This is the complete speech that Amma offered at the Vatican, on Tuesday, December 2, 2014, at the interconfessional meeting of religious leaders to end modern slavery:
Speech on human trafficking and modern slavery
Pontifical Academy of Sciences of the Vatican, December 2, 2014.
Your Holiness and other honorable guests, I would like to begin by expressing my sincere gratitude for being able to participate in a historical meeting like this. I take this opportunity to express my gratitude for the determination and social commitment of His Holiness. And to the chancellor of the Pontifical Academy of Sciences, the honorable Bishop Marcelo Sánchez Sorondo, who has worked hard to make this meeting a reality.
Trafficking in people is one of the worst curses that plague society; not only in this century, but since the beginning of time. The more we try to eradicate slavery and forced labor, they seem to rebound doubling their intensity. They are like a devilish ghost that stalks us. As His Holiness has said: “Trafficking in people is an open wound in the body of contemporary society. It is a crime against humanity. ”
Each country has the responsibility of implementing laws that deal with and work to eradicate this extremely cruel and immoral crime, and to free and protect the victims of that destiny. Every citizen who is committed to justice and social welfare has that moral responsibility. However, we are all aware of the bitter reality that it is not a problem that can be easily resolved because the traffic wound has been open for many centuries and is deeply rooted.
The trafficking of people tears the lives of innocent and defenseless children who embrace life with a heart full of sweet dreams of the future and that in the end end up shattered and relegated to oblivion.
We have been granted the blessing of life for the compassion of God. This life is to do good deeds in offering to God. Shattering the life of another person is misusing God's gift. All living beings are instruments in the hands of Divinity.
The law of God's court is virtue or dharma. Each of us must respect and try to comply with that law. Human trafficking is amoral.
All religious leaders have a responsibility to help both those who trap their peers in the network of human slavery and the victims who are trapped in that network, leading them to the right path. Religious leaders must be willing to fight that battle to maintain virtue. It is not a war to kill anyone; we must be willing to fight a war to save the helpless from the clutches of evil minds. We do not want an answer born of revenge because differences in caste, creed, religion, etc. are perceived. We must develop, instead, empathy, aware of the divinity of each person.
The human mind has created many divisions in the form of religion, caste, language and international borders. We must build a bridge of pure love that encompasses everything to break those walls of self-creation. Any hardened heart will soften with love. Love can radiate light in the densest darkness. Selfless love transforms the mind: from a demon that enslaves us to an instrument that frees us. Those who traffic and enslave other human beings are victims of a negative mind. For no hidden reason, religious leaders should create a rehabilitation plan that is based on selfless service and spirituality, which is the essence of all beliefs.
Being silent in the face of injustice is perverse in itself. Governments and leaders must establish laws in which there are no legal loopholes that allow the guilty to escape, and those laws must be rigorously applied. In many countries, the government and several NGOs fight against human trafficking; but the power and the enormous economic benefits that those who negotiate using living beings as mere objects, which they finally throw away, have not yet begun to reduce. The number of victims of this business is growing rapidly. Like the roots of a huge tree, the roots of this tragedy are penetrating ever deeper into society. If we fail to do something effective against this injustice that happens in front of our eyes, it will be a mockery for future generations.
Victims of human trafficking lose respect for themselves and fall into a pit of despair . Terrorists often use them as mules for drug transport, in suicide attacks and in many other illegal activities. Some of the food we consume daily is produced by children who are forced to work day and night. The kidneys and other organs of the victims are merchandise sold in the market. When these victims have stopped being useful and have contracted incurable diseases such as AIDS, as well as other psychological problems due to abuse, they get rid of them in the streets.
I have personally seen and heard thousands and thousands of examples of human trafficking. Once a woman came to see Amma and burst into tears. He told him:
- Amma, I have AIDS. All I want is to see my daughter before she dies. Please help.
When Amma asked him what had happened, he said:
- At nine years old, I worked as a nanny for a family. There I met an older man. He told me he would pay me more and promised me many other things. As my family had many economic problems, I went with him. When we arrived at the new site, I saw that there were many more girls. They didn't let me talk to anyone. Finally, I realized that I was in a brothel. The men began to rape me regularly. At first, I got angry and felt guilty about what they forced me to do. But, over time, I lost all sense of self-love and even began to enjoy my work. After five years, I gave birth to a girl. They let me breastfeed for a month and then they took her away. A few years later, I was diagnosed with AIDS. When I got very sick, they told me they would take me to the hospital, but they abandoned me. I begged them to let me see my daughter only once more, but they didn't. They didn't even take me to the brothel. The people I have asked for help have treated me with disgust and dislike. All they don't do is throw stones at me. I have closed all the doors. I can not live in this world anymore. I just want to see my daughter one more time before she dies. Will they inject hormones to make her look older like they did with me and in the end they will throw her out?
Hearing this terrible story, Amma sent some people to look for her daughter, but they encountered many difficulties.
Other women also told Amma their horrible story:
A man used to visit us regularly. He helped us with what we needed, and we felt very comfortable with him. After a while, he offered to take our daughters to work abroad, in his friend's company. He promised us that he would send us large sums of money every month. He even gave us an advance of one thousand rupees to each one. He took our daughters. We have not seen them since. We are not sure where they are from; but we hear that they were taken to a brothel. When a group went to look for them, they were told that they had already been taken from there to deal with them. When they told it, they began to cry.
Currently, the price of things has gone up. Men sell their sperm and women sell their vehicles for a lot of money. But, ironically, in many countries you can buy a child to prostitute or force you to work for a pathetic sum of ten or twenty dollars.
Trafficking of people is a very complex problem. Therefore, the solution must also cover many aspects. We must deal with virtue, with the pressing aspect of poverty, with legal implications, etc. Social service and awareness campaigns also have a huge role to play in that process. We can only improve the situation with a collaborative approach and considering all its elements.
The sugar level of a diabetic will rise if you continue to eat sweets, even if you take the medicines regularly. Controlling the diet and changing the lifestyle is more important than taking medicines. The situation will not improve only with money in the case of impoverished children who cannot access adequate education because schools are in short supply. Many leave before they turn eight. We must offer the new generation, as well as the victims of human trafficking, a practical education that will help them be more aware. We must awaken their courage and inner self-esteem to help them rise. They must realize that they are not helpless or vulnerable as kittens; They are lion cubs, brave and powerful. We have to help them raise their minds.
There are two types of education: education for life and education for a living. When we study at the university, striving to be doctors, lawyers or engineers, that is education for a living. On the other hand, education for life requires understanding the essential principles of spirituality. The true objective of education is not to create people who can understand only the language of the machines, but to impart a culture of the heart; a culture that is based on permanent values .
When Amma devotees travel to villages to teach vocational training, they also offer women sexual education and education for life enrichment. As a result, many young women have been able to save themselves from people trying to sell them for prostitution; Sometimes they were their own parents. Amma has been able to help 80% of women who were forced into prostitution and asked for help. They were given professional training and are now self-sufficient. But the other 20% still lead the same lifestyle. They don't want to change and Amma hasn't tried to force them to do it either.
Lust is a kind of hunger. Even if we are hungry, we do not devour everything that falls into our hands. When we go to a restaurant and ask for food, we may realize that the people around us have ordered other dishes. We may think "I wish I had asked for that, " but we will control ourselves. Thus, we must exercise self-control in everything in life, especially in relation to lust.
Spiritual values have to be instilled at an early age. When Amma was a child, her mother told her: “Never pee in the river. The river is the Divine Mother. ” When we swam in the estuaries, even if the water was cold, we controlled ourselves by remembering our mother's words. If we develop an attitude of reverence for a river, we will never make it dirty. Our respect for the river helped us keep it clean, and a clean river ultimately benefits all who bathe in it. The important thing is not to debate whether God exists or not. The important thing is that devotion and faith in God help us maintain good values and virtue in society. We must see Divinity in all, and in everything that supports and nourishes us, and develops gratitude and compassion for God's creation.
Roads have been made for vehicles to drive; but if we said "I drive as I want" we could end up having an accident. Traffic rules help us to be safe, both ourselves and others. There are similar rules for everything in life. Spiritual values help us to live according to those norms.
Many people work hard to end child labor. But we will not be able to solve the problem only with prohibitions. Once a man brought a ten year old boy to Amma. He wanted Amma to raise the child in the áshram and told him the story of how he had become an orphan. His father had died two years earlier. So his mother and sister set to work in a candle factory that was close to home. His mother was soon diagnosed with chronic kidney disease and could not work because she was bedridden. Although his sister earned little, it was enough to cover the expenses. After a while, laws were passed that banned child labor. The owner of the candle factory was arrested and the company closed. They let all the children who worked there go. Dismayed by the loss of her only source of income, the mother sent her son to school that morning and was poisoned with her daughter.
It is correct to close these factories, but the families of children who depend on them to live are forgotten. If we only consider one aspect of the problem, people who have no one to turn to will experience the consequences of our attempts to solve it. Before taking drastic measures to end child labor and human trafficking, we must create a basis for these families to be self-sufficient and guarantee them a future.
Spirituality begins and culminates in compassion. If we could transform the compassion of a mere word into a path of action, we could solve 90% of the world's humanitarian problems. There are two kinds of poverty in the world. The first is due to the lack of food, clothing and shelter. The second is the poverty of love and compassion. We must first deal with the latter because if we feel love and compassion, we will serve and help from the heart those who do not have food, clothing or shelter.
According to the Bhagavad Gita, the Creator and the creation are only one, just as the waves and the ocean are one. Although we see thousands of suns reflected in a thousand containers with water, there is only one sun. In the same way, the awareness that exists within all of us is the same. Just as one hand will comfort the other when it hurts, that we all console and support others as we would if we were ourselves.
People of all nations and all religions are victims of the devastating effects of human trafficking and experience extreme abuse and suffering. That physical and mental pain does not distinguish between languages, races or skin color. These victims are only people who fight against the claws of endless suffering and against emotional repression.
Ointments that carry antibiotics help heal external wounds. Similarly, there are many kinds of medicines to treat our internal organs. But there is only one medicine that can heal the wounds of our mind. That medicine is pure love. To heal the wounds that have been infringed on victims of human trafficking, we must take care of them with selfless love. That will return them to the light of a life in freedom, far from the darkness that was forced upon them in the past. We must create a large group of social workers who carry out that sacred mission. Only religious and spiritual leaders can gather a working group like that.
May the compassion inherent in all living beings be awakened . May we all develop discernment to love and respect life and all those who live around us. We are not isolated islands, but interconnected links in the chain of God's creation. May we realize that great truth. May the pain of others be our pain and your happiness, our happiness. May we forget all the pain and suffering of the past and forgive all the damage we have suffered. May we bow in reverence to all the goodness of the world, and find eternal happiness.
Amma's speech: Ending modern slavery
