• Founding fathers of Ananda College

• Visa terror

• Brutal terrorists

• Down with terrorism

• Influences on our music
  
  
  
  Founding fathers of Ananda College

The above article edited by G. S. Arunashantha de Silva appeared in the Daily News of January 18, 2007. Permit me to corroborate the facts mentioned by him and to make a few comments on the above.

The Colonel came to this island after reading an account of a debate popularly known as the 'Panadura Vadaya'.

It was Ven. Gunananda Thera who led the debate on behalf of he Buddhists against the Christian orators. The Buddhist team led by Ven. Migettuwatte Gunananda Thera was victorious.

Had he not taken this bold step, there would have been no Buddhist schools of a high standard or no genuine Buddhists.

Buddhists at that time were ashamed to own their faith in public. (Budusarana 29.11.1980 at page 7 and Budusarana 4.2.1981 - Page 8).

It is true that Ven. Migettuwatte Gunananda wanted the school to be named 'Ananda' although Col. Olcott wanted it to be named 'Gunananda College'.

It is also true that Gate Mudaliyar Tudor Rajapaksha donated three and a half acres of land which today would have cost at least rupees ten million a perch.

Therefore all Anandians both present and past and all Buddhists should revere the name of the donor and the catalyst Ven. Migettuwatte Gunananda thera.

Let me mention a few interesting facts about the first principal of Ananda, C.W. Leadbeater. He was credited with having had psychic and clairvoyant powers.

It was he who discovered Jiddu Krishnamurti and predicted that he would be a great spiritual leader. He has also said that his twin brother in a previous birth was in Ceylon and he met the late C. Jinarajadasa who later became the head of the Theosophical Society.

Among the principals who adorned Ananda I was lucky to have studied in a school where two principals of Ananda were formerly principals of the school I attended - namely. Dharmaraja College, Kandy. The two principals were Messrs L.H. Mettananda and S.A. Wijayatilaka.

Now that Ananda has blossomed out to be one of the best schools not only in Sri Lanka but also in the whole of Asia, the present day students of Ananda both past and present should not easily forget the two important personalities that I and the previous writer have mentioned.

G. H. I. DE ZOYSA - Gampola

Visa terror

The media has informed us that any Sri Lankan who wishes to get a travel visa to some countries in the West will have to go through the humiliating process of being finger printed in addition to being harassed by a local employee of the Embassy.

One would have expected that issuing a visa would have been in the hands of the nationals of the Embassy because of the importance they themselves attach to it. Why then do they employ locals for the purpose?

It may be that their reasoning is primarily based on their belief that the percentage of criminals among people who are not white is much higher than those of white nations and that a local man who knows their crooked ways is a more efficient person to screen out the criminals.

To stamp on the passport that the visa has been refused is a sadistic perversion.

We cannot and will not adopt reciprocal measures against such countries because it has never been in the culture and heritage of our 2,500 year long Buddhist civilization to react to humanity in that way.

Also we are not that foolish to antagonize the well wishing tourists who contribute to our economy the same as the most powerful economies in the world, the only difference being that what the tourists contribute to our economy is far more significant to us than to the rich countries.

Even the rich countries that can afford to treat the rest of the world with contempt will not like to lose what they get from foreign visitors including those whom they have finger printed.

The teachings of the Buddha have shown us that all humanity is linked together and that nobody or no self or no soul exists separate from the rest of humanity.

Everything we see is a part of ourselves because without that one of our vital faculties namely vision would not exist.

The same applies to everything we hear etc. Since others also see the very same things that we see they are also a part of what we are a part of.

That is how all humanity is linked together including animals who have the same faculties within a common range.

While the intelligence of animals is incomparably inferior to that of humans some have faculties in sight, sound and smell that the humans do not have.

Let me ask two simple questions. When a person from Europe applies for a visa to travel to the United States or a person from the USA applies for a travel visa to go to the EU countries are they finger printed and in addition subjected to the same humiliations that we are subjected to?

Also if it is assumed that Asians are inferior to the white man because of the colour of their skin that many white women would like to acquire for definite valid reasons then how can those who determine that Asians are inferior explain that at the leading American universities there is a very significant proportion of yellow and brown faces especially in the faculties of science, engineering and medicine?

In the UK the brown faces dominated the yellow the days I was in touch with them.

No one can deny that South Asia is the most fertile brain producing region in the world. It all goes back to the genes and the cultural heritage of thousands of years. Any student who obtains near full marks at the 'A' level examination in science subjects is assured of a scholarship at the top level universities of the United States.

These scholarships include all expenses and more. Such students never return and they contribute to the American economy.

People say that America creams the rest of the world but I do not blame them because America makes no distinction between race and colour when it comes to employment whereas in Britain it is most certainly not so.

Condoleeza Rice may with luck have got an appointment as a professor at a British university but it is very doubtful that she would have been employed in the Prime Minister's office even as a clerk handling national security.

L. JAYASOORIYA - via email

Brutal terrorists

For a long period of time, Sri Lankans as well as people of the whole world are greatly inconvenienced due to the harassments of terrorism.

Brutal terrorists use very powerful weapons to kill human beings. Who gave the power to terrorists to kill noble, innocent and helpless people of this world. I can't understand why human beings go against their own men.

People of this world worship their great saints and the noblest religious leaders who preached the value of unity, peace and kindness.

Most of the people, though they pretend to be great devotees, violate the noble rules and obligations preached by their beloved great philosophers who were born into this world over two thousand years ago.

Real devotees never violate the rules of great philosophers as they know that these noble saints can be seen only through internal purification with great devotion.

However, let's forget the sorrowful past and from this year onwards, we all should repent for our mistakes and shortcomings and let's start our lives afresh.

S. M. Wijayaratne - Kuliyapitiya

Down with terrorism

I congratulate the President for his firm stand towards terrorism and this has paid off tremendously. (Reference DN Jan. 11) The betrayal should not happen in future I hope. If all goes well this is a test case for the rest of the world to learn from Sri Lanka.

Unity and good leadership is the Chintana way. I hope the rest have learnt their lesson. Terrorism is Cancerous so get rid of it as quickly as possible.

EDDY - via email

Influences on our music

Having a lot of time hanging during this period of retirement, I have been able to listen and enjoy our own music as well as Western classical stuff in the evenings.

In the course of these joyous musical evenings, I have come across many melodies of Sinhala songs which can be traced back to popular Western songs and even Western classical tunes.

These imitations, however, did not detract from the pleasurable experiences I derived as they had been very adroitly and even creatively reconstructed.

I prefer to think that the composers of the melodies of the Sinhala songs have only been influenced by the Western tunes. I give below a list of some of these imitations/adaptations.

The popular Ran Tikiri Sina is a straight copy of Wanger's Bridal Chorus. The first few bars of Ben Fonseka's Bathieni Pem Pala are the same as those in Gene Autry's Back in the saddle again.

CT Fernando's Ma Bala Kaale can be traced to La Cuckaracha. Similarly, Sanda Wata Ran Tharu has been influenced by Moon light and skies sung by Jimmy Rogers senior.

And his Sihina Love is a mirror image of the slow part of Chopin's Fantasia Impromptu rendered in fast tempo. His Bilinda Nalave Ukule is also an imitation of a very fast sung Latin American melody the words of which could not be identified.

The composer of Carlo Fonseka's ever popular Raththaran Duwe has been influenced by an English song of yester-year the first line of which was "Father dear father come home with me now, the clock on the steeple strikes one".

But this Western tune has been copied wholesale by the composer of the tune of Kandy Lamissi with a change in the tempo.

Despite the negative comments I must hasten to add that the abovenamed Sinhala melodies have been so deftly adapted and rendered as to give equal if not more pleasure to the listener.

This is particularly so with regard to CT Fernando's songs as, in my opinion, there has been no singer so far to emulate the quality of his voice.

A further point I wish to make is that our musicians could take comfort in knowing that even in Western classical music (of which I have only a rudimentary knowledge) there have been imitations.

Only recently, listening to the SLBC, I found that the melody of the English national anthem is to be found in Donizetti's Overture to the Opera Roberto...(?). I later read in an encyclopedia that this melody is to be found in many other classical musical pieces.

Again, I found that the great Mozart had derived the tune of his well known Laudate Dominum (in Vesperae solennes) from one of Hayden's Piano Pieces in G minor. It appears that both have been contemporaries and it is difficult to say whose was the original.

Although these comments seem prudish and pedantic the important thing is to listen and enjoy music to the full, irrespective of some pieces being imitations or adaptations.

Going beyond that by doing a little snooping (research) on music may not be a bad thing if one has the time for it.

LEO FERNANDO - Battaramulla