Case for a paradigm shift in approaching spirituality

Warpaint of the gods

Author: Nila Sagadevan

Published by Truepenny Media, Inc. USA

Available at Vijitha Yapa Bookshop

IT is commonplace nowadays to see t-shirts emblazoned with all manner of logos and phrases, their pithy witticisms and corporate brands acting as shortcut revelations to the wearer's persona.

I suspect that were Nila Sagadevan inclined to wear a t-shirt it would most likely read 'Lord Save Me From Your Followers,' a statement that given his belief in a Creator would identify him as a man of good-humoured perspicacity. In a global climate ridden by religion-fuelled violence it would also establish him as an iconoclast swimming upstream against popular belief.

In Warpaint of the Gods Sagadevan draws attention to the paradox of a single God in a world where so much murder is committed in the various named of the Creator.

He argues succinctly that this divisive 'me and them' mentality inherent in all of the major belief systems is due to the layers of man-made dogma that have encrusted the original teachings of love and compassion that underlie all religions.

His exhortation to the reader to apply their own minds and hearts in forging a personal relationship with God has noble precedents and this is highlighted in the thoughts and sayings of votaries like Gandhi ('God has no religion') that accompany the author's text.

Reading Warpaint of the Gods I was reminded of an essay by Alan Watts who helped to bring Buddhism to the United States in the 1950s.

In the essay entitled The Finger and the Moon,' Watts remarks that doctrine and religion are like the aforementioned digit that points at the moon, which in turn is what we are prone to calling God.

What is important is that we neither confuse the pointing Finger for the moon nor that we spend too much time suckling at the finger when we should be looking at the moon.

Similarly Sagadevan emphasises how religious differences occur not so much because of a multitude of Gods but because of the myriad ways in which we interpret, Its Being.

To use Watt's analogy, it is as if we are all standing around pointing towards the sky-declaiming to each other that 'don't you understand ? There is the moon, certainly not what you are pointing at.'

With a professional background as an aeronautical engineer and a pilot, Sagadevan is well placed to lift his pen's scope beyond the earthly and does just that in his consideration of the possibility of life elsewhere in this 'celestial ocean.'

He asks what the ramifications would be on our religious identities that we cherish so much were we to come into contact with extra-terrestrial life. Here references to the Green Bank equation and Bohm's Theory of Implicate Order ensure that these are not unfounded ruminations.

In Warpaint of the Gods Sagadevan successfully uses both secular and religious approaches to argue convincingly for a paradigm shift in how we approach spirituality.

By doing so he in turn asks the reader to examine their own faith and decide whether or not they are following a true path to God or merely a refracted image.

- Suresh Ariaratnam

A Selection of Modern Sri Lankan Poetry in English

Edited by Rajiva Wijesinha

International Book House 87, Kandy Road, Kurunegala

Email: [email protected]

THIS volume is an updated version of 'An Anthology of Contemporary Sri Lankan Poetry in English' which was published in 1988 and then expanded in 1992. The original publication marked a tremendous resurgence in English Writing in Sri Lanka, especially in the field of poetry.

The most obvious reason for this, exemplified in the fact that the most exciting material emerged after the traumas of 1983, was the ethnic crisis that dominated society from then on.

But there was also the fact that by the late seventies hang-ups about the use of English were a thing of the past; and for a new generation English had become simply a means of self-expression divorced from the self-consciousness that had accompanied it before.

The original anthology then comprised two sections, one dealing with ethnicity and violence and the other illustrating the new perspectives on their identity that Sri Lankan poets in English were providing.

Though obviously, since only poems written originally in English have been included, particular aspects of the Sri Lankan experience have been omitted, the selection covers a range of issues, with particular attention to different perspectives on the violence that continues to trouble the island.

The writings of Jean Arasanayagam and Richard de Zoysa, who first captured graphically the divisions exacerbated by government policies in the eighties, are particularly well represented.

The anthology also includes substantial bodies of work by Patrick Fernando, Lakdasa Wikkramasinha, Yasmine Gooneratne and Anne Ranasinghe who constitute what might be termed a canon as far as modern English poetry in Sri Lanka goes.

Also well represented are Alfreda de Silva and Kamala Wijeratne who also emerged as significant voices during the last couple of decades.

Though several new writers are represented, the editor notes that they do not seem to have established themselves as convincingly as their predecessors mentioned above.

Though it is to be hoped that there will be further developments, the present volume may then stand as a definitive collection covering an especially significant period in Sri Lankan life and letters.

Rajiva Wijesinha is Professor of Languages at Sabaragamuwa University in Sri Lanka, and Chairman of the Academic Affairs Board of the National Institute of Education, which is responsible for school curricula.

His novel Servants won the Gratiaen Prize for fiction in Sri Lanka, presented by Michael Ondaatje, in 1995, and was translated into Italian in 2002 under the title Servi.

A new impression of that translation was issued in 2005, and in February this year Giovanni Tranchida Editore will publish Atti di fede, the Italian version of Acts of Faith.

Foundation Books Delhi, recently published his Handbook of English Grammar. Literary Criticism includes Breaking Bounds: Essays on Sri Lankan Writing in English and Inside Limits: Identity and Repression in (Post) - Colonial Fiction.

He has also edited a number of anthologies, two of which are being published simultaneously by International Book House, namely An Anthology of Moderns Sri Lankan Poetry in English and A Selection of Modern Sri Lankan Short Stories in English. He serves on the editorial board of the Journal of Commonwealth Studies.

A selection of Modern Sri Lankan short stories in English

Edited by Rajiva Wijesinha and Dinali Fernando

International Book House 87 Kandy Road Kurunegala

THIS volume is an updated version of 'A Selection of Sri Lankan Short Stories in English' which was published in 1992. That brought together stories by four leading Sri Lankan writers in English and introduced readers to the range of writing in English that had begun to emerge in Sri Lanka.

While including some of the classic stories of Punyakante Wijenaike, who had pioneered English fiction in independent Sri Lanka, the volume also introduced more recent writers such as Maureen Seneviratne who dealt illuminatingly with the new culture of violence that was overtaking the country.

This edition has been expanded to include stories by ten more writers, to present a representative selection of the genre. Though only stories written originally in English have been, included, which means that particular aspects of the Sri Lankan experience have been omitted, the selection ranges widely across the island.

Qestions of race and religion, caste and class, are explored, while the impact of social and political changes is depicted graphically in various spheres.

Several of the stories are by comparatively young writers and suggest that English fiction in Sri Lanka will continue to go from strength to strength.

At the same time the volume also includes stories by James Goonewardene who was as innovative as Punyakante Wijenaike in the early stages, and kept English writing alive at a time when nationalist fervour was urging that it stop.

The fact that English now serves to allow even Sri Lanka citizens of different backgrounds to read and understand each other's experiences makes clear how important was their contribution in continuing with their work.

Dinali Fernando lectured in English at the University of Kelaniya and of Sri Jayewardenepura and served as Editor of the English Development Unit of the Ministry of Education, where she was responsible for the production of a handbook detailing required achievement levels in the language at the various school grades. Currently she is the Programme Consultant at the Muslim Women's Research and Action Forum.

A jewel of a short story book

Ama Doratuva

Author: Arawwela Nandimithra

Arawwela Nandimitra is a pioneer in the art of short story writing. He has won several coveted awards and is continuing to experiment, add texture and technique to the art of short story writing, despite ageing in the anatomical sense.

'Ama Doratuwa', his latest collection of short stories is a crystallization of unique social and personal experiences capsulated within the fabric of a literary framework.

In all the short stories the key ingredients-structure, plot, setting, characters, dialogue, monologue, symbolism, allegory and point of view, can be identified, despite twists in format and style.

Nandmitra's plots are complete with characters in specific situations, where events open up to end in a resolution. In all the stories such a plan is identified within the ramifications and distortions in format and style.

Consider the short story "Ama Doratuva" itself. Here the entire story is symbolic of the life of endless suffering. One brother visualises the demise of his other brother who has been a priest-but with some mental disorder.

However, he feels that to pass away while being a priest is preferable to endless physical toiling as a labourer.

It is the free flowing clear, lucid and rich linguistic genre of Nandimitra that entices and enraptures the reader, as Nandimitra quite unassumingly creates an appropriate format for each creation. It is hardly visible that the author is strictly adherent to a predetermined format or style.

A variety of resource materials and techniques is being efficiently managed by the writer in exploiting the plots. In the story "Aturu Danweema", letters, notes and police documents provide the raw material for building the entire structure of a mature love story embedded in a social issue.

While reading this short story book, one would feel quite at home. The intellectual rigour and aesthetic sensibility which profoundly mark the literary competence of Nandimitra, will enthral the sensitive reader.

- Dr. Senarath Tennakoon