Did prabhupa really say that blacks should be kept from owning anything?
Philosophy · asked by user [] · 2010-06-09 · 2 answers
Someone on the net sent me a quote on another site about Prabhupa saying that blacks should be given only food and clothing and nothing else;that he was upset that America ended slavery.So im sincerely asking, is that true?.. cause I love Prabhupa and I know by way of KRSNA that theres a powerful saint in America thats African American. Krnsa taught me that those blacks that behave badly are really of a different culture that he illusion as dark brown and their whole mission is to destroy the dark brown race.
Did prabbhupa ever mention anything about that?
Did prabbhupa ever mention anything about that?
user [265] · 2010-06-09
Srila Prabhupada accepted blacks as his disciples, promoted them to various positions of responsibility in his movement, and even gave them sannyasa. On a person-to-person level he looked only at the actual qualifications somebody posessed, treating everyone like a spirit soul. That is the important part. We can generalize that Americans are like this, Indians are like that, Jews are like this, Poles are like that... and there may be some truth to our generalizing statements, but ultimately we are all individuals, free to break the cultural barriers and challenge the stereotypes. That is how Srila Prabhupada treated everyone: as free people... free to take up this process of Krishna consciousness and elevate themselves over ANY material designation.
user [38] · 2010-06-09
http://www.pariprashnena.com/discussion/1182/how-deal-with-racists-and-sexists-prabhupadas-statements/In that conversation (Mayapur, Feb 14, 1977 ) Prabhupada says that in Kali yuga everyone is a sudra [due to the lack of qualifications and the lack of samskaras]. Then he gives blacks as a prominent example.
Some ethnics in the West are a source of problems due to their mentality. The mainstream society has a bad experience with them and this ignites extremist reactions. Previously they were in check by slavery (blacks in US) or kept out of cities (gypsies living as nomads in Europe) but then the humanist equality idea prevailed - they at once became considered the same as the whites. Well, theyre not the same. The idea of varnasrama is that everyone is individual, both spiritually and materially and should be engaged accordingly. This is mentioned immediately after:
Hari-sauri: If thats done then how will those who have some potential to be educated, how will we recognize them?
Prabhupada: Either educate them or control them. Give them facility of education. But there is no education at all. Even for the whites there is no education. So we are stressing on the point of education. You educate certain section as brahmana, certain section as ksatriya, certain section as vaisya. In that education we dont discriminate because hes coming of a sudra family. Take education. Be qualified. Then you talk. Not by votes.
So its obvious that Prabhupada wants to _educate everyone according to his capacity_ and thus to _elevate the whole society_ materially and especially spiritually. No other social system aims at that. Therefore when some people out of ignorance, envy or hate ascribe to him a promotion of racist ideas theyre really off(ensive). Varnasrama is not going by race but by guna and karma.