Sri Lanka National Anthem ( Namo Namo Matha ) Lyrics by Sri Lanka National Anthem

Mother Sri Lanka
We worship you, we bow to you, Mother Sri Lanka
Lovely in your fullness, blessed and rich, a land of bright beauty, our Lanka
A land of plenty, of grain and many flowers and fruits, a land of victory
So fair
You who give us happiness, blessing and peace, mother of our very life
Accept this offering of our love and devotion, we bow to you, Mother
We worship you, we bow to you, Mother Sri Lanka

You are our learning

You alone are our truth

You are our strength

In our hearts lives our devotion

You are our light

You are the breath of our life

You are our living

In you is our freedom

Giving us new life, always wake and rouse us, Mother

Filling us with wisdom and courage, lead us on, you land of victory

For we are the children of one mother

Let us go forward, let us not delay

In love that knows no division, far above all difference

We bow to you, Mother

We worship you, we bow to you, Mother Sri Lanka

This is the national anthem of Sri Lanka, “Namo Namo Matha,” written and composed by Ananda Samarakoon in 1940. It is sung at the start of school days, at national ceremonies, on Independence Day, and before sporting events. The whole song is addressed to the country itself, imagined as a mother, “Matha,” and almost every line is a form of homage to her. The word “Namo” is an old word of reverence, the same root used when bowing to something sacred, so from the very first line the country is being honored the way one would honor a deity or a beloved parent.

The opening verse paints the land as beautiful and generous. Sri Lanka is described as full of grain, flowers and fruit, a place of plenty and of victory (“jaya bhoomi,” the land of triumph). Calling her the “mother of our life” carries a particular weight in Sri Lankan culture, where the mother is the figure who gives, protects and sustains. So the singers are not just admiring scenery, they are saying the country feeds them, shelters them and gives them their very existence, and in return they offer her their love and devotion like an offering at a shrine.

The middle section turns inward and personal in its devotion. Line by line the people tell their country that she is everything to them, their learning, their truth, their strength, their light, the breath in their bodies, their freedom. It builds like a prayer, each short line another vow, until the country is no longer just a homeland but the source of life itself. This is the emotional heart of the anthem, the moment where loyalty becomes something close to worship.

The final part is a call to move forward together. The mother is asked to keep waking her children to new life and to fill them with wisdom and courage as they march on. Then comes the line that gives the anthem its lasting power, “the children of one mother,” a reminder that whatever divides Sri Lankans, they all belong to the same land. The closing plea is to go on in love, far above all difference and division, and to bow once more to the mother. What the listener is left holding is not just pride in a beautiful island but a quiet promise of unity, sung by people who see themselves as one family born of one mother.