magazines, I deplored a scientific journal publishing the result of a shoddy experiment conducted by three gullible doctors who had not the commonsense to repeat the same experiment with the yogi m a glass chamber of equal size as the underground chamber, and making sure that the yogi was not tampering with the connections to his body from the eledro*cardiograph’ II said that I would send three yards of rubber tape from Sn Lanka, and re- quested these three doctors to tondage the nose and mouth of the yogi wAh iL If the yogi could survive six minutes instead of six days, II would give the award of one lakh rupees fo be shared by the three doctors and the yogi
Mjstics and Gurus
When victims of hallucination happen to be illiterate
and Ignorant they are branded as insane, and nobody at- taches any value when they talk about their subjectivs expenences They are often sent to lunatic asylums On the other hand, if the victims of hallucinations happen fo be educated intellectuals they will be able to expa- tiate their hallucinations as instances of expenenemg the “ultimate truth” or getting enlightened By their ability to speak and wnle convincingly rationalising their hallu- cinations as “spintual expenences” they will be able to collect around them numerous credulous persons as dis ciples devotees and followers' Intellectual visionaries with academic qualifications are more dangerous to society than illiterate ones because the former can spread men- tal pollution unlike the latter! Books on physics, chemi- try, botany, zoology, biology, engineering, anthropology, palaeoritology, geology, astronomy, history, geography, architecture etc , are products of objective creative thmk- •mg xfi -nfid/figeifi -nftd/ieeftRfa ■‘fee itfiier’mmfi, InJtrontfi
books like Aesop’s Fables, Gulliver’s Travels, Arabian
Nights, Ramayana, Odyssey, Maha Bharatha the Bible and the Quraan etc , are pr^ucls of surrealistic creative thmking of visionaries I may prefer the surrealistic paint- ings and sculptures of visionaries for decorating my draw- GD5— 2
26
GODS, DEMONS AND SPIRITS
mg room, birt not their books for my library I shun ihem b^use most of them spread mental pollution’
Some of the greatest achievements of man in recCTt
years are liberation of atomic energy radio telescopy to reach millions of light years m space, synthesis of mole- cules of livable matter, space flight, satellite com mumcation, television, landing on the moon, heart trans- plant, electronic pace maker, heart and lung machme, artificial kidney, genetic engineering. Wood transfusion, mechanical respiratoi etc All these marvelous achieve- ments tvere made possible by the objective creative think- ing of scientists No senptures of any rchgion has con- tributed knowledge towarfs any scientific achievement of man so much so. no Research laboratories stock scrip- tures m ttheir reference libranes
Population iCxpIosion
Religious leaders were largely responsible for high
birth rates Tliey advocate large families and seve- rely condemn all forms of birth control currently dubbed as ‘Family Planning” just to hoodwink religious protes stofs But, when hard limes occurred and the poor went hungry, the religious leaders whose policies helped to create ilhc situation, refused to admit any responsibihtj for it Now, with food shortages appearing all over thfc world, the developed counines of the West have found It necessary to break with the religious leaders by pro- viding poor families, both m their own coimtnes and the “developing” countnes with b rlh control information and contraceptives
But the worldwide food shortage continues to be ex
tremely serious many are already dying of starvation and the number of victims is expected to reach many mil- lions within the next few years Birth and death rates are highest in Eastern countries where illiteracy, ignorance, poverty and superstitions are p-eatest’
While population explosion is a potential danger to the
whole world, it appears Bo tree explosion is going to be an added danger to the island of Sn Lanka' The front page article under the banner headline “GOOD OMEN
UNDER DEVELOPMENT AND SOPERSTITIOUS BELIEFS 27
FOR COUNTRY S PROSPERITY” m the Doily News
of April 27, 1978 says “Bo plants from the Sacred Sn Maha Bodhi, Anuradhapura, will be made available for planting throughout the island **
Unlike plants like jak, mango mangosteen, teak, rub-
ber, coconut, palmyrah, tea, coffee, cinnamon etc, Bo tree (Ficus rehgiosa) is a useless plant Although Lord Buddha condemned idol worship m no uncertain terms this useless tree is worshipped as a sacred tree by millions m this country^Not only the tree, but the place surround- ing It also IS regarded to be sacred By distnbutmg this tree all over the island the whole of Sri Lanka is bound to become a forest of sacred Bo trees converting the country into a sacred island with no space for cultiva- tion and buildmg houses for the starving Sn Lankans of the future**
Another \ alarming news comes from the Times group
of newspapers “The ‘SRI LANKADIPA’ offers the Buddhist readers of the newspapers of the Times of Ceylon Ltd, an opportunity of making a two week pilgnmage to India free of charge ”
Able bodied Sn Lankans can afford to waste their
working hours for two weeks because there are workers in induAnous countnes to work and feed us through “economic aids” How correct Lord Fenner Brockway was when he said “We should put a slop to the unde sirable practice of giving economic aid to the ‘spintua- listic people of the scKalled developing countries of the East”!
Oiapter— 3
IXACHING RELIGION IN SOIOOLS
While the All Sri Lanka Buddhist Congress and its
President Dr G P Malalasekera are insistent that reli gjon should be made a compulsory subject in Government schools It js necessary that the citizens of this country shoud have some idea of the amount of untruths and absurdities taught to small children in their impression- able ages in the name of religion
Kusa rafhakaya, Guttila Kavlya and Ummagga ralha-
knya are thre6 religious books presenbed by the Depart ment of ^ucation to be taught in our schools
Nnvcl Conception
3h 1961, a teacher at the Buddhist Ladies* College
Colombo, was teaching Kusa FatJuikaja to the girls in the J SC Class According to this famous Jathaka story, Buddha was bom as Kusa in one of his various births He married a beautiful Prncess Pabawathie, but had no children
Sakra, the King of gods, has a stone settee as his seat
This is very comfortable like a feather cushion but it becomes terribly hot whenever some good person on earth IS m trouble
Kusa was in trouWe, and Sakra felt his bottom burn
mg He contemplated a short while and decided that Kusa’s wife should be given a child He came unnoticed by any one while Pabawathie was asleep and rubbed her navel with his toe This caused her to concave
Out of the thirty girls in the class a twelve-year old
girl got up and asked the teacher whether that was how { a. w/iman. ‘gjti, i, haluy %. ♦ha, ♦aanhiuv hiaii -sifidi ir,, *beta. he would have had to tell her that the story was all bun kum Had he said yes he would have been guilty of telling the innocent child a lie Moreover, she and the
