Questioning the meaning of murder

By Surya Vishwa

The meaning of murder is when one knows that on account of one’s action, a life will be ended; i.e. the life of another. Thus, a human being will be unable to fulfil their role for their family and country because his of her life is cut out prematurely.

Buddhism is primarily a science of the mind connected with introspection and hence the nation being identified with Buddhism let us introspect as follows:

Are the current COVID-19 deaths that we get to hear every day, averaging between 30 and 50, really ‘natural’ deaths? Does Sri Lanka truly have no way of preventing them?

Is not COVID-19 a disease that resembles the common cold that attacks first and foremost the immunity?

Have not at least a dozen traditional physicians of the Sinhala Wedakam tradition done extensive research and come up with traditions medications specifically to treat COVID-19?

Are only Western scientists those meriting the term ‘researchers’?

Did we not research within our own medical heritage for health solutions we need for hundreds of thousands of years?

Why have the appeals of our traditional physicians to treat COVID-19 patients fallen on deaf ears?

Why are they not provided a mechanism to treat patients?

Why have we forgotten that the Wedamahattaya in Sri Lanka was the lifeline of the village and country?

What is the purpose of sending COVID-19 patients to languish in Western medical hospitals of Sri Lanka when Western medical science has no way of boosting immunity naturally or have an allopathic cure for COVID-19?

Is the above act alone not one aiding and abetting murder?

Have we studied how our ancient medical heritage handled pandemics over the ages by boosting immunity?

Is this the first time that Sri Lanka is facing a pandemic in the entire history of our civilisation?

How did ancient Lanka handle pandemics before international agencies such as the World Health Organisation (WHO) or the Western medical system came into being?

Did not this word have unique ancient medical systems such as in Africa and those connected with Aboriginal societies and many other ancient civilisations that were deeply connected with the earth?

Why were they killed off?

Is it not mental and physical health that is important to boost immunity?

How can the above be achieved when people are unhappy, sad, fearful and broke?

If we are a sovereign nation, why are we not taking our own decisions according to the indigenous knowledge we hold?

Why have we created Sri Lankans who do not know or care, or care to know, the science of their own medical heritage?

Are we aware that most of what we use in our everyday food such as turmeric, coriander, ginger, garlic, curry leaves, onions and all our spices are considered ‘miracle super-foods’ in foreign lands that depend only on vaccines for immunity?

Why have we allowed COVID-19 to beggar the people and the country when we have 30,000 Wedamahattayas in this land who could easily be absorbed into a systematic mission to boost the immunity of the people and prevent COVID-19 affliction and deaths?

Why have we not ushered in a national policy through our traditional knowledge for immunity boosting in the past one year to battle COVID-19?

Why are the phone recorded messages we hear formulated not for creating fear psychosis but to tell us what to eat and drink as per our traditional system so that we protect our immunity and stay resilient?

Why are we allowing COVID-19 to murder the people, the country and the economy?

Apart from Sinhala Wedakama, does not Sri Lanka have homeopathy, the Western science based gentle alternative to immunity alongside Siddha and Unani systems known for their unique ways of enhancing the body’s natural disease fighting mechanism?

Is it not murder to ignore this rich knowledge when the country desperately needs it?

Is our non-thinking, our abject ignorance and non-action culminating in hourly and daily guilt when children and youth are dying and people are laid out on the floors of Western hospital corridors across this country? 

Are we aware that private Western hospitals in Sri Lanka are swindling people and charging as much as three to four lakhs for ‘COVID-19 care’?

Are we not aiding and abetting these financial crimes by not allowing our traditional medical system to restore our country to health as was done historically in this land?

In the lockdown of the past few weeks why were pharmacies allowed to operate and traditional medicine shops (our beloved beheth kades) which hold our veniwelgeta and koththamalli and amukaha and hundreds of immunity boosting medications decreed to be closed?

Is this not aiding and abetting murder from a disease that attacks first and foremost immunity?

Are we as quick to ‘research’ and ‘check’ the foreign vaccines that we spend billions of national revenue to buy (with money we do not have) as we are to ‘research’ and ‘check’ our traditional medications that have healed the nation for thousands of years?

Do we know the reasons for the cause of the COVID-19 ‘variations’?

Are we researching into our ignorance and our conscience?

(Surya Vishwa writes on subject matter pertaining to humanism, nature, comparative spirituality, integrated knowledge and intangible cultural heritage. She has for the past year, every week consistently written in the Lankan English language print media on the importance of Sri Lankan policymakers prioritising indigenous medicine of Sri Lanka to be used for controlling the current COVID-19 pandemic. She has interviewed almost all Sri Lankan traditional physicians who have created medications for COVID-19 and traditional physicians and Ayurveda/Allopathic experts who have explained the difference between the Western and traditional medical sciences.)