| Colombo
- The recent devastating happenings in the Southeastern sector of
Asia through giant tidal waves, encompassing a global mixture of humans,
have prompted us to express our opinion as Buddhists on this subject.
When Nature misbehaves, as we have expressed above, it affects the
lives of humans who inhabit this earth, anywhere and everywhere, irrespective
of caste and creed, religion and ethnicity. Humans have to weep. Thanks
to scientific research of today, enough is known by us now as to how
and why these happen.
Equal thanks to the diverse forms
of media at our disposal in the world, this knowledge is made available
to man in every nook and corner. And that, to be sensibly used all
the time for the benefit of man, for his security and his well-being.
But this disaster could not be averted. Nature moved faster than
man. Where shall he succeed and where shall he fail? Better we discover
in advance our own limits, every one of us, whether in the east
or the west, in the north or the south, and work within those limitations.
Even in the pre-scientific age of
the world, these very natural things like earth quakes, volcanic
eruptions, tidal waves, typhoons and devastating floods [not forgetting
Noah's ark and the flood], did take place.
Man on earth here explained them in
his own simple way, elevating these phenomena at times to the level
of divine activities or heavenly forces. Thunder and lightning were
looked upon by ancient Indians of the Vedic age [i.e. thousands
of years ante-dating the time of the Buddha], as the assigned functions
of the Rain God Parjanya.
It was incumbent on him to strike
dead the evil-doers of the land with strokes of thunder and lightning.
The ègveda is very specific on this when it says Parjanya, with
his thunder and lightning, strikes dead the evil doers.
The God of Waters, Varuna, was equally
dreaded. He could be vicious not only in the external world, with
violent movements of water, but could also equally well punish the
sinner, filling his inside with water and rolling him into his grave
as a victim of the then much dreaded disease Ascitis [colloquially
referred to as dropsy]. Man who had not yet discovered his identity
and his own inner strength, knelt down in prayer for his security.
Elsewhere, such elemental violence
or misbehavior like hailstorms, directly descending from the skies,
were explained as expressions of divine wrath or heaven's vengeance
on man for his sinful behavior on earth. They were looked upon as
acts of punishment sent down from above, to which man had to helplessly
succumb.
Whatever be the explanation man on
earth gives to these phenomena which the ancients reckoned as heaven
sent, they are known to everyone today as recurrent events in the
world we live, taking place with fair regularity.
The nature of the universe being what
it is, Buddhists look upon them as natural events, coming under
the category of order of nature or utu-niyàma. They are as regular
as the germination of seeds under favorable conditions. Buddhists
call this latter, the order of seeds or bãja-niyàma.
When these calamitous events take
place, they take toll of life of man, bird and beast without any
discrimination. Destruction comes to every one and everything in
their wake. There is hardly any conceivable judgement of guilt or
innocence falling upon on any one, within the pale of disaster or
out side. We fail to see any sense in making moral issues out of
these.
Nevertheless, in situations like these,
everyone of us who has survived, and who in his or her own area
of life activity, has erred towards one's fellow beings through
neglect and/or by calculation, should now invariably feel within
oneself, a deep sense of moral guilt. Our solemn prayer indeed is
that this should happen so, no matter what one's religious creed
or ethnic identity be.
To every one, this recent incident
provides a real chance in this very life for confession and self-redemption.
For those of us who have suffered in this disaster, not necessarily
physically, if we really have suffered at all during this crisis,
a day of judgement has come. It is not to be missed. This we deliver
as a message to mankind. This new thinking and this change of attitude
which we now sponsor will undeniably be contributory in a big way
to the re-building of a ravaged community anywhere in this disaster-stricken
sector. Much more than bag fulls of gold, with or without strings.
This alone will restore peace on earth and goodwill among men.
Think of what has happened. We need
to be adequately alerted to our real position in the world we live.
We shall not look upon ourselves merely as privileged persons down
here on earth, with direct links with heavens above, no matter in
which particular region, to which we continue pledging submission
for all favors received to streamline our life here. On the contrary,
we humans have to be alive to our relationship to a cosmic totality
of far greater dimension. This is the idea of a Biophilia Hypothesis.
We have to be conscious of the entire eco-system to which we are
linked.
In a perilous world like this where
death can be more certain than life, Buddhists are required to live
in such a way that all life around us may live in comfort and security.
For who knows whether death would come to us on the morrow. Everyone
must maximize the benefits of living of/for the other. May all beings
be happy and comfortable. May their lives be safe and secure. This
has to be more than a mere prayer on somebody's lips. This is essentially
a charter for healthy and harmonious living in a civilized world.
Buddhists shall not destroy the life
of any living thing. They shall not cause others to do so. Nor shall
they endorse or approve any form of killing done by others. Compassion
has to be the ultimate ethic of humans for their own survival. It
is this line of thinking that produced Victoria Moran's delightful
book entitled COMPASSION THE ULTIMATE ETHIC. [BNC]
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