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Philadelphia, Pennsylvania 19119
Is there such a thing as liberation theology within your Vedic system? I noticed that you have Hare Krsna centers in Chile and El Salvador. Does your movement in these countries support or empathize with the struggle of the commonfolk against the murderous oppression they face? . . . Is the black majority in South Africa supposed to merely chant the Hare Krsna mantra and not fight back against apartheid tyranny?
Robert K. Smith
Vancouver, B.C.
OUR REPLY: According to Vedic “liberation theology,” the worst oppression that anyone can face—and the kind that everyone does face—is to be forced by the laws of material nature to suffer repeatedly in the vicious cycle of birth, old age, disease, and death. Whether one is a Salvadoran peasant, a South African black, or a well-to-do Canadian, American, or European, everyone is oppressed by these four primary miseries of material life.
The members of the Krsna consciousness movement are not politically active per se, but that doesn’t mean we are apathetic about human rights. Our primary aim, however, is to educate people everywhere about their spiritual identity and about life’s spiritual purpose. When people are ignorant of their spiritual identity, they misunderstand the purpose of life; thus to achieve their misguided aims they are ready to oppress others.
The Vedic social system, known as varnasrama, emphasizes cooperation among individuals, classes, and nations for the common goal of satisfying the Supreme Person. Only when we’ve established this common spiritual cause is there any hope of putting an end to oppression. Otherwise, as history shows, the so-called liberation of one group only leads to the oppression of another. Oppression cannot be eliminated without Krsna consciousness.
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