By Rashmi M. Fernando –

It has only been a few hours since your physical body was cremated, so allow me to write a note for you…

Because you decided to go on your final journey in a very modest manner, without any state honors or funeral speeches, today the entire nation is talking about you, because there is so much to say about you… Let me add my part as follows… Starting with your song “Ammavarune”, I started loving your voice, perspectives, and character ever since I left home to become a priest… That was 25 years ago. I know very well that that song gave strength to my mother and me, because I recorded a collection of songs sung for mothers on a cassette tape and gave it to my mother as a parting gift…. Among them, your song “Ammavarune” was at the top…

Since the year I was born, there was a war in Sri Lanka, and for the past 25 years, tsunami, floods, and landslides came; Covid came, pandemics, disasters came; human suffering increased; artists and activists disappeared; many voices crying out for justice were silenced; the country went bankrupt; politicians changed sides and ruined the country; young people struggled, and many left the country; the evil of drugs engulfed the country; schools got closed; prisons became fuller… And much of it happened repeatedly and more and more…

With all that, singers sang songs, orators gave speeches, writers wrote books, media behaved as they pleased, rulers ruled, people worked, religious leaders preached, we practiced religions, went to temples, kovils, churches, and mosques…. And it is still the same…

But… If everyone felt the way you felt…!!! If everyone thought the way you thought…!!! If everyone said the way you said…!!! If everyone sang the way you sang…!!! If everyone went the way you went…!!!!

I have read about Sura Saradiel, Keppitipola Disawe, Weera Puran Appu, Hikkaduwe Sri Sumangala, Wariyapola Sri Sumangala, Migettuwatte Gunananda, Tibetan poet, S. Heroic Buddhist monks led by Venerable Mahinda; F. R. Senanayake, D. S. Senanayake, D. B. Jayathilake, John Kotelawala, Senior, Anagarika Dharmapala, Ponnambalam Arunachalam, and P. Ramanadhan.

Leaders like S.W.R.D. Bandaranaike, T.B. Jaya, S.A. Wickramasinghe, N.M. Perera, Colvin R. de Silva, Philip Gunawardena, and Bernard Zoysa; Working class leaders like A.E. Gunasinghe, N. Sanmugathasan, and Kandasamy; Estate workers leaders like Natesar Iyer, I have read about them too.

I have also read about women leaders like Mary Ratnam, Daisy Dias Bandaranaike, Doreen Wickramasinghe, Selina Perera, Parameswari Kandaiya, Noble Rajasingham, Vivian Gunawardena, Kusuma Gunawardena, and Florence Senanayake.

Working class women leaders like Agnes de Silva, Ponsinahamy, and foreign leaders like Marie Musius Higgins, Clara Motwani, Colonel Olcott, and all the other unsung heroes of our freedom struggle against foreign domination, I have read about them as well.

Why are we so hypocritical as to treat them as national heroes for what they did and said, and to criticize you for what you did and said and sang? Why are we so split-minded?

I kept looking at you… And I was comforted because what you sang was what I always had in my heart… But now that your physical body is silent forever, I have raised my voice for you. That is because if I do not, I will feel as if I have neglected my absolute and sacred duty toward you and your rights…

By the blessings of the Triple Gems you have taken refuge in, and by the merits you have acquired through the words spoken, songs sung, and the voice raised for the upliftment of Sri Lanka as one country and a nation, may you be blessed with a choicest opportunity to come a huge leap closer to the path of Nirvana you have always sought after!

Dear Melaniye, Nanda… May God bless you… !!!

Rev. Dr. Rashmi M. Fernando, S.J.

*Rev. Dr. Rashmi M. Fernando, S.J.  – Catholic Priest & Pastoral Coordinator for the Sri Lankan Catholic Community, California (SLCCC) | Special Assistant to the Provost, Cabinet Fellow for Global Affairs, and Faculty Member for the College for Business Administration (CBA) at Loyola Marymount University (LMU), Los Angeles, California.