The life experience with different cultures and religions - Mr. Deepal Sooriarachchi

credits to - H.H.S.N.Haputhanthri

It was another Wednesday of another week. As usual we were seated in the prof. V.K. Samaranayake auditorium for another guest lecture, and after a while our coordinator Mr. Nandasara, came to the stage and announced the arrival of the guest lecturer. It wasn’t the guest we were hoping for, it was another person. Mr. Nandasara introduced him to us. He is a well-known figure in our country, Mr. Deepal Sooriarachchi. The introduction on him was brief as he didn’t need any kind of introduction per se.

The session began with his childhood memories, his school life and all the experiences he witnessed in his childhood like how he failed exams many times.  He did not stop there. He told us about how he was determined to be successful to break through those tough barriers and failures he faced in his childhood. These experiences were very useful for us in the sense of gaining confidence and guidance when we face a situation similar to what he explained. Although he has failed several times in his life, he took his first steps of his career as a sales clerk. With many life changing decisions made by Mr. Deepal he was able to come to a good position in the working industry of the country. Now he has become a well-known businessman, an author, a speaker and also a consultant.

A remarkable moment in his life was when he met a foreign monk at a funeral. He went in details about this encounter. Mr. Deepal is a Buddhist from religion, but he has a good idea on Hindu and Catholic religions since he has been to many places in the country and experienced different cultural societies and backgrounds, and he has also travelled to many countries to add to the diversity of cultural knowledge he possesses.

I can still remember something he said that day; “In university we have given lessons before the test, but in life we have given the test first then the lesson”. And another thing that became highlighted in his speech was, “The past creates the future so we should try to do right things everytime so that the future would be great”.

Moving on to the topic, he told us the advantages of listening to others. It helps to maintain a good relationship with others and also it’s a good way to show others that we care about them. Especially in a relationship listening to each other creates less conflict, as he explained. 

Mr. Deepal Sooriarachchi used many of his life experiences to explain his topic and that made the lecture more interesting and we learnt many things from his experiences. So, I take a moment to thank Mr. Deepal Sooriarachchi for coming to share his knowledge with us and the guest session was a complete success in terms of adding value to our lives and improving ourselves.