Gajalakshmi Paramasivam

06 May  2019

Help Heal a Few than Lead Many

I looked out through the window – expecting to see our 18 year old granddaughter and her friend to alight from the bus that had just arrived. They were not to be seen. I texted our granddaughter and she promptly responded that the movie was long and that they would be back home soon – catching Uber taxi. I felt calm and fell asleep. I did not hear them arrive and slept well. This is a contrast to the time I stayed up for my kids to come home after a night out. I believe that the anxieties I felt back then were because of my own upbringing and fear of the unknown here in Australia in the younger generation. But to the extent I prayed  and said ‘thank you’ I believe that my anxiety became valuable. Thanksgiving  completes the experience of prayer. I usually pray to Our Lady at night time. Our common investment has a strong component of Catholic education. To the extent we invested in it of our own free will despite other options, we share in each other’s goodness. Likewise in each other’s pain. It was this that helped me identify with the truth in our granddaughter and I got cured of my anxiety.

When pictures of wounded victims were circulated during and after the 2009 Sri Lankan war – I did not look at them. I read the reports from others of similar height of thought structure. The root of our thought structure is the above mentioned common belief. When I went directly to the camps through the official pathway – my mind was steady enough to listen to the victims and feel with them. I have learnt that that sharing helps them cure themselves of anxiety – especially due to not knowing whether it was their own karma coming back to them. One such parent was also a devotee of St Anthony. He lost his 13 year old daughter and was also imprisoned by the armed forces. During those times I comforted the family without showing any judgment.  After he was released he has been blessed with a daughter and I feel satisfied that he is now more balanced.

This morning I read through the New York Times article headed ‘For Sri Lanka’s Children, the Deepest Scars Are Not Physical’ feeling the pain of young ones as if I were their mother and grandmother. It was painful but without anxiety because like the international community – I did not feel any direct responsibility. In the case of the 2009 war – I felt responsible as a common member of the community that produced armed militants who  did not separate themselves  from other non-violent pathways.  It was their duty to the community that took pride through its investment in education. Hence my criticism especially of Ms Ananthi Sasitharan who assumed a position of leadership that she has not invested in. Hers is trading in the outcomes produced by militants and their Heirs Presumptive at the University of Jaffna. The Heirs Apparent of the LTTE – the ex-cadre have followed in the footpath of their leader who joined forces with the then UNP to get eliminate the Indian Peace Keeping Forces from Sri Lanka. They are more eligible to the LTTE throne than Ms Ananthi Sasitharan and her cohorts – including Mr Wigneswaran who carries the Judicial title of his previous life while actively indulging in primary level politics. As a Hindu operating in Northern Sri Lanka where Lord Muruga is the presiding deity – Mr Wigneswaran has the duty to renounce his judicial status – the way Palani Murugan did to establish His own empire from zero base. Had he done that Mr Wigneswaran would have identified with the true needs of the Northern folks who are largely clueless about the workings of the wheels of Judicial Administration and provided services on that basis – not for votes but as if their problem was his.

I believe that the pain I experience without anxiety would help me identify with the solution to cure suicide-bomber mentality. As Gandhi said “There are many causes I would die for. There is not a single cause I would kill for.”  That is the Greater Jihad. Those who use the armed pathway – be they Sinhalese, Tamils or Muslims – have to be Heirs Apparent of an accepted religious leader. Sinhalese including JVP, who used weapons outside the lawful pathway – were separating themselves from Buddha who sacrificed his personal pleasures to attain Nirvana. Tamils including LTTE who used weapons to conscript the junior-most groups separated themselves from politicians and intellectuals capable realising self-governance through the lawful pathway of education. Muslims who claim to kill in the name of holy war – while living in family environment – are cowards and only cowards would follow them.

All of us who derived value from fellow Sri Lankans – to free ourselves from servitude including to our emotions – have the duty to pool our forces to rid Sri Lanka of this suicide bomb menace. Let us cure each other first before blaming others. Once we cure each other – that bondage becomes our protecting boundary of commonness. The way English is Sri Lanka’s link language – let Christianity be our binding religion. Let us begin by mentally adopting those children who have lost parents and grandparents due to violence on Easter Sunday. Let us all be mothers and grandmothers in the church where all mothers of all these little ones were crucified. Then let us balance the books through the lawful pathway. Reject all politicians who have not shown renunciation of political status at this time when we are bleeding.