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Phra Kruba Seewichai was born on 11th September BE2421, inthe province of Lampoon (North Thailand). On that day, there was a thunderstormwith lightning. When Phra Kruba Seewichai was born, the sky suddenly turnedclear and sunny.
There was a monk called Kruba Katdtiya, who was on tudong(forest monk) inLampoon. When Kruba Katdtya arrived at a place in Lampoon called Bahn Pahng. Atthat time, there was no temple at Bahn Pahng. The villagers, upon seeing a monkpassed the area, they quickly built a small hut for him and requested him toreside in their village. Phra Kruba Seewichai, at that time, was a teenager andtogether with his friends ordained as Naen (novice monk) under Kruba Katdtiya.He learned everything under his teacher Kruba Katdtiya.
When Phra Kruba Seewichai was 25 years old, seeing that his family was poor,wanted to leave monkhood and helped support the family. However, his parentsforbidded him. His parents asked him to visit a monk called Kruba Samana, whowas a very wise monk, so as to seek this monk advice before leaving monkhood.Phra Kruba Seewichai followed his parent's instructions and visited KrubaSamana. Kruba Samana advised him not to leave monkhood and asked him to visitKruba Upala at Wat Doi Dtae. When Phra Kruba Seewichai reached Wat Doi Dtae, heasked Kruba Upala for advice. Kruba Upala taught Phra Kruba Seewichai theDhamma and Sammahdti. After receiving all the teaching from Kruba Upala, histhoughts of leaving monkhood vanished.
One day, one villager gave some meat to Phra Kruba Seewichai. After Phra KrubaSeewichai consumed, he vomitted and fell ill. Since then, everytime he consumedmeat, he would vomit and fall ill. From then on, he became a vegetarian andstopped eating meat.
At BE2427, Phra Kruba Seewichai helped Kruba Kadtiya to build a temple at BahnPahng. When Kruba Kadtiya passed away, Phra Kruba Seewichai became the abbot ofthe temple.
Phra Kruba Seewichai observed a very disciplined routine daily. He woke up at 5am to sweep the temple's compound. Then he would perform chanting. After which,he would go for alms in the village. In afternoon, he would teach thevillagers, novice monks and children, the Buddha's teachings. In the evening,he would perform chanting again and practice sammadhti. He stayed in the templeand hardly left the temple.
Phra Kruba Seewichai became very thin, because he stopped consuming meat. Thevillagers seeing that, respected him and offered him many expensive gifts, butPhra Kruba Seewichai just passed the gifts to the poor village people. He wascontented with a meal of small lump of rice with a little vegetable each day.
After became a monk for 11 years (BE2450), Buddhism was gaining more popularityin Thailand and many people became monks. The government established some rulesto control the people becoming monks. One of the rules was that, whoever wantedto ordain, had to apply for permit from the province head. Many people in BahnPahng wanted to ordain as monk under Phra Kruba Seewichai. Phra Kruba Seewichaiapplied the permit for them to be ordained. However, after waiting for a fewmonths, there was no reply from the province head. Phra Kruba Seewichai, feltthat as long as the parents of the person had given permission for his son tobe ordained, it was alright to ordain him even there was no permission from theprovince head. He went ahead and ordained many people in the village withoutpermission. The province head came to know and was very furious, saying thatPhra Kruba Seewichai was arrogant and did not respect authority. Phra KrubaSeewichai explained to the province head, and finally forgiven. However sincethat time, Phra Kruba Seewichai had to asked for permit for people to beordained as monks frequently as there were many people wanted to be ordainedunder him.
Phra Kruba Seewichai was unable to attend meetings held by the BuddhistCouncil, because he had spent most of his time practicing Sammahdti. Thiscaused the head of the Buddhist Council in Lampoon very angry and punished PhraKruba Seewichai by sending him to become a normal monk in Wat Pratahirikonchaithus stripping him of his abbot appointment in Wat Bahn Pahng. Phra KrubaSeewichai accepted the punishment without questions and stayed in WatPratahirikonchai, practising Sammahdti and never left the temple for one year.
When he stayed in Wat Pratahirikonchai, he was again being complained of notobeying to the abbot of Wat Pratahirikonchai. Phra Kruba Seewichai was chasedaway by the abbot. The abbot also informed other temples in Lampoon, not toaccept or let Phra Kruba Seeiwchai reside in their temples.
A monk called Phra Maha Samana Chow heard of Phra Kruba Seewichai's plight, andwrote a letter to Phra Kongmeunchinworn and asked why this had happened to agood monk like Phra Kruba Seewichai. Phra Kongmeuanchinworn went to investigateand could not find any faults of Phra Kruba Seewichai. He asked Phra KrubaSeewichai to follow him to Bangkok and see Phra Sangkaraht (Chief Monk ofThailand).
On the day, he went to Bangkok, there was a huge crowd to send him off. When hereached Bangkok, he stayed in Wat Benjamabopit. Phra Sankaraht asked him aboutthe whole issue, and found that there was no faults committed by Phra KrubaSeewichai. Phra Sangkaraht allowed Phra Kruba Seewichai to return and stay inany temples in Lampoon as he wished.
On 21st July BE2463, he went back to Lampoon. There was a huge crowd again toreceive him at the train station. Phra Kruba Seewichai stayed in Wat BahnPahng. From then on, Phra Kruba Seewichai started to help build temples aroundLampoon areas.
One day, Phra Kruba Seewichai thought of Wat Pratahirikonchai and rememberedthat the temple was in bad condition as he used to stay there for a year. PhraKruba Seewichai wanted to re-build the temple and also build a chedi. Whenpeople heard that he wanted to do these things, there was huge support anddonation poured in. In BE2763, Phra Kruba Seewichai built a new chedi calledPrataht Doi Geung in Chiangrai Province. He spent only 2 months building thePrataht because there was support and funds from the people. Whenever PhraKruba Seewichai wished to build temples or Prataht, there would always havehuge support and funds because a lot of people respected him.
On 9th November BE2477, Phra Kruba Seewichai started to build a road up DoiSuthep where there was temple that housed the relics of Buddha. He spent atotal of only 5 months and 22 days to build the road as there were a lot ofpeople came to help, digging through the forests, rocks and soil from the hilland finally, making a road up to Wat Doi Suthep. Support came from Chiangrai,Phayao, Lampang, Lampoon, Phae, Nan and almost all the provinces of NorthThailand. On 30th April BE2478, the road to Wat Doi Suthep was completed.
Since BE2451 to BE2481, in monkhood for 30 years, Phra Kruba Seewichai neverhad anything belonged to him, he spent time helping and building temples andthings that are good. Phra Kruba Seewichai passed away because to ill health(due to the toil of building temples and helping the welfare of people) at theage of 60 years old on 22nd March BE2481.
On that day, there was a thunderstorm with lightning, when he passed away, thesky suddenly turned clear and sunny, same as the day he was born. |
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ค้นหาสมาชิก
ดันกระทู้
ปักหมุด
ล๊อคกระทู้
การ์ดเสียงดัง
變色卡
顯身卡
