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| Dorothy and Hladini (inset) |
Dorothy Stang was a Catholic nun and human rights activist in Brazil who recently met martyrdom. Less well-known is Hladini Dasi, a Vaisnava nun who met with a similar fate during her missionary work in Liberia twelve years ago. When I read of Dorothy, I couldn't help but be reminded of Hladini, and how their uncommon faith and conviction led them both to a state of fearlessness against even the most formidable opposition.
When I think of Dorothy, the US-born Catholic nun and human rights activist, several things come to mind: her life of service to the less fortunate, how she sacrificed her own safety to help others in need, and her simple determination to lead a religious life.
Dorothy was a nun of the Sisters of Notre Dame de Namur. Born and raised in Ohio, she became a naturalised Brazilian in the course of her activist work. She was outspoken in her efforts on behalf of the poor and the environment (particularly the Amazon rainforest) in the course of her 30 years of service to those causes. She helped impoverished Brazilians to make a living without ethical compromise or deforestation, by farming small plots and extracting forest products sustainably. She sought to protect the citizens from criminal gangs who at times violently took their land.
In Februrary 2005, a collective of loggers and land owners, who for years had sent death threats, arranged for her assassination. According to witnesses, while at gunpoint she read a line from the Bible: "Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called the children of God." She was shot at point-blank range and died.
Hladini Dasi spent the last years of her life in Africa, helping the poor to lead a sustainable and honest life and instilling in many a deep religious faith through her teaching and example. During her time in Liberia, warlords seized the country and the citizens were left fearing for their lives. All Americans were ordered to leave Liberia on account of the unprecedented cruelty of the rebel government. As Hladini recalled to a friend, “Every day I see people murdered on the streets. Life means nothing here.” Yet Hladini could not bear to walk away from others in such a dangerous situation, or to see anyone bereft of a religious shelter in a time of need.
Like Dorothy, Hladini had no vested interest in helping the poor in a society so far-removed from her own. But she accepted that their lives were equal to hers. Indeed she put their lives before hers because of her profound compassion. Hladini stayed in Liberia, in order to encourage spiritual hope among those for whom material hope was gone. Like Dorothy, this led her to her assassination. Hladini gave up her opportunity to walk away with her life in exchange for the fatal attempt to shield a group of Liberian Vaisnavas from the bullets of a warlord's gun.
Dorothy and Hladini both worked for sustainable and spiritual livelihoods in the face of the menacing, brute power of vested interests. Both are powerful examples of "spiritual warriors", those who entered the battle of guns and egos with weapons of love and faith. One of Dorothy’s assassins related that when she saw her killers approach, she reached into her bag, produced a Bible and said, "This is my weapon." The Bible was the weapon with which she attacked the landowners’ protective armour of "I and mine", as scripture and prayer are the weapons of all sincerely religious people: not in the sense that they can harm others, but in the sense that they provide protection from the greatest dangers.
But the Bible didn’t shield Dorothy from the bullets; just as the Hare Krishna mantra did not shield Hladini from the Liberian warlords. It may be difficult to assert that Dorothy and Hladini were protected, when there are such brutal ends to both their lives.
How can we say their lives were successful? It challenges us to look beyond the definitions of success used by their murderers and to access what is actually tangible and sustainable victory. The great success of Dorothy and Hladini was that they inspired in many a genuine determination to live in truth and take shelter of God. They showed how to operate the weapons of non-violence and radical compassion.
Dorothy and Hladini saw God's presence and protection in places where others saw merely violence and despair, and this deep conviction led them to be fearless against even warlords and assassins — to be fearless even before death.
Kumari-priya Dasi
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