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Monk Who Befriended Agnostic Nehru Dies

Arthur J Pais

One of the most respected of Buddhist monks, who called India his second home, and who spoke at length about his friend Jawaharlal Nehru, died in Stockton on Monday.

The Most Venerable Dharmawara Mahathera, born Samdach Vira Bhante, was 110. He died of natural causes, his Buddhist friends and family members said. His ashes will be dispersed in his native Cambodia and in India, the family said.

Nehru, a self-avowed agnostic, appreciated the monk's humanism and admired him for giving up the position of a provincial governor at the age of 40 and the concomitant renunciation of the world. For many years after embracing monkhood, he lived in huts amidst the farmers and ate raw food. He spent about five decades in India, living mostly in northern states. As Nehru was dying, the Reverend Mahathera was next to him, offering silent prayers.

Though Bhante, as his colleagues and family called him, had family and friends in California -- a magnet for Buddhist immigrants from the Far East -- he was reluctant to move from India, family members said. But family members persuaded him nearly two decades to come to America.

Earlier, Bhante had persuaded Konthal Cheng, now a Stockton businessman, to study in India for 10 years.

Bhante, who spoke French and Hindi among half-a-dozen languages he mastered, was invited to meditations and spiritual conferences in more than 20 countries.

Despite his constant travels, he strove to lead a simple life, continuing to subsist on vegetables and nuts.

"You are not what you think. You are what you eat and drink," he often said.

Bhante came to the United States to be with family. But people who knew him never thought he would have just a contemplative life in America.

He counseled Stockton citizens during days of violence and riots, for instance, when five school children were killed a decade ago. He also helped raise money and supervise the construction of a Buddhist temple for nearly 18,000 Cambodian refugees in and around Stockton.

He often chided his own people and fellow Stockton citizens for being too materialistic. "People are walking on one leg," he would often say, adding that by neglecting spiritualism, they were leading "imbalanced" and "poor" lives.

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