Susantha Karunaratne’s Animisa Lochana Poojawa
More than two millennia ago, an exceptional human being and according
to some one endowed with the greatest mind ever, Siddhartha Gauthama,
the Enlightened One, stood for a week in front of the tree Asathu. This
was upon attaining Enlightenment. The Buddha, we are told, paid tribute,
showed gratitude and taught lesson by this simple but significant act of
gazing upon the tree that given him shade in the long moments of
reflection that resulted in the fruition of Nirvanic comprehension. Hour
after hour, day after day, for an entire week, the Buddha gazed upon the
tree, without blinking once.
Tree. Inanimate. Symbolic. One might say it was unnecessary for
someone who has vanquished his kleshas, but then again, it also
indicates ‘teacher’ and exemplifies the virtue of humility.
Chess Champion
Gratitude is rare. We prefer to indulge ourselves by believing that
achievements are self-wrought. I am thinking of gratitude and remembered
the Buddha’s Sath Sathiya (the Seven Weeks post-Enlightenment) and
especially the first week where the focus was on unwavering appreciation
because of a man called Susantha Karunaratne.
I met Susantha because his seven years old daughter, Yathra, was
representing Sri Lanka in the Girls Under Eight category at the World
Youth Chess Championship. Yathra is the current Girls Under Eight Chess
Champion of Sri Lanka. This doesn’t say much because at that age, it is
more luck than anything else that sees someone win and another lose. It
is more about the other person making a blunder than one’s chess skills.
Still, ‘Champion’ does have market value and parents do market such
things to get their children into better or at least more popular
schools.
Yathra attends a primary school in Kurunegala. Susantha, like his
wife, is an artist. He used to do some work in advertising, graphic
design and printing, but had ‘retired’ recently because he, like his
wife, wanted to pursue his passion, painting. They are not super wealthy
and live frugal and simple lives, not necessarily out of poverty as out
of choice.
Primary school
I assumed that the girl was attending a big-name school in Kurunegala.
‘Maliyadeva Balika?’ I asked the father. He said ‘no’ and explained.
‘It is possible to get her into Maliyadeva because of her
achievements, but we thought this was wrong. She goes to a primary
school in Kurunegala. It is a good school. The principal has done a lot
of hard work to turn the school into what it is now. He has helped
Yathra a lot.
He encouraged her and gave her a lot of recognition. The entire
school knows her. It would be wrong to abandon this school for a big
school now. It is a primary school. Once she finishes the fifth year we
can try to put her into Maliyadeva. We are grateful for what this school
has given to our daughter.’
The Karunaratnes live in Kalugamuwa, located between Narammala and
Kurunegala. Yathra is a Grade three student at the SWRD Bandaranaike
Model Primary School in Wehera, Kurunegala. According to Susantha, this
was a school that had been on the verge of being shut down. It had been
revived four years previously and much work had been put in to make it a
school that parents consider sending their children to.
Greener pastures
Wijayananda Dharmasena, the principal of the school, I am sure, is
old enough and wise enough to understand that people like to graze on
greener pastures. I feel that at the back of his mind, he must have
wondered how long young Yathra would remain in his school. He must be
proud, though.
Susantha Karunaratne is a self-effacing man who is highly talented.
He can paint. He writes poetry. He is soft-spoken.
He can crack a joke and he can laugh. He is simplicity personified.
He is not at all interested in changing the world to fit his dimensions
of perfection.
He is not a teacher. He is just himself.
Susantha and his wife, I feel, gaze upon this school in a manner that
is not too dissimilar from the Buddha’s gaze on the tree Ajapal. There’s
gratitude.
Humility. Example. A lesson. Some would say, bodhisatva gunaya or
exemplifying the virtues of a to-be Buddha. Susantha would laugh and say
‘you are kind and good-hearted’ to such a person.
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