“You are Incas! Shepherds and masters in Creation! Through the strength of your pure spirits, you shall always be victorious, wherever evil human beings aim to oppress and hurt you. However, you must never be discouraged and afraid! But intelligent, courageous, and truthful! The spirit, sure of its mission, has a force that penetrates darkness, revealing the intrigues of evil-minded people.”
(Roselis Von Sass, The Truth About the Incas)
In the 50’s, many youngsters in their 20’s were dreamers, full of joyful hope and wanting to improve the world, but when they looked at their surroundings they saw much misery and lack of justice, without knowing exactly the cause of it all. Ernesto Guevara, a youth also, with his refined sensibility and generous heart, was touched by his fellow man’s suffering, and he became indignant with the consequences of the acts of the so-called civilized Conquistadors of Latin America, whom brought vices and until then unknown diseases to the region.
“My travels through Latin America introduced me to poverty, hunger, the hopelessness of treating children due to the lack of resources and the harshness caused by injustice and suffering. I saw things that made me realize that there were things that were just as important as my determination to become a famous researcher.”
(E.G, Vez, Ediouro, 2003).
Guevara was admired by many youths of his time as a leader and role model to be followed, as he wanted to free the natives from the yoke that they had been subjected to ever since the Conquistadors’ arrival.
In his travel diary (Sá Publisher), he wrote: “even today, when the Conquistadors' bestial hatred can be seen in each act carried out to consolidate their conquest, and so much time has passed since the Inca nation has disappeared as the dominant power, their stone blocks are still impregnated with a mysterious force, untouched by the passing of time. When the Spanish troops sacked the defeated city, they discharged their fury on the Inca temples and they heightened their avidness; removing the gold that adorned the walls, with the Sun god's image, Inti, with a sadistic pleasure of replacing the symbols full of life and happiness of a happy race, for an idol full of suffering that belonged to a sad race. The temples dedicated to Inti were completely destroyed or had their walls used to build a church of the new religion. The city cathedral was built on the remains of a great palace, while the walls of the Sun Temple served as the base of the São Domingo church, a lesson and a Conquistador's proud punishment.”
In Machu Picchu, which in the local language means, Old Mountain, I was highly impressed with the greatness of culture and morale of the Inca people, and I felt as if I were returning to an already well-known place. As he continued his journey he though about how this would have been different if the Inca culture had not been changed for that of the Conquistadors’. Thus, Guevara allowed himself to be dominated by the angry revolt that sprouted in his inner self on noting, during his trip, the exploitation of the natives, either through the large land or mine owners, whom treated those humans as disposable objects without the slightest consideration. He wanted to take up arms to free a people that had been partly lost in mysticism, and the confusing missionary teachings.
However he would have had to realize that these oppressed people allowed themselves to submit to slavery due to their spiritual indolence, as the legacy left by the Incas was much superior, and the natives should not have allowed this legacy to be relegated to forgetfulness. Many died at the hands of the Conquistadors’ brutality, simply because they could not accept the distorted concepts brought by European Christianity. Their active spirits did not submit to the dogmatic teachings that their pure intuition could not recognize.
According to Roselis Von Sass, in the book The Truth About the Incas, these people were a breed of leaders. This name itself expresses this fact, because “Inca” means “Master”, that is, a person with awareness of power. The power granted to Incas came about through their high spiritual knowledge, from their love of the Light and for all the creatures, of his confidence, from their joy of work and their purity of spirit… They were more knowledgeable than the other doctors, not because of their sensational cranial operations or because of their cure for other complicated fractures. No. Not because of this. This too the Egyptians had knowledge of and before them doctors of unknown tribes that had already disappeared long before. The Incas became famous because of their gift of recognizing and curing diseases of the soul. This naturally did not happen, at the very start. At that time they did not yet know the illnesses caused by diseases pertaining to the soul. These illnesses they only became aware of step by step, through coexisting with peoples of other nations. With nations that later joined them.
Guevara allowed himself to be carried away by his dark side, without searching for the Light of the Truth that once shone over the Inca civilization. With his option for violence he did not bring improvements for the people to whom he could have better assisted through his charisma and dedication, he led himself to his own violent end. Perhaps he had been an Inca at the time of the conquest, or even a Spanish soldier or a priest. But in this incarnation he ended up walking on a crooked path.
It is ironic how many films made in South America, show the developed nations, a defeated, brutalized people, with no preparing for life, under nourished, with precarious health, without realizing that this is the civilization that they themselves helped to build over on this side of the planet.
Time is relentless and clearly shows how much is wasted on human presumption or how much is acquired with the true spiritual humility that recognizes the perfection and greatness of God’s laws in Creation. It is absolutely necessary to recognize that suffering and poverty were attracted to earth by Man himself through his existence, during the multiple lives carried out in the search and recognition of the laws of Creation, guiding himself exclusively by his intellectual presumption that enslaves free will, that withdraws us from safety, peace and happiness.
Benedicto Ismael Camargo Dutra