Sri Lanka’s challenge to the gods

The gods will certainly have a very busy time in the coming weeks and months, with special focus on Sri Lanka.

The Mass Media Minister and Co-Cabinet Spokesman has said that once the vaccination campaign against the Covid-19 pandemic is over, the matter will be handed over to God.

The Sri Lankan and Sinhala tradition certainly goes beyond one god, which is a western or largely Jewish belief. A matter as importance, and of such urgency as fighting and defeating the Delta variant of Covid-19, will certainly have to go to the Satara Varan Devi – Vishnu, Saman, Skanda and Vibishana, with Pattini Amma and other female duties also having some say in this matter.

As we move to the terrain of the deities, it is good to remember that the spread of Covid-19 in this country had much to do with divine influences. The Cabinet Ministers of this government who were initially not interested in any vaccines, were strongly supportive of the power of deities. The ‘Dhammika Paniya’ was promoted by the Minister of Health herself, as well as the Speaker of Parliament, and some other ministers, and powerful media houses, too.

Let us not forget how thousands gathered at Kegalle to get a small bottle of the Paniya, breaking queues, not wearing masks, and also joined by uniformed personnel who also believed in the power of this Kali Amma syrup to defeat the Coronavirus. The gods were certainly at play in the rising popularity of the ‘Vadu-Veda Paniya’.

Minister Rambukwelle must have remembered those ‘manthra kala gedi’ pots of charmed water that were thrown into rivers by the Health Minister and three others, to push the Coronavirus down the rivers and into the sea. Such memories must have made him tell of the need to hand this entire task to the deities. Such belief in the power of deities shows how distant our politicians are from the teachings of the Buddha. That’s by the way. As the infections and deaths keep rising, the power or corrupt politics will certainly look to the power of varied and sundry deities!

With an expectation of handing the task of defeating the Covid-19 Delta variant and more to the deities, we will soon have more than one special, government promoted Thovil ceremonies, where the political kattadiyas, with their drummers, dancers and catchers, will perform at public expense, to plead with the deities to take over the tasks and duties of our national-political leaders.

This publicly announced trust in the gods, by the Minister of Mass Media himself, makes us think how interested these deities have been in the stuff of real politics in this country.

Was there any deity, from the national four or any other, able to act fast enough to stop the head of this government giving a pardon to a former soldier who had killed several Tamil people, including children, in a crime committed during the war with the LTTE, very soon after this Saubhagya government was elected? There were no divine protests on the matter.

Were all these deities asleep, or turning their eyes far away towards other planets, when Duminda Silva jailed over the murder of former MP and some others, at Kolonnawa, was pardoned by the President of Sri Lanka? Were these deities also looking away when this pardoned, but not innocent man was appointed to head a big State organisation on housing? How much trust can we have in such deities to save us from the Covid Delta variant?

What were these deities doing when the abduction of several children took place in 2008 by Navy personnel, including officers, and about which the then Navy Commander was also held under suspicion? Do these gods have no interest in the lives of children, or are these divine forces keener to be inactive to save children, and more active to protect those in power who direct such crimes?

One wonders whether these deities even read the recent headline news in The Island about former Solicitor General Dilrukshi Dias Wickramasinghe, and how she was framed by a politician. Do these divine forces, who may be asked to save us from the Covid, have no divine interests in the assurance of justice in society?

Do these Satara Varan Devi or any other deities or divine forces have no interest whatsoever in moving to rid a human society of its criminals, rogues and especially the crooked players in politics and power?

Are the power players in politics and governance given shelter and strength by these crooked divine forces that pave the way to success from wholly crooked governance?

Let’s keep wearing masks, maintaining distance from each other, and follow all the intelligent advice of the medical authorities on fighting this Covid Delta, which has already moved onto a major crisis. Let’s keep our trust in our health service persons to save our society from a disaster, not clearly understood by political leaders and their supportive deities.

Let those who believe in the power of deities keep praying to them, while observing the guidance of humans in the service of health and society. Let’s fight this pandemic as humans should, and away from gods, in whom the powers of political corruption have a lasting faith.