Therefore, many monks often participated in the nationalist struggle for independence, even though the majority of the senior monks leading the Burmese Sangha spoke out against monks participating in politics. They saw such activities as being contrary to the Vinaya rules. Likewise, many of the lay Buddhist organizations and its key organizers would also take part in the nationalist movement. One of the first and most influential of these nationalist Buddhist organizations was the Young Men’s Buddhist Association (YMBA), founded in 1906. They were the first organization to co-operate with politicized monks.