Harnessing the true spirit of Vesak

Nalaka, his wife and their three kids are now part of our family. They set up home next door just last month moving from their village in Badulla to make this village in the Deep South, their home. They are a young family, and he the sole breadwinner. Nalaka is a technical college qualified technician with multiple skills, which has stood him in good stead all his adult life. He never sought a government job as many of his colleagues did. For over a decade since I have known him, he was self-employed and was never a burden on the public's purse. He struck me as someone who never asked from society, but only gave of his best most of the time and sometimes his all.

Equal efficacy

I am yet to meet a more industrious person than this man in any walk of life. Any task, he undertakes is not insignificant for him. He takes pride in the kapararu (mortar plaster) he lays, the pipe-line he repairs, the electric wiring he does, the water motor he fixes or in collecting cow dung from the nearby field to fertilize the seeds he plants. It does not matter to him what he gets paid for the work he does, or if he gets paid at all. He is the handyman for most of the village, where he has worked for the past six years before he and the family moved into make their home here. Everyone he interacts with in the village is his ayiah (elder brother), malli (younger brother), akka (elder sister), nangi (younger sister), mama (uncle) or nenda (aunt). The monk in the nearby temple calls on him to volunteer to get the odd repair work at the temple done, which he gladly does. And my neighbour, the rice mill owner to fix a water-heater in his bathroom for a fee. Both tasks, I was told were done with equal efficacy.

Good of others

He is kind. Never speaks ill of anyone else. I am yet to see him waste his money on any thing significantly 'wasteful'. He does not smoke tobacco substances or consume alcoholic beverages. The only 'vices' one can see him indulge in, would be the occasional chew he has of betel-leaf that makes his mouth red and the twenty rupee sweep ticket (lottery) he scratches to see if he is in luck's way. He once told me that he won a few thousand rupees with the scratching he does, but also went without any luck for long spells.

Vesak Koodu can teach lessons of life for all of us. File photo

He only sees the good of others and if one was to derive a conclusion of this village's status based on his observations and comments, this is heaven on earth. He is content.

He is liked by all. The compassion he has for his fellow-beings including his family can make some of us blush in shame. I have never seen him loose his cool, raise his voice or say anything rash. His respect for elders and the way he treats animals is exemplary.

The one word I know in the Sinhala language to explain this state with some degree of adequacy is 'Mannussakama' (humaneness).

Lessons for life

The other day, I observed him take on a new task that was most impressive. With his children around him he was cleaning a bamboo stalk to make Vesak lanterns. For a few hours each day this was the collective task for the whole family. The atapattam took shape with its petaw. The star shaped ones stood alone in brilliant white with red frills on it. Like Malinda Seneviratne wrote earlier this week, Vesak Kudu can teach lessons of life for all of us.

Malinda urged us to celebrate a polythene free Vesak. Nalaka's lanterns aptly qualify for they are made of material that decay; the bamboo, thangus thread, paappa (wheat flour gum) and kite paper. No plastic attapattam frames like those sold now in shops and no polythene wraps to protect them from bad weather. Furthermore, he also did not make them to win the first, second or third cash prize at a lantern exhibition based competition. It was his simple way of expressing the true spirit of Vesak.

It's not only the dedication and the togetherness of Nalaka's family in making these lanterns that stood out. But the fact, that rains and gusty winds may come and he and his family may not be able to enjoy the fruits of their labour of love on Vesak day. He did not get perturbed by the predictions of the chief of the Meteorological Department who said on television that we should expect bad weather. The 'now' (moment) of the task accomplished was more important to him than the 'what may' of the future. This to me is an example of deeply meditative man, whom I have never known to observe Sil on Poya Days. It did not take him a sermon, to explain the concept of life's impermanence. It was done with his own simple demonstration of contentment and realization.