Raja Arasa Ratnam, author of The Dance of Destiny  (and 5 other books)

An octogenarian bi-cultural Asian-Australian. Born in British Malaya of Ceylonese parents. Educated by the British, and influenced by classical writers like Dickens. A metaphysical Hindu, and a freethinker in matters religious. Also a political orphan, being a communitarian small-l liberal. Author of six books, of which five are non-fiction. These were endorsed by senior academics in diverse disciplines, as well as by eminent notables in the public sphere. The books were also appraised favourably by manuscript appraisers. 

Has had a highly interactive contributory life during more then 60 years in Australia, is spite of the overt racism of the White Australia era, and tribal discrimination at work in latter years. Achieved leadership positions in civil society; and awarded a Meritorious Service Award by his trade union for his work on career protection in the federal public service.

In his capacity as national president of Australian Rostrum (akin to Toastmasters), has lunched with the Governor-General of Australia; shared the head table as guest speaker on two separate occasions with a State Governor; and consulted senior representatives of State government agencies, major corporations and ethnic community organisations on government policies. That is, in spite of being rebuffed by senior managements for entry into the Senior  Executive Service (in which he had served for almost a year each in two agencies), he was able to make a sufficient contribution to his adopted nation.

At the level of Director, he spent nearly a decade on policies on ethnic affairs, multiculturalism, citizenship, refugee & humanitarian entry, migrant settlement services, and national identity. Each year, he inspected the work of regional staff throughout Australia in the implementation of the government's policies. Before that he was involved in policy and case work examining foreign takeovers. In that role, he dealt with senior executives, some foreign, of some of the largest corporations operating in the country, advising them (as required) of the government's policies. He was accepted without any of the difficulties he had experienced earlier in obtaining graduate employment.

For instance, he was not accepted as a community psychologist because he was 'too black'. A little later, he was denied employment by major corporations which could offer him a career, when the head of his university's graduate employment unit sought to place him as an economist. The response was that 'the Australian worker is not yet ready to accept a foreign executive, much less a coloured one' (or words to that effect). Both situations were reliably witnessed.  

In his role as chairman of a school board, his outline of a program for educating primary school children about religion (not indoctrinating them) was accepted. He is also the founder of a primary schools public speaking competition in the national capital and surrounding townships, and a co-founder of a national public speaking competition for secondary schools. He has taught interviewing and selection procedures for members of his union; and chairmanship and meeting procedures for the public through the Institute of Public Management in the national capital.

His contribution to civil society was wide ranging. This includes Rotary, Probus (an organisation for retirees), as well as sporting and cultural organisations. He recently retired as an appointed member of a government consultative committee on health services for his community.

Because of the inexplicable major disasters early in his life, and a proclivity to fall into holes which were clearly not there, he began to ask himself after his retirement about the determinants of human life. He concludes that we do indeed have free will, but that our actions in our past lives influence the major events of our current lives.  On the basis of his understanding of the Upanishads, the highest level of metaphysics found in any religion, he believes that the process for the transmission of the template for each current life is automatic.  The free will exercised during each life is sufficient to explain what happens. Thus, there is no need for the New Age belief that the reincarnating soul 'chooses' the terms of the life to be just before birth.

However, on the basis of his significant exposures to the spirit world, he accepts that the spirit world may involve itself in the working out of the template established elsewhere in time and place.  The travails of his current life lead him to offer a spiritual path for all mankind. In this, he has been aided by his intuition, as well as by reliable clairvoyants, to feel that has already been a Christian, Moslem and Jew. This inter-faith tolerance was also enhanced by having grown up in a multi-ethnic community in British Malaya, which was already on its way to becoming a tolerant multicultural nation. 

This might also throw a little light on the path he has followed in his current life to be able to advocate the eventual integration of people of diverse cultures within his adopted nation into one coherent people. His ultimate hope is that we humans will accept that we were co-created, and are thereby bonded to one another. Is the concept of the Family of Man not eventually achievable?

His thoughts have been influenced by the role of a visiting yogi, which resulted him being sent to Australia; and a most significant psychic experience during which the spirit of his senior uncle offered advice on his spiritual development, and suggested that he could seek to 'contribute to building a bridge from he came to where he is.' It was during this experience that he was told that the spirit world had faced some difficulty in getting him to Australia. To which, his questions are: 'Why me?' and 'How much influence does the spirit world have on us on Earth?'

In his writing, his repeated effort is the creation of one people out of the wide diversity of ethno-cultural origins found in the newly-created immigrant-fed nations such as Australia. His ultimate aim is the recognition by one and all that we humans are the products of the universal Creator; and that, as such, we are automatically bonded to one another, and thereby obligated to one another. 

The following appraisal of the author's writing has relevance.

"............what I liked about the style of writing is its unpredictability. The author cannot be read as belonging to any particular intellectual 'tribe'.  Overall, it is very stimulating and different to other pieces of social commentary written in this country. That is its real strength." 

 "............in many ways, it is an immigrant addition to that style of social commentary practiced by Conway and Horne........but the author's 'outsider' status gives him the insights that they lack.."

- Assoc. Prof. Gregory Melleuish, Head, School of History & Politics, University of Wollongong, NSW, Australia.

These comments were addressed to a book by the author which he decided he would not publish, as likely to cause confrontation. The book highlighted the plight of children denied the love and guidance of their fathers through family breakdown; it also brought out the denial of access to their children by so many fathers. The role of the Family Court was questioned, as well as research which claimed that the children caught up in family fights were not damaged. Other matters covered in the book included the deterioration of Australian society through the breakdown of family, with seemingly indifferent governments.