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| Sunday, 24 August 2003 |
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Shedding Maitree by Padma Edirisinghe Sitting in the posture of meditation before an icon of Buddha and shedding Maitree on all beings, I must admit frankly never got itemized in my daily routine. I blame it on my upbringing. Most of my education I had in a school of alien faith and even my home environment was not that religious. My father was of too broad a mental outlook and looked down on all regimented religious practices as mere fetishes. Of course he never proclaimed his ideas too publicly (in fact not being a person of fame he had no public platform) nor carried his advanced ideas in his workplace. In his personal life he was so unorthodox that to my mother's horror there was a time he encouraged me to be converted. That was after he had gone rather crazy over my school head, shrouded in her white and black caps and robes. My mother however was not at all amused, but she herself, a school teacher, a bit less broad minded than her husband just let the infatuation go off as a passing fancy. The forced religion conversion is a hot topic I felt it suitable to narrate this incident. It was way back in the '50s. I was a school girl. My father had arranged a trip for the children of the college he headed. Mania for travel ran hot in his veins as in mine. The House by the Beira, the Colombo port, the animal kingdom at Dehiwala - all were in the itinerary. I too joined in the week end trip. On the return journey somewhere past the Pettah bus stand suddenly I caught a fleeting sight of my school head, a revered Catholic nun and another nun standing under umbrellas probably waiting for a bus in the scorching sun. I shouted to father asking him to get the bus stopped. Then I told him about the nuns. As we were passing through Negombo it was a small thing to give them a lift. Animated My father not only got the bus stopped, but ran back and ushered the nuns into the bus. They were given the front seat and many sweet parcels were heaped on them by me and other school kids. After some time my father seated close by to my head nun began a conversation that went on and on, till the bus stopped at Negombo. They both looked highly animated. I was seated with my mother who kept on throwing jealous glances and muttering, "I don't know what he is talking so much." At dinners he had it out with him. "You have never talked all that with me for the whole of last year" she burst out. "Do you talk Buddhism with me ? That Sister of Gem's, she is a great woman. She knows so much of Buddhism and she has read so much on it that she was telling me the finer points of comparison between Christianity and Buddhism. It was all so absorbing. Though you call yourself a teacher can you hold forth on such a topic ?" In passing I will relate an anecdote regarding President J.R. Jayewardene who on a visit to Japan (if I remember correctly) had asked a monk there as to the differences between Mahayana Buddhism and Theravada Buddhism and the monk had suggested, "Wouldn't it be healthier to talk about the similarities?" To come back to my main story, my mother did not bother to argue that point especially as my brother had choked on a fish bone and she had to retrieve the mess. But she just lost her patience later when father probably emboldened by her silence went on to become too libertine in his talk. "Gem (that was how poor black me was addressed), keeps on say in that the nuns like her because she reads so much and have even hinted at some conversion. I really don't mind that. It would please that wise Sister no end". And he gave a loud chuckle mischievously looking at mother. Looking back I feel that my father was only trying to provoke my mother. "Now this is getting too much" She announced her arms akimbo, which was the emblem of her most war - like mood. "Whoever heard of a Christian in our family circle ? You are simply talking heretic stuff". That feud shut the mouth of the head of the household who withdrew into his room still chuckling. Not only did Buddhism run in our family but a degree of headstrongness too. So though I simply loved the enchanting pictures of the Madonna placed under my pillow in the hosted bed, I just felt it too treacherous to give up my own religion. And when the Catholic girls shivered in fright as the drums beat in the night in the Angurukaramulla temple and made comments as that they sounded like the noises of the devil I took up cudgels very faithfully on behalf of my religion and would say, "The ringing of your church bells reminds of the same sound". That was a repetition of the Christianity versus Buddhism feud enacted in the late 19th Century in Five Towns of our country dubbed the Drama of the Pancha Maha Vadaya that brought Colonel Olcott to our shores. Only difference is that this feud of the mid-20th century was enacted in a hostel of a town of maritime glory with one Buddhist girl brandishing the sword of Buddhism against some 60 Roman Catholic girls. But now about half a century later I am much wiser. The beat of temple drums and the sound of church bells evoke in me the same balmic feeling for they are both striving to make mankind better. I see in my mind's eye my long deceased father having a heart to heart chat with the dear nun on the similarities between Buddhism and Christanity. And I remember with amusement watching my mother's face aglow with jealousy at the scene. Now I have entered a Maitree session into my daily routine but I do it on my balcony. I watch the men and women parade along the road in the morning busy with their chores, hastening to some destination ear - marked. I feel sorry for them as I watch them and for myself for watching them. I remember a piece I read somewhere about a writer observing a mass of people engaged in some festivity and he muses, "How sad to think that a 100 years hence none of them would be ever on this earth" They have done their duties, worshipped to different deities at different venues, listened to religious controversies, have been subject to various odd pieces of legislation, had their fill of joy and sorrow and gone away to the same Land Beyond never to return. I hear a temple bell ring somewhere and then a church bell and visualize the heads of these institutions who monitor the ringings, and I shed Maitree on them too for they are both fervently believing in their mission to make the humans a better lot. Otherwise why the bother ? And I shed Maitree on everyone, my friends, my foes, those who like me, those who dislike me, those who insult me, Buddhists, Christians, Hindus, Moslems, in fact all the beings on this earth. |
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