Sovereign Powers of the Individual

| by Gajalakshmi Paramasivam

( April 16, 2012, Melbourne, Sri Lanka Guardian) They say in Hinduism that God is in all of us. To my mind, most religions uphold this, one way or the other. Sovereignty is a hot topic in Sri Lanka post UN Resolution. It ought to have been pre May 2009 when the sovereign rights of civilians seem to have been non-existent in the minds of soldiers from both sides. The actions of combatants on both sides, happening on Sri Lankan soil has polluted the natural energies in those areas. Had the two sides upheld the rights of civilians, the war would have been a war to restore Dharma/Righteousness. Sri Lanka through its constitution, claims to be a country that gives priority to Natural Powers. Hence it is relevant that all Sri Lankan leaders include their natural powers when making decisions on behalf of their community and nation.

As per Sri Lanka Guardian ‘According to news revealed by the well known orator Leoni to the Tamil magazine Nakkeeran of 11-13 April 2012, President Mahinda Rajapakse has spent large sums of money to give Annathanams (food donations) in several Hindu temples in Tamil Nadu on the auspicious Panguni Utharam for the Hindus on 4th April 2012.’

On this auspicious day of 4th April 2012, I asked publicly through Sri Lanka Guardian ‘Are you Sri Lankan?’ We could seek and find the answer (1) through a structured path in which others also participate as per common principles and values or (2) through our Truth – the Truth of the individual alone. There seem to be many distractions through the former – due to absence of Common Structured Path covering majority Sri Lankans. Hence, to me one needs to seek through one’s own Truth. Knowing whether we are participating as Sri Lankan is essential for us to make a positive contribution to Good Governance in Sri Lanka. When individuals who consider themselves to be Sri Lankans are able to govern themselves independently, they would naturally contribute to Good Governance in Sri Lanka by including themselves in the issues relating to Sri Lanka.

Kishali Pinto Jayawardene asks in the article ‘The need for a genuine change in governance’ published in Sri Lanka Guardian:

‘ Is national sovereignty limited to the right of local politicians to abduct, kill, torture and slander people, to plunder and lay waste to the land? What rights does the common person possess, minorities or majority?’

The straight answer to that is in Sovereign Sri Lanka, every Sri Lankan has the moral right to do all of the above – whether one is in government through majority vote or is being governed as a minority, provided one believes that s/he is a sovereign individual and that Sri Lanka is a Sovereign nation. Knowing the former requires us to identify ourselves through the God / Truth / Love within us. When we act as per this identification we would never be wrong in the Court of Natural Justice which is our own Conscience. One who lives as per her/his conscience is a free person and therefore has the strength of mind to absorb defeats and other pain through lesser systems.

Dr. Jayantha Dhanapala and Professor Savitri Goonesekera on behalf of the Friday Forum state in their article ‘THE WISE GIVE UP THE IDEA OF VICTORY AND DEFEAT’ published in Sri Lanka Guardian:

‘It is unfortunate that the public is constantly being told that the resolution represents an unwarranted external interference by the international community in the affairs of the country. The international community is therefore presented as a distinct entity which is alien to Sri Lanka. The Friday Forum wishes to point out that raising issues concerning the situation on human rights in the UNHRC is legitimate because Sri Lanka is a member of the international community and a State bound by the UN Charter and international treaties ratified over a period of time.’

According to the Friday Forum therefore being a Sri Lankan includes commitment to UN Charter and related International Treaties. One who holds official positions in related organizations including the Government of Sri Lanka, needs to therefore assess her/himself through the highest principle/policy relating to the issue where such is available in that path. This does not mean that one has to blindly accept verdicts of custodians of those higher powers. We could – through the subjective path disagree and establish our side through collective power formed with other like-minded members or we could use the objective path of Administration and produce outcomes independently through the official path to establish that we were right for the whole world and/or for ourselves. I have done the latter time and time again here in Australia, in relation to Elimination of Racial Discrimination. I believe that I naturally add positive energies to diffuse unjust discrimination in any environment I feel a part of. I believe that every individual is capable of such powers.

I do believe that each one of us has the ability to judge ourselves to discover the Divinity within. Everything is right within that consciousness. This is true also of those who do not follow any structured path. When one is able to return the benefits for the costs paid by the other – together they are the manifestation of Truth and when they are together – their environment is purified. Hence the need for devolution where a group is able to function independently. Where one is able to ‘wait’ for the benefits and / or is able to sacrifice earned benefits – that person does not need others and is self sufficient as an individual. Hence the above quotation by the Friday Forum ‘THE WISE GIVE UP THE IDEA OF VICTORY AND DEFEAT’. The wise know that the other side of costs would happen as day follows night. They are just not conscious of it. They just complete the experience once their work is done. Thus they pool the benefits that will surely flow. That is how, we benefit from the sacrifices of wise elders generations after they physically left the earth.

As per the above report in Sri Lanka Guardian, about Sri Lankan President’s Annathaanams (food donations) to Indian devotees ‘The reader of Nakeeran magazine who passed the news to the Sri Lanka Guardian asked ‘what the hell President Rajapakse is doing when people in Sri Lanka are struggling to cope with the skyrocketing cost of living and many of them living below poverty line’. He further said ‘The President is crazy. Why can’t he give annathanams to poor people in Sri Lanka. He is providing Annathanam’s whilst demolishing Hindu temples in the north and east of the Island’

If the above reader had come to Sydney Murugan Temple on that same day, s/he would have found thousands being provided with Annathaanam at the temple, instead of the monies being sent to Hindu areas in Sri Lanka for Annathaanam in those areas. It is not always the money-poor who benefit from the Annathaanam. One who believes in the Natural Power of a particular area and/or deity, has the natural energy to cure another of her/his sins. Family value is based on this power. We cure each other by willingly serving each other without expectation of return benefits. Hence if amongst the devotees who received the Annathaanam was at least one who had the cure/good karma needed by President Rajapaksa, then the redemption would have happened there and UN Resolution would have become history in President Rajapaksa’s mind. Obviously, Mr. Leoni the popular Tamil comedian was lacking in that power. It is also un-Indian to limit sacred places to anyone except through the laws of the country and/or through the institutional processes of the temple commonly applicable to all. As Gandhi said – ‘there is room for all of us’. When we are independent we would appreciate this limitless space of the heart. To my mind, by serving Indian devotees President Rajapaksa was showing appreciation in his own way to the stand taken by India against Sri Lanka at the UNHRC. Sometimes, the individual has to use her/his own Truth to right the wrong done as per her/his official position. There is no greater power than God and once one submits to God – one is free of the system of ‘rights and wrongs’. As Swami Sai Baba says ‘Everything is Right’ when one surrenders to God.