Rebirth Across the Border
This is going to be a short chapter in my nook “Rebirth Revisited”.
I wanted to write a short essay on reconciliation on the National Freedom Day but I felt for some reason it is a waste of time.
Just reciting National Anthem in two or three languages may give some symbolic value but that symbolic value will vanish into the thin air moment the music stops. Reconciliation is much about attitude and tolerance towards diversity and it is not a political teledrama.
It is cannot be forced fed like a bitter medicine.
So I decided to use Professor Bono’s Lateral Thinking Philosophy instead of the Vertical Thinking Philosophy of our politicians.
I had a good night sleep and some beautiful dreams, when I woke up late, just felt like writing what came to my mind spontaneously.
If is What If Philosophy of mine.
It is, what if the rebirth concept is a true?
It is in that context.
What if some of the dead during the conflict are reborn again in this island or abroad?
Those reborn will be 3 years old now and are ready and shaping up to tell us the real on the spot story of the dying moment.
Are we ready to listen to the story of the dead now, reborn?
Well, that is a good piece for writing.
Then, the next question is how many of them will be able to remember the dying moment.
My guess is one in a thousand birth one will be able to re-telecast it.
Then how many died at that time.
It is anybody’s guess and let us not split hair on it.
Assuming 100,000 there will be 100 of rebirth stories with the assumption all are reborn as humans. But according to the scriptures it is very unlikely all will be born human since when one dies of intense hate and grief they are more likely to end up in lower reams.
So let me be reflective and a handful of 5 to 10 who were reborn will be able to remember the dying moment.
I wish for my writing they be born like this.
1. A military recruit dies in conflict and he is born in Killinochchi to a Tamil parents who are Hindu.
2. A LTTE combatant who dies is born into a family in the deep south Hambantota to Sinhala parents who are Buddhists.
3. A Tamil civilian caught up in the conflict is born to a Muslim parents.
4. A Tamil civilian caught up in the conflict born to a family of mixed parentage in Colombo.
5. A military recruit dies in conflict and he/she is born in Canada to Tamil parents who are Christians.
6. A military recruit dies in conflict and he/she is born in UK to Sinhala parents who are Christians.
7. A LTTE combatant who dies is born into a family of Sinhala parents who are now domiciled in USA.
8. A LTTE combatant who dies is born into a family of Tamil parents who are now domiciled in USA.
9. A LTTE combatant who dies is born into a family of American parents who believe in rebirth.
10. A military recruit dies in conflict and he is born into a family of American parents who do not believe in rebirth.
The vagaries will extend beyond the 10 listed above but that is not the intention of this discussion.
If one is to investigate the rebirth story which family would volunteer to go through this ordeal of knowing the tragedy at hand?
My guess is nobody except probably the family in Colombo with mixed parentage and the American parents for publicity and curiosity.
Then have we got some mechanisms to verify these data.
Will the military give sanction to go ahead with the investigation?
Will the Sinhala or Tamil parents go through this trauma?
It is anybody’s guess but most of them will do all that is possible to suppress the rebirth story for different reason.
They might very well say it is childhood fantasy.
Nobody will be ready to listen to the story of the dead person.
But I wish the LTTE combatant who is born to a Sinhala family would learn Sinhala, Tamil and the link language English and record his story for posterity and take up politics and become very vocal in reconciliation.
Similarly an army recruit who is born to a Tamil family would learn Sinhala, Tamil and the link language English and record his story for posterity and take up politics and become very vocal in reconciliation.
The way how we handle reconciliation, I think we will have to wait for another 20 years for those reborn characters mentioned above to take up the reins of tolerance, understanding and the futility of racism.
It is too late, by then we will have reignited another conflict under the shadow of religion.
All the signs are ripe for the latter scenario since our politicians refuse to be sensitive to human suffering whether they believe in rebirth or not.
They only want to cling on to power.
That is the name of the game.
Racism and religious fanaticism they breed.
They are grounds they encourage for their own survival and not reconciliation.
Postscript.
If one reads the recorded rebirth stories, there are plenty in the first and second world war stories; it is more than likely this is the correct time for them to resurface in this country. If one is interested in rebirth is they should have zealous and scientific approach to investigation of these stories since there will be lot of suppression by adults and teachers around them.
