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Sunday, May 25, 2003
Cariņo: Bathala na
By Linda Grace Cariņo
BATHALA Meycapal is what predominantly Malay Filipino ancestors called their most supreme of beings. When Spanish Christianity set in, this being took on a Catholic flavor and - became a folksified Diyos, though still also called Bathala. Such an occurrence is not rare.
When a new religion is imposed on an already existing one, the deities of the former often find identity niches in the comfortable, familiar deities of the latter.
You might even look really close to home and see how the Igorot Kabunyan is and has been for the past hundred or so years a name for God, when Kabunyan was once a very indigenous supreme being with a very indigenous identity.
But this is about Bathala. The word is so close to "bahala" that I have for the longest time believed that one is a derivative of the other; in this case, "bahala" is a derivative of Bathala. Maybe the "t" just got lost somewhere in the usage.
"Bahala na." When this is said, those who say it are more often than not in situations that are near hopeless, if not hopeless. Likely, they have ceased to care what really happens, if they ever cared at all. More likely, "bahala na" indicates that hope has been lost, and the devil take the morrow and whatever is bound to happen.
Supposedly, Filipinos have a "bahala na attitude." Our own sociological and historical texts state this with such frightening certainty. Supposedly, this attitude exhibits the Filipino's penchant for fatalism: let what will be, be. Supposedly, this attitude is so ingrained in the Filipino psyche that the Filipino is thus - take note - officially branded a "happy go lucky sort," in textbooks, even. So the Filipino is officially unconcerned about what the future will bring.
I remember coming face to face for the first time with such descriptions of the Filipino when I was studying requisite Sociology classes in college. It was more than a little strange to be told that I had a "bahala na attitude" (irresponsible), a maņana habit (forever procrastinating), and some other unsavory character traits. They even throw in a "crab mentality" somewhere in there. It was later before I knew enough to relegate such idiotic generalizations to the mental trash bin in the sky.
It is not a careless consignment to the winds of fate that characterizes the Pinoy. Rather, it actually a very real industry (sipag). This and a deep sense of oneness with the supreme Bathala, a oneness characterized by constant conversation with said bathala. In truth, it is only when the Pinoy has done his/her total best and prayed over it with fervor, that s/he lifts the situation up to Bathala Meycapal.
In Ilocano, this is when something is naiyawaten kenni Apo Diyos. Then it is "Bathala na," not that other expression which is a desecration of the true Filipino values of industry; trust in the Supreme Being, and an ever-present hope for the best.
As for those among us who do subscribe to the expression that goes without the all-important "t" - they are the aberration, not the rule. And the rule is a "Bathala na" attitude, really. Ask around, and see for yourself. There are more of us who have this than those who don't. Go ahead, check it out.
Better still, live it out.
(May 25, 2003 issue)
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