Baba
AM: what about destruction of Lincoln statue
Namaskar,
Suppose a group of men tear off a woman’s clothes and rape her, and then later another man comes onto the scene and is hailed as a hero for giving her back her clothes. That smacks of injustice because there has not been any redress of the main crime of rape. Moreover, the perpetrators did not apologise, or try to rectify their wrongdoing, or express the least bit of remorse. And the hero who returned the clothes to the woman is neither demanding justice on the woman’s behalf nor going after the perpetrators. Yet the woman, who did nothing wrong to deserve such abuse, is expected to be grateful for getting her clothes back. From beginning to end, such an account smells of callousness and exploitation, and is utterly devoid of human decency and dignity. Any portrayal of that man as a hero for giving the woman her own clothes undermines any sense of justice.
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Scientific cause behind white / black race
Here below Ananda Marga philosophy outlines the climatic reasons why peoples of the world have different so-called racial characteristics.
Ananda Marga philosophy states, "The greater the heat of the sun, the greater the amount of ultraviolet rays in the sunlight. A study of geography tells us why there are differences in the degree of heat of the sun’s rays. Where the sun’s rays fall on earth obliquely, there is less heat of the sun, and where the sun’s rays fall straight on the earth, the heat is greater. In very hot countries white-skinned people find it very hard to live, because their skin, having less of the chemical substance called melanin, is unable to stand much heat. Body skin with a great quantity of melanin in it turns jet black, and obviously a lesser quantity of melanin makes one’s skin white. If ever white people are forced for some reason to live long in a hot climate, their colour turns brown. In 1939-40, when British soldiers came to India for war purposes, their colour became brown due to the great heat. Naturally, as the skin of these soldiers had to adjust with the hot climate of India, there were some necessary changes in their skin to effect acclimatisation." (1)
Here that point is that we are one human race with different physical features. There are not different races based on different physical characteristics.
Grotesque display
Keeping all of the above in mind, let’s examine the scene depicted in the below statue:
(A) The main figure is a regal-looking, well-dressed man standing tall. That is President Abraham Lincoln.
(B) In President Lincoln’s right hand he is unrolling a document that is not well shown.
(C) With his left hand, President Lincoln is portrayed in a condescending manner dismissively gesturing to someone kneeling beneath him.
(D) The half-naked person kneeling at President Lincoln’s feet is a black man, i.e. a slave. There are iron braces around his wrists that seemingly show he is still in bondage; verily, his right hand looks to be chained to the ground, whereby he cannot move. For more explanation about this, please read the next point.
(E) The statue deviously makes it look like the black man, a slave, is bound to the earth, as if his right wrist is still shackled to the ground. The chain seemingly does not even enable him to stand, so the black man is forced to kneel and remain in a very submissive stance at the feet of Lincoln. This is the impression given to the observer. But if one looks very closely the black man is not physically chained to the ground, although the statue gives that vibration to the onlooker. With this strategy, the white people who commissioned this statue project their desired image of a lowly slave, but if anyone accuses them of why the black man is still bound, they have an escape hatch, or alibi. They can say he is not actually bound to the ground. This approach is quite devious in nature and mirrors those types of revisionist historians who give the false justification that the American Civil War was not about slavery but about the economy.
(F) The below statue paints the picture that the black man has committed a heinous crime and now President Lincoln has come to render justice. When the truth is that the black man did no wrong, but was harshly subjected to torment, enslavement, and abuse. Yet President Lincoln shows no signs of any remorse or misgivings - nor is he begging apology - for the injustices rendered to the innocent man.
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Have a look at this below statue and the story it tells:
Look at the horrific scene depicted above. The cruel, torturous, and inhumane treatment that shattered the lives of those innocent slaves is beyond shocking. The above statue paints the picture that the black man has committed a heinous crime and now President Lincoln has come to render justice. When the truth is that the black man did no wrong, but was unjustly subjected to torment, enslavement, and abuse. Yet President Lincoln shows no signs of any remorse or misgivings - nor is he begging apology - for the injustices rendered to the innocent man.
Note: This letter is strictly a commentary on the statue and how those who commissioned this work deftly strategized to seemingly honour the emancipation of the slaves, when in reality the greater intent was saving the prestige of the exploitative white population, while simultaneously patronizing, humiliating, and repressing blacks. This was a form of damage control by those white leaders because a truthful portrayal would have displayed the white people as veritable demons who broke all codes of humanity in their insatiable pursuit of destroying, belittling, and degrading those slaves, i.e. the black population.
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Current quandary
Question: Should this statue remain standing or be taken down? The answer seems a quite obvious “yes”. Yet, at present, this is of great debate within the black American community. And further down in this letter we examine the opposing psychologies at play. First let’s address this from a neo-humanistic perspective.
Demeaning statues should be removed
According to Ananda Marga teachings of neo-humanism, this horrific statue of President Lincoln with the bound black man kneeling at his feet should be taken down. The main problem is twofold: (a) President Lincoln is not showing any remorse or repentance for the generations of mistreatment levied against the black people, and (b) the statue depicts the black person in a submissive, compromised, and lowly stance.
All in all, this statue sends a harmful and demeaning message to the entire society that black people are less or lower, and are indebted to white people, despite the fact that their horrific plight is due to the mean-mindedness and exploitation by white people. Verily, the scene depicted in the statue pushes down the status and psyche of black people and paves the way for further exploitation against them.
Think of it this way. Suppose a group of men gang raped a woman and a hero came along and saved the woman from this debased, horrible, and demeaning attack. Then if they made a statue of the scene they would not depict the woman with half of her clothes ripped off. Rather they would present her in a respectable light.
Similarly, with regards to the above statue of President Lincoln, the black man should be shown standing upright on equal footing with Lincoln. That would place black people’s existential status on the same plane as all others. Secondly, Lincoln should be shown with a look of repentance and sorrow for the terrible harm enacted by white people upon black people in the US. Then such a statue would be consistent with neo-humanistic values, as it would demonstrate that black people are not only free, but worthy of a dignified stance in society, equal to that of every other person. And it would send the clear-cut message that those in positions of power must express remorse, beg apology, and pay reparations to the exploited peoples in their land.
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Conclusion
Wherever people have been pushed down, beaten, and exploited, then they should be presented in a positive light and given a respected place in society. If this is not done and those exploited people continue to be shown in a demeaning role, then that just rekindles the negative memory from the past and cripples that population. As sadhakas, as neo-humanists, we should never tolerate that. All such debased statutes like this Emancipation Memorial should be categorically removed and ground to dust. And the perpetrators or leaders must express remorse for the horror they of their forefathers have committed.
Ananda Marga philosophy states, “If one’s spine is shattered, it is impossible to hold one’s head erect. Can those whose necks and backs are crushed under the weight of pseudo-culture, be expected to hold their heads high in any sphere of life? Hence it is the bounden duty of every rational person to save innocent people from pseudo-culture.” (2)
In Him,
Jiivan Deva
Jared Monroe
~ In-depth study ~
Difference between older & younger generation blacks
Here below Sadguru Baba outlines the key psychic tendency that differentiates the older generation of blacks who support the Lincoln statues and the younger generation of blacks who do not. Essentially, the older generation has been repressed and is accustomed to feeling that they are of a lower standing. This inferiority complex has been imposed on their psyche due to a lifetime of repression by the exploiters. In contrast, the younger generation of blacks are not repressed and feel that, “I am just as good as anyone else; I have my rightful place in society.” Buoyed by this outlook, they are wholly disgusted by the degrading depiction of the black man on his knees before Lincoln. Here below Baba describes the debilitating effect of a repressed mind indicative of that older generation of blacks.
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Ananda Marga philosophy states, “Repression directly affects the subconscious mind. Gradually the psychic structure is severely damaged, and finally the mind is totally changed. The result is that people are inflicted with a defeatist psychology and an inferiority complex. Let me give you an example. The headmaster of a Harijan school once asked a student to fetch him some drinking water, but the boy did not move. Instead he asked a non-Harijan friend in a low voice to do as the headmaster requested. But the headmaster intervened and asked the boy why he would not comply with the request. The student replied, “Sir, I am an untouchable by caste. How can you drink water touched by me?” This is an example of how repression can bring about a change in the psychic structure.” (3)
Deceptive funding
The white people who designed this racist statue knew the only way for it to be socially accepted was if they had the support of black people. So they adopted a deceptive strategy where the funding for the statue was raised almost entirely from freed slaves. This gave the grand impression that the black population fully embraced this statue, when in fact they had no idea about the design. Whites capitalized on this and commissioned a statue that depicts a black man in a sub-human manner to suppress the collective black psyche.
Heinous days of American slavery
One of the darkest moments in American history is slavery - i.e. when white people owned black people and traded and sold, whipped, chained, black people like cattle or other commodities and used them as free labor. Blacks were grotesquely viewed as sub-human, or just like cattle. Ultimately, in 1863, President Lincoln issued his famous Emancipation Proclamation which declared all blacks as free men. Indeed, based on this decree, Lincoln was hailed as a great man. And even today, many black people feel that, by definition, any statue of Lincoln should remain standing. At the same time, the younger generation of black people in the US vehemently oppose those statues of Lincoln - such as the Emancipation Memorial. All neo-humanists will stand arm-in-arm with those youths and demand such aforesaid statues be ground to dust.
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References
1. A Few Problems Solved - 2, Human Society Is One and Indivisible – 1
2. Liberation of Intellect: Neo-humanism, Exploitation and Pseudo-Culture (Discourse 7)
3. Prout in a Nutshell - 17, Suppression, Repression and Oppression
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The below sections are entirely different topics, unrelated to the above material.
They stand on their own as points of interest.
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The below sections are entirely different topics, unrelated to the above material.
They stand on their own as points of interest.
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== Section 2: Prabhat Samgiita ==
You remain by my side and care for me
"Priyo ámár, priyatamo tumi mor..." (Prabhat Samgiita #3261)
Purport:
My Parama Purusa, You are dear to me, You are my Dearmost. Even when I am in cimmerian darkness - during storms and cyclones, tornadoes, in my miseries, my terrible days - You remain always with me, and keep me safe. My Citcor, You remain by my side and care for me; I am never alone.
Baba, You are Alakhanirainjan; Parama Purusa You are blemishless, pure, and vipad bhainjan, the destroyer of all calamities and all-powerful. You are my práńer spandana, the pulsation of my heart warmth of my life, and the citi bodháinjana - collyrium of Brahma jina’na. Parama Purusa, Your beauty and infinite, spiritual charm satiates my heart.
Baba, You protect me from all sorts of dangers and calamities and remain as the abode of bliss. Those who attain You will be fearful of whom - they will fear no one. By Your mercy, those who bind You with the thread of their love and bhakti, even their obstacles are removed. They can overcome all hurdles, cross the ocean of bhavasagara - the sea of sam’ska’ra, and get moks’a. No impediment can halt their forward march.
Baba, Parama Purusa, Omnipotent Entity, please shower Your karuna on me...
Note for Prabhat Samgiita #3261:
[1] Citta-cor / Chit-chor / Citcor: In His role as 'Citcor', Parama Purusa is the Thief or Stealer of the bhakta’s mind. How does He steal the mind? He captivates their mind and attracts the bhakta by His exquisite spiritual charm - whereby the sadhaka cannot think of anything or anyone else. The sadhaka has lost control of his own mind: It incessantly and unknowingly rushes towards Parama Purusa. The One who makes this happen is Citcor - the Stealer of the mind.
And to some degree this happens in the mundane realm as well, though it is degenerating and not long-lasting. There are numerous worldly examples where a person's mind is stolen. For instance, if they lost money, if they are infatuated with mundane attraction, if they are anxious about something - in all such cases when the person's mind runs again and again in that direction. So to some degree their mind has been stolen. The person's mind is no longer their own - they do not have control over it. Over and over, their mind is thinking of something - yet that something is not eternal but rather short-lived. So the effect is degenerating. Because their I-feeling has become attached to something mundane. In the real sense that is not citcor, but rather a reflection of a reflection of the stage of citcor.
The Entity that causes someone to lose control of their mind is Citcor - the stealer of the mind. And this is a deeply spiritual state. In the sphere of bhakti, only Parama Purusa is Citcor. The sadhaka thinks of Him, unknowingly. Always the mind is goaded in that direction. Even if the bhakta intentionally tries not to think in this way, still his mind becomes ensconced in the thought of the Supreme, i.e. Parama Purusa. This is an elevating experience and has a wholly beneficial result.
Ultimately, when this condition climaxes, in that culminating state the unit mind - the jiiva'tma - becomes one with Supreme Consciousness.
Lastly, another name of Citcor is Makhan Cor (Butter Thief).
A number of dogmatic worshipers think that Lord Krsna is a butter-thief and they portray Lord Krsna as a small child who has stolen butter whereby the child Krsna is eating a lot of saturated fat. The sages tried to teach the common people with analogies but due to a very low standard the people took it in a literal way until finally it became an entrenched dogma. They do not like to hear the real truth of the matter.
[2] Alakhanirainjan: ('Alakh' means 'invisible'; 'nir' means 'no'; 'ainjan' means 'black spot'.) Of the infinite attributions of Parama Purusa, one of which is that He is invisible and blemishless - totally pure and perfect. That is why He is known as Alakhanirainjan. Because in this world unit beings are bound by their past actions, by their samskaras; and this creates a black mark in their mind. But being Alakhanirainjan, being both invisible and blemishless, Parama Purusa is totally beyond the realm of sense perception and beyond the realm of samskara. His mind never gets stained. He remains eternally pure and spotless.
== Section 3: Links ==
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