| by Gajalakshmi Paramasivam
( October 13, 2012, Melbourne, Sri Lanka Guardian) I
write in response to the Sri Lanka Guardian article ‘Solheim should not be made a scapegoat by
the Tamil Diaspora’ by Nesan Shankar Raji
The author writes ‘I accompanied my late father
Shankar Rajee (Senior leader, politburo member and military commander of the
Eelam Revolutionary Organisation (EROS) in New Delhi when the terms of the
Indo-Lanka Accord were being negotiated between the Tamil groups (LTTE, EROS,
PLOTE, TELO and EPRLF) and the Sri Lankan Government.’
The essence of this statement was registered in my
mind as this person being a ‘direct’ participant in the ethnic war in Sri
Lanka. Taking the Tamil Community as a whole, to my mind, we are classified as follows:
1. Direct
participants who are custodians of power and influence outcomes at that time
and place – Like the body, they are most visible.
2. Natural
Forces/Root Causes that work beyond the
direct control of Humans – Like the Soul - they show least form
3. The
Rest - Like the mind are combinations of
the above two.
They are the parallels of Body, Soul and Mind in that
order. All of us have all three in various combinations.
The father of the author is admitted to being part
of ‘category 1’. Most young ones who
grew up during the war would tend to be in category 1 – within their own
circles – including families and villages.
The next topic of Study Circle discussion for our Sai
Center is Work and Reward. As part of the study material I registered again the
following message from Lord Krishna:
“When doing something, it is not unnatural to expect a
return. This return is called Phalam or fruit. Karma means action and
Karmaphalam means the fruit of the action. Now the person who does the
work/action/Karma, whatever you call it, is entitled to imagine the reward he
wants, and aspire for it. Nothing wrong in that. He also has the other
alternative of NOT wanting anything. This may not be common but it is an
alternative nevertheless. Relinquishing the fruit of action is called
Karmaphala Tyagam (Sacrifice of Benefits/Fruits).
Suppose the person aspires for the fruit of action or
Karmaphalam. Then that person has to be prepared for duality. He may want
happiness; he may get it too; but he must not be surprised if one day he is
visited by pain. Pleasure and pain are two sides of the same coin; joy and
sorrow are two sides of the same coin.
You cannot have a coin with just one side only. If you work for, ask for, and
aspire for one side, the other side will one day automatically come to you even
if you don’t want it. No escape! You ask for pleasure, feel happy when you get
it but later cry when pain descends. Never forget that pain HAS to follow
pleasure. The problem is that when you
ask for pleasure, you are unwittingly asking for pain also!”
Applying this to the Tamils in relation to the war –
when we fought – we as a whole community were obviously driven by a deep force
that continues to influence our lives even today. But the moment the physical force applied was
disconnected to that deeper force – we lost the Soul-Power. This started not
when ‘outsiders’ were killed – but when our own elders were killed – especially
elders to whom the land they were residing in was ‘home’. The oldest person and
/ or value that drives us confirms the depth of our feelings. If we tilt this vertical
force to give it horizontal form – that is the distance that our investment
would go naturally on its own force. The question is whether Norway was within
the path of that lateral force.
The author states in this regard ‘For sections within
the Tamil Diaspora who were supportive of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam
(LTTE) to then masquerade as though the leadership of the Liberation Tigers of
Tamil Eelam (LTTE) were never at fault and clandestinely attempt to make a
scapegoat out of former Norwegian Minister Erik Solheim is futile and just goes
to show the level our sections within our community would go to in order to
“point the finger” and defame someone who had wholeheartedly only tried his
level best to broker peace in Sri Lanka and negotiate a controlled surrender of
LTTE cadres and it’s leadership including the release of Tamil civilians used
as “human shields” by the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) to avoid
total annihilation by Sri Lanka’s well-trained and armed forces backed by the
Governments of India, Pakistan, Israel, Britain, USA, China and Russia which
also included member states of the European Union (EU).’
Investors in
the Sri Lankan war and peace – invest for their own purposes. Those who invest
for quick benefits (pleasures) get the costs/losses (pain) with it. Those who
have already paid more than their share for self-governance would enjoy the
deeper values through their investment in Sri Lanka also.
Mr. Erik Solheim’s investment as an individual is of
little consequence for this purpose. Norway’s investment in this is of value.
Likewise, blame or praise attributed to Norway.
Those who are driven by visible outcomes more than feeling the
experience – would tend to take credit and point the figure to allocate
debit. This is fine – so long as they do
not claim to represent the Community as a whole.
For myself, I believe that Norway as a country has
been positive in its influence on the Tamil Community. It has helped a good proportion of Tamils
feel the dignity of their investment in self governance. This is the deepest
value that we feel from such involvement. Unless LTTE leadership officially
blamed Norway for any particular damage – there is no validity to the claim
that LTTE is influencing that kind of negativity. They belong to the
individuals who are disrespectful of the soldiers who died believing that they
were fighting for Tamil Independence. When one dies in combat fighting and not
running away – s/he adds to the core value as uttered by her/him. We as a community have the duty to
take it at that level and not at the surface level and blame others.
With those who continue to live comfortably – be it in
Sri Lanka or in other countries, one needs to take it that they have been
compensated for their pain and loss. If we
therefore keep expecting from both countries (from Sri Lanka and the
world for Sri Lankan residents) – we would have inner conflict. This is a
syndrome suffered by many migrants who desire benefits from both countries.
This is like a married person continuing to live in her/his mind with her/his
birth family. The True Forces of Karma would rob our minds of the one that is further away in our
minds. For example - even if we are living in the UK or the USA –
if we think Sri Lankan – we would not enjoy the opportunity to feel ‘free’ in
the UK or the USA. This would happen if
we have not paid our costs upfront but ask for migration before paying our
dues. Similarly in Sri Lanka – if we keep thinking about ‘foreign benefits’ we
would not seek freedom in Sri Lanka.
Thus we make ourselves stateless instead of becoming global. Once we pay our
dues to our old lives – we become independent and yet carry the essence of that
life as our consciousness. Those who did not realize self governance in Sri Lanka
would therefore face greater challenges in a new environment than those who had
already realized self governance in Sri Lanka – even though they could not
enjoy it at the physical level.
Those who have lost only money-wealth in the war –
would have been truly compensated once they earn more in their new countries of
residence. Those who have lost human resources – would find it harder to feel
compensated in a different country. They would need to go back to their home –
at least in their minds including through community living - to heal and raise
their investments as Universal Consciousness. In doing this – they would feel
that their loved ones were heroes – war-heroes – as we Australians and Balinese
feel about our human losses in the Bali bombing 10 years ago.
To the extent Mr. Solheim invested in self governance
through Sri Lanka – he is assured of his return. As a citizen of Norway he is
likely to identify with this more quickly than someone from Sri Lanka – without
global exposure. As a global investor Mr.Solheim would be expected to feel the
return of his work and would not need others to endorse/give it.
That would confirm ownership in self-governance.
 I write in response to the Sri Lanka Guardian...){kind=link}