And a leper came to Jesus, beseeching Him and falling on his
knees before Him, and saying, "If you are willing, you can make me
clean." Moved with compassion, Jesus stretched out His hand and touched
him, and said to him, "I am willing; be cleansed."
-Mark 1:40-41
I do respect Jesus Christ not because he claim to be son of
the god, in my understanding he is a nice kind hearted human .In his time
Lepers were out castes from the society. People consider lepers bad for even vicinity.
But Jesus Christ touched them, talked to them more importantly he was willing
to cleans them.
The Buddhist philosophy is different, as per Lord Buddha’s
teaching everything is a result of something we have done it before. Lord
Buddha never did recover instantly. In Buddhism what we see always is Lord
Buddha did make understand people with the reason and convince people to avoid
such situation in future. But Lord Buddha says if someone caring a sick patient
it is equal as treating to Lord Buddha.
In Buddhism Dhammapada
(Buddhist teaching book)
“Arogya parama labha-santutthiparamam dhanam
Vissasa parama nati-nibbanam paramam sukham”
which means” Health is the greatest gift, contentment is the
greatest wealth, a trusted friend is the best relative, Nibbana is the greatest bliss”
I’m a very much believer of this. Even if your health
insurance policy might say they will take care of everything you only have to
pay the premium. But when you really get sick we will understand how helpless
we are. We have to trust someone totally stranger some cases we are letting them
to open our heart, kidneys brain .there is no other gift in life if we can
avoid this scenario, but unfortunately as humans we do get sick. We have to go
to hospital to recover.
If we are lucky we can recover and come back home, but there
are worst scenarios we will never be able to come back home. We might thing
death is the ultimate worst thing that could be happened to a human. In Sri
Lanka we have a poet Anne Ranasinghe. The poem, “Plead Mercy”
“We pass a bullock yoked to a cart
Straining uphill. He shivers
With effort, his bones
Protrude and the taut skin quivers
At each whip of the sharp-thorned
stick
There is no expression on his face
Only his eyes plead mercy
Foam slavers from his lips
As he travails to increase his pace
And slips. My daughter asks
Does he think life is worth
living?
I tell her what I know
Is not true, that life
Is always better than death.
She frowns
If there is a revolution, she says,
I’ll kill myself. All those horrible
things
They do to people.
The bullock has fallen on the rough
Edge of the road. He tries,
But in spite of the stick he cannot
rise.
Lord, have mercy on his eyes.
My daughter is just thirteen.”
So I guess life is always better than death.
But there are circumstances we are out castes from our
normal life due to various reasons. We were forced to life.
I’m not sure how many of our generation watched movie Benhur
or read the Lew Wallace’s book Benhur .Benhur was sent as a slave in a
Roman war ship, sister and mother were out castes by society as lepers, a
simple mistake best friend of the childhood did all this to Benhur. But both
movie and the book has happy ending.
In reality Leprosy is one of the least infectious diseases
mainly because nearly all of the population has natural immunity against it.those
who effected with the daises life was not easy. In Sri Lanka this has been controlled
and for over 20 years there not been recorded death or similar incidents due to
Leprosy. Sadly our big brother India still continues to have 1.2 to 1.3 lakh
new cases of leprosy every year. 58% all new leprosy cases appeared, in world from
India.
Mother Theresa had special units to help those affected with
Leprosy and still the organization continues it.
What we have in Sri Lanka is more belongs to dark history.
We have a historical Leprosy hospital which belongs the Dutch period. The story
of the Hospital linked with Son of a Dutch high ranked naval officer. When this
naval officer son effected with Leprosy by law of that time the son has to banish
from the society. Even the officer cannot help he built this well facilitated hospital
to his son during the Dutch period. Eventually it turned into a government hospital
for Leprosy.
When I first visit to this place with my mother was in late
1980.Those days it was fortified and had their own world .they had Catholic
Church, Anglican Church, Buddhist temple, Mosque also school for children and
teachers were inmates of the hospital. Even that time the there were considerable
amount of inmates.
Now we are in 2015 Lot of changes had been occurred. The
school of the hospital been converted into a government school .the Hamilton cannel
which is right opposite to the hospital turned into waterfront recreational center.Yesterday
when I was passing there newlywed bridle couple taking their photos. Some parts
of the hospital have taken over by the Sri Lanka Army.
Today those who in the hospital totally cured, but they have
sad memories of the past. All of them are now old people those who more secured
within the walls. I can understand there is an inmate who was taken while he
was studying in the school at the age of 14.
He told those days it was police brought him here,
eventually family has forgotten and now he is fully cured but over 60 years he
has been living in the hospital. His home town Colombo has turned in to very confusing
place to him. He is much secured in this place rather than the complicated Colombo.
There are some inmates those who wall in love at the
hospital and married at hospital. They have children as well. Now their
children coming to visit them .
Oldest inmate is 98 years old. The most curios
devise to him is the mobile phone. He remembers is sister’s wedding as a little
boy over 80 years ago. His home town is Anuradhapura. He told there were only one
telephone he has seen that time and it was also 12 miles from his home. And he
was amused by modern selfie. He has seen wooden studio camera but now he does
not understand how this small device take colored photos.
He asked a question, the question was how we expect better performance
when the device is small? Well I did not try to explain anything to make him
more confuse. But I took some selfies. Later he requested something that was “please
don’t wait till next year till this date. Come again soon I might not be able
to see you again”. I did not promise because I do visit them only in once a year
and he plays harmonica the happy birthday song on the same day of every year.
