Bahá’í World/Volume 20/Kandiah Sivapiragasam
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KANDIAH SIVAPIRAGASAM
19184987
Kandiah Sivapiragasam was born in 1918 in Ceylon. He married Thambiah Sarojinidevi, and together they had five children: Kanunakaran, Sivajini, Prabakaran, Bahakaran, and Shohikaran.
Sivapiragasam embraced the Faith of Baha’u’llah on 23 January 1953, one of the early believers enrolled by the first pioneer, Dr. Mohammed Ebrahimji Lukmani. He was a member of the Local Spiritual Assembly of Colombo from its inception, and was elected to the National Spiritual Assembly at the first Convention, held in 1962. Thereafter, except for a few times when he was stationed as an Assistant Food Controller in Trincomalee and Vavuniya, he served as a member of the National Assembly until 1969.
During 1969, an Administrative Committee for Ceylon was appointed by the Hand of the Cause of God H. Collis Featherstone and Counsellor Sankaran—Nair Vasudevan, acting on behalf of the Universal House of Justice. This Committee, under Sivapiragasam’s chairmanship, was responsible for the affairs of the Faith on the island until the Convention in 1972. It is worthy to note that until incorporation of the National Assembly in 1972, he was one of the trustees of the properties of the Faith. I
From Riḍván 1975 until Riḍván 1982, he served as chairman of the National Assembly, and for a short period as Vice-chairman during the following year. In 1983, he had the privilege of attending the International Bahá’í Convention in Haifa in April, but in
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Kandiah Sivapiragasam
July of that year he had to resign from the National Assembly because of poor health.
Sivapiragasam served on various National Committees, and was the Bahá’í speaker at the World Religion Day observance held in J anuary 1982 at the Bandaranaike Memorial International Conference Hall in Colombo. He also addressed the World Religion Day gatherings in Jaffna in 1986 and 1987.
He was fairly well—known as a Bahá’í in his home town, Chunnakam. This locality had a Local Spiritual Assembly and year in and year out he served as chainnan of that institution.
When he was serving as an Assistant F ood Controller in Vavuniya, one could see him every evening on a bicycle Visiting the Bahá’ís in the remote Villages. One such . evening when it was too late and unsafe to ride back to town, owing to elephants crossing the path, he sent his companion (a Bahá’í) to get permission from the owners to spend the night in a school. Sivapiragasam’s instruction was not to disclose his identity as the authorities would feel uneasy and would want to treat him well. Before going to sleep
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the companion had offered Sivapiragasam his bedsheet. Refusing his kind offer, he said that he had brought his, but on waking up in the morning, his companion saw him s1eeping on the bare floor. When asked why he chose to sleep on the floor when a sheet was offered, he had said “Is it justice for me to sleep on your sheet that you brought for yourself?”
In his career as a government officer he was well-known for his integrity and uprightness. Following submission of his papers for retirement, the government offered him the post of Government Agent (the administrative authority responsible for implementing the decisions of the District Minister). He refused in order to serve the Faith.
Without a doubt he was an outstanding promoter of the Cause of God as acknowledged by the Universal House of Justice in its message on hearing of his death on 2 August 1987. The text reads:
SADDENED PASSING OUTSTANDING PROMOTER CAUSE K. SIVAPIRAGASAM. HIS LONG SUCCESSFUL SINCERE SERVICES FAITH SINCE ITS INCEPTION SRI LANKA UNFORGETTABLE. ADVISE HOLD BEFITTING MEMORIAL GATHBRINGS. ASSURE FRIENDS RELATIVES LOVING PRAYERS HOLY SHRINES PROGRESS SOUL ETERNAL KINGDOM.
THE NATIONAL SPIRITUAL ASSEMBLY OF THE BAHA’I’S OF SR1 LANKA