Sri Lankans joined millions of Buddhists across the world to celebrate the thrice-blessed day of Vesak, which dawned on Wednesday, the Pasalosvaka Poya Day. Vesak marks the three important events in the life of Gautama Buddha -- his Birth, Enlightenment and Passing Away or Parinibbana. 

At troubled times such as these, when confined to our homes amid travel restrictions and health guidelines, this year too Vesak gives us a golden opportunity to meditate upon and engross ourselves in the Buddha’s teachings as encapsulated in his first sermon at Isipatana (Saranath) near Benares.

Ven. Walpola Rahula in his book titled: ‘What the Buddha Taught’ says, the core of Buddha’s teachings is contained in the Four Noble Truths – Dukkha or suffering; Samudaya or the origin of suffering; Nirodha or the cessation of suffering and Magga or the path leading to the cessation of suffering. Magga also known as the Middle Path is explained further in the Noble Eightfold Path–Right Understanding; Right Thought; Right Speech; Right Action; Right Livelihood; Right Effort; Right Mindfulness and Right Concentration. 

Ven. Rahula says that practically the entire teaching of the Buddha, to which he devoted himself for some 45 years, deals with this path. He said the Buddha explained it in different ways and in different words to people according to their stage of development and their capacity to understand and follow him.

Buddha’s great teachings if properly understood and lived would provide us with the tools to rid ourselves of desire, anguish and suffering and live a life of freedom with mindful awareness and desist from being a source of harm to ourselves and to others all the while recalling his wish, ‘May all beings be happy, peaceful and free’.

Meanwhile, the worrying news and concern these days are those of the COVID pandemic raging across the country, the increasing numbers of new COVID cases and deaths, hospitals lacking sufficient facilities and healthcare workers stretched to breaking point. A case in point is the situation at the Dickoya Base Hospital with doctors and nursing staff saying the hospital’s COVID-19 ward has reached maximum capacity. They said the ICU had to be temporarily closed after a doctor and several nurses had contracted the virus while the hospital’s oxygen supply was fast depleting.

A similar situation had arisen at the Panadura Base Hospital where there is said to be a shortage of beds to cater to the rapid influx of COVID patients with many lying on the floor. The images, released by a COVID-infected journalist admitted to the hospital, relate a pathetic and distressing story much more vividly than words can tell. 
Although the Hospital’s Director Dr. Indrani Godakanda insisted that they were managing the situation, the All-Ceylon Health Services Association (ACHSA) said health workers were ‘overwhelmed and powerless against the tidal wave of new cases’.

Be that as it may, the Consultant Pediatrician Dr. Deepal Perera of the Lady Ridgeway Hospital (LRH) for Children said more than 1,000 children had been infected with COVID-19 and urged the Government to vaccinate those above the age of 12 without delay. He said children could easily fall prey to the viral infection at the rate it was spreading in the country. 

Underscoring the seriousness of the pandemic crisis in Sri Lanka, the Sri Lanka Medical Association (SLMA), the Government Medical Officers’ Association (GMOA, the Association of Medical Specialists (AMS) and the Sri Lanka Medical Intercollegiate Committee (SMIC) said last week that, should this crisis be allowed to continue, healthcare workers, already under severe pressure, would be further stressed leading to a breakdown in the healthcare system. They urged the government to impose a 14-day country-wide lockdown to contain the current level of infection because the steps taken so far had failed to make any impact. The medical professionals said for every 3,000 patients being detected, three times that number were going undetected with the potential to infect their contacts. Most probably based on the repeated requests of the health sector, the government has now imposed a country-wide lockdown from 11.00pm on May 25 to 4.00am on June 7; relaxed on three different days in-between.

As we have often times mentioned this is nothing less than a health crisis and it is the health sector which shouldbe allowed to work out the strategy based on the ground situation to eradicate this deadly virus. It is also equally important for all sectors connected with COVID prevention to speak in one voice so as to avoid causing confusion, chaos and panic among the people.