If I can go down on my knees beside you...
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Ninety five feet tall, milky white Kiri Vehera
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It is hard not to think of Mahagama Sekara's poem.... if I could
kneel beside you.... as I stare at the white clad figures seated around
the Kiri Vehera in Kataragama. Chanting gatha in groups, meditating in
silence or simply staring at the dagoba, everyone seems to be on their
way to achieving nirvana.
Except for me and my colleague Dushmantha. Apologizing in our minds
to those we disturb with the click of our cameras and the eternal
questions, after all being nosy is a part of our profession, we begin to
talk with a girl holding a tray of vathusudu on her lap.
"What is your name?" she squints at us and turns to her mother, who
smiles and says "please buy a bag of flowers". When we pay for two bags
and tell her to keep the change she says "Ever since their father left
us, I have been earning a living from selling flowers".
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Where Buddha visited on his third trip to Sri Lanka |
Was he killed, perhaps by an elephant?. She begins to sob. "If he was
killed I would have been able to bear the grief. No, he walked away with
another woman". We dare not ask more.
"Why does everything go wrong for some people?" Dushmantha asks me. I
pretend not to hear him.
Listening to the chanting of the other flower sellers is far more
entertaining. "Come buy from us, please come. Come, please come" (Apen
ganna, aney apen ganna..). The teenage boys walking in front of me chant
back "Apith ganna, aney apith ganna". (Buy us too, please buy us too).
Thanks to the torrential rains the Manik Ganga has expanded its
boarders. In spite of the threat of being dragged into the water by
man-eating crocodiles many a devotee is seen taking a dip in the orange
juice coloured water.
“A solemnity denied to finer temples”- Dr. R. L. Spittle “Far
Off Things” |
May the wish come true |
Expensive but essential offerings |
Close to the main road the vendors with the Pooja vatti are busy
arranging the fruits on the pan trays. Even though a coconut is priced
at Rs. 40.00 every pilgrim has one in their hands to crack in front of
the devale, with the hope that a nut which cracks to smithereens will
fulfil their wishes.
The focus of worship in Kataragama, however was not always where it
is today. According to the Kataragama Devotees Trust, formerly, the god
had lived on Vedihiti Kanda.
It is said that Kataragama Mahadevale is the only temple in all of
South Asia that does not have an image or idol on display. Legend calls
the place Gajaragama, 'the home of the elephants'. Scholars call it
Karttikeya-grama, 'the village of the war-god Karttikeya'. Hindus and
Muslims alike call it Katir-kamam, 'the place of light and love'.
Finally, its my turn to sit in front of the kiri vehera to stare at
the mass of white in front of me - my turn to think of Rabindranath
Tagore's words "Religion is not a fractional thing that can be doled out
in fixed weekly or daily measures as one among various subjects in the
school syllabus.
It is the truth of our complete being, the consciousness of our
personal relationship with the infinite". An ever elusive truism.
Aditha
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