This Dhamma talk by Venerable Acharya Buddharakkhita ji. 
Venerable Acharya Buddharakkhita, founder-President of Maha Bodhi Society, Bangalore and its branches and sister organizations in Mysore, Ladakh, Arunachal Pradesh, was born in the eastern state of Manipur in India. He was born on March 12, 1922, a full moon day, in Imphal.
He was a bright student graduated from the Institute of Engineering Technology, Calcutta (Kolkata) in Automobile Engineering. He joined Government of India Defense Ordinance. The job took him to Malaysia, Singapore and various other places during the Second World War. He saw the destruction of life and property and misery that the war brought in the lives of people, which led him to turn towards spirituality. He resigned his job and left his home in search of truth and freedom. For some years he traveled through the length and breadth of India and studied Indian religions in various institutions.

In 1949 he took ordination as a Buddhist monk under the most Venerable Chandamani Mahathera, Abbot of Maha Parinibbana Vihara, Kushinara, U.P. He then studied Vinaya, Sutta, Abhidhamma and Pali in Sri Lanka and Burma and practiced meditation under the most eminent master like Mahasi Sayadaw. He was a member of the editorial board of the Chattha Sangayana - the Sixth Buddhist Synod held in Rangoon, which brought out a complete edition of the Pali canon.

William Devens