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Bloodstained robes?
POINT OF VIEW
By Don Juan
Last Sunday morning the nation awoke in shock and disbelief to the bloody massacre of the innocents. At their homes in Hakmana and Ratnapura lay the bodies of the two victims of Saturday night's senseless carnage: A 22-year-old photographer attached to the Wijeya Newspaper Group and a 24-year-old girl, a public relations officer of the Taj Samudra Hotel who only got married four months ago.

Their bodies brought home that day were met with the wails and shrieks of their parents who were unable to fathom why they had to die. And all for what? What purpose indeed was served, what cause promoted by this vile deed perpetrated in the name of Sinhala Buddhism.

As expected the Jathika Hela Urumaya has washed its hands off and blamed the whole tragic episode on misguided youth. But howsoever and how so much the whitewash, they will not be able to cleanse the stain attached to the noble robe they dare to wear and remorselessly continue to besmirch.

No monk may have thrown the hand grenade that caused the deaths of the young boy and girl, but none can deny that some of these monks set in motion a chain of events that inevitably led to the violence and deaths of two Sinhala Buddhists.

Let it be put on notice.
Even as the Buddha has said a man is not born a Brahmin but becomes a Brahmin only through his actions. Likewise the age-old respect afforded to those who don the robes no more holds water.

Henceforth donning the shroud will not be treated as a licence that demands our homage and our reverence. Only the just deeds of the man who drapes the ascetic robe will deserve, command and receive our worship. Before the beholder pays obeisance to the sacred shroud, the wearer must first respect the revered robe.

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