November 25, 2013 Bangalore, India
You know, being a bridge is the most difficult thing. A portion of it has to be on this side, and a portion of it has to be on the other side also. A bridge cannot have its feet only on one side, it has to have its feet on both sides.
So when this big issue with Sri Lanka was happening, we (Art of Living) played this role of being a bridge to both sides. It was a tough job. We had to be in touch with the Sri Lankan government and we were in touch with the LTTE people as well.
We really sympathize with the people of LTTE, because we know that injustice was done, even thought it was in the past, and it was a different government which did it. What they did is, they made only one language. They said that Singhalese will be the official language. That means, the Tamilians who have been there for millenniums will have no jobs with the government; they cannot work
. Then they had a quota system for Tamilians for admission into medical and engineering colleges, and schools. But the Tamil community in Sri Lanka were very educated. They were dominating the businesses, they were dominating the medical field. Though the community is very small, only 15% to 20%, they were 100% in medical colleges. So the government thought, somehow we need to curb these people, and so they brought these measures which were so disastrous. So many young people died, and almost all the youths took to arms.
When this injustice happened, the Indian government supported the Tamils. They brought Prabhakan to Pune, gave him training and with Indira Gandhi's support they started having a military force. Then when her son came to power, he decided he wanted to make peace with Sri Lanka and he tried to disarm the Tamils.
To this Prabhkaran said, 'Okay, you will come as a peace keeping force for a few days. We will give away all our arms, but then what? We may again be targeted later. We want our own separate identity and our own government'.
It was quite valid what he was saying. Looking at the events that happened, he had no trust. But the India government did a very foolish act.
At that time, T. N. Seshan was the defense secretary, who later on became the most celebrated and most honest Election Commissioner of India. He was brilliant. He told Rajiv Gandhi, give me three days, I will make Sri Lanka into two states. One a Tamil state and the other a Singhalese state.
Rajiv Gandhi apparently said that we already have so much on us, why to take on some more. And he said no.
So, they drained them (the Tamils) of their militarily and then the Indian army started fighting them. It was a disaster. Like what America did in Vietnam, India did in Sri Lanka. Finally they called back their troops, but the country was still divided. The Tamils had their own region, the Singhalese had their own region and everyday there was conflict and fighting.
Then we thought, we can't just keep quiet, let us do something to bring peace. So, I went and met Rajapaksha, the President of Sri Lanka. He told me, 'Gurudev, let Prabhakaran and me sit together. You make an effort', because by now the Tamils had lost faith in India and in Sri Lanka as well. They were a force by themselves and they were being helped internationally by Norway, America and Britain. Also, by then hundreds and thousands of Tamilians has fled Sri Lanka and had became refugees internationally, and went all over the world. And they had a government in exile in London, America, Canada, and other places.
So when I was touring in America and Canada, I met all these Sri Lankan refugees and they were telling me all their horror stories. They would tell me how difficult it was for them, how they escaped, and how they got there, and how their families are suffering. There were false encounters every day. Any youth could just be picked up and shot dead. The army was really running a rampage in Jaffna, and other areas.
They were saying, 'Gurudev, you talk about meditation and peace. Please give us some peace. Do something'.
I said, 'Definitely'.
One man who was close to Prabhakaran in Cananda, Anantaraman, myself, Swami Sadyojathah, we three came to India and then went to Sri Lanka.
The President said, 'Let me and Prabhakaran sit alone and we will talk'.
So they organized a helicopter for me and dropped me close to their area as they could not go into their area, it was under UN surveillance. The police said, ‘We will drop you here. We don’t know what will happen. We cannot go in there.'
When I went there, there were small children with guns. They were so terrified.
We waited for them to get us clearance, then we went into their territory. Everywhere you see, you find big posters of atrocities done against them. They had put big pictures of Buddha and said, ‘Is this what Buddha taught, violence and genocide?’
So, everywhere they had pictures of children and youth who had sacrificed their life, who were killed.
Then we reached the place where Prabhakaran was supposed to be there, the leader of LTTE. When I went there, his assistant said, ‘Gurudev, I saw you on television.’
I said, ‘Only you can do something. You can bring peace.’
He said, ‘Okay’.
Then we waited there and said we wanted to meet your leader. First they said he was here, then they said he is in another place because he was hiding in the jungle. I don’t know what they were talking. Finally they didn’t let me meet with him. First they had agreed and then they backed out.
There they had such prejudice for religious and spiritual leaders. Hindu spiritual leaders have had to face so much prejudice in the world, in many places. This was one such occasion where we had to face some prejudice.
Then I had to leave the next day because Navratri was about to begin, and I had to go into silence. This was two days before Navratri and I had to leave that place. I could not wait because the helicopter was also waiting for us on the other side. It is a 3 hours helicopter ride to Colombo, and they were worried on the other side as there is no communication from this side to that side. So, we waited and when it got dark, we left the place.
While leaving, that man who came with me said, ‘You know, this is not good for these people. I feel it is a very bad omen. You have come all the way and they have refused to meet you. I feel this is not a good omen and something disastrous is going to happen'. And it did happen.
I told those people, ‘Look, I agree you need to win. I am for you to win the war, but war cannot be won only with your military power. You should have skills.’
So, I explained to their lower level leaders, ‘You go and tell your boss that just because he has several tanks and a powerful military force, with all these instruments he cannot win the war. The European Parliament has labeled you as a terror organization. First you have to come out of that. You have to make them understand that you are not terrorists. You will not kill innocent people. You will not recruit young children for Guerrilla wars (is a form of irregular warfare in which a small group of combatants such as armed civilians use military tactics to fight a larger and less-mobile traditional army). You be diplomatic. We will try to arrange a meeting for all of you in Geneva'.
We wanted to do something in Geneva for these people; to arrange a meeting and come to a peaceful understanding.
I said, ‘You now have power and a lot of ammunition. When you are powerful you should come for negotiation. When you are weak there is no point in coming for negotiation. You will fail miserably'
I also said, ‘The Mahabharata War was won with yukti (skill), with tactics. You should have the tactics to win the war; skill to win the war, not just dry arrogance that we are militarily much more powerful than Sri Lanka. All the countries will then support Sri Lanka. You don’t have support from India, you don’t have support from any other country. What will you do? You did a mistake by killing the Indian Prime Minister.
In several words I told them, ‘You have to have skill, just power won’t work. You should first have a Divine intervention. Without the help of the Divine, you cannot achieve, not just by military force. Why don’t you do some meditation, relax, think and go with tactics'.
This appeal to the lower level people did not reach to the higher level because by this time the leader had become so paranoid; he was afraid of everybody. Many of his followers had started moving away, and the President of Sri Lanka was so smart. He would allure people, give them comfort and money and he would try to divide their own group. There was no one to advice them. Prabhakaran would not listen to anyone’s advice and they brought a disaster on themselves.
So when the war was in full scale, that time they gave me a call. Before this we sent Swamiji to see their main leaders in Chennai. They said, ‘We don’t meet any spiritual leaders.’ But the same people called us to intervene in the last moment, two days before the war was going to finish.
We received a phone call from them, ‘Please do something.
’ What can we do in the last moment when you’ve lost almost everything? You’re just with the people in the small place. You’re sitting with your human shield.
Still we spoke to the President. The President said, ‘Gurudev, tell them to come waiving a white flag and we will give them asylum.’ So we told them this.
On the last day of the war, three of their leaders come waiving a white flag and the Sri Lankan military shot them on point blank range. They shot all three of them. The President himself had promised that let them come waiving a white flag. Now they came waiving a white flag and they shot them.
But then the President says the communication was given, the army head did not listen. They kept putting the blame on each other. Thousands of people were put in concentration camps. I went there, Swamiji went with me, even then we have to be a bridge. We had to be in touch with them without emotionally getting disturbed, or angry, or upset.
We were the only NGO which was allowed to work in these camps of victims. If I had really reacted to what they did and been upset and angry, it would have done no good. Wisdom helps. ‘Well they have done it, now what to do?’ We just moved on and they allowed us to work and help all those people.
The first batch I went and saw, there were thousands and thousands of people in these camps which were so watery and muddy. It was heart breaking. They were all living in nice homes. They were all from such a comfortable background. There was no poverty among the Tamils. They were all rich, they had enough land, they had big homes. They had to drop all that and come and live in a tent in a barbed wired fenced area. It was a really big shock.
There were about 40 or so priests from temples there who were so religious. Morning they had to take bath, without that they couldn’t eat. They had to do their pooja and there in the camps there was nothing for them. They had to stand in the queue for a little bit of food. People had no clothes to wear. There was water scarcity. For months and months they stayed in those tents.
When we went there, first we got all the priests released from there. Then we helped the women and the elderly people; all those who were above 60 years, we got them released. We trained many Yuvacharyas (youth leaders). They had separated families. All the boys and girls who were above 15 years were all taken to another city in another camp. The most shocking was that many pregnant women were forcefully aborted. Hundreds of women were aborted. They didn’t want the LTTE blood to come for the next generation.
Art of Living at that time could help these women to come out of that. We had a good rapport with the government and they had allowed us to do the Art of Living courses for them and get them out of their trauma.
Meanwhile, here we had organized many conferences. When I was in Colombo I had a series of meeting with the American Ambassador to Colombo, and all different Ambassadors and Diplomats, except the Indian one. It is most unfortunate.
This current government did not know how to manage this whole issue. A person who does not know Tamil was always put as an Ambassador in Sri Lanka. Officers who were in charge of Sri Lanka were not aware of the Tamils at all. They made a mess out of the whole issue. They would not even talk to me on this issue. They know that I’m making efforts to make peace there. They didn’t want me to take the credit of peace coming to Sri Lanka. They wanted the credit to go to them and they didn’t know how to do it. The most stupid thing that India did was this.
Second stupid thing India did was with Nepal. The communists of this country went and shook hands with the Maoists of Nepal and made them powerful. Then when they made Maoists so powerful, they turned against India! Then these people didn’t know what to do!
You pump up Maoists knowing very well that Maoists are always with China. Then you supported the Maoists there and then that guy become anti everything.
The only Hindu county in the world, he turned it around and such corruption happened. The country became a mess. All the industries collapsed. People were so fed up and in yesterday’s election they were wiped out.
People had the power, they stood up and said, ‘No we don’t want any more of these Maoists. We want dharma to stay in this country.’
Unprecedented conversions were happening in Nepal. 200% rise every year of conversions into other religions. Nepal’s identity was getting lost and the current government is responsible for doing such things in Nepal as well.
We need leaders who are sane and who can look beyond their personal emotions and insults. This is where people go wrong. People get stuck with what others think about them and how they treat them or don’t treat them.
If someone insults you, so what, it is their own insult! You shouldn’t bother. That’s how I took it.
In the SAARC meeting, something happened between the Prime Minister of India and the Nepal’s King, and they thought they insulted each other and they stopped talking to each other. Can you imagine? Heads of two countries stop talking to each other and this whole mess happened. So stupid I tell you!
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