Gajalakshmi Paramasivam

07 May 2017

The American Mind is Depressed by Matter

The temple priest of senior caste and the gardener  of junior caste were sharing naturally – not about the ways of praying but more about Common interest in Land ownership and business. I was happy because it confirmed that the fundamental value of our investment in this area of Toddy Tappers was beginning to show value. The priest who is part of the bigger temple a few hundred meters away, comes here to Thunaivi, because of us. We needed a priest during Saraswathee Poojah – the Nine Day Celebration dedicated to  Courage (Kali), Wealth (Lakshmi) and Education (Saraswathee). We learnt later that the priest had heard about our contribution to education and hence did not hesitate to accept our offer. It is no longer a temple where Toddy Tappers took lower position when senior castes were present.

Yesterday, a fellow member of the Tamil Diaspora sent me the following response to my article headed ‘If you are all Australians we are all Indians’:

" In fact, I have learnt through my own experience, that if the caste system had

prevailed in Northern Sri Lanka, as per its fundamental values, there would

have been no rebellion and no ethnic armed war in Sri Lanka due to Tamils.

The higher caste would rather employ the lower castes for tasks that they

were not trained to do.  "

?????????????????????????

I worked out that the responder was in disagreement and replied as follows:

[I take it that you are in disagreement. To me caste is a class arrangement and when it happens as per merit it is of current value. When it happens as per Belief in a common aspect it makes us family as per who is providing the service and who is receiving the service. The status of the service determines the status of the position – as to who is senior and who is junior. All that the junior has to do is be grateful for the difference in value received and return value provided. I think of it as mind-order rather than taking it as a concrete matter. To the extent we accept Vaddukoddai Resolution as a true reflection of our values – our relativity has to be internal and not depend on external – including other communities that are not party to the Resolution. I live in Vaddukoddai and feel genuinely that unless we include them, the junior castes would isolate and exercise authority internally. We had an incident just couple of days ago where members of the toddy tapper society – got into a fight over some small issue which ended up with the arrival of the Police. Social integration is not easy not only due to the senior castes but also due to the junior castes wanting to separate themselves and use their own local measures to mark rights and wrongs. What we ‘show’ outsiders is NOT the reality here. Now that we have declared that we are independent it is up to us to keep the internal connections going in the way the juniors understand, but do so without compromise.]

The further response was :

Thanks. No need for caste.

Today, I received emails from a ‘Christian only’ American of Sri Lankan Colombo origin referring me also,  to articles that showed as per my mind, fear of Christianity losing its high status in the Western world. One of the articles  was headed ‘423 new mosques; 500 closed churches’ by Giulio Meotti/  of Gatestone Institute.

The comments added by the Colombo Christian went as follows:

[You know, Enoch Powell was right after all.

Listen to Talk Radio for the impending violent backlash against Muslims and unsavory immigrants from the Subcontinent, Africa and the Middle East.

Americans have told me that they do not want to live in a "fortress America"! They are very uncomfortable of Police and FBI with guns on every street!

They see "multiculturalism and diversity" as a mask to subvert American traditional Christian values.

Hand it to Aussie PM Turnbull who wants entry into Australia based on "Aussie values".  Trump will soon follow. The courts keep frustrating his actions.

But the backlash against unsavory immigrants is here to stay. The heat is on!  Signs of the times.]

I educated myself about the mind of Enoch Powell in the context referred to above, through Wikipedia and noted that:

[Powell became a national figure following his 20 April 1968 address to the General Meeting of the West Midlands Area Conservative Political Centre, which became known as the "Rivers of Blood" speech. It pointedly criticized immigration into Britain from the Commonwealth nations and opposed the anti-discrimination legislation being mooted at the time. In response, Conservative party leader Edward Heath sacked Powell from his position as Shadow Defence Secretary (1965–68) in the Tory opposition.

In the aftermath of the Rivers of Blood speech, several polls suggested that between 67–82% of the UK population agreed with Powell's opinions and his supporters claim that this large public following which Powell attracted helped the Conservatives to win the 1970 general election, and perhaps cost them the February 1974 general election, when Powell turned his back on the Conservatives by endorsing a vote for Labour, who returned as a minority government in early March following a hung parliament. He returned to the House of Commons in October 1974 as the Ulster Unionist Party MP for the Northern Irish constituency of South Down until he was defeated in the 1987 general election.]

As per Salon.com report under the heading ‘Donald Trump lied about his “testy” first presidential phone call with Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull’:

[When speaking to reporters after meeting with Turnbull on Thursday, however, Trump insisted, “We get along great. We have a fantastic relationship, I love Australia. I always have. We had a great telephone call. You guys exaggerated that call. That was a big exaggeration. We’re not babies.”

Later on Thursday after he praised Turnbull as a “very, very special prime minister” and “my friend from Australia,” Trump said, “We had a very, very good call. That was a little bit of fake news.”

A few hours later, however, as Trump took to the stage at a gala commemorating the 75th anniversary of the Battle of the Coral Sea, Trump accidentally admitted that he had lied. “Now the record is straight . . .  all of those people back there. We had a very nice phone call. A little testy. It got a little bit testy, but that’s OK,” Trump told the audience.]

Through its article ‘Trump’s health-care victory lap delays — and cuts short — his meeting with Australian prime minister’ the Washington Post reports:

[But in a phone call with Turnbull at the end of January that was cut from the anticipated hour to 25 minutes, Trump railed against an arrangement brokered by the Obama administration that would have allowed some refugees from Australian detention camps to be accepted into the United States.

“This was the worst call by far,” Trump told Turnbull, referring to the other calls he had made that day from the Oval Office.]

The Colombo Christian  who to my mind is strongly attached to the ‘status’ that his investment in Christianity has produced, is telling me – who, like in the case of  Australian Police,  is seen by him as ‘Indian’,  how to interpret our Australian Prime Minister’s expressions. Mr. Turnbull who is also a Roman Catholic may enter the mind of the Colombo Christian and influence the latter to give his own interpretation to the expressions of Mr. Turnbull the Catholic. But no American, including Mr. Trump, the Christian,  has the authority to claim greater credibility to her/his interpretation over that of a person who is officially Australian and/or to whom Australia is ‘home’ . One who does that is demonstrating low levels of civilization and invokes the curse of ownership to fall upon her/his own homeland.

Australian values are those developed by those to whom the land called Australia is home – even if that land is a prison for refugees and/or convicts who do not have the certification of the government of the day. Entry into Australia cannot be on Australian values. During my early days in Australia, employers and/or their agents asked for ‘Australian experience’ – confirming that they were not accepting of my entry into Australian workforce. Back then I felt very upset – especially  because I had a positive employment history back in Sri Lanka. But now I realize that that pain helped me prove myself from zero  level acceptance of my Sri Lankan qualifications  and confirm  through my own elevation at the workplace, independent of the Sri Lankan qualifications – as to how valuable my Sri Lankan education was. I used the mind of that education when  the matter/certificate was  taken away from me in the ‘prison’ that the Australian workplace became to the mind attached to the professional status.

Be it the British brothers of Mr. Enoch Powell, the American Politicians or Australian leaders such as Mr. Turnbull, demonstrated knowledge of the laws of Equal Opportunity has become an essential criterion to hold and keep global leadership positions under the system of democracy which starts with matter before mind. Time based hierarchical system did not suit those driven by matter/money and status. Leaders driven by matter tend to carry strong attachment to the status of a position rather than the power to work the whole through that position as if there is no human above them with the authority to endorse them.

The junior castes, including the LTTE  leader in Northern Sri Lanka and the JVP leader in Southern Sri Lanka separated themselves so they could form their own hierarchy. That was reverse autocracy and NOT communism nor worse democracy.  The People fooled themselves that it was democracy. One who accepts  communism loses the right to vote for democracy. In terms of ‘looks’ / ‘matter’ both seem the same. But in terms of ‘mind’ – one is top down acceptance  of the leader’s mind calculated as matter  equally divided  and the other is bottom up development of leadership where the individual starts with the vote/matter as if the leader and the voter are equal but is  lost consciousness of when one achieves independence of the matter. The environment in which this is achieved is the home of that person.

I came to live in Thunaivi, after realizing such independence in Australia. Whether it be Hinduism or Christianity, the hierarchy is Body, Mind & Soul. Mind is the combination of Soul and Body / Spirit and Matter. The more attached we are to Matter, the less we share with others. If the ‘caste’ system is set aside, the folks of Thunaivi would assume leadership through majority vote in this electorate only to lose confidence in wider common areas. Warrior leaders driven more strongly by emotions and less by intellectual discrimination using One Common Measure – would ‘show’ outcomes. The intellectual leader would sacrifice such tendency to relate to the Common base – in principle and/or realized value. Once emotions are expressed – as happens quickly here in Thunaivi – there is little or no room for intellectual thought process. One who cares has to be immune to such expressions and yet caring enough to live as part of that community – so they would not get left behind in enjoying the benefits of Democracy which is the official global system of our generation.

Under Mr. Trump as he is today, America is destined to lose status as a global leader – all due to matter depressing the mind. I believe Australia is safe from such a fall as it exists in MY MIND. So long as I am free My Australia is free. THAT is the real Australian Value. The Colombo Christian who carries certificates of high education is not yet a free American and hence his misery. Scientifically speaking, America is not the land that is possessed/occupied but  the feeling that we are part of that environment called America. When we are part of it – we do not ‘see’ it and when we ‘see’ it except for functional purposes, we are no longer part of it. 

Those who desire religion/caste would fear another religion/caste. Desire and Fear are inseparable twins. When they live together they diffuse each other. When separated temporarily by time and/or space they cause excitement and depression in the mind that thinks it is ‘free’ because no leader is visible. Today’s American fearing fellow Americans by Law, confirms yesterday’s enjoyment of desires/unearned benefits. 

I believe that we are all born Sovereign. When we leave our birth environment we need to ensure that we pay our dues to that environment to maintain that Sovereignty. Immigration and/or living in the past environments as they then existed often causes loss of Sovereign power in current environment. The above mentioned Colombo Christian seems to be one of them. Likewise Mr. Trump to the extent he is living in the White-dominated America.