On September 10, 2010, The New York Times published an interview with Lee Kuan Yew in its 'The Saturday Profile' column.
It was entitled 'Days of Reflection for Man Who Defined Singapore'.
The following is an excerpt from the interview:
HIS most difficult moments come at the end of each
day, he said, as he sits by the bedside of his wife, Kwa Geok Choo, 89,
who has been unable to move or speak for more than two years. She had
been by his side, a confidante and counselor, since they were law
students in London.
“She understands when I talk to her, which I do
every night,” he said. “She keeps awake for me; I tell her about my
day’s work, read her favorite poems.” He opened a big spreadsheet to
show his reading list, books by Jane Austen, Rudyard Kipling and Lewis Carroll as well as the sonnets of Shakespeare.
Lately, he said, he had been looking at Christian
marriage vows and was drawn to the words: “To love, to hold and to
cherish, in sickness and in health, for better or for worse till death
do us part.”
“I told her, ‘I would try and keep you company for
as long as I can.’ That’s life. She understood.” But he also said: “I’m
not sure who’s going first, whether she or me.”
At night, hearing the sounds of his wife’s
discomfort in the next room, he said, he calms himself with 20 minutes
of meditation, reciting a mantra he was taught by a Christian friend: “Ma-Ra-Na-Tha.”
The phrase, which is Aramaic, comes at the end of
St. Paul’s First Epistle to the Corinthians, and can be translated in
several ways. Mr. Lee said that he was told it means “Come to me, O Lord
Jesus,” and that although he is not a believer, he finds the sounds
soothing.
“The problem is to keep the monkey mind from running
off into all kinds of thoughts,” he said. “A certain tranquillity
settles over you. The day’s pressures and worries are pushed out. Then
there’s less problem sleeping.”
Meditation helps to a certain degree but true peace with God comes from Jesus Christ.
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