Venerable Ashin Virathus’ thoughts about U Gambira

The famous monk Ashin Virathu, who was released from prison in Mandalay in January 2012 after spending nine years in prison, recently published an article with his thoughts about Ashin Gambira with whom he made contact during their time together at Obu prison.

Venerable Ashin Virathu is a well respected lecturer at Masoe Monastery with over 3.000 monks living there. He was first threatened with arrest when in 1998/1999 he published a book criticizing monks for working together with the military regime. Between 2001/03 the authorities created a conflict between Buddhist monks and Moslems in Virathus’ home town. Ashin Virathus’ senior teacher was accused, arrested and sentenced to 27 years in jail. Ashin Virathu was arrested shortly after that during a visit with his teacher in prison. He was released on the same day as U Gambira during a general amnesty in January 2012.

Ashin Virathus’ article (Part I):

Since I came back to the human world (was released from prison) two monks have disrobed. Both are well known. One is well known in the political field, the other one was well known among the monks at Masoe Monastery. The names of these two monks are U Gambira and U Einda Seriya Bhivamsa.

Football talk and Gambira honey
I have never met U Gambira in person. But I had contact with him in Obu prison. I was already in prison before him. When I heard a new monk arrived, I introduced myself. I sent him a note that I support the fellow monks who are arrested and incarcerated and I received a reply letter from him.
In 2002, before my arrest, I had given a Dhamma talk in Rangoon (football talk refers to the Dhamma talk). At that time the young monk U Gambira had just advanced for the Buddhist examination (just before the stage of Dhamma teacher). He filmed my speech with a camera, I didn’t know who he was at that time.
Now in prison in addition to his letter I received a bottle of honey. My student brought me this honey calling it “Gambira honey” because U Gambira had donated this honey to me. This bottle of “Gambira honey” never got empty. Whenever the honey was near to finish I added new honey to the old one. That is why the “Gambira honey” always stayed with me.
U Gambira was well respected by many people in prison.
Does U Gambira have a mental problem caused by the mistreatment of the military intelligence?
In his letter Ashin Gambira told me he had disrobed because of money. He told me he was not a monk anymore. Everyone who read his letter thought that this letter was strange. When I analyzed his situation – I heard he has been tortured by military intelligence, his age was too young and the difficulties have been too big – I think that might be the reason for his mental problem.
The one who was angry all the time
I suggested to Ashin Gambira to meditate. But he told me he had never meditated before and he asked me if I had any books about meditation. I sent books with the subject of meditation to him. I thought his age was very young, his experience very little, his determination was strong but his mental training very week. For this reason he was angry all the time. I heard very often about him.
He was fighting alone
A little bit later I heard that U Gambira had started a hunger strike. He demanded from the military regime to free Aung San Suu Kyi and all political prisoners. His determination was very high. When the prison authorities gave food to him he refused to eat. That happened to him in prison. The prison guards watched him all the time. I heard he did not even drink water. He ate nothing and didn’t drink water for three days.
He was still healthy at that time, he was still demanding, still active.
Am I to be blamed?
As soon as I got the information about his hunger strike I spread the information to Shwe Maung. It was a lucky coincidence that U Gambiras’ family stayed at that time at Shwe Maungs’ house. When U Gambiras’ mother heard about his activities in prison she spread the information to the media. U Gambiras’ demand was very worthy but the government did not seem to react to his demand at all. That’s why I thought he is demanding the impossible and tried to arrange a meeting with the authorities and asked them to allow me to meet with U Gambira. I told them if I could meet with him I would try to encourage him to eat and drink again.
I don’t know if it is a coincidence or not, but the next day I heard U Gambira was transferred to another prison.
I have never met him personally and never agreed with the ideas
Later a variety of news arrived about U Gambira. I heard he was transferred to Kanthi prison and then Kalay prison again. I heard many stories about him during his time in Kalay prison. On 13th January of 2012 we both returned to the human world (were released from prison).
Later U Gambira asked for my phone number but so far we never have spoken on the telephone. Then I heard news about his activities in Rangoon. I heard he was arrested again. I saw U Gambira on DVB arguing with the authorities in anger. I could not agree with him in that case. Not only could I not agree, I thought this kind of behavior is a bad reputation for us monks. People from inside and outside the country asked me about my opinion about it. So I gave out a statement with my point of view on U Gambiras’ behavior. I received many comments to this statement, some negative, some positive. It was very exciting. The next day I received a message from somebody. I think it was from USDP with a link to Myanmar Express website. It siad U Gambira had changed his clothes, he had broken his head, some comments were very rude.
Finally I heard that U Gambira disrobed, he had returned to lay life because he is not very well. I think that his mental health is really not very well. In the political world and throughout the international world Ashin Gambira was a well known monk. He has now disrobed, returned to lay life.