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Venerable Ananda
Ananda reciting the Suttapitaka at the First Buddhist Council
Religious career
Teacher	Gautama Buddha

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Ānanda was one of the principal disciples and a devout attendant of the Buddha.^[1] Amongst the Buddha's many disciples, Ānanda had the most retentive memory and most of the suttas in the Sutta Pitaka are attributed to his recollection of the Buddha's teachings during the First Buddhist Council. For that, he was known as the Guardian of the Dharma.

According to the Buddha every Buddha in the past and to come will have two chief disciples and one attendant during his ministry. In the case of Gautama Buddha the pair of disciples were Sariputta and Mahamoggallana and the attendant Ānanda.

The word 'Ānanda' means 'bliss' in Pali, Sanskrit as well as other Indian languages. It is a popular Buddhist and Hindu name, but popular also among Muslims in Indonesia.

In the Kannakatthala Sutta (MN 90), Ananda is identified with the meaning of his name:

Then King Pasenadi Kosala said to the Blessed One, "Lord, what is the name of this monk?"

"His name is Ananda, great king."

"What a joy he is! What a true joy!..."

Ānanda was the first cousin of the Buddha by their fathers, and was devoted to him. In the twentieth year of the Buddha's ministry, he became the Buddha's personal attendant, accompanying him on most of his wanderings and taking the part of interlocutor in many of the recorded dialogues. He is the subject of a special panegyric delivered by the Buddha just before the Buddha's Parinibbana (the Mahaparinibbana Sutta (DN 16)); it is a panegyric for a man who is kindly, unselfish, popular, and thoughtful toward others.

In the long list of the disciples given in the Anguttara Nikaya (i. xiv.) where each of them is declared to be the chief in some quality, Ānanda is mentioned five times (more often than any other). He was named chief in conduct, in service to others, and in power of memory. The Buddha sometimes asked him to substitute for him as teacher and then later stated that he himself would not have presented the teachings in any other way.

The First Council[link]

Because he attended the Buddha personally and often traveled with him, Ānanda overheard and memorized many of the discourses the Buddha delivered to various audiences. Therefore, he is often called the disciple of the Buddha who "heard much". At the First Buddhist Council, convened shortly after the Buddha died, Ananda was called upon to recite many of the discourses that later became the Sutta Pitaka of the Pāli Canon.

Despite his long association with and close proximity to the Buddha, Ananda was only a stream-winner prior to the Buddha’s death. However, Buddha said that the purity of his heart was so great that, "Should Ananda die without being fully liberated; he would be king of the gods seven times because of the purity of his heart, or be king of the Indian subcontinent seven times. But ... Ananda will experience final liberation in this very life." (AN 3.80)

Prior to the First Buddhist Council, it was proposed that Ananda not be permitted to attend on the grounds that he was not yet an arahant. According to legend, this prompted Ananda to focus his efforts on the attainment of nibbana and he was able to reach the specified level of attainment before the calling of the conclave.

In contrast to most of the figures depicted in the Pāli Canon, Ananda is presented as an imperfect, if sympathetic, figure. He mourns the deaths of both Sariputta, with whom he enjoyed a close friendship, and the Buddha. A verse of the Theragatha [1] reveals his loneliness and isolation following the parinirvana of the Buddha.

In the Zen tradition, Ananda is considered to be the second Indian patriarch. He is often depicted with the Buddha alongside Mahakashyapa, the first Indian patriarch.

References[link]

•  This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). Encyclopædia Britannica (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. 
• Ananda: Guardian of the Dhamma by Hellmuth Hecker

External links[link]

• Entry on Ananda in the Buddhist Dictionary of Pali Proper Names
• Biographical account of Ananda
• Ananda with the Buddha and Subhuti
• Digital Dictionary of Buddhism (log in with userID "guest")
• Ananda: Guardian of the Dhamma by Hellmuth Hecker

Craig Pruess (born 1950) is an American composer, musician, arranger and gold & platinum record producer who has been living in Britain since 1973. His career has covered diverse areas including: record production for international stars such as Anu Malik, Sir Cliff Richard, Sarah Brightman, Sheila Walsh (whose first album, "War of Love" was produced and arranged by Craig and was nominated for a Grammy Award in 1983); musical arrangements for Massive Attack, Def Leppard, Bond; feature film soundtrack music (Bride & Prejudice, Bend It Like Beckham, It's a Wonderful Afterlife, What's Cooking?, Bhaji on the Beach); world music producing, performing (sitar, keyboards and African percussion) and arranging for international acts such as Massive Attack, Katie Melua, Manic Street Preachers, Def Leppard and Pascal Obispo; television music ("Peak Practice", Sue Lawley Show, Rich Deceiver, ZigZag Kenya, Samson Superslug) and also arranging, sitar and sound design work (for such well known composers as Danny Elfman, Gabriel Yared, Patrick Doyle, Carl Davis, John Altman, Rachel Portman, and George Fenton); television and film advertising/corporate music (over 300 commercials to date); lecturing and teaching; concert performing (solo and with his own ensembles but also with Mike Oldfield for the world premiere of "Tubular Bells II", September 1992, at the Edinburgh Castle); sound engineering, synthesizer and computer music programming, sound design and music technology innovations.

Craig has composed the original music score for a string of major films by Gurinder Chadha's , including her two number one UK box office smash hit films, Bend It Like Beckham" (top ten in the USA box office, number 1 in India), and Bride & Prejudice". Craig scored her previous films, including "Bhaji on the Beach" (1993) and "What's Cooking?", which opened the big US Sundance Film Festival, January 2000 and released throughout the USA in October 2000, to critical acclaim (UK release was September 2001). Gurinder Chadha's big romantic Bollywood influenced feature film, "Bride and Prejudice", starring the big names of Aishwarya Rai, Anupam Kher and Martin Henderson, was released by Miramax (USA) and Pathé (Europe) in October 2003, and again was number one in the UK, India and South Africa, settling for number 15 for 3 weeks in the USA. Aishwarya Rai was again the big star in Craig's further film score project, "The Mistress of Spices",^[1] directed by Paul Mayeda Berges, which was released in the UK and India early 2006. Craig has scored Gurinder's latest feature film, "It's a Wonderful Afterlife", April 2010 box office release, the film reaching number 7 in the UK.

In 2009, Craig was nominated for Best Soundtrack at the RTS Awards (Royal Television Society) for his music for the acclaimed BBC-TV drama series, "Moses Jones", which also garnered Craig a British Academy Award nomination for Best Original Music in May 2010. Since the series, he has teamed up with talented Ugandan musicians, Denis Mugagga and Daniel Sewagudde (formerly of DaTwinz fame in Africa), to create the group the [[Ganda Boys]], with an album "The War of Love" released in 2009, and live shows in UK and Germany, and with the release of their second album, "Africa", extensive radio play and media coverage in Uganda. Craig is a core performing member and band leader of the group and co-writes the songs and arranges and produces all the recordings. Craig scored the high profile BBC-TV drama series, "Five Days II", broadcast in Jan 2010. Between 2007 and present, Craig has formed another world fusion ambient music band, At-Ma, with seasoned professional singer, Russell Stone, and complete with tabla maestro, Tom Simenauer, they give concerts in the UK and Europe, headlining the Warsaw Philharmonic in Nov 2010. Craig performs on sitar, harmonium, trumpet and percussion in a totally spontaneous and fluid musical output which delights audiences with its freshness and evocative colours.

Brazilian music featured in Craig's 2006 soundtrack: 90 minute Discovery Channel docu-drama "Gold Diggers - The Biggest Bank Robbery in History". An edgy, fast paced expose of the 2005 massive bank robbery in Fortelesa, Brazil, directed by British director James Erskine. Featuring energetic Brazilian rhythms and tribal percussion layers, along with a filmic, hard-hitting music score, the program itself has become part of the police investigation in Brazil! In 2007, Craig composed the soundtrack for Turner Prize nominated artist Zarina Bhimji's film Waiting), which became part of the prestigious Turner Prize exhibition in Liverpool during October 2007. In late 2011, Craig completed his third art film soundtrack for her, "Yellow Patch", charting the origins of the migration of the Gujurati people from Kutch, India, to East Africa. Zarina was born in Uganda and has so poetically captured images from her African experience.

As a songwriter, Craig has penned the Christmas No. 1 UK chart single (December 1999/January 2000), one of the double A sides ("Two Worlds"), part of Sir Cliff Richard's chart hit, "Millennium Prayer" (sales over one million). Craig also wrote the title track to Sir Cliff's 1983 album, "Silver" and David Van Day's chart hit, "Young American's Talking". In November 1999, Craig was nominated to be the composer for the most successful independent television drama series in British history, "Peak Practice", completing the very last four series (13 episodes each) for Carlton Television until its conclusion in 2003.

In 2000, Craig contributed keyboards and sounds for composer John Altman on the US television film, "RKO 281 - the Making of Citizen Kane", which received 13 nominations for the Emmy Awards, winning the Emmy for best music soundtrack for 2000. Craig worked in his home studio with the director of the film, Ben Ross, to record and perform the initial music sketches, and then also played keyboards with the orchestra for the final recordings of the soundtrack in London.

Craig is the director/founder of the UK record label [[Heaven on Earth Music]]. His "Sacred Chants" series of series is known globally and used by many leaders of the human development movement in their motivational and inspiration work. Craig has performed sitar concerts for Prince Charles (at his home at Highgrove for a personal concert), the Dalai Lama (large event at the Houses of Parliament, London), Sri Sri Ravi Shankar (founder of the Art of Living Foundation, in Copenhagen, Denmark and then Zagreb, Croatia, and then at the huge World Culture Festival, Olympic Stadium, Berlin, Germany in July 2011). Yoga and spiritual teachers/leaders around the world use his music CDs for sessions, videos and workshops — these include: "Language of Love", "Welcome Home", "108 Sacred Names of Mother Divine", "Sacred Chants of Shiva", "Angel of the Earth" and "Sacred Chants of Buddha".

Craig is an active Art of Living teacher for many years, helping to be one of the first teachers to bring the Art of Living stress management courses into high security prisons in the UK. He has taught these valuable programmes at the headquarters of British aerospace and introduced the Art of Living knowledge to many musicians, film directors, thinkers and teachers. His home environment includes a fully equipped recording studio and composing suite of instruments and gadgets. He is married with four children, and lives in Stroud, Gloucestershire, UK. He is also a painter, photographer, graphic designer and published poet. He originally studied physics and philosophy at MIT in Boston, and after leaving the USA, lived in Kenya, where he was a full time member of the teaching staff at the East African Conservatoire of Music in Nairobi. He is founder and director of the humanitarian organisation, the Ganda Foundation, started by the Ganda Boys, involved with fundraising concerts and activities to bring First World awareness to dire conditions in the Third World. Creating films and documentaries and holding fundraising concerts in Europe have so far directly benefited hospitals and schools in Uganda.