Gajalakshmi
Paramasivam
26 January 2017
Global Identity & Australia Day
Today we celebrate Australia Day. To me
Australia Day is about the Global
Identity of this Land, which like my Motherland, Sri Lanka is surrounded by
Sea. We walked along Coogee Beach – paying our respects to our Nation through
the National flag and the Soldier and Life Saver on the beach. Then we
proceeded to Bali Memorial on the other end of the Beach. There I prayed to
Natural Forces to protect this Land from acts of Terrorism and Pleasure without
Conscience (Gandhi) . This was a special prayer due also to the news report
that the Government was also taking steps to ensure that the forces were ready
to meet such a challenge. To my mind, we sacrificed lives to learn the
connection between excessive enjoyment of pleasures and armed retaliation by
those strongly driven by ego pleasures of authority. Every person who makes the
connection is contributing to remembering and honoring those who died for us
effectively to protect us from excesses and its other side – jungle retaliation. Immigration comes with this risk.
The fact that we are largely a Multicultural society is confirmed and
celebrated on Australia Day. Some would consider it an ‘invasion’ day – and we
have to accept that. When we accept criticism, discipline from our elders – we connect
to their strengths in return. Then we become naturally Unitary structure. As if
in confirmation of this I was referred to the message by Noel Luther - founding
member of the Sri Lanka Reconciliation Forum, Sydney:
Of particular interest to me was ‘Religion without sacrifice’ due to the
Religion related problems in Sri Lanka. Sri Lanka is yet to celebrate true
Democracy which by its very definition embraces Multiculturalism. As we walk
together as Sri Lankans in name – those with stronger feelings for the Land
called Sri Lanka ‘sense’ and know the needs of all those to whom that land is ‘home’
and all those who respect that land. Those who feel that the region and/or the globe is their ‘home’ are also co-owners
of the Land called Sri Lanka.
Those who are not able to take the
leadership of such deeper owners have the choice of ‘going parallel’ to such
leaders – as two religions going parallel to each other. But to the extent we
stay along the same pathway it is important that there is only One Mind
structure that regulates us. If the lesser owner leads it would be due to ego
pleasure and hence Terrorism to deny the leadership of rightful owners of their
investment in that part of the Earth. When a Nation has the Secular system as
well as Religious system as part of its Constitution one cannot travel along
this One Mind Structure. In Sri Lanka’s case – even Buddhists would have
difficulty being one minded in Governance.
As per Daily Mirror report ‘Recommendations
in sub-committee reports pose threats to Buddhism’ Ven. Medagama Dhammananda
Thera, the Lekhakadhikari (Chief Secretary) of the Asgiriya Chapter stated:
[Q: There
is an argument that it is discriminatory of other religions to afford foremost
status to Buddhism. How do you respond?
Ven. Medagama Dhammananda Thera : It is not so. We have
not acted in a manner that harms the interests of other religions. The rights
of other religions are guaranteed under Article
14 of the Constitution, and we recognise them. However, we have to bear one
thing in mind. In almost all other countries, their respective religions have
been assigned special positions. In
Norway, majority Cabinet slots are constitutionally assigned for the followers
of the Lutheran Church. As for the Malaysian Constitution, religious
freedom is guaranteed for all, but Islam is given the pride of place with
special safeguards. In England, royalty is always linked with the Church of
England by convention. In the United States, even in currency notes,
religious affiliation is mentioned. That is the world situation. Sri
Lanka is and will be a country that protects Theravada Buddhism. We work
for constitutional provisions to enable this task in the greater interest of
generations to come. As Buddhists, we do not harm anyone. However, Sinhala
Buddhists stood up whenever they felt threatened in their own land. Buddhist
monks led such mass risings. ]
I do not know whether the above mentioned
Nations have allocated foremost place for the stated religions in their
Constitutions. If they have – then that dilutes their investment in Democracy
and worse it leads to compartmentalization or mental discomfort / disorder.
Wikipedia describes this problem as follows:
[Compartmentalization is
an unconscious psychological defense mechanism used to
avoid cognitive dissonance, or the mental
discomfort and anxiety caused by a person's having conflicting values,
cognitions, emotions, beliefs, etc. within themselves.
Compartmentalization
allows these conflicting ideas to co-exist by inhibiting direct or explicit
acknowledgement and interaction between separate compartmentalized self states.
In
psychology, cognitive dissonance is the mental stress or discomfort
experienced by an individual who holds two or more contradictory beliefs, ideas, or values at
the same time; performs an action that is contradictory to their beliefs,
ideas, or values; or is confronted by new information that conflicts with
existing beliefs, ideas or values.
Leon
Festinger's theory of cognitive dissonance focuses on how humans
strive for internal consistency. An individual who experiences inconsistency tends
to become psychologically uncomfortable, and is motivated to try to reduce this
dissonance, as well as actively avoid situations and information likely to
increase it]
To therefore have Buddhism foremost as per
Article 9 of the Sri Lankan Constitution and Equal status to all religions as
per Article 14 as highlighted by the Buddhist Priest – means the Sri Lankan
mind relying on the Constitution for Authority - carries the risk of Cognitive Dissonance
and Mental Stress. That is the guarantee that this Constitution assures its
followers. It does not guarantee internal consistency.
My actions against Australian authorities
demonstrating ‘White Australia Foremost’ policy helped me release myself from
this prison of Conflicting Values within the same mind. At the University of
NSW – I was recruited to manage changeover to Democratic Financial Management
systems. But when I delivered – the Operational areas demonstrated high value
but Central Administrators were against it. Had I remained there with two ‘conflicting’
assessments – I would have been mentally stressed. To protect myself from such
distress Natural Forces came in support through the Hindu system represented by
Swami Sathya Sai Baba who founded including many other Institutions of Higher
Learning – a University also. To me the Trident representing Hindu Trinity representing
– Body, Mind & Soul – is also in the same form as the Greek letter psi Ψ. Lord Shiva within the altar
of our Family temple in Northern Sri
Lanka also resides in this form – Vairavar the Protector. The Psi-Theory of
Psychology states this scientifically this as follows:
‘Psi-theory
suggests hierarchical networks of nodes as a universal mode of representation
for declarative, procedural and tacit
knowledge.’ - Wikipedia
Tacit knowledge is developed through habits
and / or past discoveries. Hinduism recognizes this as consciousness. When holy
powder materialized on my picture of Swami Sai Baba – I felt that I was being
helped by Natural Forces. As a person,
Swami Sai Baba was virtually a stranger to me at that time. I did not recognize
any ‘benefits’ including status due to Sai Baba. Hence to my mind, it was Tacit
knowledge from within through my belief in God – especially Hindu forms of God.
Making
this connection helped me know that Divine powers were blessing me. The Higher
minds are available to all genuine seekers – even though we may not physically
recognize each other. Now I realize that I was led by this Higher Consolidated
Mind - to ‘compartmentalization’ so I would seek deeper through One pathway to
find my own internal consistency. Towards this I had to sacrifice earned
benefits and forego earned opportunities within the Secular system. At one
stage I said to a Western Academic that like Lord Buddha begged for basic food –
I was begging for basic jobs – so the employment was ‘voluntary’ on both sides.
My recommendation to Sri Lankans facing
this Double Truth challenge is to renounce one system or to separate the times
and areas of practice of the two conflicting systems. Buddha who renounced his
throne cannot live in the same mind that takes the place of Royalty.
The above mentioned highlight of Norway (In
Norway, majority Cabinet slots are constitutionally assigned for the followers
of the Lutheran Church ) which was closely connected to
management of the war in Sri Lanka is of significance in this religious
context. LTTE leader Velupillai Prabhakaran (VP) was born a Hindu. But he was
born also in an area dominated by Fisher-folk – whose relatives in Jaffna town practiced Christianity. Norway established
through youth collaboration Cey-Nor (Ceylon Norwegian) Development Project in
Karainagar – in Northern Sri Lanka. Mr. Eric Solheim – the Norwegian Minister
involved in development of Peace in Sri Lanka – also has a Catholic
background. This could have persuaded the
LTTE to agree to Ceasefire due to Norwegian involvement strongly influenced by
this Common pathway. But after LTTE’s internal split –LTTE was driven less by ‘wins’
and more by their natural mind orders. Mental stress and disorder was high
amongst the women cadre I met and interacted with in 2003. Having initially
compartmentalized themselves as ‘armed freedom fighters’ – the LTTE without the
‘wins’ to ‘show’, deteriorated
internally due to conflicting values – one natural largely through religious
beliefs and structures and the other through the Doctrine of Freedom through
exclusive possession.
The parallel of this is likely to be the
case also with Buddhist Armed Forces carrying the Buddhist religious value of
Renunciation/Sacrifice which is in
Conflict with the Secular value of winning
by killing and ‘possessing’. The two cannot be ‘reconciled’ to become one. The
remedy is to separate Religion from the Secular system or removal of Article 14 and confirmation that Sri Lanka is Buddhist country and is therefore
not Democratic, and therefore renounce the sharing of global resources on the
claim that we are a democracy.
Sri Lankans who seek to go global – need to
compartmentalize themselves by staying away from the Politically driven Government
– as I did here in Australia. Distance lends enchantment. Tamils have been
supported by Natural Forces to ‘compartmentalize’ themselves in Politics – as
the Opposition Leadership. Members of majority race opposing the Government – for example
the so called Joint Opposition led by the former President – is a junior relative
who is trying to ‘takeover’ the official government. One may therefore ask as
to who the Rebel/Terrorist is as of now? The Official Opposition has to have the
official position and when someone illegally occupies the Leading Opposition
position – they create their own de facto regime. Attachment to wins or losses
keeps us grounded and prevents global sharing.
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