{"id":89810,"date":"2013-06-02T00:12:23","date_gmt":"2013-06-01T18:42:23","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/?p=89810"},"modified":"2013-06-07T01:26:39","modified_gmt":"2013-06-06T19:56:39","slug":"ven-bowatte-indrarathana-theros-silence","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/ven-bowatte-indrarathana-theros-silence\/","title":{"rendered":"Ven. Bowatte Indrarathana Thero\u2019s Silence"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Malinda Seneviratne<\/a><\/span> –<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

Malinda Seneviratne<\/p><\/div>\n

Ven. Bowatte Indrarathana<\/a><\/span> Thero\u2019s act of self-immolation has generated much debate.\u00a0 The act has been condemned as being \u2018un-Buddhistic\u2019.\u00a0 The bikkhu\u2019s<\/em> past was commented on. This included his political affiliations.<\/p>\n

Theories about his \u2018state of mind\u2019 were floated on the internet.\u00a0 The stated precipitating factor, objection to cattle-slaughter, was taken up, taken apart.\u00a0 Some asked \u2018Why only cattle?\u2019\u00a0 Some pointed out that such things cannot be legislated.\u00a0 Some pointed fingers at the bikkhu\u2019s<\/em> political associates and others who have shared similar objections.\u00a0 Some, who either objected to the political associates and\/or Buddhists and Buddhism in general, were unabashedly salivating. \u2018One down, more to go!\u2019 some cheered on Facebook.<\/p>\n

Then there is the issue of encouragement and apathy.\u00a0 There were those who prompted the act or created the \u2018objective preconditions\u2019 for self-immolation, those who were seen accompanying the bikkhu<\/em>, and the journalist who was informed of the act ahead of time and who turned up not to stop it (not part of his duty of course) \u00a0but to record it.\u00a0 He has been singled out for censure, but other onlookers, policemen included, have been \u2018let off\u2019.\u00a0 That too has been questioned.<\/p>\n

The \u2018before\u2019 has been imposed on the \u2018moment of immolation\u2019 by referring to the Bodu Bala Sena<\/a><\/span>, the Jathika Hela Urumaya<\/a><\/span>, the furor over Halal labeling and related rhetoric and incidents.\u00a0 The \u2018after\u2019 has drawn from \u2018moment\u2019, which has fattened the \u2018before\u2019.\u00a0 The calls for banning cattle slaughter have got louder.\u00a0 Piggybacking on the incident, the call for legislation against unethical conversion has received new life.<\/p>\n

So there\u2019s before-politics and after-politics.\u00a0 Those who are invested in the political will not be apolitical, especially when political capital can be made one way or the other.\u00a0\u00a0 Lost in all this is a human being who was but is no more, remembered in frames in flames, but reduced to a name to rally around or direct invective at.<\/p>\n

The image of a bikkhu<\/em> in flames disturbs me.\u00a0 The image of anyone in flames would disturb, but being a Buddhist I am that much more perturbed.\u00a0 Granted that what went before marks the moment and granted that moment feeds what follows, which in turn marks the moment, there\u2019s still something tragic about missing the moment.<\/p>\n

Let us forget for a moment the fact that Ven. Bowatte Indrarathana Thero was a member of the Maha Sangha, the Buddhist Order. Let us forget his political affiliations. Let us forget the drama that preceded the act of self-immolation. Let us forget all that followed the act.\u00a0 We see then a human being who emptied a can of petrol over himself, a human being whose garment caught fire, a human being who suffered terrible burn injuries before the fire was put out, a human being who was rushed to hospital and who was unburdened of burn and spectacle, politics and ideology, memory and wincing, concern for the living and dead, the survivals and slaughtering, pity and pathos, carrying (according to his beliefs \u2013 and mine) just the karmic<\/em> accumulations of this life and those that were lived before.<\/p>\n

Ven. Bowatte Indrarathana Thero is no more.\u00a0 There is a before-death and an after-death in commenting preferences.\u00a0 No one can stop that and no one should.\u00a0 We nevertheless talk of respecting the dead. We observe silence for those who are no more.\u00a0 Buddhists offer pin<\/em> to such people.\u00a0 There\u2019s civility and culture, propriety and civilization, a time for word and comment, dissection and conclusion. There is a time for silence. It is made of respect.\u00a0 It obliterates identity markers.<\/p>\n

Maybe it is a personal thing, i.e. an individual choice, but it disturbs somehow that there is a strange reluctance to be silent.\u00a0 All I see is a human being in flames, cheered by those who cry \u2018one down!\u2019 and glorified (in the same magnitude) by those who find fuel in flame for other kinds of torching.<\/p>\n

Ven. Bowatte Indrarathana Thero is silent now.\u00a0 By himself.<\/p>\n

*Malinda Seneviratne is the Chief Editor of \u2018The Nation\u2019\u00a0and his articles can be found at\u00a0www.malindawords.blogspot.com<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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