HINDU VISION OF JUSTICE |
The
ancient people, known as the Vedic people lived in the northwestern
region of India on the banks of two rivers: Saraswati and Sindh.
The Saraswati River is believed to have dried up in 1900 BCE,
which ended the pre-historic civilization, known as Harappa.
The ancient people were the lovers of nature.
They derived their philosophy from the workings of the nature.
When they observed the blossoming of plants and trees, the
regular cycle of the seasons, sunrise and sunset, and the cycle of life
and death of all living beings, they concluded that there is cosmic
intelligence. This cosmic
intelligence reveals itself in the form of natural laws that are
applicable to every level of existence. This cosmic order was named Rita
in Sanskrit. Rita is the underlying cosmic principle, which regulates
the nature from the voyage of the planets to the motion of the subatomic
particles. It was further concluded that since human beings are a part
of the cosmic plan, there must be moral order in the society
corresponding to Rita in the natural phenomena. This moral order was
given another Sanskrit name, Dharma.
In individual life, means ethical and moral duties and in
social life it is represents just and equitable laws, which restrain
evil and promote virtuous life. Dharma
is rather the idea of universal justice, involving responsibility in its
widest sense, to ensure growth and harmony of all that has ever come
into existence. The
ancient people also observed that the principle of sacrifice (i.e., one
thing giving rise to another) is the natural principle that maintains
balance in the universe. For example, the sun sacrifices itself to give heat and
light, water sacrifices to make clouds, clouds to make rains, rains to
produce grains, and the grains to feed humans and the other creatures.
The humans must, therefore, sacrifice to keep the natural cycle
going. This gave rise to
the idea that individual duties and responsibilities must take
precedence over the rights and privileges in a society. This thought
further led to the ethical concepts of three debts, four ashrams (stages), and four ends of human life, which together form
the Hindu action plan for the just and equitable individual and social
life.
The three debts are akin
to three mortgages on one’s life.
These debts are not literal, in the sense of a liability that one
is born with and spends his life trying to remunerate.
Instead, the concept of three debts reflects the awareness of
one’s duties and responsibilities. The first debt is to God, which can
be paid by worship, prayers, respect for religious feelings of all the
people, reverence for all forms of life, protection of environment, and
harmlessness to all creatures. The
second debt is to the society, which demands fulfillment of one’s
duties and responsibilities as member the nation, community, and
society. Scripture (Tirukural
214.TW) says, “He who understands his duty to society truly lives.
All others shall be counted among the dead.” An important
element of the individual duty is adherence to the moral, ethical, and
positive law. The
third debt is to one's parents, teachers, and ancestors, which includes
raising one's family in accordance with the moral and ethical principles
of one’s tradition. Four
Stages of Life
To
enable an individual to discharge his duties and responsibilities in
life, the ancient sages organized life into four ashrams
(stages): studentship, householder, retirement and renunciation. The
three main goals of the studentship stage of life are to acquire
knowledge, build one's character, and learn to shoulder responsibilities
that will fall upon the individual during his (or her) adult life. This
stage begins when a child enters school at an early age and continues
until he has finished all schooling and is prepared to assume the
responsibilities of the future. The
householder stage begins with one's marriage, which in Hindu way of life
is regarded as a sacrament, and not a social contract.
This stage forms the foundation for the support of the other two
stages that follow. The
importance of the householder stage is often reflected in the analogy
that just as all rivers flow into the sea, all stages flow into the
householder stage. After the
responsibilities of the householder stage are complete (i.e., one's
children have reached adulthood and have assumed the responsibilities),
one enters the retirement stage, known as the ascetic or hermit stage of
life. In this stage one
gradually withdraws from active life and begins devoting more time to
the study of scriptures, contemplation and meditation. The individual,
however, makes himself available in order to provide guidance and share
experiences with the younger generation, when requested to do so. The
renunciation stage is the final stage of life in which an individual
mentally renounces all worldly ties, spends all of his time in
meditation and contemplation and ponders over the mysteries of life. Four
Ends of Life Based
upon the principle of progressive evolution of individual, ancient
thinkers recognized four ends of human life: dharma
(moral law), artha (wealth), kama
(worthy desires) and moksha
(spiritual perfection). However,
they declared dharma to be the foundation of the remaining three ends.
It was believed that the cornerstone of human life is character, the
moral and ethical ability of an individual to respond to the external
conditions. Of all the
losses, the loss of character was declared as the highest loss.
“Every fool may become a hero at one time or another, but the
people of good character are the heroes all the time,” says Swami
Vivekananda. Justice
in Contemporary Thought Good
ness is justice in action and justice is goodness in principle. There
are six doctrines of thought and action known as the Six Pillars of
justice that provides the basis for individual and social conduct in
Hindu tradition. These are
doctrines of Dharma, Karma,
Ahimsa, Sahanshakti,
justice and intuition. Doctrine
of Dharma (Purpose in Life) This
doctrine states that every human being has a unique talent and a unique
way of expressing it. There are also unique needs for the human talent.
When the individual matches the needs with his talent to serve
humanity, nature creates unlimited abundance of wealth and happiness.
Individual duties and responsibilities must, therefore, take
precedence over one’s rights and privileges.
This is the major difference between the ancient wisdom and the
modern social thought. Modern
social thought emphasizes rights and privileges over duties and
responsibilities. The
result is a rights oriented society, which is primarily individualistic
in character. The success is defined in terms of how high is your
position, how many people work for you and how high is your salary.
It is a philosophy of measuring our lives by what we get and what
we acquire, and whom we know. Since we evaluate ourselves in terms of individual success,
there is no commitment to the ground rules of civic virtue. If
we want to solve the problem of crime, drugs and guns, we have to take a
fresh look at our approach to life and the laws.
We have to eliminate the economic disparity that has given birth
to gangs, chronically unemployed and the underclass.
We want the individuals to strive hard, but we also must strive
for the common good of our people.
Every society must have a sense of what is right and wrong.
The things that are right are the things that grow the individual
and society in harmony. These
are things like compassion, honesty, fairness and accountability. Doctrine
of Karma (Personal Accountability) The
Law of Karma is the law of cause and effect.
If we want to create happiness in our lives, we must learn to sow
the seeds of happiness. “What
you sow is what you reap.” In
this sense, the Law of Karma is the eternal law of justice.
It teaches us that we are accountable for our actions and
therefore we must make right choices.
How do you know what is a right choice in a given situation? The answer is simple. When
you make any choice, ask yourself two questions: First, “what are the
consequences of this choice I am making?”
In your heart you will know what these are. Second, “will this choice that I am making bring happiness
to me and those around me?” If
the answer is yes, the choice is good. If that choice will bring
distress either to you or the people around you, that is the answer is
no, then do not make that choice. It
is as simple as that. The
Law of Karma is the law of harmony and equilibrium.
It adjusts wisely, intelligently and equitably each effect to its
cause. It encourages us to work with good conscience.
Good conscience is the best pillow.
As Plato said, “Virtue does not come from money, but money
comes from virtue.” Doctrine
of Ahimsa (Non-violence) Ahimsa means
non-violence (in thought, word and deed), non-injury, or non-killing.
Hindu Dharma teaches that all forms of life are different
manifestations of the Ultimate Reality (Brahman). We must
therefore not be indifferent to the sufferings of any of God’s
creatures. This
doctrine creates love for humans between themselves as well as with
other forms of life, and encourages the protection of our environment.
Hindu tradition affirms the sacredness of Mother Earth (Bhumi or
Prithvi), ecological unity, and interdependence of species.
Everybody has a right to clean water and clean air, and nobody
has a right to degrade and destroy the environment.
Environmental justice is a part and parcel of the Hindu religious
and social thought. Doctrine
of Sahanshakti (Acceptance) Justice
devoid of the spirit of acceptance akin to a horse that has no legs.
From experience we can tell that “unity in variety’ is the
nature’s plan in the evolution of the universe. In this world of
natural diversity where people do not look, talk or think alike, where
every tradition has produced men and women of exalted character,
acceptance of other people’s thoughts, beliefs and practices is
essential for the growth and harmony of the human race.
History tells us that the religious intolerance in the past has
(and still does) caused so much precious blood and so many bitter tears
to be shed. Hindu
scriptures declare that Truth is one, but paths are many.
The doctrine of acceptance teaches us how to live in the world of
differences without feeling threatened by others, without forcing our
will and views on others. Acceptance
does not mean that we must give up our values or become more like
others. It simply means
that we must be open to other ideas and arrive at certain decisions that
no one quite agrees, but every one is willing to live with it. The
Doctrine of Justice In
the popular mind and in the opinions of the learned, liberty and
equality are the two prime values of human life that ought to be sought,
secured and preserved. However,
as we shall presently see that without the guidance of justice, certain
errors are unavoidable and certain problems are insoluble. Liberty
and equality are the most desirable values, but if we increase the one,
it will automatically reduce the other one.
Too much of liberty can create inequality of conditions in the
society. This happens
because those who are favored by superior endowments or attainments can
make the best use of their freedom of opportunity and beat their
fellowmen in the race of life. This
can result in the vast inequality of conditions in the society. By the
same token, if we maximize the equality of conditions, the result would
be loss of the individual liberty.
Thus, failure to observe and understand the need for limitations
upon liberty and equality leads to insolvable conflict between them. This conflict can be resolved by understanding that neither
liberty, nor equality is the unlimited good, but both can be maximized
harmoniously only when regulated by justice.
Thus among justice, liberty and equality, justice is the supreme
value. Its sovereignty has
the power to resolve the conflict between the extremes of the liberty
and equality. The
Doctrine of Intuition We
need brain to conceive, heart to feel, and strong arms to do the work.
In the event of a conflict between the brain and the heart, Hindu
tradition demands that we must follow the heart.
There is a story in Mahabharatta, Hindu epic, about Pandavas, the
five brothers. One day
while traveling in a forest, Yudhisthira, the eldest of the five
brothers, felt thirsty and asked Nakula, the fourth brother, to fetch
some water. Nakula went
around and found a pond of fresh water.
When he dipped his hands into the water, he heard a voice;
“It is my pond. First answer my questions, then you may drink.”
Nakula, being very thirsty, ignored the voice.
As soon as he put some water in his mouth, he dropped dead.
When he did not return, Yudhisthira sent Sahadeva to fetch water. Sahadeva met with the same fate as Nakula. Arjuna
and Bhima also, sent after Sahadeva, did not return.
Finally Yudhisthira arrived at the scene.
Seeing all his four brothers lying on the ground dead, he began
to lament, “Is this to be our end?”
Still grieving, he began to drink from the pond.
The voice was heard again, “your brothers all died because they
did not listen to me. Answer
my questions and then you may drink the water.”
Yudhisthira asked for the questions and answered them all.
The spirit was happy and addressed Yudhisthira thus, “O King, I
will let one of your brothers return to life.
Which one do you want?” Yudhisthira
thought for a while and then answered, “I want Nakula back.”
The angel said, “Why did you prefer Nakula to Bhima?
Bhima has the strength of 16,000 elephants and you need him to
win the war. Why not
Arjuna, who is skilled in advanced weapons and can alone win the war for
you. What will Nakula do
for you? He is handsome,
but handsome people do not win big wars.”
Yudhisthira replied: “O spirit, my father had two wives, Kunti
and Maduri. Arjuna, Bhima and I are the sons of Kunti.
I am her eldest son. Nakula
and Sahadeva are the sons of Maduri.
If only two of us can be alive, it is only fair that, Nakula, the
eldest son of Maduri be alive so that my stepmother is not bereft of her
both children. This
decision of Yudhisthira, based upon the justice of the heart, pleased
the spirit and he brought all brothers back to life. Eventually Pandavas won the battle with Kauravas and regained
their kingdom. Challenges
to Justice The
significant challenges to justice in a modern society are ethical
relativism, economic disparity, rights oriented philosophy, illusion of
rationality and illusion of materiality. Ethical
Relativism There
are people who consider pursuit of happiness as pursuit of wealth, power
and prestige. Our rights orientation has led us to a kind of utilitarian
ethics, which allows Ivan Boesky to say, “Greed is good.”
They write books on how to win by intimidation and they can get
on every TV show and teach people how to do that. To be successful is to
win by hook or by crook, regardless of what happens to the fellowman or
the society. There is a
simple story of a businessman who goes on a camping trip with another
man. They both have their backpacks on their backs, and suddenly they
see a cougar about fifty feet away.
The businessman starts to take off his backpack, and the friend
says, “What are you going to do?” The
businessman says, “ I am going to run for it.” The
friend says, “But you can’t outrun a cougar.” And
the businessman says, “I do not have to outrun the cougar.
I just have to outrun you.” Economic
Disparity Economic
disparity is one of the major causes of poverty, homelessness, and an
alarming crime rate in a society. If
you are a teenager living in the inner city with a single mother on
welfare, and no father, your chances in life are rather limited.
You will have a very little chance of getting good education and
consequently a very little chance of obtaining a higher paying jobs.
Being unemployed or underemployed, you will live in poverty and
very likely end up having a child out of wedlock.
Your children will very likely be attending schools where they
will not be properly educated, schools that are overwhelmingly
impoverished. If you visit a ward in an inner city hospital where new
born babies are, you can predict where these kids will end up in life.
Most of them will end up living in poverty.
American citizen in this affluent country should not be living in
poverty, experiencing hunger and no hope for future. This is the biggest
challenge to social justice. The
society does not solve the problems of the poor, of the homeless;
ultimately these problems can threaten everyone’s ordinary life. Rights
Oriented Philosophy From
the standpoint of Hindu tradition, harmony within a society s more
likely if duties are emphasized, if not more, at least as much as the
rights are. A peaceful
society results not from the individuals aggressively exerting their
rights, but from their willingly fulfilling their obligations to each
other. This is especially
true from the realizations between the weak and the strong, the less and
more talented. The
classical Hindu view is that the more highly one is endowed, greater his
responsibilities toward others. It
is considered immoral for one to use his capacities for his own profit
only. They should be used
in addition or primarily for others.
“Man becomes great exactly in the degree in which he works for
the welfare of his fellow-man,” said Mahatma Gandhi.
“He who understands his duty to society truly lives.
All others shall be counted among the dead,” says Tirukural,
a Hindu scripture. Illusion
of Rationality The illusion of
rationality leads to the view that reason is superior in man and that a
rational man is inevitably a virtuous man, i.e., a reasonable man.
We know from experience that a rational man is not necessarily a
virtuous man. In fact, some
times a reasonable man uses reason itself to support his
unreasonableness. Ancient
wisdom tells us that the brain is more interested in self-preservation,
which is more or less selfishness.
It is the heart that looks for our connection to everything else
in the universe. It is the
heart that has an inherent sense of what is right and wrong and thereby
we have the sense of guilt and shame when we do something that is wrong.
Thus, the ancient sages tell us that whenever there is a conflict
between the heart and the brain, one should follow the heart.
The inner voice of the heart becomes more and more audible when
one learns how to meditate and contemplate.
Meditation s what strengthens the inner voice Illusion
of Materiality The
illusion of materiality contributes to a biological view of man.
Man thinks himself to be but one of an infinite number of
organisms whose physical needs are primary.
The difference between the man and the other organisms is just a
quantitative one, man simply being more complex in structure.
His major concern is his biological wellbeing and his worth is
measured by how much he produces. This is a very shallow kind of life
and during the period this philosophy flourishes, justice and civic
virtue suffer. Two
Questions of Justice There
are two difficult questions that have been raised about justice.
Plato at the very beginning of the Western thinking first raised
both. First, why should anyone be just in relation to his actions
to others in the society he lives?
Second, in a given situation, is it better to suffer injustice at
the hands of others or do injustice to them?
The first
question is easy to answer two ways.
Firstly, to be just means to be human and justice distinguishes
humans from animals. Secondly,
it is impossible to imagine that an unjust man would be eventually a
happy man. The second question is somewhat difficult to answer, because it would depend upon the situation that one is in. From the spiritual standpoint, doing injustice is against the human conscience and blood for the blood or arm for the arm is not justice. |