Reflections on Kula Sutra a year and 2,500 years later

A year ago I wrote how the Kula Sutra contains some invaluable lessons relating to the task of nation-building (http://www.dailynews.lk/2010/02/08/fea02.asp). A year ago, we were a nation that had just come out of what had been made out to be a close and grueling Presidential election but which turned out, as most people who knew basic arithmetic predicted, a comfortable re-election of President Mahinda Rajapaksa. There was enough acrimony and a sense of a ‘house divided’ given that the loser was not very long before a key player in the offensive launched to annihilate the LTTE. It was a time to take stock, exercise moderation, engage in self-criticism and to stop seeing ‘opponent’ as a synonym of ‘enemy’ in the larger interests of the nation. The Kula Sutra seemed a good place to begin reflection.

Multiple applications

“In every case where a family cannot hold onto its great wealth for long, it is for one or another of these four reasons. Which four? They don’t look for things that are lost.

They don’t repair things that have gotten old. They are immoderate in consuming food and drink. They place a woman or man of no virtue or principles in the position of authority. In every case where a family cannot hold onto its great wealth for long, it is for one or another of these four reasons”.

A year ago, my comment on the Kula Sutra was predicated on seeing nation as family. The points I made I believe are still valid and as such I will not repeat myself. The beauty of Buddhism for me, as I mentioned back then, is that even the simplest pronouncement of the Enlightened One, our Budun Wahansa, Siddhartha Gauthama, has multiple applications, valid for multiple situations and of immense value in unraveling the numerous knots that confront us in our day-to-day existences.

‘Wealth’ here is not necessarily something measurable in monetary terms, in gold or property endowment. It can be taken as metaphor for peace of mind, security, sense of belonging, meaningfulness of being etc. ‘Family’ can be nation, can be community, neighbourhood, clan, a club, a political party, a coalition of political parties, even a business entity or a federation of thrift and credit cooperative societies; a ‘collective’ in other words.

Each such entity can draw invaluable lessons from the Kula Sutra. Today, we hear about corporate good governance, SWAT Analysis and other tools that seek to produce greater degrees of efficiency, productivity etc. Even a cursory and indeed random perusal of the Majhjima Nikaya (the Middle-Length Discourses of the Buddha) or the Anguttara Nikaya (the Numerical Discourses of the Buddha) would give innumerable insights into things as they are and show pathways where previously thicket was perceived.

Consumption patterns

When we are not willing to look for that which is lost, we invariably end up losing more things and expending wealth and effort in procuring that which we either don’t need or we can recover by going for ‘search’ and ‘repair’ options. When we are immoderate in our consumption patterns, we are wasteful and moreover end up polluting the earth and poisoning generations yet to come. When organizations opt for perceived strength and/or are swayed by rhetoric in the matter of selecting leader instead of considering intellect and virtue, they may or may not gain in the short-term but invariably fall and fall hard down the line.

Not all collectives are rich in wealth, solidarity, skill, virtue, thrift, moderation, industry, discipline, work-ethic, determination, courage and the ability to exercise equanimity.

Not all collectives are impoverished beyond resurrection either. Even the unequal distribution of attribute, there is always that minimum ‘something’ that can turn a set of individuals into a collective or which can get back a disintegrating ‘whole’.

‘A year ago, speaking of ‘nation’ in relation to the Kula Sutra, I made the following observation: In the year 2010, as we ponder the long and arduous journey to recover that which was best in our past and embrace that which is best in the world while divesting ourselves from the nonsensical baggage that history often burdens us with and as such we ourselves acquire out of ignorance and arrogance, we won’t lose anything by reflecting on these wise words of arguably the greatest intellectual that walked this earth, Siddhartha Gauthama. We have to look for things that we lost, we have to recover that which was robbed from us by way of the colonial project and this refers also to the vandalism of land, labour and cultural artifact and the humiliation of our people and their belief systems.’

Constituent parts

But why wait on ‘nation’ and ‘national resurgence’? A nation is made of as well as resident in all its constituent parts and indeed of their interaction with one another. In all these ‘national’ intersections and manifestations, there is always an individual and a collective, separate as well as together. Both individual and aggregate lose nothing by reflecting on the Kula Sutra. Indeed, a careful study of ‘successful collectives’ one would see that these simple principles have been adhered to.

What have you lost, have you asked yourself? Have you tended to discard that which is worn and old or do you try to repair? Are you excessive in your indulgences or do you exercise parsimony to the point of rank stinginess? Do you reflect on virtue and seek its coronation? Do you ask yourself such questions in all matters pertaining to collectives?

I do not. Not always. I intend to, though, after re-reading the Kula Sutra, one year as well as 2,500 years after it was articulated so pithily by Siddhartha Gauthama, our Budun Wahanse.

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