable Ananda Thera’s role as secretary. The findings of research are as follows;

               Secretary means the one who is responsible for letter and other activities ordered by boss. A secretary is the person who is reliable by an administrator and closed to the administrator more than others. Therefore, he must be knowledgeable, capable, sagacious, and good at keeping secrecy. 

               An ecclesiastical secretary is one of the special positions formulated for the sake of helping the ecclesiastical administrator’s works, appointed and assigned its duties only, giving no power as the administrative division. The ecclesiastical secretary’s duties are said to deal with secretary works as a whole. The term secretary has its broad meaning in the aspect of duty in accordance with the power of administrator. Role and duty of the ecclesiastical secretary are to manage about documentation, to maintain profits and property of the office, to look after the office’s activities, to provide the office’s working equipment, to deal with meeting, to coordinate with ecclesiastical executive officers and other organizations, and to help society on social welfare. Venerable Ananda was one of the Sakyas princes in Kapilavastu, Sakyas Kingdom. The father of Venerable Ananda was King Sukkodana who was King Suddhodana’s younger brother. The mother name of Venerable Ananda was unknown. In the aspect of relatives, Venerable Ananda was reckoned as the Buddha’s younger brother. Venerable Ananda Thera loved education and was excellent at Dhamma’s sources. His remembrance of the Buddha’s teaching made Buddhism be stable up to the present time.

               Venerable Ananda had a role and duty to closely serve the Buddha in the position of the Buddha’s attendant or the very secretary. His attendance was hardly and prudentially. He woke up earlier and went to bed after the Buddha, took only what was given by the Buddha, worked hard, and glorified the Buddha’s virtues. Therefore, Venerable Ananda Thera was a paradigm to the secretary from the past to the present time.