Gajalakshmi Paramasivam

11 May 2017

Does Buddhism Preach Different Laws of Karma

The system of Karma, as per my knowledge, shows one the connection between Causal Forces and Effects. I therefore tried to find this connection in the following:

[As far as Sri Lanka was concerned, all the goodwill of centuries through the Buddhist links to India was blown away, as New Delhi at the time pursued its hegemonic foreign policy. The internal compulsions of coalition politics forced India to bend backwards to keep the southern state of Tamil Nadu content and allow the state’s politicians to dictate India’s Sri Lanka policy at the expense of good bilateral relations with its closest, oldest and dearest southern sovereign state.

Eventually, Ms. Gandhi’s son Rajiv was murdered on Tamil Nadu soil by the very group Indira’s India used to destabilise Sri Lanka. What you sow, you shall reap. ] Sunday Times Editorial - Let the Buddha’s message radiate from Lanka!

First of all the adjectives ‘closest, oldest and dearest’ negate the qualification that Sri Lanka is a Sovereign State in the mind of the writer. All of the above  adjectives confirm relativity. Sovereignty is of absolute value.

It’s not clear how Ms. Gandhi, who passed away in 1984 could be affected by her karma in supporting the Tamil Tigers, when the Hon Rajiv Gandhi was murdered in 1991? As per Hindu belief, when a person’s body dies, the soul merges with that the Lord. That soul does not suffer pleasure or pain. Had Ms. Gandhi been alive in 1991 – then ofcourse one could conclude that the Mother’s pain was due to her karma in supporting those who caused pain to other mothers. Unless the Editor is claiming that the children of the Hon Rajiv Gandhi inherited the habit of supporting the Tamil Tigers the above karmic connection is false.

Given that the article is in praise of Buddhism in Sri Lanka, let’s look at the assassination of Sri Lanka’s Prime Minister, the Hon SWRD Bandaranaike, who was murdered by a Buddhist monk. The question that needs to be asked is whether it was the karma of family of the Hon SWRD Bandaranaike to suffer without the father? Did the monk who murdered the Prime Minister consider it his duty to kill the Prime Minister who was known to have supported Buddhist clergy:

[ As a young lawyer Bandaranaike became active in the Ceylon National Congress (CNC). He was elected to the Colombo Municipal Council in 1926. From 1931 to 1947 he served in the State Council of Ceylon. In order to promote Sinhala culture and community interests, Bandaranaike organised the Sinhala Maha Sabha in 1936. In 1946 he backed the United National Party (UNP) and held ministerial posts from 1947 to 1951. In 1951, he led his Sinhala Maha Sabha faction out of the UNP and established the Sri Lanka Freedom Party (SLFP).

On the sensitive issue of language, the party originally espoused the use of both Sinhala and Tamil as national languages, but in the mid-1950s it adopted a "Sinhala only" policy. The party asserts it is a champion of the Buddhist religion, which had been attacked by local Christians and Tamils alike during the colonial era. The SLFP has customarily relied upon the socially and politically influential Buddhist clergy, the sangha, to carry its message to the Sinhala villages. Since the 1950s, SLFP platforms have reflected the earlier organization's emphasis on appealing to the sentiments of the Sinhala masses in rural areas. To this basis has been added the anti-establishment appeal of non-revolutionary socialism.

Bandaranaike became prime minister after winning the 1956 elections in a landslide, at the head of a four-party coalition with a no-contest pact with the Lanka Sama Samaja Party and the Communist Party of Sri Lanka. As such, he made Sinhala the official language of the country, downgrading the official status of English and promoting socialist, non-Western policies that profoundly changed the course of Ceylonese politics in the following decades.]

Given that majority Tamils of Sri Lanka, including the Tamil Tigers connect the root reason for the actions of Tamil Rebels to be the move by the Government to enforce Sinhala as the only official language, one is required as per the rules of Democracy,  to accept that as the reason for the development of violence amongst Tamils of Sri Lanka. Unless therefore, Ms. Indira Gandhi had some influence over the above thinking of the Ceylon Prime Minister, one cannot claim a causal connection between the civil riots and the war that followed in Sri Lanka, on the one hand and the Indian Prime Minister on the other. A Sovereign Nation would know the ‘internal connection’. That Sovereignty is the measure through which the connection is known. I confirmed this, as follows this morning when a caring reader showed identification with my pain:

 [It's true that the experience in court was painful. But my Truth eventually helped me find my own comfort within. This helped me develop deeper insight into human nature and the way the system of Natural Justice worked. Now these experiences are not painful. Sometimes sad but not painful because knowing that true belief in my own Sovereignty is my real support, takes me deeper into the world of Nature. That way I am able to comfort others in similar situation.]

Our laws confirm the official mind of the Nation. Those who used Buddhism to promote Sinhala only were actually damaging the investment of the Nation in Buddhism. The wife of the above leader was actually rewarded by Sinhala Buddhists. The more journalists seek popularity, the weaker their connection to Common Principles and/or Truth.

Just this week our electrician from Vaddukoddai kept telling me about my brother in law who passed away in 2010. The electrician has knowledge that there is internal conflict in the family in terms of the intestate estate of the deceased. This electrician took advantage of it and kept going about how close he – the electrician was to the deceased and how kind and generous the deceased had been to him the electrician. I just listened. I could not connect any of it to the Character of the Deceased nor did I have knowledge of this electrician going in and out of the home of the deceased  where I did stay during my visits to Vaddukoddai before he passed away. I did not dispute any of the electrician’s statement but adjusted his status in my own mind, as per his Truth known through my Truth. To me my experience with a person is the measure. The rest is ‘foreign’ news to me.

Later, the electrician failed yet again to deliver services as promised and then I put my foot down and said that I was going to the Police to complain against him on the basis of having taken the money and not delivering service as promised. This happened many times but each time I would excuse him because he spends money on his kids’ education. But yesterday I consolidated the Truth I knew about this guy to decide to be firm with him. This morning he brought back the full money – so I would not go to the Police.

The editor of Sunday Times is telling us about India to whom Sri Lankan Tamils are more closely connected than are Sinhalese. When Mr. Rajiv Gandhi was killed he was not holding the position of Prime Minister. When Mr. SWRD Bandaranaike was killed he was Prime Minister and hence it’s more of a challenge to the Security system of the Government as allocated to itself. How can someone who underestimated the risk to his personal security protect the Nation’s security?

Every one of us contributes to the consolidated values of an area that is our home. I believe that my contribution to this part of Sri Lanka has improved its security against its own weaknesses and also its accountability to those who have invested in higher common structures than those formed through visible outcomes – such as majority vote and money. Relatively speaking Mr. Bandaranaike  invested through his own insecurity, in the causal forces of separation. The American Christian who forwarded this message also effectively states this as follows:

[All these Buddhist evangelicals need their heads examined!  Sri Lanka is too much immersed in Buddhism.

The irony is that Sri Lanka ranks as one of the highest in murder, rape and crime rates in the world.

These folks ignore the fact that Buddha taught living his precepts by example, not words!]

Ironically, like our electrician above who was trying to fool me and ended up defeating himself – the Buddhist media in Sri Lanka is fooling her/himself :

Sri Lanka is greatly respected in the Buddhist world for having preserved the sublime teachings of the Buddha in its purest form, despite centuries of foreign colonial rule. The country’s noble sons gave their lives to safeguard this heritage.

What happened to war crimes allegations? Where is it included in the above? Were majority within the Armed Forces Non-Buddhists when they fought against Tamils through Tamil Tigers?

Like in marriage, religion also has institutional structures. These are valid only until the majority concerned have no knowledge that contradicts the values promoted through these structures. Our commitment to law is valid only until our Truth shows otherwise through our own conduct when we think we are ‘free’ of supervision. If indeed Sri Lankan government  is just then Buddha killed all those who got killed during the war actions of  Buddhist government which has demonstrated much lesser investment in promoting secular commonness than in Buddhism. As we sow, so shall we reap.