Dan's Interview Transcript 3

At this point in the interview session tea and jaggery were served. Jaggery is dark, unprocessed can sugar melted at a high heat. Portion sizes vary according to how the mixture is allowed to cool. Jaggery is usually served with tea in rough, nickle-sized lumps. The first time I was served tea and jaggery I tossed the jaggery straight into the tea, which turned out to be a serious faux-pax. You are supposed to take a little nip of the jaggery and then sip the tea.
After tea and jaggery Dan moved his questioning on into family related issues. He also fronted the monk with the Yodhajiva sutra. In this sutra of the Pali cannon a warrior asks the Buddha "Venerable sir, I have heard that it has been passed down by the ancient teaching lineage of warriors that 'When a warrior strives and exerts himself in battle, if others then strike him down and slay him while he is striving and exerting himself in battle, then with the breakup of the body, after death, he is reborn in the company of devas slain in battle.' What does the Blessed One have to say about that?” Devas are gods. The warrior is asking if he is slain in battle will he go to heaven as in the Hindu tradition. The Buddha is reluctant to answer to warrior, replying “"Enough, headman, put that aside. Don't ask me that." Despite this warning the warrior repeats his question and the Buddha replies "Apparently, headman, I haven't been able to get past you by saying, 'enough, headman, put that aside. Don't ask me that.' So I will simply answer you. When a warrior strives and exerts himself in battle, his mind is already seized, debased, and misdirected by the thought: 'May these beings be struck down or slaughtered or annihilated or destroyed. May they not exist.' If others then strike him down and slay while he is thus striving and exerting himself in battle, then with the breakup of the body, after death, he is reborn in the hell called the realm of those slain in battle.” The Buddha explains that since the mindset of the warrior in battle is deranged, if he dies with his mind in this state he goes to hell. The warrior starts to cry because he has been mislead and becomes a follower of the Buddha. The Yodhajiva sutra only addresses what happens when a soldier dies on the battlefield. It does not address what happens if a soldier kills men on the battlefield, survives, and dies in his old age with a better mindset. Other stories in the Pali cannon suggest that enlightenment is possible even for former murders. The monk in the interview does not seem to be familiar with the Yodhajiva sutra.

Dan also questions the monk on the common practice of families constructing bus halts to commemorate their lost loved ones using compensation money from the army. Most bus halts are concrete run-in sheds on the side of the road with the dead soldier’s image inside. Formal bus stations are rare. Most people just wait by the side of the road and hail the bus. Even though buses are frequent, they are often full in between the cities and won’t stop so waits can be long. I can remember one situation in particular in Thailand during monsoon season when a Danish girl and I were trying to hail a bus watching the clouds gather and darken. A bus halt would have been greatly appreciated.

D: Do you remember a recent army funeral that you attended?

S: Three weeks ago a soldier died. Many soldiers are very poor. They don’t have houses.

T: What do you say in order to console the families?

S: Some mothers and fathers are accustomed to saying “Our son gave his son for the country, the race and unity of the country” so they don’t feel shocked. There are some like that, but there are also those that are inconsolable. We also say to a certain extent that this is a sacrifice for the country. This is not an individual death, but a sacrifice for the entire country. We talk about that. At that time, we say something in accord with the Dhamma. Hindus say that if someone dies on the battlefield they will go to heaven. But Buddhism doesn’t say anything like that (laughing).

D: The Yodhajiva sutta says that one goes to hell.

S: Hmmm.…

D: What sorts of problem does the family of a soldier face if he dies?

S: There are many poor and helpless people in the army. They go to the army for a job because they are poor. If they go to the war and lose their lives, it is true that they get a certain amount of money. Sometimes the dead soldiers have just married. Some have only been married for a year. Some of their wives are pregnant. Some have two-month old babies. Even though these people receive money, they can’t rise above these problems. Some are mothers who have lost their son. Some are wives who have lost their husbands. Sometimes they don’t know how to properly share the money and work together. They don’t have any understanding of such things. Our country does not give any solutions to those kinds of problems. They don’t know how to form an organization and distribute the money properly. There is no plan for solving this problem in Lanka. With the death of the soldier the family just falls to ruin. That is because disunity arises quickly and fiercely. Problems might appear between the wife of the soldier and his parents. The reason for this is money. Sometimes the parents throw out the wife. Lots of problems arise and become a chain of problems. It is a problem that must be solved.

T: Yes, this problem must be solved.

D: What do you think about Bus halts on the road?

S: (Laugh) I wish that they would do something better than that. That’s just how people in the village show off. “This is the great thing done by our son.” There’s nothing more to it than that. I think that the 10,000, 15,000 or 25,000 [100, 200, or 250 USD] rupees used to build such things should be used on more important things.

D: Shelter for You, Nirvana for Our Son...

S: Laughs.

D: Could you tell us about the army day ceremony at the army base?

S: That is where we remember the dead soldiers. The parents are brought. They offer robes with their own hands. We chant paritta [protection] and they give to around 100 monks. I also participate in that. Poor people can’t make offerings like that. Even if they receive money, they don’t spend it properly. Many can go there and join, thinking of their sons. It is good to do such things together as a group. In that way, one can appreciate this program sponsored by the army.

Since it is a group giving, we can appreciate it. We preach. All are invited: The mothers, the fathers, the wives...

T: Who started that?

S: No idea.

D: Have you ever seen an LTTE fighter?

S: Yes.

D: What was he like?

S: Many people in the LTTE are young people from Colombo. They have come and spoken with us, saying “Hamduruwo ne! We were in Colombo and went to Isipatana college [famous college] The people/government worked against us so we joined the LTTE. By saying so they disclosed everything. They were just people who had lived together with us. In the North and East, the young generation doesn’t know anything about us. At the beginning, the ones who started the war were young people who lived among us. They went to school here etc...

D: What do you think the difference is between the LTTE and army soldiers?

S: Army soldiers have discipline, rules and training. He can’t just shoot someone. LTTE terrorists aren’t like that. They don’t have any discipline, rules or training. They weren’t trained that way. Other than training for war, they don’t anything else done by the army. That is the difference between these two groups. The other difference is that hatred for the Sinhala people are encouraged among the LTTE. They have created this anger from the beginning. However, our army doesn’t have any hatred for the Tamils. Our army never does anything like that. But the LTTE terrorists do that. Their mental states are shaped in that way. They spread hatred so that they will take revenge. That is dangerous. That is how they are trained. That is why they kill children, cutting their necks, hitting them on the ground, swinging them against trees, and popping their eyes out. They do terrible things. A disciplined soldier could never do such things. Terrorists aren’t like that, they can do whatever they want.

D: In the American and British armies there are religious advisors in the armies called Chaplains...

S: There is nothing like that in the Lankan army, right?

D: Yes, why aren’t there any?

S: I haven’t seen anything like that. To a certain extent that service is done by Buddhist monks. That’s because 99% of the soldiers are Buddhist. This kind of thing is done by various institutions and organizations on the side. It is done indirectly.

D: I wonder who does the religious services at the battlefield.

S: There are temples in the different areas. They just get a monk and perform the religious service.

D: If Lord Buddha were alive today, what do you think he would say about the war?

S: He preached about war in those days as well. He said that harming beings is wrong and that we should have maitri (loving kindness) for all beings.

D: Is there anything that we haven’t asked but that you would like to say?

S: What I have to say is one cannot do anything without fixing people’s hearts. No end will come through hitting and shooting. The only thing that will happen is that people’s hatred, anger and desire for revenge will increase. We need to look and see that even though they are terrorists, we need to fix their minds. That is what we need. The solution to this problem lies in fixing people’s mentality. We have to rehabilitate them. We can’t do this with weapons. We can’t murder everyone. There are terrorists who have weapons and there also those who don’t. The terrorists without weapons are more dangerous. We can’t get rid of them. The only thing that we can do is fix their mental states. This is how we can reach a solution. That goes for both Sri Lanka and the entire world. There are problems everywhere in the world. People murder each other. They set off bombs. There is no end. There are problems everywhere. So, we must fix their mental states. Then we need to increase the spiritual strength of each person. That is what Buddha Dhamma says. That is what Buddha Dhamma teaches. Problems decrease through one’s internal development. That is how war can be ended. King Ashoka showed this to the world for the first time. He fought a war, saw the results of war and was disgusted. He saw the disadvantage of war and showed the way free of war.

D: Do you have any relatives in the army?

S: Yes, my older brother’s son died in the army. He was a good soldier. He was in the STF [paramilitary special police force].

D: When did he die?

S: About 8 years ago.