Holistic Healing: The Role of Buddhist Thought in Modern Mental Health

A significant feature of Dr. Silva’s counselling approaches relates to the Lord Buddha’s methodologies encapsulated in the original Pali canons, such as the Satipatthana Sutta and Anapana Sutta, as a way out of the problems in life.

by Sunil Jayaratna

Unlike in the West, Eastern societies did not have much interest in Western psychological counselling because many in these societies believed that counselling is interwoven with the teachings and practices of Eastern religions and is, therefore, a part and parcel of their culture and life. In such a context, no separate branch of knowledge developed in the East to consider that psychological therapy or counselling is necessary to treat people with abnormal behavioural patterns and cognitive problems, as they believed there were enough methods and rituals taught in these religions to cure their ailments through introspection, retrospection, and self-realization. These methods helped them understand and harmonize with all the positives and negatives, as well as the good and the bad in life, on the assumption that these elements are inherent in all creatures, including human beings. Eastern religions, particularly Buddhism, which is at the forefront among Eastern religions, advocated that human beings are just another creature belonging to nature. Merely because they are intelligent and civilized, they cannot transcend the eternal laws of nature—impermanence and suffering—unless they realize that the ‘self’ is a manifestation of the human psyche (a creation of the mind) that relates to time and space.

File illustration

However, with the development of Western psychological teachings based on different schools, such as the Psychoanalytic School of Sigmund Freud and Carl Jung, the Behavioural School of William James and Ivan Pavlov, and many other psychologists, it was revealed that the psychology of man is not only based on psychosocial or ideological factors but also on biological and environmental factors. Therefore, drugs and behavioural therapies play a significant role in changing life patterns to prevent antisocial or abnormal behaviours in humans and in developing personalities that fit into a civilized society.

Oriental scholars who learned Western sciences and humanities were able to offer a new outlook on the teachings of their traditional societies in the light of Western approaches. These hybrid educational approaches broadened the dimensions of education to understand human phenomena and assist in solving problems, thereby minimizing suffering in life.

Dr. Padmasiri De Silva, a veteran in the subject of Buddhist psychology and philosophy, has made a great contribution through his deep research into Western psychological thoughts, referencing the original Buddhist teachings of the Theravada tradition. Dr. Silva, who was once my guru in the Department of Philosophy and Psychology at the University of Peradeniya, currently works as a research fellow in the Faculty of Philosophical, Historical, and International Studies at Monash University, Australia. Among the several books Dr. Silva has written, Buddhism, Ethics and Society (2003) and Buddhist Psychology and Counselling (2018) are recent works that address the moral, psychological, and spiritual aspects of life.

Dr. Silva’s upgraded 5th edition of An Introduction to Buddhist Psychology and Counselling (Pathways to Mindfulness Therapies) offers a comprehensive introduction to Buddhist psychology and counselling, exploring key concepts in psychology and practices in mindfulness-based counselling techniques. This integrated study uses Buddhist philosophy of mind, ethics, and comparative psychology, alongside practical methods, to focus on the emotional rhythms of life, opening up new avenues for mental health.

Dr. Silva’s book is divided into two parts. In Part I, he discusses the development of cognitive sciences in Western schools of thought, referencing Buddhist psychological perspectives. He describes key concepts such as perception, cognition, and motivation, and examines human emotions from both Western theoretical and Buddhist orientations. He then analyses the concept of personality, addressing the psychological and philosophical issues facing human beings.

Next, he analyses mental health and sickness, mental well-being, and the mind-body relationship. He then draws the reader’s attention to complex psychological phenomena blended with thinking and feelings. Through a holistic approach, Dr. Silva guides the reader on a critical path to understanding the relationship between normative conditions in Buddhist philosophy and its connection to Buddhist ethics and psychology.

Dr. Silva enlightens the reader on the relationship between thoughts and behaviour, particularly in relation to morality and action, through the holistic approach of Buddhism. He writes:

“In Buddhism, there is an integral and holistic approach in which the Buddhist analysis of the nature of things, the critique of philosophical theories, ethics and psychology, and the theory of knowledge are interconnected. Psychology and ethics interact very clearly in the theory of motivation. The analysis of human behaviour as good or bad uses different criteria depending on the context: the violation of precepts and code of conduct among householders and monks; the impact/consequences of the act on society and oneself. The roots of motivation and intention (chethana) are the most important criteria for evaluating behaviour as good or bad, skillful or unskillful. The roots of morally harmful behaviour are greed, hatred, and delusion, whereas morally appreciative behaviour is rooted in non-greed/generosity, non-hatred/compassion, and non-delusion/wisdom. It is also said that the worst result of bad action is the tendency to repeat it, and the best result of good action is the tendency to repeat it. This point indicates that character building is crucial, and that both the psychological and ethical aspects are interwoven.”

Dr. Silva enriches the reader’s knowledge by referencing modern empirical scientists such as Erich Fromm, Seigel, and Damasio, who explore the relationship between emotions and the neurological conditions of humans. Additionally, he examines possible avenues to change the behavioural patterns of individuals with ailments and those who desire the elevation of their mental states by utilizing Buddhist meditational methods and mind-training techniques. “When breath becomes finer and the mind settles, we arrive at a consciousness unrelated to the senses. The mind no longer runs after sense impingements. This state of mind cannot discern good and bad or react to pleasure and disappointment. It is a state of mind that stays in the middle. You begin to understand ignorance, which gives way to the arising of wisdom.” Referring to the experiences of yogis, Dr. Silva discusses Buddhist meditation practices that readers can use as counselling techniques and therapeutic methods to cure emotional and behavioural problems arising in busy or lonely day-to-day life.

In Part II, beginning with Chapter 12, Dr. Silva describes the nexus between the nature of counselling and theoretical orientation in psychotherapy. Referencing John Macleod, he describes the role of a counsellor as follows:

“The actual contract between a counsellor and a person seeking help lies at the heart of what counselling is about. Although a counsellor may be able to use theory to make sense of the client’s difficulties, and may have a range of techniques at his or her disposal for revealing and overcoming these difficulties, the fact remains that the theory and techniques are delivered through the presence and being of the counsellor as a person. An interest in the therapeutic relationship remains a common concern for all therapy practitioners and theorists. Even if the different approaches to counselling make sense of the client-therapist relationship in different ways, they all agree that effective counselling depends on how this kind of relationship operates, what happens when it goes wrong, and how to fix it.” Referring to Carl Rogers’ principles of client-centred therapy, which focus on unconditional positive regard for the client, empathy, and congruence (genuineness) as central features in the relationship, Dr. Silva emphasizes the value of utilizing Buddhist philosophical and meditational approaches to develop the self-awareness of clients in various states of turmoil, anxiety, distress, and addiction, who seek help from a counsellor.

A significant feature of Dr. Silva’s counselling approaches relates to the Lord Buddha’s methodologies encapsulated in the original Pali canons, such as the Satipatthana Sutta and Anapana Sutta, as a way out of the problems in life. These methods help clients understand, tolerate, regulate, and accept emotions as a part and parcel of human life and manage them for blissful living. Dr. Silva, referencing anthropologist Gananath Obeyesekere’s claim that Sri Lankans view symptoms of hopelessness, meaninglessness, and sorrow as a culturally conditioned philosophy of life and not an illness, suggests that the Western diagnostic term “depression” is expressed in a society whose predominant ideology of Buddhism states that life is suffering and sorrow, and that the cause of suffering is attachment or craving. There is a way (generally through meditation) of understanding and overcoming sorrow. Except in cases of clinical disorders such as chronic mental depression, the Buddhist therapeutic approaches advocated in the book suggest that these therapies have been successful in the West as a substitute for drugs and clinical treatments (such as electroconvulsive therapy). Dr. Silva’s comparative analysis of Western psychotherapies alongside Buddhist approaches opens up new dimensions in the field of psychotherapy and counselling.

Dr. Silva expresses his own experiences and feelings of the ‘inner self’ in depressive mental conditions, following the path of the Lord Buddha (‘pachchang vedithabba’—learning through self-experience) in the realization of the truth behind human suffering, ‘dukkha,’ the first element of the Four Noble Truths in the Buddhist doctrine. He writes:

“Yes, I remember how aridity and emptiness in life struck me 18 years ago in Singapore, which reminded me of a description of empty cigarette boxes floating in the river, the sound of coffee spoons—symptoms of superficial lives without meaning and purpose—some lines of poetry by T. S. Eliot that I learned at school. But as I went deep into this mood, I felt that both Kalla (my wife) and I had lived lives that had meaning and purpose.

Opening myself to this hovering feeling of emptiness, I discovered that there is profound silence around, as the glimmering lights appeared—the contours of noise in the body and mind subsided—it appeared that the desert has its own therapeutic blooms, and I was reminded of what the Gestalt therapist Fritz Perls said: ‘sometimes the desert blooms.’

Very often, we try to master the day-to-day shallowness in our lives, the impact of routine monotony, but the more shattering feelings of emptiness and aridity in our lives come as unexpected guests. But if we open ourselves to them, they will disappear as they came.”

G.A. Sunil Jayaratna is an Attorney at Law with a distinguished academic background. He holds a Bachelor of Arts with Honours (B.A. Hons), a Master of Laws (LL.M), and a Master of Arts in International Relations (MA IR). Additionally, he has earned a Certification in Human Rights from Strasbourg (C.HR Strasbourg).

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Greco-Buddhist Synthesis

Well, we owe a lot of this cultural mingling to this guy, Alexander the Great, the king of Macedon who conquered a massive empire, stretching from Greece across Central Asia all the way to the Indus River, Hellenizing the populations along the way, introducing the Greek language, Greek philosophy, and Greek urban living.

by Andrew Henry

This is an ancient Buddhist inscription etched on a rock in eastern Afghanistan. It reads, Namo o-buddho, Namo o-dharmo, Namo o-sango. For centuries, Buddhists have recited some variation of this formula as an expression of Buddhist devotion, taking refuge or paying homage to the Three Jewels of Buddhism.

I take refuge in the Buddha. I take refuge in the Dharma, or his teachings. I take refuge in the Sangha, the Buddhist community.

Ancient Greek Buddhism

But for all you linguists in the audience, you’ll notice that this is not written in a Buddhist devotional language, like Sanskrit or Pali. This is a rough transliteration of Sanskrit into Greek. Well, technically Greco-Bactrian, a Hellenistic script directly based on the Greek alphabet.

It’s a little tough to see the Greek letters here because it’s in cursive and it’s carved on a rock. But you might recognize, for example, the letter Omega right here. So how is it that a Greco-Bactrian speaking Buddhist inscribed a Hellenized version of a Sanskrit mantra here in Afghanistan? Well, we owe a lot of this cultural mingling to this guy, Alexander the Great, the king of Macedon who conquered a massive empire, stretching from Greece across Central Asia all the way to the Indus River, Hellenizing the populations along the way, introducing the Greek language, Greek philosophy, and Greek urban living.

But the cultural exchange didn’t just go one way. The Buddha had died around 100 to 150 years before Alexander arrived on the scene. And around this time, the relatively new religion of Buddhism was starting to make inroads in this same region, resulting in a unique cultural synthesis sometimes called Greco-Buddhism.

So what do we know about the ancient Greeks who converted to Buddhism? Cultural exchange between the Greek Mediterranean world and what’s now Afghanistan, Pakistan, and northwest India stretches as far back as the 500s BCE. The Greek historian Herodotus mentions a Greek explorer named Skylax, who went on an expedition for the Persian ruler Darius I, sailing down the Indus, across the Arabian Sea to the Suez. And archaeologists have also found a bunch of Greek coins circulating in the region as well.

So trade between these two regions was already ongoing well before Alexander arrived on the scene. But arrive he did, and in his wake came waves of Greek-speaking immigrants from the eastern Mediterranean, populating dozens of new Greek-style cities with familiar-sounding names if you’ve ever studied Greek or Roman history. Cities like Antioch, and of course, Alexandria.

There are so many Alexandrias here. Some scholars think the archaeological site Iqanum in Afghanistan was one of those Alexandrias. Alexandria on the Oxus, a city founded by Alexander’s general Seleucus on the Oxus River, which runs through Central Asia.

Now, this identification is debated, but whatever this city was originally called, historians call Iqanum an outpost of Hellenism in Central Asia. And by any measure, it was a Greek-style city with a Central Asia postal code. It had all the essentials for sophisticated Greek living.

A theater, gymnasium, and Greek columns everywhere. And it wasn’t just the architecture. Archaeologists have also found evidence of Greek religion and Greek philosophy here as well.

The gymnasium was dedicated to the god Hermes and the hero Hercules. Archaeologists have found a papyrus fragment of Greek philosophy here. And a local politician even inscribed a few maxims from the Oracle of Delphi on his tomb.

As one historian, Georgios Halkia, says, we’re clearly not talking about trading posts or military garrisons here. We’re talking about vibrant Greek cities that formed powerful Hellenistic kingdoms. First, you have the Seleucid Empire, which dominated the region until the ruler Diodotus I decided to shake things up and secede, forming his own independent kingdom that historians call the Greco-Bactrians.

Fast forward to the 2nd century BCE, the Greco-Bactrians invaded what’s now southern Afghanistan, Pakistan, and northwest India, establishing dynasties that historians call the Indo-Greek kingdoms. These were kingdoms with diverse populations, descendants of Greek-speaking people from the Mediterranean, integrating with Indians, Persians, and other Central Asian people groups. Greeks were taking Indian names and Indians were taking Greek names.

And with all of this cultural exchange, sure enough, we start to see religious exchange as well. We see a fascinating example of possible Buddhist and Greek crossover with the philosopher Pyrrho of Elis. Pyrrho traveled with Alexander to India as part of Alexander’s entourage.

And yes, Alexander traveled with a bunch of philosophers while at war, because who doesn’t need some existential debate while on the battlefield? Greek sources report that Alexander and his mobile philosophy department spent a lot of time interacting with Indian philosophers, and this was deliberate. Alexander’s philosophers sought out audiences with them, some of whom were probably Buddhists. Pyrrho himself spent months and possibly years in northwest India, as well as the city of Taksila in Pakistan.

And according to the Greek biographer Diogenes Laertius, it was here that he met with the gymnosophists of India, the so-called naked wise men. And this led him to adopt a most noble philosophy. Now, we don’t know who these naked sages were, presumably some sort of Indian ascetic group, and it’s possible they were not even Buddhist, but a lot of scholars think they were.

And in any case, Pyrrho returned home to develop a pretty Buddhist-y sounding philosophy. To finish that quote from Diogenes, this led him to adopt a most noble philosophy, taking the form of agnosticism and suspension of judgment. He denied that anything was honorable or dishonorable, just or unjust.

And so universally, he held that there is nothing really existent. In other words, Pyrrho was suggesting a radical disengagement from the judgments and dualities that plague our perceptions. One of Pyrrho’s students, Timon, adds more layers in a surviving fragment.

Pyrrho declared that things are equally undifferentiated, unmeasurable, and undecidable. For this reason, neither our sensations nor our opinions tell us the truth or falsehoods. Therefore, for this reason, we should not put our trust in them one bit, but we should be unopinionated, uncommitted, and unwavering.

Many have noted that this sounds like a radical form of skepticism. Pyrrho was basically saying that we can’t trust our senses and reasoning, and so we shouldn’t trust dogmatic opinions about the nature of reality. But scholars have noted that his ideas don’t just sound like generic philosophical skepticism, but specifically, ideas found in early Buddhist thought, especially ideas found in the Madhyamaka school, traditionally founded by the Buddhist philosopher, Nagarjuna.

The Madhyamaka school developed philosophies about the nature of reality, particularly the concept of shunyata, or emptiness, meaning that all phenomena are devoid or empty of intrinsic existence, which sounds a lot like Pyrrho’s belief that there’s nothing really existent. Moreover, both Madhyamaka and Peronian thought employed the logical tool known as the Tetralemma when evaluating a truth claim. It’s called a Tetralemma instead of a Dilemma because it has four parts.

Proposition can be true, not true, both true and not true, or neither true nor not true. The Tetralemma is very popular in Indian philosophy, so its appearance in Pyrrho’s philosophy is notable. Peronian texts also say that the ultimate goal of this suspension of judgment is to attain Ataraxia, a state of serene tranquility, which some have compared to the Buddhist concept of awakening.

By not adhering to rigid beliefs and acknowledging the uncertainty and contradictions in all truth claims, one can remain undisturbed by the world’s variability. These connections led Nietzsche himself to call Pyrrho a Buddhist for Greece. Now, to be clear, this connection has not been definitively proven, and critics of the theory have pointed out that the Madhyamaka school emerged a few hundred years after Pyrrho, but many scholars think that there are too many connections with early Buddhist philosophy to be a coincidence.

In the centuries after Alexander the Great, Buddhism expanded into these regions with a little help from one of the most famous Buddhist emperors of all time, Emperor Ashoka of the Mauryan dynasty, who governed almost the entire Indian subcontinent from around 268 to 232 BCE. Like many larger-than-life historical figures, later generations crafted all sorts of fantastic legends about him, and for the longest time, that’s really all we knew about him as a historical figure until 1837. That’s when the Brahmi script was deciphered, and suddenly historians realized they had near-direct access to Ashoka himself, by translating the Edicts of Ashoka.

In one inscription, he declares, Notice here that formulation of the three jewels. As it turns out, Ashoka was less about the conquering and more about the converting. Well, at least initially.

Ashoka may have had a dramatic conversion experience himself, and a few times in his Edicts he references being overcome with remorse for having ordered the deaths of tens of thousands of people in his conquests. One Edict reads, After turning to Buddhism, he apparently sponsored missionary efforts across his kingdom and abroad, even sending missionaries as far away as the Mediterranean. The conquest by Dharma, this has been won repeatedly by Ashoka, both here and among all borderers.

And he goes on to name-drop Hellenistic kings, like Antiochus II of Syria and Ptolemy II of Egypt. If he’s not exaggerating, this means that Buddhist missionaries were mingling with Egyptians and Greeks by the 3rd century BCE. In the same Edict, he then says that the Greeks closer to home were also being converted.

Likewise, here in the king’s territory, among the Greeks, everywhere people are conforming to Ashoka’s instruction in Dharma. These Edicts were multilingual, with Aramaic and Greek translations side-by-side. And historians think that these Edicts were made specifically to introduce Buddhist ethics among the Hellenic people of Asia.

And we see hints of Buddhism being repackaged for a Greek-speaking audience. In another inscription, the concept of Dharma was translated with the Greek word Eusebia. Eusebia, like Dharma, is a semantically rich word that we could translate as piety, reverence towards the gods, or filial respect.

Ashoka’s Greek translators apparently chose this as the best way to translate the Buddha’s message. Ashoka called his efforts a Dharma conquest, and even references a special rank within his government called Dharma commissioners, presumably some sort of government official who traveled around helping to establish Buddhism in major towns and cities. And his efforts apparently worked.

One Edict references those who are devoted to Dharma among the Greeks and Persians. Greeks were starting to convert to Buddhism. Chief among them was King Menander, the most famous Greek who converted to Buddhism, at least according to the historian Olga Kubica.

Well, it’s tricky, because it’s possible that there were two King Menanders. King Menander I, who ruled an Indo-Greek kingdom from 165 to 130 BCE, and a later King Menander II, who may have been his grandson. But in any case, a King Menander is the main character in an early Buddhist text, the Melinda Panha, or Melinda’s Questions.

This text possibly dates as far back as 100 BCE, and it’s a philosophical dialogue between King Melinda, identified usually as King Menander I, and a Buddhist monk named Nagasena. In the text, Menander plays the skeptic, grilling Nagasena with a bunch of questions about Buddhism. But Nagasena expertly answers each and every question.

And finally, Menander decides to convert. While the text probably describes a legendary encounter, other evidence supports the broad outlines of the story, that an Indo-Greek king named Menander converted to Buddhism. For example, check out the so-called Shingkat Reliquary.

This was a round stone container discovered in northern Pakistan, and is said to have originally held a casket inside it with some ashes. An inscription on the lid of the box references the reign of Maharaja Menedra, the great King Menander. It goes on to describe that it holds the bodily relics of the Lord the Shakya Sage, the Buddha himself.

Now, this inscription is not much to go off of, and it doesn’t definitively prove that Menander was a practicing Buddhist himself, but it does suggest he’s more than just a fan, and maybe even a patron of Buddhism. Menander may have commissioned reliquaries like this, and endowed buildings called stupas to house them, perhaps to gain public favor, moral authority, or enhance his own legitimacy as a ruler. Most scholars identify this Menander as Menander I, whose fame even stretched back to the Mediterranean world.

Plutarch writes that Menander I died in a military camp, and his ashes were equally distributed among several cities, and stored in what he calls memorials, which scholars think is a reference to stupas. If Plutarch is right, this may lend credibility to the idea that Menander I had converted, and may have even achieved an exalted status as an awakened being, with his Buddhist subjects venerating his relics. So it looks like, by the reign of Menander I, Buddhism was already becoming established in the Indo-Greek elite circles.

Menander’s son Strato issued coins like this one, where he’s labeled as Dharmakasa, follower of the Dharma. And over the centuries, we start to see evidence for religious syncretism, or hybridization. Check out this coin of Menander II, which shows the god Zeus enthroned, next to the goddess Nike, and right here, the Dharmachakra, the eight-spoke wheel of Dharma that represents the Buddha’s teachings.

The historian Georgios Halkias, who I mentioned earlier, has argued that Indo-Greek religious attitudes may have helped this syncretism. He says, for the most part, the Indo-Greeks were followers of several Hellenistic and foreign cults. So, adopting the hero-cult image of the Buddha would have been embraced without much difficulty, along with all the ritual practices that go along with everyday Buddhism.

Reciting prayers, propitiating deities, venerating relics, and so on. Greco-Buddhism also sometimes refers to an artistic movement, though modern historians criticize the terminology. See, scholars have long noticed that ancient Buddhist artwork from Gondora, now northwest Pakistan and northeastern Afghanistan, seems to be influenced by Greek artistic methods, or even crafted by Greek artists.

For example, Buddhist sculptures like these portray the Buddha or the Bodhisattva Maitreya with real-to-life features, wearing a robe resembling draperies seen in Greek sculptures. Back in the early 20th century, the French scholar Alfred Fouché coined the phrase Greco-Buddhism to refer to these sculptures, saying all these technical details indicate in a striking manner the hand of an artist from some Greek studio. Basically, Fouché was arguing that only Greeks could produce such masterpieces.

This, of course, is not true. Local artists definitely could make these, and so historians have since debated how to characterize this art. The historian Olga Kubica argues that we can’t exclude the idea that Greek artists manufactured them, but we also can’t assess their role accurately.

Others argue that these sculptures, and others like them, actually date to a century or more after the Indo-Greek kingdoms fell, so it’s more likely that these works stemmed from later interactions with the Roman Empire, with local artists imitating imported Roman art, or Roman artists moving to Gondora to create prestigious commissions for local wealthy connoisseurs. Regardless, it’s clear that Buddhist art from this time borrowed Greco-Roman imagery, like figures resembling Hercules and the goddess Tyche. These two appear in the artwork of the Kushan dynasty, and the iconography appears to have been borrowed to represent local deities or bodhisattvas.

The bodhisattva Vajrapani, for example, is frequently depicted as a Hercules-like figure. Vajrapani is recognized as a protector and companion of the Buddha, and these artists apparently were familiar with Hercules as a powerful hero, and used these attributes to communicate Vajrapani’s own qualities as a guardian. Likewise, local goddesses like Ardakso and Hariti are sometimes portrayed with the attributes of the Greek goddess Tyche, holding a big cornucopia or a ship rudder.

Examples like this are often labeled as syncretism, commonly understood as the blending or mixing of different religious traditions, but I think syncretism is often oversimplified. The term itself implies two distinct monolithic entities, Hellenistic culture on one side and Buddhism on the other side, merging like a Venn diagram. But in real-world scenarios, ideas, practices, and artistic expressions from different cultures often combine and influence each other in complex and asymmetrical ways.

Scholars in recent years describe syncretism more as a process of indigenization or localization, when individuals in a local culture actively seek to make sense of another culture in their own terms and idioms. The Greek translator who decided to translate Ashoka’s Dharma with the Greek word Eusebio was engaging in syncretism, trying to make sense of a different concept in their own terms, quite literally, their own Greek term. Compare this to the inscription from the beginning of this video.

Whoever carved this inscription decided not to fully translate the original mantra into Greco-Bactrian words, but still used Greco-Bactrian letters so the mantra could be read and pronounced. The pronunciation and legibility mattered more than the meaning, like how Christians today might sing Hallelujah without knowing the word’s original Hebrew meaning. Greco-Buddhism thus illustrates the often deliberate and selective adaptation that occurs when different cultures meet.

Dr. Andrew Henry is a scholar of religion and the creator of Religion for Breakfast. He launched the channel in 2014 to address the lack of educational content about religion available on YouTube. Andrew holds a Ph.D. in Religious Studies from Boston University, where he focused on magic and demonology in the late Roman Empire.

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Would the Concept of God Stay in the Event of Science Conquering Death?

With the developments of science and technology, it is no longer that easy for discerning observers to accept the concept of God as traditionally explained.

by N.S.Venkataraman

During the last several centuries, slowly and steadily, several spectacular achievements have been seen in the fields of science and technology. Such advancements and discoveries have somewhat disproved or caused doubt in several traditional beliefs, ideas, and postulates.

Several religions that evolved over the past centuries have been essentially centered on the concept of God, with various versions being stated as to whatever God may be and wherever God may be. The belief of people in such religious doctrines has been overwhelming to date and has stood the test of time.

God the Father, Cima da Conegliano, c. 1510–1517 [Source: Wikimedia]

The concept of God has virtually remained unquestioned, though some murmurs have been heard from time to time doubting the existence of God. One reason why the concept of God has found emotional acceptance amongst people worldwide is due to a lack of clarification on what else could be the possibility for the creation of the world, humans, creatures, plants, and so on, if there were not a creator (God). As per the rationale guiding the human mind, this logic of the existence of God appears to be appropriate at least until now, in the absence of any better explanation.

With the developments of science and technology, it is no longer that easy for discerning observers to accept the concept of God as traditionally explained. This is because scientific discoveries and developments have created conditions where what is traditionally believed to be the act of God has now been proven that it can be done by humans themselves due to the development of technology.

For example, artificial rain is now possible to be created, causing doubt on the concept of Rain God and Sun God traditionally believed all over the world.

It is no longer a situation of God’s will about humans or animals being born in the world. Scientific research and development have created a scenario where birth can take place at a time desirable by humans and can be prevented by humans if so desired. Further, artificial insemination and test tube babies are being created. In essence, this means that science has conquered the birth event as such. This development has created doubts as to whether prayer to God is necessary for giving birth to a child or not giving birth to a child.

Traditionally, it is believed that the good or bad acts of humans would lead them to hell or heaven after the death event. However, scientific developments have now progressed to such an extent that the behavior of humans can be tailored as per the requirement. Science can create a calm human who does good acts or a ferocious human who does bad acts.

With the development of science, the technique of cloning has enabled scientists to make exact genetic copies of living things. Genes, cells, tissues, and even whole animals can all be cloned.

Additionally, medical science has progressed to such an extent that the lifespan of humans and animals has increased over the years and perhaps “even the death event is being postponed” with several techniques such as the use of ventilators and so on. Even dead bodies can now be preserved for any length of time.

In such conditions, one may even be tempted to think that one day in the future, science and technology efforts would conquer the death event also, just as it has already conquered the birth event.

In the future, in the event of scientific efforts successfully conquering the death event and enabling humans and animals to live eternally, then serious doubts will arise in the minds of discerning observers about the validity of the concept of God (Creator).

Of course, it is now extremely difficult to imagine such a situation of science conquering the death event. Nevertheless, it has to be noted that several centuries back, it was difficult for people to imagine a situation where a football match being played in Doha would be seen in Colombo at the same time through television.

There are still many unexplained matters by science and technology. As yet, science cannot explain who or what could have created the sun, moon, stars, earth, and so on if there were not a creator. Science cannot explain away such questions until now.

While science uses the existing matter such as atoms, enzymes, etc. to achieve spectacular advancements like controlling the birth event and so on, the question remains as to where do the atoms and enzymes come from or happen.

In this scenario, it is most likely that whatever be the developments in the science and technology field, people would continue to repose faith in God, even though the faith in several suggestions in religions such as fate, hell, heaven, and what is said in Hindu scripture such as Jeevatma and Paramatma may get somewhat diluted.

Probably, one can be daring enough to say that in tune with the advancements in science and technology, religious concepts on God also need to be reformed or fine-tuned in the coming years.

N. S. Venkataraman is a trustee with the "Nandini Voice for the Deprived," a not-for-profit organization that aims to highlight the problems of downtrodden and deprived people and support their cause and to promote probity and ethical values in private and public life and to deliberate on socio-economic issues in a dispassionate and objective manner.

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Covering Face - An Islamic Viewpoint

God has created the face as a vital organ to show characzter, reflect emotions, express and communicate, showing His mercy on human beings to understand each other irrespective of a person’s religious faith, a clear instruction given in the Qur’an towards mankind.

by Eng. Nuhuman Marikkar

Face is the most vital and the characteristic part of a person. Being the ‘front’ of the body, it is also the perfect body organ to readily identify another. In biological sense, the face contains the forehead, cheeks, chin, eyes, nose, mouth and ears; the sense of sight, hearing, smell and taste are all sited in the face.

Face also has many functions; biological functions of breathing and eating and the most important social function of verbal and non-verbal communication. When it comes to non-verbal commutation, the face plays a prominent role. Emotions of fear, anger, wonder, hate, consent, grief and joy are some basic facial expressions. Any person’s speech is more often than not supplemented by the expressions on the face. Hence, it is the most noticed part of a person’s social life and instantly recognized to establish identity and build trust.

Why do they cover? 

One can reasonably assume that it is because of this special place the face occupies in a person’s body, physically and psychologically, we all take special care of our faces, at all times to beautify, maintain, be presentable and to be personable.

The face of a person means his or her presence. Apart from what was discussed, there are many ways the ‘face’ is used in common dialect metaphorically to express one’s character; it is often said, ‘person with two faces’, for someone with double standards. It is said, ‘don’t show your face around this place again’, to admonish a person. It is to ‘lose face’, when one falls into a shameful situation. ‘Face saving measures’ are taken, when someone wants to save the dignity, making the face synonymous with one’s nobility.

Turning your face towards someone shows respect and attention while turning the face away means ignoring a person. "Wajith", in Arabic means the chief or dignitary of a community, while "Wajh" stemming from the same root, means face, also reflecting the prominence and dignity of the face in a person’s physique.

There are many references to human face in the Quran and the prophetic tradition. Many are instances in Prophet’s life where his facial expressions are described in detail; "he came with good news showing on his face", " his face beamed with joy", to state a few. A new convert once said to Prophet, "your face was the one I hated most, now it’s the one I love most". The Prophet himself was a close observant of emotions and attitudes of his companions.

God has created the face as a vital organ to show characzter, reflect emotions, express and communicate, showing His mercy on human beings to understand each other irrespective of a person’s religious faith, a clear instruction given in the Qur’an towards mankind.

"O mankind! We have created you from a male and a female and made you into nations and tribes, that you may know one another…". (Al-Qur’an, 49:13)

The Prophet said, ‘smiling is a meritorious act’, which makes it clear that smiling is a recognizable act amongst one another and an emotion that connects people. The sensory organs God has placed on the face whether it be eyes , ears , nose or tongue , are all gifts from Almighty and the believers are expected to use all of these in a manner pleasing to God.

Being able to read expressions on face supplementing the verbal dialogue, becomes of utmost importance, especially in a multi-cultural, multilingual, multi-religious society like ours, when we go about in our day-to- day activities. It is not surprising then, that in the case of a partial or full concealing of one’s face, another person cannot catch the true and the entire meaning or the expression of the words, although the speech could be audible, since the accompanying expressions are hidden.

This does not amount in any way to advocating free mingling of the genders without a legitimate cause or unnecessary conversations amongst individuals that may lead to vice and evil. Allah has clearly said in the Qur’an, to lower their gazes for both men and women alike. (Al-Qur'an 24:30-31) Hence, face, hand gestures that may compel one another to enticement and temptations is prohibited at the onset by God’s instructions and thus inherently bad.

Face Covering And Law

Face covering in Sri Lanka had been an issue over the years for obvious reasons. In the recent past, mostly the learned people in the society (especially from non-Muslim faiths) have started to raise their voices and demand for logical reasoning for face covering. Local Islamic scholars, more often than not, have made contradictory opinions at different times confusing the issue of face covering even more, to the Islamic community. The opinions have been made based on situations and as reactions to situations and not based on facts and long-term solutions. Hence the answers have been temporary and subjective.

Since the EasterSunday attack in April 2019, the majority of the public started to vehemently object to face covering, and the government subsequently was forced to bring in a restriction. Unfortunately, following the Easter Sunday attack Muslims were also seen as terrorists or supporters of terrorism.

The general public and all of the media who campaigned for stricter laws cited security reasons when demanding a ban on face covering. As in any society, some racist sections used the situation to promote and act on their ideology. There are similar racist elements and opportunists within the Muslim community as well.

With the eventual lifting of the emergency regulations, the ban on face cover too was presumably lifted. Since then many Muslims women have started to go out in public wearing the black cloak and the face covering, which was under ban before. There have been numerous occasions, also circulated widely in social media, where the accompanying men of these ladies arguing with police and others who questioned them, saying, "it’s our right and now there is no emergency law existing, hence, we can wear this", etc. The viral video clip of the incident in Gall fort is witness to these happenings.

However, many Muslim women who chose to readily go out in public covering their faces in black, once the emergency law was lifted, do not seem to understand the underlying cause of the face covering being banned along with the tense situation prevailing in the country and society.

Not only the face covering, lifting of the emergency law allowed many other restrictions being relaxed to the benefit of the entire people of the country. One must understand at this juncture that the emergency law was not lifted to allow face cover, as speculated by some in the Muslim community.

The hatred for face cover among a large stratum of the population still exists, emergency regulation or not. Majority of the learned and reasonable Muslims do not necessarily endorse face covering as it creates more issues and difficulties for the community. There is also the fear that this hatred could develop and could escalate to social opposition even for a simple hijab (Head Scarf) and modest dress worn by Muslim women and girls in travelling for learning and work. It is to be noted that learning is a right given by the Almighty, for all men and women irrespective of their social standing. Thus, any action that could prevent or hinder the right to seek any kind of beneficial knowledge has to be assessed more seriously than an imported cultural practice.

As much as some Muslim men argue that face cover is a fundamental right of a Muslim woman, they seem to be ignorant of many other issues impacting society;

Violation of a fundamental right (in Common sense perspective) of persons around her for not being able to identify the person inside the Niqab (Face cover).

Society at large gets disturbed by the presence and behaviour of those who cover their faces in public, hence the people around such a lady needs to be extra cautious to gauge the behaviour.

It’s not known whether the person inside the Niqab, is a lady or a man.

Creating difficultly for law enforcing officers and administrators as it amounts to extremely embarrassing situations on both ends.

Islamic Explanation For Face Cover

The majority of scholars have cited face covering as not a compulsion, for a woman to practice Islam as her religion, stating there is no clear cut Hadeeth or Q’uranic verse that directly says face veiling is obligatory.

Sheik Al-Albaanee (1914-99 AD), one of the foremost scholars of the religion views that face covering has not been made obligatory. He has further clarified in detail, the lapses made while interpreting the Quranic verses to mean otherwise.

Three main schools of jurisprudence hold that the face is not ‘awrah’, and many declare that the exposing of it is necessary for mundane actions. Scholars, Ibn Muflih al-Hambalee (710- 763 AH), An-Nawawee (631-676 AH), and Al-Qaadee 'Iyaad (1083- 1149 AD), also are of the view that covering the face is not obligatory.

Dr Akram Nadwi , an Oxford Scholar who has researched excessively on Women In Islam and has authored many books , also considered as one of the best Islamic scholars in the world today, clearly opines, there is no mandate for a woman to cover her face and hands. Further elaborating Dr Nadwi believes nobody should force women and girls to cover their heads or faces, as imposing of laws don't make people pious.

In the book written in Tamil named as "Pen" = "WOMEN" by Mr Hajjul Akbar , also a moderate educated local scholar, he says , there is nothing mentioned in the Quran that face covering is required or not covering is a sin. Additionally, he says there is no evidence in teaching of Holy Prophet that he has instructed women to cover their faces.

Taking in to account the context within which the Islamic community has been practicing face covering and the emerging situation after the Easter Sunday attack, it is the Muslim community’s collective responsibility and prime duty to re-visit the tradition of face covering.

The Islamic scholars need to enlighten the community on the authentic teachings of the Quran and the prophetic tradition as relevant to the situation we are in today and not leave room for the law enforcing authorities and the government to enact conflicting regulations from time to time, confusing the general public. This is even more so with a sensitive and a volatile situation prevailing in the country and with mounting tensions waiting to erupt.

Insights from;

Mohammad Akram Nadwi PhD, al- Muhaddithat: The Women Scholars In Islam, Interface Publications Ltd, Oxford, December 2014.

Mohammad Abdel Haleem PhD, Understanding The Qur’an: Themes And Styles, L.B. Tauris & Co. ltd, London | New York, 2011

Mohammad Abdel Haleem PhD, The Qur’an ; A New Translation, Oxford University press, 2015

Rasheed Hajrul Akbar, Pen, Neethamum Nidarsanamum, Al Hasanaath publishers, Colombo, September 2013

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“Shariah” - The Imperative Divide

“Shari’ah” appears just once - in just one place in the Holy Quran in Chapter 45 Verse 18 – Surah Al-Jathiyah – The Crouching) 

by Zulkifli Nazim

It is momentous and is of very great importance that the subject of “Shari’ah” is to be perceived and analysed dispassionately and in an impartial manner as well as to be understood with knowledge, intelligence and wisdom. Trying to make scurrilous and irresponsible comments being emotional and sentimental will certainly exhibit ones ignorance and destroy the objective of the subject. They are those who would be accused of extremism.

The word Shari’ah is exploited and used profusely by the Muslim community and accentuated and stressed by the religious heads with forceful exertion and enthusiasm – They go to the extent of describing Financial transactions are according to Shari’ah law – Shari’ah compliant instruments; Death Penalty according to Shari’ah law - for anything and everything it is “according to Shari’ah Law”. Then we should expect this “Shari’ah” to have a direct connection to the Holy Quran.

This made me go through a systematic investigation and explore thoroughly to establish facts, as to what this Shari’ah law is – that which is causing so much confusion, unrest and utter chaos all over the world. Is it really a divine law?

In the first instance let us take the most significant words Salah (Prayer), Zakat (Charity -Right of the Poor) Jihad (strenuous effort), Justice (‘Adl), are found in many places in the Holy Quran. For example:

Salah is used 83 times as a noun and the root word “Salloo” is used 99 times.

Zakath is mentioned thirty-two times in the Qur'an, of which twenty-eight is associated with prayer (It reads: Salah and Zakah),

Jihad : “There are 35 verses of the Holy Qur’an which contain the word Jihad and/or its derivatives.

(The word Means to struggle and strive for the benefit of all - not aggressive fighting, kill or get killed) –

Justice (‘Adl) :The word appears 24 times in the Quran in 22 verses.

That means if the word Shari’ah is so significant it would be expected to appear a number of times!

Let us see how many times does the word “Shari’ah” appears in the Holy Quran ? –

Do not be stunned – Do not be amazed –

It appears Just once - in just one place in the Holy Quran in Chapter 45 Verse 18 – Surah Al-Jathiyah – The Crouching) – It reads:

“Then We put thee on the (right) Way (Shari’ah) of Religion: so follow thou that (Way), and follow not the desires of those who know not.”

It means, Follow the right way of the religion, do not follow those who do not know religion. What is happening today is diametrically opposite to it’s teachings.

“Shari’ah” is translated as the “Way” and the Arabic Lexicon gives the meaning as “The way to a waterhole”.

History of the usage of this word tells otherwise. The usage of this word is a misapplication and without proper authority. And not only totally alien it is also alienating to what is meant by the Holy Quran. These people try to single it out as important and significant. They stress with such Intensity and forcefulness, so as to show that it is divine, permanent and everlasting.

They are trying to state that “Shari’ah” is law codified, inviolable and rigorous observance of it is imperative.

Investigation into this word revealed that it has never ever been used by the Prophet of Islam as anything to do with Islamic Law, during his life time or even during the time of the Caliphs.

However, In the middle of the 8th Century, over Two Centuries after the demise of the Holy Prophet was the ascension of the Abbasid Caliphate.

It is during this Abbasid Caliphate that attempts were being made to codify the Islamic law and the word Shari’ah was introduced. To cut long historical events short, here the Arab Custom and unwritten barbaric and savage laws of the Abbasids has been brought largely into play and to give it a legally religious hue, the used the word “Shari’ah”

Please note that : “Custom is not accredited as a source of Islamic Law in the Holy Quran”; but here; “Shari’ah” is served as an essential component in shaping what is called today as “Islamic Law” – Therefore it could be rightly described as an innovation – Bid’ah – something that was done over 200 years after the demise of the Prophet of Islam.

There is an authentic Hadith or sayings of the Prophet of Islam, which states that all Bid’ah – innovation is (Dhalaalah) – means: straying from the right path, and Dhalaalah will lead to the fire of Hell.

Interestingly, the word “Dhalaalah” also means deviation, error, perversity, delusion and deception.

Hence the word Shari’ah which is an innovation - is a total deviation from the correct path, perverse and deceptive.

This word is now used by all and sundry, to everything and anything, to justify their personal deviations and demoniacal frenzy. It is no wonder that the whole Muslim world is in utter chaos.

The best part is, it is not the people who are deemed to be enemies of Islam who are causing this extreme confusion and disorder, suicide attacks murder and mayhem, it is their own brothers and sisters in faith, killing their own - innocent men, women and children, - it is those who think that Shari’ah is the unchanging divine law.

Every radical organization, association, foundation, Jama’ath in the Islamic Faith all over the world are turned into bigots – intolerance and prejudice are high on their agenda. Hence the involvement in terrorism, mayhem and murder.

The word “Shari’ah” is now a mockery.

If such hardhearted tyranny is unleashed on any people, causing misery, affliction and misfortune, it can never ever be of divine origin or of any decent origin, other than the deceptive and delusory innovations of the misguided extremists and bigoted radicals.

In conclusion we could say that this so called “Shari’ah”:

1. Is often opposed to the very spirit of the moral decency of the Quran;

2. Whatever that is described as the maximum limit in punishment under certain conditions, rules and regulations, “Shari’ah, makes it the norm and standard punishment;

3. While the Holy Quran lays emphasis on social justice and human rights – This innovated “Shari’ah” ends up in spreading and propagating injustice.

This “Shari’ah” says Kill everybody who disagrees with you or those who breaks your rules and regulations.

In fact this is the total antithesis of the spirit of the Holy Quran and such sentiments are totally alien to the Quran.

So you can see how this “Shari’ah” is totally at variance with the Quran, how these innovations and ancient Arab customs have intertwined with the sacred text of the Holy Quran and how irrelevant, immaterial, inconsistent, derisory, and ridiculous this “Shari’ah” appears in this contemporary world.

If any human being feels uncomfortable in the deep recesses of his or her heart at certain laws or practices which will undermine the peaceful co-existence of a family unit, the peaceful living of the people around the world, you can be rest assured that it can never be of divine origin.

The “Shari’ah is almost totally a characteristic of human product.

It is exigent that “Law” changes as society changes and its needs to change to cope up with the changing times.

Resolving with words of Wisdom of Lord Buddha from The Sutra of Knowing the Better Way to Catch a Snake:

“Misinterpretting religious teachings can be compared to a man trying to catch a poisonous snake in the wild. If he reaches out his hand, the snake may bite his hand, leg, or some other part of his body. Trying to catch a snake that way has no advantages and can only create suffering.

Indicating that the Snake has to be caught by its neck or else catching the snake from any part will lead to great suffering and disappointment. The perils in them are greater."

Finally, it is said by religious leaders of all faiths:

“Reach Out with Love, Kindness, Gentleness, and Friendliness – This is what that can change a heart, can change a country, can change the world.”

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Christmas And The Sun-God Festival

| by D. Amarasiri Weeraratne

( November 25, 2014, Colombo, Sri Lanka Guardian) The celebration of Christmas on December 25th reminds us once more of the legend of the Sun-God and how Christianity is deeply rooted in Pagan religious history, which prevailed for thousands of years before the time of Christ in the lands surrounding the Mediterranean Sea.

The birthdate of Christ is not known to Historians or Archeologists for lack of evidence - even after sifting almost every grain of sand in Bethlehem. No-one, not even the early Christians, knew the birthdate of Christ. So, the early church settled on the same day that the Pagans celebrated the birthdate of their Sun God - the change to lengthening of daylight – around December 25th each year. This was the day of the popular festival of the Sun God in the Mystery Religions that prevailed in the lands of the Roman empire. In these lands the Sun-God was worshipped under different names: Morals in Egypt, Mithra in Persia, Attis and Adonis in Greece and Syria were some of the names used.

According to the legends of those Mystery Religions (Christians refer to them as Cults), the Sun God came to earth for his ministry among mankind. He was born to a virgin, performed miracles as proof of his divinity, and was hanged to death by his fellow men on a Friday.

He arose three days later on the Sunday, and ascended in to heaven. By believing that his death was an atonement for the sins of mankind, Pagans were supposed to gain salvation and eternal life in heaven.

These events are also to be found in the Gospels attributed to the life of Christ.

Moreover, the dates fixed for celebrating Christian events coincide with the dates on which similar festivals were celebrated in the Pagan Religions.

How did Pagan religious celebrations get incorporated into Christianity? Who was responsible for it? These questions have baffled scholars for a long time. A book published by Robert Furneau (Cassell and Co, London) unravels the mystery in the light of recent research findings. He develops several arguments and finally reaches the conclusion that St. Paul was responsible.

There had been a conflict between Christ’s disciples and St Paul – it was on the issue of adulterating Christianity in order to make it more acceptable to the Gentiles. Jesus had said “Go not unto the gentiles.” but perversely, St Paul insisted that the Gospels should be carried to the Gentiles.

Jesus had said: “I have not come to destroy the Law but to fulfill it.” “Heaven and earth may pass but not one jot of the Law can be altered.” Paul taught that Christ emancipated us from the Law, and that the Law is a curse! The disciples and the Apostolic party insisted on circumcision of the Gentiles who convert to Christianity. Paul did not agree to this.

In this way he watered down Christianity to make it acceptable to the Christians. He went ahead and established Christian communities among the Gentiles in the lands nearby. One such community at Galatia was reconverted to the Apostolic party by men sent by the disciples from Jerusalem. Paul admits this in one of his letters to the Galatians.

However, Paul became completely free only after Jerusalem was reconquered in 70 C.E. by Vespatian, who led the Roman army. The rebellion had lasted fourteen years.

Jerusalem was taken and its temple was destroyed, and many thousands of Jews were killed. (Others fled to countries nearby.) The Apostolic party that opposed Paul, was decimated, if not completely wiped out in this confrontation with Rome.

As a result there was no-one to oppose Paul and his controversial ideas. Thereupon Paul’s sect had a free hand to teach as they liked. That is why we find in the Gospels, which were all written after 70. C.E., a version of Christianity according to Paul’s ideas, i.e., the teachings of Jesus which were modified and tailored to make them more acceptable to the Gentiles – i.e. a religion of Christ not Jesus.

The ideas borrowed from the Pagan religion were always repugnant to Jews. They rejected Christianity once the adulterations had been incorporated into it. Ever since then, Christianity has been an anathema (poison) to Jews the world over, as it is to the Muslims who also abhor the Pagan religious borrowings.

The original Christian Sabbath had been a Saturday conforming to the Jewish tradition. It was altered to Sunday to conform to the popular day of worship of the Sun God in the Mystery Religions. There are carvings at Luxur, in ancient Egyptian temples, dating back to 6,000 B.C.E., which depict the nativity of the Sun God. There, an angel is seen announcing to the Egyptian shepherds the birth of the Sun God. An Egyptian virgin is seen being told by an Angel that she would be the mother of the Sun God born in the flesh. There are three wise men (sages) shown worshipping the newly-born infant. Then, the Sun-God is depicted as raising a man from the dead, in the presence of two female disciples. This corresponds the to the raising of Lazarus from the dead by Christ.

The use of images as an aid for worship in Christian Churches, in violation of the Ten Commandments, is also an adaptation taken from the Pagan religions.

These examples, and similar borrowings e.g., the Doctrine of the Trinity, worship of Saints, Mariolatory etc., show us the influence that the Sun God Religion had in shaping Paul’s brand of Christianity and its subsequent developments.

The first church fathers such as Augustine, were aware of these similarities. They attributed it to the cunning schemes of the Devil in order to deceive Christians and thereby caricature Christianity. In historical fact, a howling Christian mob, led by Bishop Theophillus, in 391 C.E., had set fire to the priceless collection of books in the Great Library at Alexandria - the collection of Alexander the Great (- and also destroyed the Pagan Serapeum – the most sacred of Egyptian Pagan shrines, for good measure!). Thereafter all traces of Pagan Religious literature was lost and we are not in a position to pinpoint what are the exact borrowings adopted by Christianity. It is only after the hieroglyphics deciphered by Champolian and the Cuneform Script was read and understood by Rawlinson, that European Scholars began to understand the belief and practices of the ancient Mystery Religions.

Scholars like Robertson in his ‘History of the Christian Church’ and Dr. S. Radhachrisnan in his ‘Eastern Religions and Western Thought’ have commented that in converting Pagans to Christianity, it was necessary for the Church to adoptS many of their beliefs and practices. Authors like Edward Carpenter in his ‘Pagan Sources of Christianity’ and Kamal Ud Deen, of the London Mosque, in his ‘Sources of Christianity’ both confirm this view.

So, this Christmas celebration, once more, spotlights these associations of Christianity with the legends of the Sun God. “Christianity is the religion founded by Paul which replaced Jesus’ gospel with a gospel about Christ the Messiah! and clothed him with Pagan beliefs – a religion that would be more accurately named ‘Paulinism’. This Paulinism is a misinterpretation and falsification of Jesus’s real teachings.

This is a fact that has been recognised by modern theological research and examination of the known facts from history and archeology. All the beautiful aspects are linked to Jesus, all the unbeautiful with Paul.

(Acknowledgements are made to sources such as ‘The Original Jesus’ by Elmar E. Gruber and H. Kerston)

Christmas has undergone three drastic changes: firstly, for thousands of years, it was the celebration by Pagan Religionists of the birth of the Sun God made into flesh; secondly, it became the Christian feast of the birth of Christ and finally, it has become an all-faith commercial exercise in Europe and America, bereft of religious significance, marketing a winter’s holiday for eating and over indulging in all things men can imagine by way of business.

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Muslim population growth in Sri Lanka: A reality or mere myth

| by A Special Correspondent

( August 4, 2014,Colombo, Sri Lanka Guardian) Birth is celebrated in Western countries and yet, in third world countries birth is regarded as economic burden and sometime it is regarded as a shame as well. Sri Lanka is not exceptional to this description. In Sri Lanka BBS and its cohorts see the growth of Muslim and Tamil population as a threat to their racial domination hegemony. It is said that Sri Lanka got its freedom and independence without shedding any drop of blood and yet, since it got the independence it has been bleeding and many thousands of people died. There is no ending for this bloodbath. It is sad that since independence each community in Sri Lanka has been working for its own communal welfare and interest rather than for national interest of this country. Communal politics has done a greater damage to this country and yet, no one cares about it. Every one puts communal interest over national interests. No politician is exceptional to this general social phenomenon in Sri Lanka. It is sad even president of this country thinks acts and behaves like this. Rather than representing the entire Sri Lankan communities he acts as if he represents only his own people.

It is sad that this communal feeling was created initially by some Sinhalese politicians. since then, each community openly started working only for its communal interest. This communal thinking at the expense of national interest cost the country dearly: Billions of rupees were spent on wars for the last thirty years. Thousands of people died and properties worth of billions are destroyed. Economic cost of war is unimaginable and yet, some racist Sinhalese still do not realised this. They still want to create more and more divisions among Lankan communities. It is said that in 1957 Lankan GDP was far better than Malaysian’s. And yet today Economic situation is pathetic in Sri Lanka. After all these destructions, some irrational Sinhalese do not realise the danger of creating communal unrest and violence. Now these senseless Sinhalese are worried about population growth of Tamils and Muslims. I do not know where they live on this virtual global village of modern world.

This mentality of people has to change if we need to build up this country once again. All community should put aside their own communal interest. We all should think in line of national interest so that we could build this country once again. Today in this modern world the qualities of human resources bring wealth and prosperity to nations and county. Unlike in the past today we all should think how to enrich our human resources of Sri Lanka. Today, human resource is the great wealth of any nation. The more your human resources are rich the more you could become rich today in this modern world. Today population growth is the real wealth of the country. Rather than enriching and enhancing Sri Lankan population growth with good education and training these BBS and its cohorts spread the virus of racism and decimations.

Look for instance, India and Singapore with multi-ethnic identity they managed to build up their national identity. They think nationally not communally. Look how minorities hold high level of political and leadership positions in those countries: yet, narrow-minded Sinhalese do not think in line of national interest of this country rather they think in line with their own communal interest. . This is the main cause of all ethnic problems in Sri Lanka. They do not think that each child born in Tamil or Muslim community in Sri Lanka is a national assert of this country. Rather they think that only Sinhalese should have children, only Sinhalese should hold high positions in Sri Lanka, only Sinhalese should live in Sri Lanka. As if only Sinhalese are human beings and all other communities are not worth to be called as human beings. This is the racist agenda of BBS and its cohorts. Just listen to some of speech of BBS to know more about this. What conclusions one could come after listening to some racist remarks made by BBS on minorities?

Based on this racist agenda, BBS has been calling to control the population of minorities in Sri Lanka. They are worried about explosion of Muslim population and yet, it is not true that Muslim population is increasing than Sinhalese population. It is noted that Sinhalese population has dramatically increased than other communities. Of course, Tamil migration was the one of main causes for the decrease of Tamil population in Sri Lanka. Yet, Muslim population growth is natural increase. Many factors contributed to this.

It is a firm Muslim faith that God alone gives food provision in life. Human life is in a sense already predestined by God. This does not mean man sits idle doing nothing to make a living and yet, Man cannot play around with nature. Birth control for fear of want and poverty is not allowed in Islam because. It is God who provides food and livelihood. A family planning in an unnatural way, killing foetus in wombs are Haram in Islam. This trust in God and faith encourage Muslim to have a good family life. They do not do abortion as other community people. This is one of the reasons for the natural growth of Muslim population.

Millions of abortions are carried out in India and China. The gap between male and female population is increasing in India and China. Males in China find it hard to find partners. Same thing would happen to our country as well if we play around with nature or try to meddle with nature. Same religious faiths of other religions contribute to the population decrease in other community. Take for instance, Buddhism it prohibits Buddhist monks to marry. You may say it is only less than1% of Buddhists is monks and yet, this contributes slightly for the decrease of population in a long run.

If you assume that there are 400.000 thousands monks today in Sri Lanka and they are not allowed to marry. This monk population in each generation will not be able to contribute for population growth of Sinhalese. Hence, naturally Buddhist population bound to decrease slowly for this reason. This could be minimal and yet, this could contribute in a long run. For this reason, Buddhist people should rethink about their religious teaching on this matter. Perhaps, they should to give permission to monks to marry. This applies to some Christian denominations as well.

Secondly. Today, most of Sinhalese couples are working: Husband and wife go to work. Whatever these racist BBS say. Those working class people cannot produce lots of children: it would be burden on ladies to work and lead family life. Most women want to have one or two children. That is why they cannot have big families. This applies to western communities more than Sri Lankan communities. People in churches are too much worried about Christian population decline in western countries and yet, they cannot help. Moreover, when women are working they delay marriage age. Most of girls who go to higher education and employment delays marriage. This is very much common in Tamil and Sinhalese communities:

Tamil community is little bit complex in this regard. It is pathetic. Please go through some of matrimonial in Newspapers. For many social and cultural reason marriage is delayed in Tamil community and some even after 30 or 35 years later do not marry in Tamil community. Hence naturally fertility in Tamil community would go down and it is pointless to blame others for this fault. They should get rid of some of out-dated systems and traditions in relation to marriages: In India if a husband dies wife has to burn herself. In Sri Lanka too divorcee Tamil ladies will have to go through hard times to remarry second time. Unlike other communities Tamil ladies delay marriage for many reasons. This is one of the reasons for population decrease in them.

It is said Tamil should follow polygamy in marriage to increase population. What an unrealistic idea is this? We do not have any objection to this. You cannot copy one cultural life style of other community very simply as you reckon. First of all, No Muslim in Sri Lankan follows polygamy in marriage: it is only applied in some African and gulf countries. There are some conditions attached to this polygamy: you should be financially better off, you should get first wife’s permission to do that, and you should be able treat all equally. There are some more conditions as well. . I do not think Tamil ladies would be ready for these? Polygamy would not increase population rather it would increase: you should try to figure it out how it would decrease?

Buddhist population is decreasing for another reason: that is to say that a large numbers of Buddhists have been converted into Christianity. They are still being converted here in Sri Lanka and Abroad. There are some fascinating researches on this. It is said that Sinhalese constitutes 74% of Sri Lankan population and it is over exaggerated figure. If you set aside

Sinhalese Christian population from this total, Sinhalese Buddhists would be around 65% in Sri Lanka. Even if you minus some of those who migrated to western countries I do not think that their next generations would come pure Buddhists as these monks think. Consider for instance, Sinhalese who migrated to Europe most of them today eat Meat. Within next two or three generations they would not be Buddhists rather they would be someone else: it could be atheists or agnostics or humanists or Muslims as it happen all over the world. Such social changes are taking place around the globe and yet, some of these Buddhists live within four walls of their own houses.

Furthermore, family life in Muslim community is little bit different from other community: most of Non-Muslim people drink alcohol: No doubt alcohol destroys a peaceful family life: how could a lady live peacefully with a husband who is alcoholic? Peace will be shattered in those families: Thousands of alcoholic husbands beat their wives when they are drunken. How can these families have lots of children? How could these families bring up good children? How many families are destroyed by this in Sri Lanka? Be honest with you and tell the truth. I have seen this by my own naked eyes in Sri Lanka. Sinhalese people should rethink about this if they want to increase their population in Sri Lanka.

Yet, you can tell comparatively the problems of alcoholism are less among Muslims here in Sri Lanka and abroad. This contributes to the growth of population in Muslim communities. It is argued that one of best institutions in Islam is the institution family in Islam: lots of rules and regulations are stipulated in Islam about family life: hundreds of laws about maintenance, marriage allowance, inheritance and divorces are regulated to protect families. The institution of family is divinely inspired in Islam. That is why Muslims care about it and this contribute to the increase of population as well.

Yet, to say that Sinhalese population is decreasing is a really myth. Statistics show that it is increasing. But slower than Muslim population: one reason it may be because, farmers in Sinhalese villages are not doing birth control. They have big families and they are very much close to nature and they do not play around with nature. Thanks to them. It is not so called Sinhalese monks or high profile Sinhalese in Colombo who protect Sinhalese race rather poor farmers. It is with great difficulties and hardship that they contribute to the population growth and yet, politicians in Colombo play around with their life, cut their subsidiaries and do not help them at all. Rather during election time the political parties go to them and beg for their votes and after election they are forgotten. This is the Lankan story in politics. Those monks who speak out today they speak for politics not for Sinhalese race. They use race, religion for their own gain.

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