Free at Last in Paradise

·期刊原文

Free at Last in Paradise

By Ananda W. P. Guruge

Reviewed by Leslie Grey M. D.

Hsi Lai Journal of Humanistic Buddhism

V. 1 (2000) pp. 193-194

Copyright 2000 by The International Academy of Buddhism

Hsi Lai University

Professor Leslie Grey of University of Denver, Colorado is a specialist in psychiatry who has been the medical attache of the US Embassies in New Delhi, India and Kabul, Afghanistan.

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Free at Last in Paradise is a fictitious autobiography of Tiny Banda (T. B.) Valour Lion, a remarkable person. He is a real hero - unselfish, self-sacrificing, devoted to raising a new generation of leaders from the downtrodden outcastes. The scenario is Ceylon, now Sri Lanka, a place which became the cradle of Buddhism after its expulsion from its Indian birthplace and an island conquered, subdued, and exploited by Portuguese and Dutch overlords, suffering from centuries, dormant but not dead.

In 1796, the British took over and entrusted the national education system to the Anglican Church and other Christian missionaries. Missionaries attracted the villagers to their schools, while Buddhist community schools were closed. A few exceptional British teachers realized the unfairness of the British policy, however, and objected to forceful conversions. To quote one enlightened head of a British school, Rev. Kenneth Saunders: "What do they (the church authorities in England) want me to do? To placate my colleagues' the Christian missionaries... to alienate the up and coming generation from [their] national culture and heritage. This cannot be any worse crime than lowering the self-esteem of the young in any nation. When I point this out, they question my patriotism.... What they want me to do is to ensure that generation after generation of this country become docile, submissive subjects of the Great Empire."

Buddhist monks challenged the Christians to defend their faith in public controversies. With their limited resources, the Buddhists tried to assert their spiritual and cultural identity. But they needed inspiration from a foreign leader with experience in liberation from overlords. Against this background emerged a couple: an American Colonel and his collaborator, Henry Steel Olcott and the Russian-born Helena Petrovna Blavatsky. He had participated in the Civil War in America and together they founded the Theosophical Society. Spreading their ideas, they arrived in Asia where they established branches of the Society in India, their aim being bridging over doctrinal differences, internecine conflicts, uniting them for common welfare.

Olcott and Blavatsky arrived in Ceylon in 1880. During their first trip of six weeks, they galvanized the populace in public meetings for national and religious revival. They established branches of the theosophical society for the lay people and involved them in issues of Buddhism, which used to be the exclusive prerogative of the monks. They opened schools to teach secular skills and technology with the purpose of enabling them to govern their own country instead of being exploited and grained by the occupants, and to use the national income for developing public infrastructure. Olcott kept coming back to check on their progress. He worked with, sometimes against, his best allies, the Buddhist monks led by Sumangala.

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He mentored two of the greatest leaders of the country, Dharmapala (the Sri Lankan version of Gandhi) and Sir D.B. Jayatilaka (the Sri Lankan version of Nehru).

The author, Ananda Guruge, is a recognized authority on this period of the country's history. No article or bode has been written in recent years without reference to his well-documented scholarly works. In this novel, however, he portrays the life and career of Olcott and Blavatsky and their national proteges with graphic details of their interaction with the people. His pen brings them to life along with their ideals and foibles, vanities and achievements. This was an exciting era - a century of social, political, religious upheavals - and Guruge presents it in dramatic color and action.

It was in this national fermenting era also that our hero T. B. played a most active role. The youngest child of a modest family in a Buddhist village, he was born under inauspicious circumstances: a landslide, which impoverished the struggling family. Nevertheless, T.B. was endowed with exceptional mental energy, endurance and perseverance. This was recognized by his teachers, and he was fortunate to meet enlightened school-heads who encouraged him to go on to higher education. First in his class, he got awards and recognition. As the pride of the family, they hoped that he would be an outstanding abbot or chief monk in their monastery. As an adolescent, he met Slim Jewel, the sister of his sister-in-law and fell madly in love with her at first sight He wanted to marry her, and his family consulted the horoscope reader. After reading the pair's horoscopes, however, the reader concluded that they did not match; it was a forbidden union. The young pair was devastated; such superstitious obstacles could not be overcome. In desperation, T.B. took the vows of monkhood. Slim Jewel got married to T.B.'s brother. The brother was not like our hero, however. After his marriage, he resumed his love with a beautiful outcaste girl, abandoning his wife, who was then pregnant with child. Years later, when the struggling widow had to cope with imminent blindness, T.B. felt overwhelming social responsibility plus his undying love, gave up his monkhood and married his first and only love. The rest of the story we leave to the reader. The main point is that he raised that child and two more adopted outcaste children, thus giving them a chance to become respectful and socially outstanding citizens. The whole family was deeply involved in the struggle pioneered by Col. Olcott, which ultimately led to the independence of Sri Lanka. T.B. fermented, organized and agitated the population to reclaim their place in the sun. It was a long and difficult but non-violent struggle, resulting in "Freedom at Last" in 1948.

This book is a magnum opus. It is masterpiece from any angle you look at it Elegant style and language, relentless tempo, exciting and almost galloping, never boring, and most educational. Most of the dramatic personae appearing in the book are actual historical figures, as are the dates. Thanks and congratulations to Professor Guruge for providing such a great intellectual to the country and the civilization.