Vesak thoughts
‘Dan ithin Vesak balanna yanna baya nehe; bomba pipirenne nehene
(Now, after all, we can go to see the Vesak decorations without fear;
there are no bombs exploding).’ This is what a neighbour who sells
betel, sweets and sometimes king coconut told me a short while ago.
True.
There was a time when parents did not travel in the same bus. Indeed,
a time when families deliberately split themselves wherever they went.
This is one of the key differences between LTTE-time and post-LTTE time.
That, however, is not what I want to write about.
Meditation - the best way to attain inner peace. File photo |
Today (May 17, 2011) is Vesak. It’s a special Vesak. It is the 2600th
anniversary of the Enlightenment, the moment when a prince destined to
rule the world who became an ascetic discovered the dimensions of
sorrow, the reasons for sorrow and the pathways to eliminate sorrow. It
is a momentous occasion for all Buddhists but especially for those who
place (too much?) value on dates, anniversaries and celebration.
Good intention
Today, most of the island is decorated with Buddhist flags. There are
banners across the roads, pennants too, with quotes from the Dhammapada
as well as other sections of the vast archive that holds the Word of the
Buddha and the incredible output of commentaries over the past 2600
years. The temples are clad in the white of sil and devotion, good
intention and peace. Tonight there will be light. There will be pandals,
lanterns and vesak koodu, ‘bulbed’ and ‘candled’. There will be tiny
clay lamps placed neatly on walls and doorsteps, with tiny flames
swaying. Temples and houses will be fragrant with flowers, incense
sticks, kapuru and burning oil, in humble veneration of a doctrine whose
perfume outlasts all in akalika of the eternal verities.
This is also a country that gets lit at Christmas, is made of
non-Muslims who look forward to Ramazan, non-Hindus believe that ‘Vel’
is part of who they are. This is a country that on Vesak day and the day
after turns into a nation or dansal (giving-stalls?), where each and
every passerby, whether in a vehicle or not, is offered a soft drink,
koththamalli (corriander), manioc with kochchi sambol, kadala
(chick-peas), herbal brews, plain tea, coffee (hot and black or cold and
with milk), bread or rice. Wherever you go.
This is a country that becomes a dansala twice a year in fact, with
Poson (the full moon day in June), marking the arrival of Arahat Mahinda,
being as colourfully celebrated as Vesak, and as devotedly too, i.e. in
the temple-white of sil and offering flowers.
Auspicious day
I can’t help thinking that this is also a country that on an
auspicious day in April, almost every hearth (or cooker) gets lit at the
exact moment and one where in most homes at another auspicious moment
millions of people partake of kiribath. That’s unity and unification
that no constitutional enactment or emergency rule can decree and
obtain. Or forbid, for that matter.
Unfair regulations
There is something about this flawed land of ours that made Sinhalese
people who had ‘bomb’ and ‘explosion’ hanging over every wakeful moment,
spontaneously collect food and other essentials when the tsunami struck
and send lorry loads of relief items to areas held by the LTTE. These
very same people, vilified outrageously for the crimes of politically
motivated thugs, gave whatever they could, volunteered to provide
medical attention etc., to civilians who were rescued from the clutches
of the LTTE, even though it was known that there were LTTE cadres among
them. This is a country where the tax rupees of Sinhalese were regularly
sent to LTTE-held areas, either as cash or as goods, even though it was
well known that the terrorists either got a cut or helped themselves to
everything sent.
This is a country where Tamil people in the Jaffna Peninsula warmly
welcomed visiting Sinhalese, even though they knew that the vast
majority of soldiers who had in the battle caused the death and
dismemberment of fellow-Tamils. This is a country where Tamils and
Sinhalese were and are ready to put aside identity-markers and unite
against draconian laws and unfair regulations that impact particular
communities or everyone. This is not a country that is un-flawed, where
chauvinism is absent. It is a country where suspicion often has deep
roots. It is also a country that can rise above these things on
occasion, especially in times of trouble.
This is a country that knows how to suffer and how to rejoice, how to
err and learn, how to fight and how to make peace, how to live and let
live, how to forgive and forget.
I believe there is a particular ‘something’ about this nation that
allows us to be like this, to fall but pick ourselves and each other up,
to rise above hatred, to embrace enemy, to forgive conqueror for all
excesses and embrace his/her progeny and accommodate his/her faith and
related artifacts. This ‘something’ is not there for anthropological
picking or for journalistic description. Those who know it, see it.
Those who don’t see it are convinced that it doesn’t exist. This is
good. This is a land made of hope and that’s because of this ‘something’
which is made to make us do certain things in certain ways. This is a
land, which, for all its many flaws, is still a paradise on earth. I,
for one, would not wish any other home. Not in this lifetime or in the
next. This is good enough. No, this is more than ‘good enough’. And not
just because I can go to ‘See Vesak’ without having to worry about bomb
explosions.
Sabbe Satta Bhavantu Sukhitatta. May all beings be happy.
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