By way of deception

By way of deception is the name of a book by Victor Ostrovsky, a former Israeli agent. This was one of the books I enjoyed reading. It gave an insight in to the Israeli society and the book has some references about Sri Lanka (basically how the Israelis helped J.R,'s government to deceive the World Bank, etc.). The title is taken from the motto “By way of deception thou shalt do war” of the Israeli intelligence agency better known as the “Mozard”. Some things happening in Sri Lanka reminded me of this book. Since the death of ven. Soma, a lot of Sri Lankans have been sending emails trying to inform each other of the things “Christian fundamentalists” are doing. Since a group of Buddhist monks gave nominations for the general election these emails increased. A few weeks ago, I received an interesting email. It had a picture which supposed to have been taken from a Sinhala news paper. The picture depicts a statue which looks like Lord Buddha who is seated with a woman seated on his lap embracing him. This looks like a picture from Kamasuthra. The news paper says that this is a picture which has been circulated by Christian fundamentalists in Sri Lanka. But it doesn't say which group is responsible or when or where the paper found it. Then there is another email which also has the same picture and in addition to that, this email says that there are biscuits in the form of Buddha statues being distributed by Christian fundamentalists. It also mentions about a bar called Buddha bar in some Christian country. These emails would generally make a Buddhist's blood boil. One would think why should we tolerate these Christians. We should kick them out of our country. Then comes the point. How can we do that? Well we could always vote for the monks of Hela Urumaya party can't we? Their aim is the same isn't it? To save Buddhism and Sinhala nation from the Christians. Well that is what a normal person would think. But as Buddhists we should be more cautious, more wise in our actions. So let's take the assault on Buddhism one by one. First, the statue of Buddha embracing a woman. If you do some research you would learn that the picture in the statue has been created in Nepal. It is supposed to depict prince Siddhartha defeating daughters of Maara which resembles the rejection of temptations. So if somebody has tried to insult Buddhism it is the Nepali sculptor and the Nepali museum which exhibits it and not any Sri Lankan Christian. The next, the biscuits. There is a famous Buddha statue in Japan called laughing Buddha or something. A friend who visited that statue about 20 years ago had told me that the shops near this tourist attraction had biscuits made in the shape of the statue. So biscuits in the shape of Buddha has been there for at least 20 years. So it seems that the Japanese are trying to insult Buddhism. We should do something about these Japanese shouldn't we? Then the Buddha bar. This has been there in the US for some time. I've seen it my self in a capital of a European county several years ago. It definitely was of bad taste. Using Buddha statues as the theme in a place where the main business is selling alcohol can not be acceptable. But where have all these emailers been all this time? These bars have been operating for years but all these emailers started educating us about it only after some monks decided to go into politics. So what is the force behind this. I would say definitely deception. A better motto for the Hela Urumaya party would have been “By way of deception thou shalt go to parliament.” Generally Buddhists are expected to pledge 5 things to one self (Pansil).
1. I will not kill (harm) any animal
2. I will not steal
3. I will not indulge in illicit (inappropriate) sexual activities
4. I will not lie (or deceive)
5. I will not intoxicate myself with alcohol (or narcotics)

But looks like the emailers of Hela Urumaya and the speakers in their election meetings (various speaker have been saying the same stuff as the emailers) are not following number 4. The monks who are saying the same stuff or just sits there on the stage while others say these things should either be ignorant fools who are like frogs living in a well who have never heard about the Nepali statue, the Buddha biscuits, etc. or are deliberately trying to deceive the public in order to get votes. In a country where some Buddhist monks post paper advertisements saying that their voodoo (I think voodoo is the correct word for these kind of witchcraft) can bring lost lovers or break love affairs or get you jobs, these kind of deception by Buddhist monks could be expected couldn't we? I know there are Christian organizations operating in Sri Lanka who do certain unethical things but these kind of stupid accusations will only make all the Buddhists look stupid and ignorant. It would also help to legitimize the work of these Christians. So if you are a Hela Urumaya supporter, do your self a favor. If you want to deceive the public get somebody who has an IQ higher than a brick and get him to make up something creative accusations. These kinds of stupid accusations are embracing to all the Buddhists of Sri Lanka.

Man, do you people think that we don't watch Discovery channel, don't surf the web and don't read books and news papers?