Musings through meditations

Sachitra MAHENDRA

Enwrapped in that whirlwind of waters, a little girl was the calm at the eye of the storm. Before making her way back home, she would count on under the water – breath held on effortlessly. She did not have the heart to share her little experience with parents, or with teachers. It was pleasure, she knew, of secrecy and guilt. Little did she know it was water meditation – one that leads to twists of creativity later in her life. Or did she, actually?

That’s Sunethra. Thiranjani Sunethra Rajakarunanayake who started off her writing career as a freelance journalist to a number of periodicals. Her writing has adorned the pages of Sri and Rasavahini.

Creativity comes to her, she claims, as meditation. All her books, except for the first few, have reference to meditation. Meditation is stilling the thoughts and a creative work offers freeway to a whole bundle of thoughts.

“I don’t write books while I meditate. Afterwards, I try to still my thoughts and concentrate on meditation. You feel the results when you come out of meditation. You don’t have to force your thoughts. It happens naturally. That’s spontaneous. When you try to think too much, you will never write.”

When she sits down to write a book, the ideas stream in. And it doesn’t stop at times. At first it’s a vague picture. She has never planned on a book, yet a title emerges a year or two before she starts work. Meditation is not mere stilling the thoughts. To strengthen the mind for meditation, one’s lifestyle should be virtuous. But in the modern creative arena, virtue seems to be a private universe with denied access.

“As a writer I do create scenes where things like cruelty are entertained. This seems vicious, but only on surface. When you are done reading, you will realise even the vicious scenes have a virtue aspect embedded. Even the religious leaders had to experience and handle vicious situations, but still they maintained love and compassion,” she explained.

Being a professional author is a challenge in Sri Lanka where creative works hardly sell beyond 5000 but Sunethra has tackled the matter and braved the storms. Her first book Sandungira Gini Gani worked wonders, earning her the income of more than 1000 copies, within the first few months, without a single book review.

“My first job, teaching, lasted only a year. I can’t explain exactly how the need to become a writer came into my thoughts but I know I had confidence in myself. I started working as a journalist. There too, I did not want to hold on to one place. I wanted to travel.

“I wanted to write and do whatever I love,” she said. In other words she wanted to feel the life around her. She certainly had to busy herself with consultancies, freelancing and NGOs all relevant to media, to fulfill her role as a breadwinner of the family.

For her novels based on history, Sunethra does a lot of background research. It’s not merely for the book, but as a hobby. She has been studying Anuradhapura period for years – or rather decades. She has a genuine interest in history and archeology apart from women’s studies, alternative energy, history and philosophy.

Writing a book based on Anuradhapura history was a dream when she was freelancing for Sri. It started as a simple short story of a simple love affair in Anuradhapura.

There lay the roots of her fascination towards Anuradhapura.

Walking along the ancient remains, Sunethra would feel modern Colombo breathing in: lots of activities, hustle and bustle and so on. Her fictional characters roam freely to India and thence to Tibet. She had been living in her own fictional chamber for about 20 years until a thought would strike her all of a sudden: if she goes on thinking her dream book will never materialise.

So what’s more to wait? She sat down to write. Even as a freelancer she was an admired writer. Sri editor Sriya Rathnakara would drop by her place to gather whatever she has written. Rasavahini editor used to give her valuable books to keep her constant company.

Her younger days were spent in the wilderness and books. She would immerse in all the books she got.

“During the first few days I was asked to interview novelist Jayasena Jayakodi. I had already read all his books. So I read them all once again. I was prepared for the interview more than enough. I never thought to take it up as a career.

“I didn’t think about money. I liked the job, because I was a bookworm. That’s all.”

Sunethra Rajakarunanayake. Pictures by Saman Sri Wedage

Sunethra’s books with awards

Sunethra’s first book, written when she was just 13, was on meditation: Api Bhavana Karamu (Let’s Meditate). She recalls the good old days with a twinge of smirk. At 13, she didn’t have a slightest idea of what meditation is. But she fell in love with the word, it seems.

The inspiration started when her father gifted a copy of Ven Naradha Maha Thera’s Dhammapada. She was too small to read English back then, but she managed. Later on she could go for another Dhammapada with stories. Meditation, for her, was sitting and closing the eyes for some while.

Sunethra’s growing days were spent in Kegalle where she had a rainforest-like garden in the backyard. She was never scared of snakes, but actually loved them. She loved her mother’s habit of sleeping for hours after lunch.

She would then sneak out of the garden to the neighbouring stream. She was just eight years seeing the reddish sun touching the earth splendidly.

She is playing with herself. She swims to and fro in the stream, and would never get fed up going underwater and count more than 100. She never realised it’s some kind of water therapy. She knew how time travels naturally enough, and made sure to be indoors when the mother wakes up in the evening.

She has once told her husband that she will go, live in forest one day, and he is welcome to join her too. But her husband - Nihal Rajakarunanayake, also an author - is scared of snakes. The couch on which she leans against either to read or write overlooks the forest-like garden. That’s where she claims to have her freedom. Freedom to think. Freedom to write.

“I had a happy childhood. And that involved a lot of experiences of my own as well as others. May be because I am a woman, a lot of people share their secret accounts with me. Although some claim, none of my books is wholly about my life. Some have labeled Podu Purushaya to have my life in it. If I write about my life, then that will be an autobiography.”

As a feminine writer Sunethra never hurt the traditional roots of culture. She portrayed the world in a woman’s eye – how a woman sees the man’s world. In her job, she was quite versatile: rich in both English and Sinhala and delving deep into history with restrained modern language.

“As a child I didn’t even know how many letters did the alphabet have. My English was what I read and what I wrote. I had a deep thirst for reading, and that turned out to be one for writing later in my life,” she said.

Now, in the helm of her writing career, Sunethra is not such a bookworm. Her reading is confined to philosophy, Buddhism, history and archeology.

Sachitra Mahendra

Enwrapped in that whirlwind of waters, a little girl was the calm at the eye of the storm. Before making her way back home, she would count on under the water – breath held on effortlessly. She did not have the heart to share her little experience with parents, or with teachers. It was pleasure, she knew, of secrecy and guilt. Little did she know it was water meditation – one that leads to twists of creativity later in her life. Or did she, actually?

That’s Sunethra. Thiranjani Sunethra Rajakarunanayake who started off her writing career as a freelance journalist to a number of periodicals. Her writing has adorned the pages of Sri and Rasavahini.

Creativity comes to her, she claims, as meditation. All her books, except for the first few, have reference to meditation. Meditation is stilling the thoughts and a creative work offers freeway to a whole bundle of thoughts.

“I don’t write books while I meditate. Afterwards, I try to still my thoughts and concentrate on meditation. You feel the results when you come out of meditation. You don’t have to force your thoughts. It happens naturally. That’s spontaneous. When you try to think too much, you will never write.”

When she sits down to write a book, the ideas stream in. And it doesn’t stop at times. At first it’s a vague picture. She has never planned on a book, yet a title emerges a year or two before she starts work. Meditation is not mere stilling the thoughts. To strengthen the mind for meditation, one’s lifestyle should be virtuous. But in the modern creative arena, virtue seems to be a private universe with denied access.

“As a writer I do create scenes where things like cruelty are entertained. This seems vicious, but only on surface. When you are done reading, you will realise even the vicious scenes have a virtue aspect embedded. Even the religious leaders had to experience and handle vicious situations, but still they maintained love and compassion,” she explained.

Being a professional author is a challenge in Sri Lanka where creative works hardly sell beyond 5000 but Sunethra has tackled the matter and braved the storms. Her first book Sandungira Gini Gani worked wonders, earning her the income of more than 1000 copies, within the first few months, without a single book review.

“My first job, teaching, lasted only a year. I can’t explain exactly how the need to become a writer came into my thoughts but I know I had confidence in myself. I started working as a journalist. There too, I did not want to hold on to one place. I wanted to travel.

“I wanted to write and do whatever I love,” she said. In other words she wanted to feel the life around her. She certainly had to busy herself with consultancies, freelancing and NGOs all relevant to media, to fulfill her role as a breadwinner of the family.

For her novels based on history, Sunethra does a lot of background research. It’s not merely for the book, but as a hobby. She has been studying Anuradhapura period for years – or rather decades. She has a genuine interest in history and archeology apart from women’s studies, alternative energy, history and philosophy.

Writing a book based on Anuradhapura history was a dream when she was freelancing for Sri. It started as a simple short story of a simple love affair in Anuradhapura.

There lay the roots of her fascination towards Anuradhapura.

Walking along the ancient remains, Sunethra would feel modern Colombo breathing in: lots of activities, hustle and bustle and so on. Her fictional characters roam freely to India and thence to Tibet. She had been living in her own fictional chamber for about 20 years until a thought would strike her all of a sudden: if she goes on thinking her dream book will never materialise.

So what’s more to wait? She sat down to write. Even as a freelancer she was an admired writer. Sri editor Sriya Rathnakara would drop by her place to gather whatever she has written. Rasavahini editor used to give her valuable books to keep her constant company.

Her younger days were spent in the wilderness and books. She would immerse in all the books she got.

“During the first few days I was asked to interview novelist Jayasena Jayakodi. I had already read all his books. So I read them all once again. I was prepared for the interview more than enough. I never thought to take it up as a career.

“I didn’t think about money. I liked the job, because I was a bookworm. That’s all.”

Sunethra’s first book, written when she was just 13, was on meditation: Api Bhavana Karamu (Let’s Meditate). She recalls the good old days with a twinge of smirk. At 13, she didn’t have a slightest idea of what meditation is. But she fell in love with the word, it seems.

The inspiration started when her father gifted a copy of Ven Naradha Maha Thera’s Dhammapada. She was too small to read English back then, but she managed. Later on she could go for another Dhammapada with stories. Meditation, for her, was sitting and closing the eyes for some while.

Sunethra’s growing days were spent in Kegalle where she had a rainforest-like garden in the backyard. She was never scared of snakes, but actually loved them. She loved her mother’s habit of sleeping for hours after lunch.

She would then sneak out of the garden to the neighbouring stream. She was just eight years seeing the reddish sun touching the earth splendidly.

She is playing with herself. She swims to and fro in the stream, and would never get fed up going underwater and count more than 100. She never realised it’s some kind of water therapy. She knew how time travels naturally enough, and made sure to be indoors when the mother wakes up in the evening.

She has once told her husband that she will go, live in forest one day, and he is welcome to join her too. But her husband - Nihal Rajakarunanayake, also an author - is scared of snakes. The couch on which she leans against either to read or write overlooks the forest-like garden. That’s where she claims to have her freedom. Freedom to think. Freedom to write.

“I had a happy childhood. And that involved a lot of experiences of my own as well as others. May be because I am a woman, a lot of people share their secret accounts with me. Although some claim, none of my books is wholly about my life. Some have labeled Podu Purushaya to have my life in it. If I write about my life, then that will be an autobiography.”

As a feminine writer Sunethra never hurt the traditional roots of culture. She portrayed the world in a woman’s eye – how a woman sees the man’s world. In her job, she was quite versatile: rich in both English and Sinhala and delving deep into history with restrained modern language.

“As a child I didn’t even know how many letters did the alphabet have. My English was what I read and what I wrote. I had a deep thirst for reading, and that turned out to be one for writing later in my life,” she said.

Now, in the helm of her writing career, Sunethra is not such a bookworm. Her reading is confined to philosophy, Buddhism, history and archeology.

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