Gajalakshmi Paramasivam

10  August  2019

Did Jesus Save Sri Lanka?

"As the head of the Methodist Church Sri Lanka, I am deeply troubled about the eroding of our freedom to practice the Christian faith, in Sri Lanka."On Sunday (4) a young evangelist trainee from our Evangelism Training College was brutally beaten at Mahiyanganaya on the head, stomach and the spine by none other than 3 Buddhist monks belonging to a notorious extremist group that promotes religious disharmony and conflict in this country."The incident took place immediately after our Sunday worship conducted in the home of a believer. The traumatised student in a state of fear got on to his Motorcycle and rode for nearly 180 Kilometres at a stretch to reach his training College for safety. It is God’s grace that took care of him in that risky journey."He is now warded in a hospital, and I appeal to all of you to kindly uphold this young man in your prayers and also our believers in Mahiyanganaya.

"I assure all Buddhists of Sri Lanka that we Christians will remain calm and peaceful in the midst of the persecution we face today in Sri Lanka. I humbly appeal to you to be kind towards the Christians who live with you in keeping with the noble teachings of Buddha".

The above communication came to me as an appendix to the following message:

[I was in Srilanka until end of April. There was clear evidence by various happenings to prevent a civil society forum strengthening across the divisions of ethnicity and religion.
Later on started even more attempts to divide the community in to various fragments on the basis of region, religion and ethnicity.
Now it’s getting clear this was all well planned, in order to prevent any collective voting against the SB candidate from pohotuwa or Rajapakses.
They will continue to keep things on the boil until the end of the presidential elections, so that the minority voters will be confused and in a disarray while the Sinhala voters will be divided in to hard liners moderates and liberals. The latter two will be directionless and may even abstain from voting.
Both Ranil and Sirisena have to take a lot of responsibility for this situation.
The non political candidate Nagananda who was steaming ahead since last year is now suddenly had gone rudderless! His supporters are all confused!
Only The good Lord can now save Srilanka!]

The question is – In what form would the Lord come to save Sri Lanka? If the Lord came in the form of Jesus – then Sri Lanka would no longer be democratic because majority Sri Lankans being ‘Buddhists only’ will not  recognize Jesus. If the Lord spoke  through Buddhist – then Tamils and Muslims will not recognize the Lord. Likewise v.v. The so called ‘Common candidate at the last Presidential elections was Buddhist. Buddha came through him to answer the prayers of true Buddhists practicing Ahimsa. We have since learnt that there is not enough Sri Lankan Buddhists to whom Sri Lanka is ‘Common’ land. My (TH – Tamil Hindu) yesterday’s response to a Sinhala Buddhist (SB) included the following:

SB: Nowhere in the Constitution of the Republic of Sri Lanka it says that Sri Lanka is a Buddhist State.

TH : Since the Constitution is the formation through which political battles are fought and since the politicians made the Constitution - we learn about the politician's mind structure through the Constitution and also how a politician interprets the words. The current president has stated many times words to the effect that Sri Lanka is a Buddhist country. If you do not identify with it – then I accept that you oppose this leading politician.

SB: In fact it's quite ridiculous to call an an inanimate object "Buddhist".

TH : Sri Lanka - the land may be inanimate to you. To me it is full of Energy. It is Energy. Here in Jaffna - I feel that I am in my mother's lap. When I am served by ‘North Gate by Jetwing’ staff - I feel that my mother is taking care of me. I believe I feel so because I completed my relationship with my mother positively. I have just completed by book 'Jaffna is my Muthusum' / Heritage and not dowry. I feel more strongly the sense of belonging in Jaffna relative to previous times. I feel complete. If I recognized Jaffna as a dry land - I would not feel this. This time I came to say 'thank you to Nallur Murugan through Whose  form I Believe. Jaffna is Murugan to me. Likewise Mother Mary Who has never failed me. So, Jaffna is me and I am not inanimate.

Where Sri Lanka is Common Homeland it qualifies as a preserver of heritage. Heritage is of soul-value. When we draw on that – it takes the form of the person making the drawing to the extent of her  / his sacrifices to become common with a group. If this group that Mr Sirisena sacrificed for including through common Buddhist practices, then he did reduce the violence including by soldiers who followed orders that were in breach of the common rules of war. Likewise his parallels in the Tamil community who lead those  individuals who by  nature were non-violent but who followed orders of their apparent leaders who gave them ‘jobs’. One good example is Mr Sampanthan.

We may feel ownership in Sri Lanka with or without land. The Lord of Sri Lanka will come first to bless that person before one who claims ownership through possession / physical occupation. The Hindu legend based on the experience of St Poosala Nayanar is the source through which I identify with my own smaller experiences, of this nature.

On that basis I believe that I have the power to invoke the power of other leaders – past and present – to whom Sri Lanka was Common. Those of current political leadership positions in this category are Madam Kumaratunghe when the lady was President and Mr Ranil Wickremesinghe as Prime Minister. In both instances – the Lords of the issues (Reconciliation and Democracy) came to me first. That is how every citizen who is self-governing in an issue – becomes the current medium of the Lord / Saint   of  that  issue.

In terms of the Presidential elections that are due soon – the votes need to be for the commonness in our electorate. That electorate could be just the family that we lead, an institution where we have leading position, a political electorate, a province,  the whole of Sri Lanka or the world that Sri Lanka is a part of. To the extent we care about that electorate as if it were us – we can work the Energy in that electorate to derive the values of our investment exponentially.

 Let us take the following passage from the above mentioned communication:

[I assure all Buddhists of Sri Lanka that we Christians will remain calm and peaceful in the midst of the persecution we face today in Sri Lanka. I humbly appeal to you to be kind towards the Christians who live with you in keeping with the noble teachings of Buddha]

The first part – is a declaration on behalf of the Christians that this person is a leader of. That is his electorate. But the second part using ‘humbly’ confirms being subdued by Buddhists. A Christian is a junior of Christ. If s/he is humble with Buddhist community – then s/he demotes the whole of her/his electorate below Buddhist leadership. This to my mind was part of the reason for the Easter Bombings.

Let us then look at the Political connections that the political mind makes out of the attack on Christians:

[The non political candidate Nagananda who was steaming ahead since last year is now suddenly had gone rudderless! His supporters are all confused!]

I recall my own interpretations of Mr Nagananda’s actions through my article ‘Sri Lankan Constitution or Buddhist Constitution?’ of  05 August 2019. When I Google-searched under his neame I was taken to his Facebook page – with Gandhi’s photo and message under which Mr Nagananda has written in Sinhalese. Gandhi’s message used by Mr Nagananda was :

[A nation’s greatness is measured by how it treats its weakest members]

Since I could not read Mr Nagananda’s message in Sinhalese I wrote as follows:

[Mr Kodituwakku,

Are we to conclude that the weakest members of Sri Lankan nation are Sinhalese? I ask this question because your Facebook posting on 24 July is in Sinhalese. I do not read Sinhalese and as per my knowledge you are proficient in English - our link language.]

I therefore concluded that Mr Nagananda was using Gandhi and therefore lacked the courage to continue. Gandhi in me says so.

It is now public knowledge that Sri Lankan Sinhalese with majority power are struggling to identify with any particular leadership in politics. Until they renounce the benefits from theit identity with that leadership power which is imaginary – this instability will continue. This will continue to show the wider world that Sri Lankan government is the weakest member in United Nations. The UN’s greatness is measured by how it treats Sri Lankan government – its weakest member. To the extent the UN includes Sri Lankan government and shares – UN would confirm its greatness. Including requires disciplining the weaker part as junior. Failure to do so develops the risk of the UN becoming the medium through which benefits are traded – i.e. – money for becoming someone’s junior which then extends internally to make juniors of other cultures.

In Sri Lanka every genuine vote with belief in the issue would deliver through fellow Sri Lankans. At Presidential level, every person who votes for the person s/he identifies with most will get her/his return from the real President in that issue. It need not be one who officially occupies the position. It could be the Opposition that has shared in the pain of victims of disorders in government. But if the Opposition is also about showing cleverness – then our vote spreads laterally towards lateral growth – as Global Christians, Global Buddhists and so on. No expression of belief is wasted. Nature gives us that assurance.

As for whether Jesus has come to save Sri Lanka, :

[SB:Having said all of this, I do believe that Bauddha Agama/Dharma/Sasana is also being destroyed by the Buddhist extremists and certain rogue monks, which should be controlled. Unfortunately it looks like some of those groups are actually being sponsored by the Government agents itself.

TH :That is because an inheritance when it is made a ‘benefit’ invokes exponentially the ‘costs’ that went into making it an inheritance. That is the law of Nature – as confirmed by Sir Isaac Newton through his third law. The costs for Buddha included Royal living and enjoyment of family life. Those who make Buddhism a current benefit – would be cursed as Royals and as heads of family. Costs when they are of exponential value are known as curse. This is why the rulers in Samsara are not able to discipline Buddhist monks. They fear them. That fear is the form in which the curse has happened. We need to identify with this being the root cause of Easter Bombings.

Place yourself in Zahran’s shoes. In Sri Lanka he as part of the Muslim clergy - could not achieve the high status of a Buddhist monk. In Australia, we are yet to be cured of Racial Discrimination and at the average citizen’s level – think we are under threat from strong Muslim country Indonesia. Zahran, as a student would not have enjoyed the parallel  status as a White or more specifically a Christian Australian. When the mind is disappointed – it drops to low levels – and finds comfort in ‘freedom’ from rules and regulations. Such minds merge naturally with others all over the world including beyond time barriers in the place that is ‘home’ to that person. Those who have already expressed form to such ‘freedom’ become their seniors. This was IS for Zaharan – even though it is highly likely that IS had no knowledge of him until the Easter bombings. I know this to be the case with many LTTE militants to whom Prabhakran was National hero but about whom Prabhakran did not have any knowledge. Prabhakran personified how one could become hero to oneself. It  is as I have stated above “The real sasana for each believer is her/his own faith to which a religion helps give form.” Prabhakran / IS helped the likes of Zaharan give form to their ‘freedom’ from others’ rule. Their moral/Dharmic  right existed to the extent they invested in structured form including through religion. To the extent leaders failed in their duty to satisfy the expectations  - they become the target – even if they had no knowledge of the attacker. The targets differ as per the attacker’s personification of why s/he was disappointed. Zaharan’s became expansion of White Australians. I picked up this risk – when I learnt about the collaboration between Australian government and the Christian Tourism Minister in Sri Lanka. The American  film ‘Colateral Beauty’ highlights this value. Each person who genuinely suffers deep pain finds highest level of bliss of exponential value. That is a guarantee from Universal Power. I leant this lesson through my pain at the University of NSW which was not the sole body that caused me the pain. They were the last straw that rooted me in that pain. But in turn – my work now sits in Australian National Library. I did not consciously do anything for it to get there. To-date I have not gained economically or in terms of status for that. But I feel blissful that I have the blessings of Dharma – the system of Truth. No true pain is without its Natural compensation. The deeper the pain the more exponential the return. The reason for exponential value is that the pain happens because we feel part of a group / world. When someone dies despite our genuine investment in them – as in the case of war victims and the Easter bombing victims – especially those in the church – the pain is unbearable. But it is those of us who invested deeply in those relationships / People – who would invoke as family - many others who are likewise suffering. This group really becomes protective power of all those who are bound to them by common values and experiences. Suicide bombers who believe that many others would benefit from their deaths – cannot be judged without identifying with the negligence in the system that led them to abandon rules that did not work for them. Those are also Acts of god – those beyond our conscious control. It is for this reason that a mentally ill person is not punished for criminal acts.

So – did Jesus give Christians the Sri Lankan pain – so they would become global citizens?