Gajalakshmi Paramasivam

21 September  2017

Truth v Political Correctness

[According to Sasanka Perera, the legend of battles between ancient kingdoms documented in the Mahāvamsa promotes Sinhalese-Tamil antagonism, and suggests ‘a long and bloody tradition’ between the two races. Thus the reproduction of this version of the past in the Sinhala Grade 6 history syllabus is highly problematic. It claims that the Sinhalese King Dutugemunu defeated the Tamil, ‘foreign’ ruler Elara in a war to protect Buddhism, to ‘reunite the country’ and ‘liberate the country from foreign rule’  By contrast, the Tamil Grade 6 history syllabus cites Elara as a leader that ruled ‘with justice’.
How do the Sinhala and Tamil, Ministry of Education-sanctioned, textbooks carry such opposing interpretations of history? ] Sharma Wettimuny through Groundviews article ‘The Danger in Distorted Education: Sri Lankas History Curriculum’
I was referred to the above by a reader, in response to my write up on Saraswathi Poojah – the Hindu Goddess of Education. I appreciated very much the Common mind of this reader who referred me to this particular article. My conclusion is that the Ministry of Education is Political rather than Institutional. The Australian parallel is Australia Day – which is a day of mourning for Indigenous Community but is celebrated as birthday by later migrants. To the Indigenous community of Sri Lanka, both – Tamils as well as Sinhalese are later migrants.

Common Laws and theories help us think together. The Commonness between Buddhist and Hindu teachings is the theory of Rebirth. One must therefore expect King Dutugemunu to be born as a Tamil fighter who would be outlawed by equally powerful other cultures in a common area. This could be Mr. Rajapaksa or Mr. Prabhakaran. Likewise Ellalan / Elara could have been Mr. GG Ponnambalam or Mr. Ranil Wickremesinghe. In essence the theory of Rebirth says that we take with us into next life - only our Paavam / Sins & Punniyam / Spiritual virtues. Both have soul values and would manifest themselves to maintain Sovereignty. When we die, we get restructured to zero base – meaning zero visibility of the outcomes of the past. Lord Krishna accepted by majority Sri Lankans as Divine recommends that we do not ‘expect’ outcomes. Like the Sri Lankan war the Mahabharatha war also was between ‘internal relatives’. The Geetha was preached to enable us to override the personal relative towards giving form to the Common relative which would lead towards the Absolute – where we are all free. The way the lesson is presented during current times goes as follows:

‘Whatever happened, happened well

Whatever is happening is happening well

Whatever has to happen will also happen well

What of yours did you lose for you to cry?

What did you bring for you to lose it?

What have you created for it to be wasted?

Whatever you took you took from Here

Whatever you gave

you gave Here

What is yours today is someone else’s tomorrow

The day after it is someone else’s.

This is how the world functions and

This is the essence of

  My    Creation’

If we do not take away anything that we produced, and yet we know that we are different to each other, one could conclude that we carry the essence as ‘genes’. I believe that these genes generate motivational Energy. Hence we invoke our family and community elders. This is fine. But the moment we ‘show’ this as a weapon or tool of relativity – their value is lost to us. Such is an extreme example of ‘out-of-context’ citation.  Sinhalese who invoked King Dutugemunu may have thus empowered LTTE Leader Velupillai Prabhakaran and Tamils who invoked the Hon  G.G. Ponnambalam may have empowered the Hon  Ranil Wickremesinghe. Hence the paradox that change is a constant.

To my mind, when we transcend the level where change happens fast – we are less affected by that change than when  we operate by using the change. One who is part of the change also loses consciousness of the outcomes. Former is Buddha in meditation and latter is Dancing Shiva.  

The Saraswathi Poojah Lesson shared yesterday was produced with the need of the folks of Thunaivi as the core purpose. The folks of Thunaivi are primarily Kali & Vairavar worshippers. To my mind educating them would go towards prevention of war. The LTTE chose the Tiger as its symbol confirming that they considered continuing with the Chola Dynasty. The problem with that is also that it is Indian. Likewise, the last Kandyan Ruler:

 [Sri Vikrama Rajasinha (1780 – January 30, 1832, born Kannasamy Nayaka) was the last of four Kings, to rule the last Sinhalese monarchy of the Kingdom of Kandy in Sri Lanka. The Nayak Kings were Telugu nominal Buddhists who practiced Hinduism and spoke Tamil. The King was eventually deposed by the British under the terms of the Kandyan Convention, in 1815, ending over 2300 years of Sinhalese monarchy on the island. The island was incorporated into the British Empire, and Sri Vikrama Rajasinha was succeeded by George III, as monarch of British Ceylon.

Prior to his coronation in 1798, Sri Vikrama Rajasinha was known as Prince Kannasamy (Peradeniya Kannasamy). He was a member of the Madurai royal family and the nephew of Sri Rajadhi Rajasinha. He succeed his uncle as the King of Kandy in 1798 at the age of eighteen.] Wikipedia

One who invokes the past for immediate physical returns gets also the ‘other side’ with it. Mr. Mahinda Rajapaksa who claimed to have defeated Terrorists earned with it the war-crimes return in addition to wrongs in Financial Management by the current voters.

The Tamil militants in turn chose the unofficial pathway instead of  the official pathway. Their supporters and financiers, including Indian Politicians had their places in the official system. By accepting them as their leaders, the militants dismissed in their minds, the leadership of those elected officially by the Tamils. Hence the killings. They claimed to be freedom fighters but they kept switching their leadership to become mercenaries.

The Sri Lankan Armed Forces  in turn keep revealing that they  were driven by the leader who paid them more. Those who accord them ‘hero’ worship contribute to this demotion in purpose.

Kali’s Consort Vairavar is the Deity of  Home-Guard. The officers of the Armed Forces would respond to Vairavar power. Our family temple like English language is at the cusp of two villages – one that confirms official Tamil culture and the other de facto culture. I wrote as follows recently to present my conclusion about Thunaivi of junior caste relative to Sangarathai of senior caste:

 [In many ways – Thunaivi and Sangarathai are like the Militants and Politicians. Now that the war is officially over,   they both go their own ways and take their respective debits and credits to their home areas. Had the militants won, war would have become a program in Sri Lanka. In Thunaivi, I developed the system that would bridge Thunaivi to Sangarathai and Vaddukoddai. It was not easy after the ‘freedom’ I have enjoyed in terms of dress codes and other social orders.  Given the lesser order in Thunaivi, in terms of  marriage,   I had to be extra careful in terms of my interactions with males. ]

There is extraordinary  interest in the rape and murder of school student Miss Vithya Sivaloganathan, due to Diaspora involvement. As in Thunaivi, the laws that regulate enjoyment of sexual pleasures  are not as firm in rural areas of Northern Sri Lanka. They are usually controlled top-down by male leaders – as in the animal kingdom. Those who went overseas from these areas into nations that are more transparent about De Facto relationships would tend to exercise their ‘foreign power’ when they return to those rural areas. Those who contributed to De Facto rule – to exercise power over the follower of Common-Law would exercise ‘foreign-power’ in those local areas. Those who are more regulated such as Miss Vithya Sivaloganathan was would resist and pay the price. The solution that I showed in Thunaivi was to take their local bodyguard with them or stay away from such areas where bodyguards (including physically powerful mothers) are not available.

One has to complete Vairavar-Kali worship to get promoted to the next stage of Vishnu-Lakshmi worship which bestows economic prosperity. Physical courage duly regulated would lead to entry into economic rule during which both are Equal and Separate. When this is completed one gets promoted to Governance through Education. Sri Lanka is now at the elementary stages of Economic Rule. Maintaining Equal status is essential to successfully complete this phase of self-governance.