dharisha

From Rev. A W Jebanesan who conducted DBS Jeyaraj’s funeral: Today I had the privilege of speaking at the funeral of DBS Jeyaraj [David Buell Sabapathy Jeyaraj] - journalist, storyteller of a nation's pain, and for many of us in the Tamil diaspora, a moral compass. I want to be honest. He was not a regular churchgoer. But I have known many regular churchgoers who made no impact on the world around them. They attended every service. They followed every religious rule. They were seen in all the right places. And yet - when they were gone, the world continued exactly as it was. Nothing changed. No one was challenged. No truth was spoken that cost them anything. And then there are others. People who may not sit in a church pew every Sunday - but who carry something far more costly. Something that Jesus called a cross. DBS Jeyaraj carried that cross. He wrote about things that powerful people did not want written. He named what others were too afraid to name - not only injustice from outside his community, but wrongs committed within it. That kind of honesty does not make you popular. It makes you a target. And he knew that. He paid for it in ways that many of us will never fully understand. And still - he kept writing. His last article was published on April 1st, 2026. He died on May 17th. He came from a Methodist family. His grandfather was Arlvarpillai - a Tamil pandit. His mother's brother was Rev. M. A. Ratnarajah, a Methodist minister. Faith was woven into his roots - even if his life's work was not in a pulpit but at a desk. And I was told that his favourite psalm was Psalm 23. That did not surprise me at all. Because there is one line in that psalm that I believe he understood better than most - "𝐄𝐯𝐞𝐧 𝐭𝐡𝐨𝐮𝐠𝐡 𝐈 𝐰𝐚𝐥𝐤 𝐭𝐡𝐫𝐨𝐮𝐠𝐡 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐝𝐚𝐫𝐤𝐞𝐬𝐭 𝐯𝐚𝐥𝐥𝐞𝐲, 𝐈 𝐰𝐢𝐥𝐥 𝐟𝐞𝐚𝐫 𝐧𝐨 𝐞𝐯𝐢𝐥, 𝐟𝐨𝐫 𝐲𝐨𝐮 𝐚𝐫𝐞 𝐰𝐢𝐭𝐡 𝐦𝐞." David did not write that line from a place of comfort. He wrote it from experience - from real danger, real loss, real darkness. And a man who spent decades writing truth in the shadow of intimidation, who lived in exile and kept going anyway - that man knew something about dark valleys. He did not stop walking. He did not put down his pen. He walked through - and he kept writing. I read his articles when I lived in Sri Lanka. I followed his website from Canada. He shaped how many of us understood our own history and our own community. That is not a small thing. There are people who are religious all their lives and leave no mark. And there are people who live for truth - at great cost — and leave the world a little more honest than they found it. DBS Jeyaraj was the second kind. May he rest in the presence of the Shepherd he trusted. "𝐒𝐮𝐫𝐞𝐥𝐲 𝐲𝐨𝐮𝐫 𝐠𝐨𝐨𝐝𝐧𝐞𝐬𝐬 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐥𝐨𝐯𝐞 𝐰𝐢𝐥𝐥 𝐟𝐨𝐥𝐥𝐨𝐰 𝐦𝐞 𝐚𝐥𝐥 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐝𝐚𝐲𝐬 𝐨𝐟 𝐦𝐲 𝐥𝐢𝐟𝐞, 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐈 𝐰𝐢𝐥𝐥 𝐝𝐰𝐞𝐥𝐥 𝐢𝐧 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐡𝐨𝐮𝐬𝐞 𝐨𝐟 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐋𝐨𝐫𝐝 𝐟𝐨𝐫𝐞𝐯𝐞𝐫." - Psalm 23