What we can learn from Indigenous People
by Professor G. L. Pieris, Vice-Chancellor, University of Colombo
The contemporary landscape is the very antithesis of stability and harmony. We notice that many people who have achieved success in life today are greatly troubled in mind. They do not enjoy peace of mind. Many are afflicted with illness at a comparatively early age. Business executives suffer from coronary disease. They are struck down by heart attacks at the prime of life and so on. Many people in the midst of this turbulence are looking for sustenance, for spiritual support in many different ways.
Transcendental meditation in particular is very popular. Allopathic medicine we have recognised does not satisfy all our needs. Indigenous medical systems like Ayurveda, Siddha and Unani are rapidly gaining popularity in our country as indeed is homeopathy. So there are alternative systems of medicine which are rooted in indigenous values and practices, which are increasingly in demand at the present time.
The modern community has recognised the evils of industrialisation carried beyond a certain point. They are now conscious of the dangers attendant upon the consumption of fruits and vegetables for example, where artificial fertilizer has been used. These are all trends that we notice in the world around us.
Consequently there is a harking back to traditional values, the lifestyle of indigenous people's, their belief systems, what sustained their lifestyle, the things that they held to be sacrosanct. These are now things which are increasingly engaging the attention of contemporary mankind.
I would venture to suggest that one of the basic problems of contemporary civilization is the decline of traditional values without any viable or fulfilling substitute. We are all conscious of a significant hiatus or lacuna. That is one of the challenges which mankind faces in the age in which we live.
If we consider traditional value systems, I think there are three principal strengths that are associated with those value systems. First of all there is a certain emphasis on security. Security — that is something that is sadly lacking in our own civilization and culture. The security came from certain basic relationships, the family, the temple or the church as the case may be, certain relationships which were central to the life of the community at that time.
These were overlapping and interlocking relationships that imparted meaning and substance to life. In times of trouble there were people to fall back upon. There were persons whose guidance was forthcoming and there were in-built safeguards that sustained social life at that time. Now those are the areas in which modern life is vulnerable, precisely because of the absence of those supports, and props and safeguards. So the first theme is security. The traditional values were buttressed; they were fortified and sustained by an emphasis on security.
Secondly, there was a sense of balance. There was a perceptive equilibrium that was achieved. I think that is equally important. Man's conquest of nature .was always tempered by a certain moderation, a certain restrain in the exploitation of the resources of nature. There was a recognition of the sanctity the environment, an acknowledgement that natural resources could not be tapped and exploited beyond the point without inflicting irretrievable damage on the heritage to which we are heirs.
By all means there was a readiness to benefit from the exploitation of the physical environment, but it was done in a manner that was restrained, with some thoughts for posterity. So there were conflicting interests and the balance was perceptively struck between these competing forces. That is the second element that I would identify in traditional values the merit of balance.
The third hall mark which I would identify in a traditional value system is that of contentment. People were generally content with their lot in life. There was not an overweening desire to extend oneself, to expand the horizons of achievement in a such a manner as to stult