Life of Silibiris 29

Early morning, long before the cacophony of the daily life began, Kolonnawe Temple Chief Monk was in a meditative state.

He realized Silibiris was at a two way junction. He could take the right turn, stay at the temple as long as he wished while going to work at the Agriculture Department and become a good man.

 Or

 He could take the left turn, be drawn to Sira’s daughter Kanthi and end up trapped in the web of life in Kolonnawe Pelihouses.

 The Chief knew, for a 20 year old impressionable boy from a rural village of Ambarawa, the temptation of instant gratification the Pelihouse life would offer would be irresistible. He resolved to admonish the boy in the evening.

 He at the age of 64, Aranthalawe Sobitha thero had seen it all from a monk’s perspective. He was ordained as a samanera at the age of 8 in Aranthalawa. He had often wondered what his life would have been like as lay person. Would he have become a farmer, teacher or would he join the British Army from the British colony of Ceylon. Amazingly still, how did he end becoming the Chief Monk of Kolonnawe Temple while his pupil became the Chief Monk of the Ambarawa Temple? According to the dhamma he preaches that is his Karma. According to his friend father Joseph at St. Michael’s Church in Kolonnawe, it is God’s will.

 Either way, he had seen the life Kolonnawe Pelihouse community which started as a few shacks along the temple fence growing to a teeming mini slum city over the years. He practically knew every one of the inhabitants. It is they who sustained him in the early years. He is still fond of walking along the narrow corridors of the Pelihouses with his bowl collecting whatever the breakfast food they offered.

 He had crossed Sira’s path many a times. Sira shunned the temple even though his mother was one of the regulars. Sira’s mother Jane nona would often drag young Sira by his ears to the temple to be admonished by the then Lokuhamuduruwo.

Fat lot of good that did.

Perhaps it was his fate. Jane nona died prematurely leaving SIra to fend for himself and look after his 5 sisters. Out of pure desperation for survival, he took to crime like a duck to water.

 Sira gained a reputation as a ruthless criminal. He had an uncanny knack of evading arrest. He evaded arrest not because he was afraid of jails but only because of his responsibility to protect and look after his sisters. As his reputation grew, embellished by stories of his ruthlessness, his sisters needed no protection. Nobody dared to even look at them sideways.

 Sira fashioned himself on Saradiel. He would always come to the aid of the growing Pelihouse population in their times of need. In some ways, that was a shrewed move by him. The Pelihouse people never betrayed him to the police.

 One night, the police took him by surprise and almost caught him.

 Almost.

 He woke up sensing the policemen’s presence, surrounding his house. Sira managed to creep through the temple fence and seek refuge in the startled young monk’s room. The monk maintained silence until the police went away empty handed. Sira never forgot that.

 Some years later, Pachcha Sira even spearheaded the collection of funds from the local businessmen to build a parapet wall replacing the fence between the pelihouses and the back of the temple.

 In later years, he was secretly happy to see his wife and daughter Kanthi  being spiritually helped by the very same monk who became the Chief, following the passing away of the elderly monk. He even reluctantly tolerated the monk’s interference in his life.

 The temple, the Pelihouse inhabitants were intricately intertwined in the web of interdepending life.