BAHALA NA!
One of our country’s values has been very significant in sustaining our culture… but is it really value or baliw?
By IRENEO ORIO III
Tracking down the roots of the bahala na expression is almost impossibly retraceable. Spaniards and Americans who once were Philippine colonizers (and some neighboring Asians) are not famous for promoting such practice, except for one artist—Kurt Cobain who labeled his 1991 breakthrough album, Nevermind. And so it’s now time to receive the boomerang we once flung and stop blaming the ones who are responsible for turning us into Bahalanians. Problem is; we don’t have our own version of Oxford or Webster’s dictionary to tell us when such term or phrase was coined. Surprisingly, it stood the test of time and eventually found its own abode as almost constituent to our own Philippine culture.
Language evolves; the expression bahala na is no exemption. Before Magellan stepped on our shores, our Malay ancestors then were already praying to the one called, Bathala Meycapal. Whether Bathala was just one of the many gods (anitos) or the supreme among them; or maybe the only god, this should not mislead our goal here. For now, it is more than enough to present and connect the expression bahala na with that of Bathala na. The best explanation is to explain this by exposing how we (contemporary Filipinos) use the said expression.
When a family person is broke, we usually hear him/her say, Bahala na! and then s/he moves on. Or when one wants to swim despite having hydrophobia, s/he would usually say, Bahala na! and dives afterwards into the sea. We ask: What then really is in bahala na expression that would propel us to venture into the abyss considering our weaknesses, anxieties and incapacities. Surely, bahala na, from the examples given, is not equated with the English word, nevermind. In the sentence, “I only have a pen with me, nevermind typewritten work.” Nevermind here is used off key. So just what do we really mean by saying bahala na if it shouldn’t mean nevermind?
If bahala na is an evolution of the pronoun Bathala Meycapal, then it is as good as to say Bathala will do the rest; Bathala will take care of everything; Bathala provides. Thus, in “I want to go swimming despite fears, Bathala na.” implies: Should there be anything (fears, incapacities, weaknesses) that would hinder me from accomplishing my plans, still I must go on for there is Someone who (or something that) will act as my provider, protector or savior—Bathala!
If God so clothes the grass of the fields, which grows today and is thrown into the oven tomorrow, will he not much provide for you, O you of little faith? (Mat. 6:30)
But I am afflicted and in pain;
Let your saving help, protect me, God. (Psalm 69:30)
O God, by name save me. (Psalm 54:3)
In one word—trust. Just as Christians trust and seek in the Lord’s saving power, our ancestors were also doing the same. “Mo kuha ko’g exam or di…? Ah, bahala na! mokuha lang gyud ko.” It may be very unsound to use (or prooftext) the bible so as to explain what ourancestors were thinking/feeling in saying Bathala na. But reading it on the other side, it would also be unfair to outrightly mark our ancestors as pagans or religiously backwards on account that they did not use the same language as those of Christians or Jews (in worshipping god). But then again, the prevalence of animism (or more than that—polytheism) suspends the claim that our ancestors may just be praying the same god as the one that of the Christians. But even the accusation against our ancestors as polytheists should need to be scrutinized also.
So if bahala na means Bathala na, then why is it that others and even most of us see it as pejorative to our own culture? Say for example, “I am poor…ah bahala na…” this could also mean: “I can always live life in the poorest possible condition…” This fatalistic tendency of bahala na attitude can always promote mediocrity and minimalism. If one is doomed to believe that everything is already manufactured by someone else, then to what end are we living for… “Wa koy toon-toon, bahala na , mapari ra gihapon…” What used to be an expression of absolute trust in God has now become the venue, an attitude, to be content in what we have and thereby not making the best of what we are capable of.
In these days…we should not be misled so as to think that Filipinos are instinctively born religious or that the bahala na attitude was born out of religiosity, as confirmed in our Christianly populated country. On the contrary, we must always reflect on this observed reality:
“You who have six or eight children and a stagnant income of P400 a month, what else is there for you to say these days but... ‘Bahala na!’”
More summaries about the Bahala Na!