|
|
Cults & Society
|
||
| __________________________________________________ | ||||
| Featured Group Report |
Hare Krishna: women |
|||
2/11 |
||||
Fundamental Human Rights in ISKCON
[continued] Unfortunately, many of us have has an opportunity to
observe the "unjust or cruel exercise of authority or power"
within our Society. Vulnerable groups, particularly women and children,
have been neglected and abused in numerous ways, which allegedly range
from dismaying to truly abominable. The purpose of this article is not to
catalogue or recount the various injustices that have been perpetrated by
individuals acting in the name of ISKCON. Although naming the abuse is a
vital step in eliminating the wrongs, that important task has been and
continues to be done in other places. However, we must go further than simply identifying
the behaviours we wish to change. To some extent, we have been naive in
believing that sincerity alone could rectify the abuses which we seek to
eradicate. We must address the underlying causes of the abuse if we are to
arrive at meaningful solutions. From a psychological point of view, oppression and
other forms of injustice spring from a separateness of vision that is
based on material conditioning. A necessary precondition to abusing others
is learning to see those others as fundamentally different from oneself.
The Srimad Bhagavatam, one of our main scriptures,
describes this phenomenon as prthak-drstih,
which Srila Prabhupada translates as "the vision of duality."[iv]
In the related purport, Srila Prabhupada explains that this dual vision is
the result of material conditioning, which causes one to identify with the
body, rather than with one's identity as a servant of Krishna. Perceptions
based on body, Srila Prabhupada writes, cause one to think in terms of
"my body, my wife, my child, my home." Such perceptions permit
us to see others as objects of our own enjoyment rather than as servants
of the Lord. This
ability to artificially separate oneself from others is the root of
oppression. Scholars have noted that one of the common roots of racial,
gender, and animal oppression is the use of linguistic devices that put
the oppressed group into a different category from the oppressor.[v]
Carol Adams writes that oppression involves a three-part cycle of
objectification, fragmentation, and consumption; it is the first stage,
objectification, which begins the process of rationalising unjust
treatment.[vi]
|
||||
| ______________________________________________ ^ | ||||