The Man with a Beautiful Heart
The Man with a Beautiful Heart, Hiran
මද පවන සැලුවෙ ගත
එද සිතම වේය ලත
එම සිතින් ලියමි මෙය
විලි වසන ඇඳිකඩය
හිරි ඔතප් බිඳ නොදයි
එම බවින් ලියමි මෙය
Generosity, truthfulness, intelligence, these are the most noble qualities any human being would aspire to have. Hiran Jayasundara was a man who was blessed with them.
I would say, if he aspired to achieve nibbana he only needed to improve in Vayaama, Sathi and Sammadhi of the eight-fold path. We know the importance of developing such qualities, even for the mere survival of the sentient being. Or else the unethical and cruel nature of the human society will eat into you.
Why is it hard for the living to accept the demise of one among them? This is how it is answered in the Mahabharatha
“YAKSHA: What is the greatest wonder in the world?”
YUDISHTHIRA: Every day men see others called to their death, yet those who remain live as if they were immortal.”
That is where each living being would need to see death in perspective, merely as a pending phenomenon of everyone, and see so truthfully.
Hiran placed truthfulness over ostentatiousness and even over the practicality; for instance, he sticked to using Sinhala, the mother tongue, over English. And he used it the best way one could ever do, even though his superior intellectual abilities have given him the ability to master not just English but several other languages such as French and German.
So, he would do his standard nose gesture to show contempt, today, for me not talking in Sinhala, right now.
On his sister’s autograph Hiran wrote. චන්ද්‍ර බිම්බයුරු ඔබෙ වත පවසයි මුලු හදවතක තතු, ඉන්ද්‍ර නීල මිණි සේම දෙනෙත් යුග නොකරමි දිනක රතු. which I heard her classmates at ladies’ college later found amusing.
Once, he told me his mother claimed that he speaks English like a Sri Lankan. When he said it, I sensed his pride in it, unlike us who rather tried to change it.
Hiran powered the intellectual base of our plays at school and was the key sponsor whenever and with whatever needed.
It is not easy to locate the boundaries in his love, when he loves someone. I could not, as it was so overwhelming.
Unlike us, he had the options of using several cars with drivers to travel. Yet after we (myself together with another friend) took him in a bus for the first time, he made travelling by bus his primary mode of transport. He once wrote on an autograph ‘living with the love of common people’ perhaps his motto that time.
Those days, we used to spend spent hours, days, months, years talking about life, art, politics and humanity, walking around, on streets of Colombo.
By shouldering our cultural event Rangana, I would say he became the key person when it comes to changing the Sinhala arts theatre and concert tradition at Royal College. And for the poster of the event he gave the title ‘the moment of truth’.
It was after finishing our schooling at Royal College, we found that we moved into the golden era of our lives. Hiran continued to power our intellectual base and still was the benevolent sponsor, of various humane, intellectual and cultural acts we ventured into. His support for activities for social change that were taking place in the country were part of his acts of generosity, his care for the downtrodden and the oppressed.
One day we were at Art centre club having a drink and a yarn. I was having a chat with Raja, the barman, and was talking about the importance of working towards equality, for which Raja said it is only the have-nots want equality not the haves, and I said what about Hiran. Yes, he was an exception.
When our lives went into disarray due to the calamity, we had to go through that time, only some of us survived and few of us got scattered around the world. It was Hiran’s benevolence that largely helped us to restart our lives.
Hiran was the most peaceful person one could ever be and was never a violent man. He was known for his humanitarian support for refugees in Europe that time. He helped and also fought on behalf of the downtrodden and the displaced due to war. One social activist once referred to him as the man with a beautiful heart.
However, Hiran could not handle the pain incurred with the cruel and forcible ending of lives of two other noble men and friends of ours, Madhura Ganegoda and Richard De Zoysa. And for whatever reasons only he would know, he felt that he has lost me too.
I cannot talk about the pain he had to bear, since then, for those number of years, but I would say that they all have come to peaceful end now. And that peace will ensure that he is united with the eternal bliss, that he truly deserves, for all good karma he has bestowed upon the humanity.
මද පවන සැලුවෙ ගත
එද සිතම වේය ලත
එම සිතින් ලියමි මෙය
විලි වසන ඇඳිකඩය
හිරි ඔතප් බිඳ නොදයි
එම බවින් ලියමි මෙය
පවුරු නැගගෙන අවුත්
අවුරුවේ මිතු දහම්
කෙලෙස යන බව නොදැන
තව තවද දුව පනින
වල්වැදුනු ලොබ පැතුම්
සසර සැරි සරන තෙක්
අහස්තල පොලෝතල
එක් වද්දි ගොලු වද්දි
ඈදෙන්න පැටලෙන්ට
දරන තැත පසෙක ලා
උඹට සවි ගෙන දෙන්න
උඹේ ගුණ ගමි සිතට
ගුණගරුක බවය උඹ
නැණ පහන වේය උඹ
සද් භාවෙ වේය උඹ
පතමි සවි දිරි උඹට
වායාම ලැබෙනු වස්
සතිය උඹ දකිනු වස්
සමාධිය ලබනු වස්
– Nishanathe Dahanayake
