Martyrs & Mahatmas

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Francis Gonsalves [1]

You shall never die” is what we can say to martyrs and mahatmas who leave indelible footprints upon the sands of time. On March 24, 1980, Salvadoran Archbishop Oscar Romero was shot dead because he fearlessly defended human rights. His assassins believed that they silenced him. But, the UNO “raised him up” by declaring March 24 as the “International Day for the Right to the Truth of Victims of Gross Human Rights Violations and for the Dignity of Victims”.

Inaugurating this international commemoration, UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said, “We pay tribute to Archbishop Romero’s work and to the efforts of all human rights’ defenders, worldwide.” Romero’s life teaches us that dharma can never be divorced from justice, and that truth ultimately prevails. Romero practised three virtues: faith, love, hope.
For Romero, faith was not some pie-in-the-sky anaesthetic of afterlife reward, but a down-to-earth dharma demanding right relationship with God, nature and all people. Relationships promote participation: “All persons must participate in the construction of a just world. Besides cultivating our interior spiritual life, we must cooperate to build beautiful structures of the common good to foster freedom and peace.”
Romero espoused solidarity with everyone, everything. This may echo the doctrine of Ramanuja (11th cent CE) who taught that the entire finite universe of souls and material bodies relate to God in a “sharira-shariri-bhaava,” a relation of body to the Embodied One. While keeping the transcendence of the Divine, there is “solidarity” of being, which only a transforming illumination enables us to realise.
Based on his belief in the Oneness of all beings, Romero preached love: founded upon faith in the Parenthood of God and sister/brotherhood of all. “The earth’s resources must be shared by all,” he insisted, “If anyone grabs more than his/her rightful share of resources, it’s a sin!” He pleaded: “I request the rich to hear God’s voice and joyously share their wealth. One’s value is not in what one has, but in what one is.” Romero denounced the violence of the religious Right, by unleashing the power of love: “We will be firm in defending our rights but with great love in our hearts. Although we might be tortured or murdered, God will bring about our resurrection,” said he, breathing hope for the persecuted.
“Even if every prophet fighting against injustice is killed,” Romero prophesied, “new prophets will arise; for you are God’s microphone!” Days before he was assassinated he said, “A bishop might die, but God’s people will never die.”
Today, violent forces try to silence those who speak for truth: whistleblowers, prophets and satyagrahis. Mahatmas like Romero prove that love is stronger than death, and life has the last word. Romeros never die. They live on!

Francis Gonsalves is the principal of the Vidyajyoti College of Theology, Delhi. He can be contacted at fragons@gmail.com