by Stanley Jayaweera
Minister Milinda Moragoda had observed in a recent interview to a week-end newspaper (Sunday Leader of 6th January), that at the recent Parliamentary Elections, the UNP led United National Front had won not because they were seen as the better of the two sides and that the people liked the UNP but because the UNF was considered to be the better of the two evils. That is a profoundly true observation and one hopes that there are a few more perceptive individuals like Moragoda in the governing party who could drive home that point into the skulls of those who constitute its leadership.

For, as I have always believed, the UNP is not a mere political party. It is a way of life - without depth, shallow, lacking in substance, concerned only with the outer shell, aloof, alien and above all, devoid of a philosophy of life and hence with no vision for the country. Its core leadership had been, despite their lofty public pronouncements, concerned only with the acquisition of power and consequently, unprincipled and Machiavellian.

The PA was rejected by the people, because its leaders were all these and much worse - they had become veritable monsters, their trips to the Dalada Maligawa and the Mahanayakas notwithstanding. They had become more UNP than the UNP itself. Set against this background, one finds it a measure of relief and hope that Ranil Wickremesinghe had recently called upon his Ministers and parliamentarians to lead simple lives because the people themselves were going through difficult times. (Island of 8th January)

Mahatma Gandhi once remarked "You must be the change you wish to see in the world". Indeed, that is the message of the Perennial Philosophy. By that yardstick, Wickremesinghe, being the Leader of the UNP and the Prime Minister of the country, must himself set the example and lead the way.

Before that, what indeed is simple living? or rather, what is it not? It is widely believed that discarding non-essentials and the pursuit of essentials constitutes simple living; that to wear a loin cloth and to have few possessions is the essence of simple living; that it is the act of sharing the numerous hardships and sufferings of one’s fellow beings.

I venture to think that while all these could be considered to be the manifestations of simple living, fundamentally, simple living is intelligent living. To live a simple life is extraordinarily arduous because to do so, intelligence has to be functioning at its highest level - intelligence being the capacity inherent in every human being to see things-as-they-actually-are. It has been compared to a flower that opens at the right moment. It blossoms through a transformative experience occasioned by the direct perception of a universal truth such as the utterly pathetic vulnerability of the human condition, exemplified, for instance, by the incredibly sudden demise of the late Gamini Athukorale.

Here was a man, outwardly a picture of health, exulting in the electoral defeat (in which he had played a dominant role) of a government of brutes, thugs and murderers, having participated joyously in a musical extravaganza, gone to bed after midnight only to be found dead, clutching a pillow, even before sunrise.

How many of Athukorale’s close friends in the UNP hierarchy have been jolted into maturity, which is the basis of simple living, by being witnesses to that tragic event? From all one can see, they are carrying on regardless scheming and manipulating, trying desperately to satisfy their inner cravings, and fulfill their hidden motives, enlisting even the support of the poor Buddha to their endeavours, as Wickremesinghe did the other day at the end of his policy statement in Parliament.

Nirvana has been said to be the end of all existence be it celestial, human, or sub-human. And the Buddha is said to have attained that state. Just as well. Else, the Enlightened One would be revolving in a celestial world at the sight of our politicians prostituting. His Doctrine for political purposes, while at the same time pontificating on simple living.

The fact of the matter, I venture to think, is that simple living is the automatic and spontaneous response to life of a man who has awakened, at least intellectually, to his inherent vulnerability i.e. to the falsity of an ego. In such a man, there is the simplicity of non-being. He participates in politics solely as a means of serving the people - not as a method of acquiring power or an avenue for self-aggrandisement. He is simple because he has seen through the falsity of the ego and attained some degree of self-transcendence, at least intellectually. He makes no effort to become simple by having a few clothes, having one meal a day, doing without the usual comforts and so on, as an indication of simplicity.

Being simple and becoming simple are two entirely processes, each leading in a different direction. It is only when the desire to become ends, is there the action of being. Then, being simple is to be natural - the outward manifestation of insight into the true nature of phenomena. Humility is the very essence of such a man.

We do not have a single man of such stature - be it in the ranks of the Government or of the Opposition - in politics today. It is an impossible task to locate someone who is not an imposter.

In the post-independence era we have had SIMPLE beings - one of them was late Dr. E. W. Adikaram, whom it was my privilege to have known very closely, but they would not touch politics.

The situation today is not very different. Young men and women given to "simple" living will not take to politics because politics is a cess-pit. The task before us, who belong to a fast disappearing generation, seems to be to persuade "simple" young people of the present day to take the plunge - come what may. Otherwise there will be nothing left of this country in a few years time.
(The writer is an Avadhi Lanka activist)