Muthuthanthri Patabendige Yasawathie gave birth to twin girls on November 3, 1978. The second child was born five minutes late and she named the eldest Shivanthi Hettiarachchi and the second Shiromi, with the same last name.
From their very young age they started talking about places and names of people, puzzling their parents and all the indications were that they were talking about their past births. They persistently started to give more details and attempts by the parents to make them forget the past-life events to avoid inviting unnecessary attention were in vain.
Finally, they decided to go to places which their daughters described and to their utmost horror they found that the girls were two good male friends in their past lives who were killed by the police during the violent insurrection of 1971 launched by the JVP or the People’s Liberation Front.
One youth named Robert in his past birth left home on April 18, 1971 but never returned while policemen abducted his friend as he was travelling in a bus, according to available evidence. They led the relatives of their present life and the past life to rocky Roomassala hills near the southern port city of Galle and showed the places where the two were shot dead by the security forces. The two sisters also revealed gruesome torture tactics used by the armed forces. Perhaps it may be ideal for a film script like that of the rebirth film The Reincarnation of Peter Proud, or even a revenge-type drama stretching over to two life times!
The prosecution of culprits who were probably still living on the evidence of two reborn victims would have created one of the most bizarre turning points in legal history! This in itself shows the hurdles that a concept like the rebirth is up against in the real world but Sri Lankan researcher Tissa Jayawardene is determined to prove that something called rebirth exists. He has hard facts to prove that.
The case of the two sisters is one of the most interesting rebirths included in Tissa’s Sinhala book, Yali Upan Jeevitha (Lives Reborn) featuring nine of the most bizarre cases he has researched.
Tissa has been researching for the last 30 years connecting present and past lives of people who had been talking about previous births. A subject of a BBC documentary, Tissa, has researched more than 400 cases so far, recording and photographing evidence and obtaining documents relating to court cases and birth and death certificates to prove that rebirth is not just a myth or the hallucinations of some idle mind.
Rebirth remains a controversial subject in some religions. Buddhism and Hinduism do not deny or accept the concept. An ancient Christian sect called ‘Gnostics’ was said to be believers of reincarnation but they were destroyed by the Roman Orthodox Church; their followers killed and writings wiped out, according to some historical reports.
Tissa does research for Professor Ian Stevenson of the University of Virginia, an expert of rebirth in the world. Tissa’s interest to try his hand in the domain in para psychology was created by an accidental meeting with the American don while he was researching a rebirth in Tissa’s native Alutgama, a coastal town in the south of Sri Lanka.
A man says he remembers how he stayed like a bird for a few days on a roof of a house belonging to a relative after his death in his previous life. He had even seen his relatives and friends coming to his house to mourn his death and pay their last respects.
Among the other intriguing cases in his book is Shelton Weerasinghe who was shot dead on April 9, 1971 at Kotawella, Rambukkana, being born as Vasantha Gunasekera in Polgahawela. Vasantha’s most puzzling revelation is that he remembers how he stayed on a roof of a house belonging to a relative after his death roaming like a bird. He had even seen his relatives and friends coming to his house to mourn his death and pay their last respects. This, according to Buddhism, can be the state of Gandhabhbha or a soul in transition waiting to be reborn. Tissa has hospital records to show that Shelton died after a bullet pierced his chest. Vasantha, who also remembers certain incidents that took place in his former family after his death, has a prominent birthmark on the exact place where he was shot.
Other interesting cases in the book are Sunil de Silva Wimalaweera of Ginigathhena, who died after a snake bit him, being born as Vasantha Karunarathne in the same town. In this case Vasantha’s mother had a dream of a tall person dressed in white telling that her that her next child would be Wimalaweera. In another case, Kusuma Wijesekera was a man named G.G. Karunasena who lived in Aluthwela in her previous birth. He died after falling into a well.
Ajith Moramudali who was born on December 22, 1969 in Nagoda, Kalutara was a businessman named Jayatissa of Ingiriya in his pervious life. He died along with a woman as his car hit the bridge near Gamini Vidyalaya in Ingiriya and fell into the river. Ajith was reluctant to reveal the name of the passenger who was in his car in the previous life. Her name was found to be Mallika Wijesinghe, the winner of a beauty contest, and all the indications were that the married businessman was having an extra marital affair with the beauty. Tissa has a paper cutting of a write-up of the accident that appeared in the Sinhala evening daily Janatha on the day of the tragedy.
I met Tissa when he came to meet me at the Ceylon Daily News after reading an article I wrote about a child in Ratnapura who seemed to be talking about his previous life. A trip to the addresses and the people the boy said he knew in his previous life were incorrect, according to him. When I asked the reason for that he said, sometimes when interacting with the incidents in the present life people lose exact memories of previous lives except for certain vague references.
According to his findings, people who speak about their previous lives are those who perished in accidents. He has so far not met a person who died due to natural causes speaking of past births. He has also not met a person who had committed suicide in a previous life.
He has taped conversations, taken photographs, obtained court and hospital records and news reports to prove the authenticity of his findings.
When I asked about the case about a boy claiming to be the rebirth of popular film star-politician Vijaya Kumaratunga who was married to former Sri Lankan President Chandrika Kumaratunga, he says it was a hoax.
“The parents of this child were great fans of the film hero and they have taught him the names of all his films and the actors and people he was associated with and even taught him how to talk and walk like the star who was brutally gunned down,” he said. “I researched the case and found there was not an inkling of truth of what the boy said. It was just a publicity stunt by the parents.”
Tissa worked as a journalist and later joined the Sri Lankan Central Bank. He says his odyssey is to prove that rebirth is not just a vague concept continues. He wants to prove it is reality that shows the continuity of life even after death.
He related to me a bizarre real-life experience. After leaving the Lake House in the 80s he started working at the Central Bank. The reason for leaving the Dinamina newspaper was due to JVP threats to quit journalism or face death. He lived in Alubomulla, a small town east of the mid-southern coast, where JVP terrorism was rampant. The violent period is known as a reign of terror, a term the Sri Lankan media borrowed to describe this violent era of arbitrary killings and disappearances. A JVP mastermind behind the renewed violence that also claimed several journalists, was living in disguise in the area.
While working on the mezzanine floor of the bank one morning he suddenly remembered that he should go to meet a friend in Slave Island, a town situated few kilometres from the bank. When he was coming back by bus after meeting the friend, he saw a huge fire in the bank. It was January 31, 1996, the day the Libration Tigers of Tamil Ealam (LTTE) crashed a truck containing about 440 pounds of high explosives through the main gate of the bank killing 91 and injuring over 1,400.
The mezzanine floor where Tissa worked was totally destroyed killing many of his colleagues. He still wonders who saved him!
Somasiri Munasinghe – © newstrails
