More than a
decade ago the late Prof Nalin De Silva launched a book titled ‘batahira
vidyaava, aasanik saha deviyo (Western science, arsenic and god).’ The
late Prof Carlo Fonseka spoke at the launch held at the J R Jayewardene
Centre. The inevitable happened. The two, who respected each other at
some level, quarreled. Academically of course. I had left by that time,
but not before I offered my comments.
I can’t remember how I
‘read’ the word ‘Western’ but I did dwell on science, arsenic and
religion, observing that those who pooh-pooh Nalin’s takes on the god
Natha (believed to be an incarnation of the Bodhisattva Avalokitesvara,
again believed to be the future Buddha Maitriya) do treat the West and
Western Science in close-to-divine terms.
God is omnipresent, so
believe theists. And omnipresence means everywhere, even places unheard
of and hidden, places one does not associate with religion and
divinity, in your home, your washroom, in brothels and taverns, all over
a cemetery, up in the sky and deep underground. In parliament too. God
is the speaker, the prime minister, the president, the prisoner, the
jailer, the hangman, the hangman’s rope, the speaker’s chair, the
president’s seal and the state. God is, or ‘is in’ let’s interject. So
too the devil, one might add.
Well, we have people who
religiously advocate the separation of ‘church’ and ‘state’. Those are
Western terms of course, but translated, so to speak, into Sri Lankan
speak they are essentially used to rant and rave against Article 9 of
the Constitution (never mind that Articles 10 and 14 effectively negate
it). Fine. All three could be done away and we can thereby obtain a
clean slate, sorry, state.
There are a few niggles that need to
be sorted out of course: the Kandyan Marriage and Divorce Act, the
Muslim Marriage and Divorce Act and the Thesavalamai Law for example,
for when you dump one identity marker you have to do away with them all.
And of course religious holidays. No Poya holidays, no extra holiday
for Vesak, no Thai Pongal, no Maha Sivarathri, no Deepavali, no Good
Friday, no Christmas, no Avurudu, no Eid al-Fitr, no Eid-al-Adha, no
Milad an-Nabi, no short-Fridays to go to mosque, no special leave during
fasting, and no additional leave for widows belonging to particular
religious communities. And Sunday, hitherto a religious holiday, will no longer be so.
Take them all out and check the state. Is it now atheist? Is it religion-free?
What
is religion, though? It is all about belief. Strong and even fanatical
belief, to be precise. Where do we find such things? I can think of
churches. That’s obvious. Religious communities. Again, obvious. But how
about political parties? Parliaments? In the corporate sector? People
worship power. They worship money and profit. They would kill for any of
these things. The truth is there are ‘articles of faith’ everywhere.
Ideologies are more religious than anything else.
There are
‘gods’ and ‘demons’ defined as such by convictions that have nothing to
do with anything spiritual. Villainy abounds and therefore so too
villains, as defined by the self-proclaimed virtuous of course. We get
know-alls. Many. And that’s omniscience of a kind. Godly. There are
people who believe they are invincible. Omnipotent. Godly.
Religions abound. Religiousness is everywhere. Try separating them from that which is believed to be atheistic!
And one fine day
at twilight
under a threshold
drenched in primordial spray
neither wet nor dry
a chronic schizophrenic
half asleep and half awake
tossed a coin:
on one side it said 'good'
and on the other, 'evil'
and the I
that turned into I and I
a sacred covenant signed.
'We shall be one or the other
and we shall in duality
reinforce
this love,' said I
and I added, 'and this hate';
'yes,' I replied
'in the pot-kettle game
shall I affirm myself'.
And I sealed it with a kiss:
'and thus shall we thrive
through sickness and health
good times and bad,
richer or poorer,
for better or worse,
to love and to honor
forever and ever
amen!'
Dichotomies suck, don’t they?