The first death anniversary of Valentine Joseph, a Professor of Mathematics from the University of Colombo, fell on March 15.
“That one small head could carry all he knew” – a line from the poem ‘The Village schoolmaster’ by Oliver Goldsmith comes to mind when I think of a great scholar who passed away recently. He was so humane that he remembered to care of the geckos at his home (feeding them with butter cake) and inquire into well-being of a youth who came to see him in hospital.
I too recall with wonder how this great man remembered every question I asked about life – when he needn’t have because after all, I was just an old student of his among the many thousands who had passed through his hands. He never forgot who he was; just a simple instrument in the hands of God, the Creator. The balance between God, Man and Land was imperative to him; the great Tao. Yet he was able to, in simple terms, deliver a very complicated piece of the ‘truth’ in terms of mathematics in everyday examples. He was sought after by men like Sir Arthur C. Clarke as well as all his family members. He could without any shyness say that the greatest happiness he found was in meeting and being with his wife! This lady, shared with me how ‘human’ her late husband was that even when he was at the hospital bed, writhing in pain when someone had visited him, and asked ‘Sir do you remember me’, this great man had replied, of course, how is your son doing.’
Contentment
Leading a life of simplicity is a gift of God. It comes with contentment. Contentment comes with belief. His great mind understood that faith is a well-grounded assurance of what we hope for and a conviction of the reality of things which we do not see. (Bible, Hebrews 11:1) and perhaps the words of St. Augustine, of Hippo - “Thou hast formed us for Thyself, and our hearts are restless till they find rest in Thee.” Each night he would kneel to pray however much painful his knees were hampering this posture. Submitting to the Creator everything that this mind carried; an act of thankfulness to all what The Almighty had bestowed on him. This I believe brought out the childlikeness as opposed to the childish ways of the so called academics of this day and age. A carefully thought out, carefully worked out, faith as opposed to a faith that promises people to fashion their gilded bulls, made him see the vastness of his Creator and respond each day in total submission, in silence. When goaded, he would compare the varieties of beliefs that people possess, but again in his generous ways would not downplay any. The Kingdom of God belongs to such as these.
He never forgot who he was; just a simple instrument in the hands of God, the Creator. The balance between God, Man and Land was imperative to him; the great Tao
Greatness and laughter
This great man never laughed at others, instead tried as much as he could to laugh with them and I believe he succeeded. He would often laugh at himself, his lack of knowledge, wisdom, comprehension and his shortcomings and misgivings. The ability to laugh at oneself is the unfailing test of greatness; the difference between a tyrant dictator and a wise ruler. I remember when an ‘eminent’ Sri Lankan scientist, an old student of his, published a full page article about the Origins of the Universe– scientists trying to merge the questions of How? of science with the question of Why? in religion; he lamented that day, “How come they have forgotten Gödel’s incompleteness theorem? - one cannot have both completeness and consistency.”
We look down at hand held devices that hold our ‘Brains’ and ‘Grey matter’ but he delighted at the depth of insight Calvin has in his beloved cartoon strip ‘Calvin and Hobbes’ that took him soaring above the earth. A piece of butter cake that accompanied his mug of tea, given by his wife, shared with the geckos around him made his day. Peddling his bicycle when he was teaching in the university gave him the daily physical activity and the contentment that he was ‘walking the talk’ about saving the environment, not polluting it, just as he learned from Einstein, his beloved teacher among Plato, Galileo, Confucius, Newton, Goethe, Schweitzer, Immanuel Kant, De Chardin, Tagore, Nietzsche, Marx, Heidegger, Tesla ,…. He could, I think, accept sadness and gladness, praise and criticism, joy and pain, gain and loss, with the same sense of wisdom. I can with conviction say of this great man –to quote (Rudyard Kipling, in his poem, If-)
If you can make one heap of all your winnings
And risk it on one turn of pitch-and-toss,
And lose, and start again at your beginnings,
And never breathe a word about your loss:
If you can force your heart and nerve and sinew
To serve your turn long after they are gone,
And so hold on when there is nothing in you
Except the Will which says to them: ‘Hold on! ‘ Unquote,
this great man exhibited it.
This great man never laughed at others, instead tried as much as he could to laugh with them and I believe he succeeded
Yet, above everything he followed his Greatest Teacher, the teacher even Einstein referred to as the Transcendental God. He followed the teachings of God, walking in the footsteps of Jesus whose resurrection we will celebrate this month. He exemplified him in thought word and deed. He knew Jesus’ teaching that any man who wants to be the master has to be a servant and he who wants to be the lord has to become a slave. He knew that to enter into heaven one must become like a little child. His laughter exhibited this childlikeness.
He knew to be content in plenty and content in want. He knew what it meant to clothe the naked, feed the hungry, shelter the homeless, care for orphans and widows and honour all men and women. He knew that the First in this fleeting world will be Last in the Eternal Kingdom. He knew that his identity did not lie in what he did, but what he was in the sight of God; an adopted son of the ruler of the Universe; a prince, not exemplified as the earthly kings and queens, but in the example of a naked man hung on the cross who died to rise again giving all humankind Hope and meaning to all what they strive to achieve on earth, to look after the earth and replenish it, to the Glory of its Creator.
His favourite song, “Across the Bridge, there’s no more sorrow” by Jim Reeves, showed the longing to meet the One who Created the Universe and shared a little bit of the complexity as well as the simplicity of Relativity with him, for a brief moment on this earth.
Rest in Peace, Sir.
Rohan Wickramaratne.
