Justice by People and Justice by Court

Ms J Jayalalithaa , the Chief Minister of the State of Tamil Nadu, India was convicted on 27^th September 2014 under the Prevention of Corruption Act and sentenced to four years in prison for accumulating wealth disproportionate to her known sources of income in an 18-year-old corruption case.  Consequent upon the decision is that she has been send to the jail and she shall not be able to fight an election for next ten years. 

Ironically, it was only four months ago, that her party AIADMK has made unprecedented victory of 37 seats out of 39 seats in Tamil Nadu and routed their rival party DMK completely.

She was convicted for a case booked in 1996 when during raid the DMK government,  800kg silver, 28kg gold, 750 pairs of shoes, 10,500 sarees, 91 watches and other items that were seized from her residence.  Jayalalitha then swore that she would not wear jewelry again. It was only in 2012 that after her massive electoral comeback, she wore a small ear studs, that too because, she said, party workers asked her to, some even threatening to kill themselves if she didn't acquiesce.

While the politicians are issuing predictable statements based on their party affiliations, the people are divided.  Many people have welcomed the decision of the Court but the voters and supporters are AIADMK are highly disappointed and they have even attempted self-immolation.

The mute question is that in a democracy, whether the judgment of the Court is superior to the judgment of the people?

The Principle of Karma

Karma is one of the most sacred principles of all Indian religions. It is believed that our destiny is decided based on our karma. There is a ‘karmic account’ of every person,  where all good and evil deeds are stored and we are awarded or punished based on our accumulated karma (Sanchit karma). It is said that even our next birth is dependent on our accumulated karma at the time of our death.

The principles of karma state that it is possible to overcome the effect of our evil karma by performing more positive karma, which can neutralize our negative karma.

However, in the modern judicial system, there is no effect of good deeds on our evil deeds. Even if you performed thousand good deeds, they can’t overcome the effect of one evil deed. A man is judged not by his good deeds but by his evil deeds. It is no body’s case the Ms J Jayalalitha performed quite well as Chief Minister in recent years, which resulted in historic victory of her party in 2014 General Election. She has done many good works in last two decades, yet all such good deeds can’t overcome the effect of her evil karma conducted more than twenty years ago.

She is not judged for what she is now, but punished for what she was two decades ago. He vows to not wear any jewelry and to provide a clean government subsequently, shows that she learned her lessons and attempted to improve herself.  

Is it not better that we take a holistic view of all the good and evil deeds of a person and award punishment only when his evil deeds are in excess of the good? If a person realizes his mistake after doing the evil deeds and try to overcome the evil by performing many-fold more deeds, should he not be awarded for the numerous good deeds rather than being punished for few evil deeds?

In chapter “Crime and Punishment” of the book Prophet by Khalil Gibran, the following words of wisdom were said:-

And how shall you punish those whose remorse is already greater than their misdeeds?

Is not remorse the justice which is administered by that very law which you would fain serve?

Yet you cannot lay remorse upon the innocent nor lift it from the heart of the guilty.

Unbidden shall it call in the night, that men may wake and gaze upon themselves.

And you who would understand justice, how shall you unless you look upon all deeds in the fullness of light?

Only then shall you know that the erect and the fallen are but one man standing in twilight between the night of his pygmy-self and the day of his god-self,

And that the corner-stone of the temple is not higher than the lowest stone in its foundation.

Crime and Criminal

It may be an error to consider crime and criminal as one. There is lot of wisdom in the words of Gandhi—‘love the sinner but hate the sin’. It is because every sinner has a future and every saint has a past.  If a person commits a sin, he does not become sinner—which implies that he does only sin. The same sinner can become a saint once he realizes his mistake. Who can forget the story of the Valmiki, a bandit, who became a great saint once he understood the truth?

Thousands of years ago, there was a bandit in a jungle who used to loot people passing through the jungle. Once, a few sages were going that way when the bandit stopped them and asked them to surrender whatever possessions they had.

A sage asked the bandit, ‘Why are you doing this? Don’t you know it is a sin to loot others’ wealth?’

‘I know it is a sin. However, I am doing it to feed my family,’ the bandit replied.

‘But you are making a big mistake,’ said the saint. ‘As you are doing it through the act of looting, you have to carry all the burden of this sin.’ He then asked the bandit, ‘Your family may be sharing the loot, but will they also share your sin?’

‘Surely they will,’ said the bandit confidently. ‘When they share my loot, why shall they not share my sin?’

‘Please go and ask your family members,’ replied the saint. ‘If they are willing, please take all we have.’

The bandit went home and asked each member of his family if they were willing to share his sin. However, all the members replied that since he was the one committing those sins, only he must bear their burden. They showed their unwillingness to be a party to his sins.

Shocked, the bandit realised his mistake and came back to the saints. He fell on their feet and sought their forgiveness. ‘Only God can forgive you,’ they said. ‘Please go and pray to God and He will forgive you and give you light.’

The bandit did penance and prayed for many years and sought light from God. Finally, he gained enlightenment and became one of the greatest saints of India. He later went on to write the most famous Indian epic, Ramayana—the story of Rama—and earned eternal fame.

Purpose of Punishment

What should be the purpose of punishment? Is it to reform the person or to punish him for his evil deeds?

If the purpose is to reform, why should one be punished if he has already reformed and not committed the same mistake for years?

If the purpose is to punish, should we not consider all the good deeds also and then make a judgment if the good deeds were more or evil?

While many of us would be celebrating for the punishment for a powerful CM and believe that it shall send the right signal to all corrupt politicians, it is difficult to believe that corruptions at high places would stop by her conviction unless a system is created where people can become successful politicians without engaging in any corrupt activity. While we are celebrating the imprisonment of Jayalalitha, we must also introspect if we are ourselves clean. Let us not forget the words of Jesus Christ in Bible.

The teachers of the law and the Pharisees brought in a woman caught in adultery. They made her stand before the group and said to Jesus, “Teacher, this woman was caught in the act of adultery. In the Law Moses commanded us to stone such women. Now what do you say?” They were using this question as a trap, in order to have a basis for accusing him.

But Jesus bent down and started to write on the ground with his finger. When they kept on questioning him, he straightened up and said to them, “Let any one of you who is without sin be the first to throw a stone at her.” Again he stooped down and wrote on the ground.

At this, those who heard began to go away one at a time, the older ones first, until only Jesus was left, with the woman still standing there. Jesus straightened up and asked her, “Woman, where are they? Has no one condemned you?”

“No one, sir,” she said.

“Then neither do I condemn you,” Jesus declared. “Go now and leave your life of sin.”

While Ms J Jayalalitha has to suffer the punishment given to her by the Court of Law, we need not to condemn her without taking the holistic view of her good and evil deeds. We must also think of creating a justice system which can take the holistic view of the good and evil deeds of a person while awarding the punishment.

Perhaps the verdict of the people is better than the verdict of the Courts because people can forgive and judge the person as more holistically they now are--rather than deciding based on ‘what they had been’ using the law that refuses to recognize the reformation of the person and the effect of thousand good deeds.

Seven Methods of Releasing Evils to Clean Your Soul

Recently, one multinational company in Gurgaon, India, asked their employees to act like hooligans and break the furniture and equipments of the office. The employees broke the office in full view of the employer and media cameras which was telecast on television. The employer told the media that the exercise was done to reduce the tension from the mind of the employees. The employees too were looking quite relaxed and happy after doing the destructive activities.

 The incidence of looting and destruction of public properties are quite common in many countries. The people vent their frustration against the government and the system by engaging themselves in such illegal, criminal and destructive activities, and even suffer imprisonment for their outbursts. It seems that when people engage themselves in such destructive acts against the law, they cool down as their moral superiority is lowered by breaking the law, which perhaps reduces their hatred for the State which in their opinion is not functioning according to the law.

 The destruction of property is not the only means for displaying the negative emotions by civilized men. They are often engaged in many similar activities considered sinful, evil, and criminal in the modern world knowing fully well the consequences.

 Society divides all actions between good or evil. It has actually defined only ‘good’ which includes love, compassion, justice, equality, charity etc. The evil gets automatically defined being the opposite of good.  Every society welcomes only good and does not allow evil to be expressed freely. Hence the evil keeps on accumulating in the minds of the people who are forced to do only good deeds and to think only good thoughts. The result is silent accumulation of evil in their minds that creates tension and pressure in man. Such pressures make his life miserable and he gets relief only when he allows the evil to escape through some destructive acts.

 Seven Methods to Release Evil

 The necessity of the release of evil has always been recognized by men. Over thousands of years, men have created many methods which allow release of the evil. If one follows these methods, he can perhaps live a happy life without getting suffocated from the accumulation of evil. Some of these methods are described as following:

 (1)        Sports

Gone are the days when men had to fight wars and kill thousands of people to enjoy victory and rejoice the humiliation of enemies. Today the same satisfaction can be achieved by defeating the enemy in games of sports. This is the reason why the sports between enemy countries are watched by their countrymen with so much interest. The celebration of the victory in game is no less than that of winning a war. It is common to see the football fans fighting in the stadium as if there is a war going on. Bill Shankley expressed this feeling in the following words–‘Some people believe football is a matter of life and death...it is much, much more important than that.’

Man has devised many types of games to satisfy his urge to defeat his enemies in a bloodless war. Every country tries to get as many medals as possible in the Olympics and gets great satisfaction when they defeat their enemies. Millions of people see these games to derive the satisfaction of a victory.

 (2)        Competitions

Men invented the ‘survival of the fittest’ theory to justify the subordination of one human being by others. The Europeans used this theory to expand their empires and rule over the world. Even in the modern era, all colleges and companies appoint people who score high marks in the competitions conducted by them. A competition provides a legal method to defeat millions of people and come victorious. Competition kills compassion as you can’t win a competition without defeating others. The world worships the winners. Even in democracies, the parliamentarians and Presidents are elected only when they defeat all their rivals not in the battle-field but in the ballot-box.

 (3)        Movies

The civilized world has put lot of restrictions on sexual relationships. The scriptures term adultery as one of the greatest sins, which is often punishable with death. Most countries punish adultery by imprisonment and in some cases even by death. Yet prostitution always existed in the world and it is rightly called the oldest profession. Most countries still treat prostitution illegal and immoral, and have made it a punishable offence. 

In the modern world, movies provide a great relief to people to release their evil thoughts. Most movies depict heroes and heroines breaking all moral and legal barriers to achieve their goal and enjoy life. Violence, adultery, nudity and sex—otherwise prohibited in the society—are the main theme of the movies. Hence, a common man is able to identify himself with the actors of the movies and releases his negativity by cheering the movie stars.

 (4)        Intoxicants

The use of drugs and hard intoxicants like alcohol, cigarette and mild intoxicants like tea, coffee or fizzy drinks having caffeine, has grown quite rapidly in the last few decades. The increase has been more rapid in the developed countries despite increasing awareness of their harmful effects on the body and mind. There are often very strong laws against their use. Most countries award death sentence to the drug peddlers. Still drug trafficking has emerged as the biggest challenge to the world. It is a well known fact that intoxicants destroy both body and mind. Their regular use not only causes several diseases in the body but also corrupts the mind. It is no surprise that most crimes are committed in the world under the influence of intoxicants.

Yet men fail to avoid intoxicants, as they find them as the safest way to release their evil. There is no country in the world which prohibits all intoxicants. The milder intoxicants like alcohol and cigarette are allowed in most countries. Many of the non-alcoholic drinks like tea, coffee and soft-drinks contain caffeine and other intoxicant material. It is quite difficult to find a person who does not consume any intoxicant at all.

The consumption of intoxicants makes people feel free and allows the evil thoughts and actions to come out. If their evil is provided other safer outlets, they may stop relying on hard intoxicants. Intoxicants fulfill the destructive need of a person. It does not cause conflicts with other human beings since the person destroys himself only, not others. In many countries like Netherlands, even drugs are allowed to be consumed legally, which has resulted in reduction of consumption of the hard drugs and crimes.

 (5)        Verbal Abuse

Abuses are common in all cultures. An abuse is meant to humiliate others by casting aspersion on their character and calling them by names and adjectives that are taboo and are abhorable in the society. It is by abuse that a man releases some of his deep hidden emotions that can’t be expressed in a civilized manner. Studies have shown that swearing or using vulgar words against others improves the credibility of the person. Studies have concluded that dropping the F-bomb or other expletives may not only be an expression of agony but also a means to alleviate it.  

  (6)       Criticism

Mahatma Gandhi used to have statues of three monkeys with him, who symbolized his philosophy of life. One monkey covered his mouth with his hands; the second covered his eyes and the third covered his ears. The message conveyed by the monkeys was—‘say no evil’– ‘see no evil’ and ‘hear no evil’.  A good man was advised by Gandhi to follow these three rules in life as any contact of evil is considered bad—as it makes the person evil.

Criticism is thus considered to be a great evil, wherein one speaks evil against others, which creates hatred amongst the human beings. Yet newspapers and media are full of criticism of others. Criticism of powerful people seems to be the prime time entertainment for most citizens. What a pleasure it is to demolish a man who is considered to be great! Media would not show criticism, unless people like to see them, since these media channels and newspapers thrive on the popularity of their news reports. 

 Therefore, criticism is not considered evil by the society and individuals, unless they themselves are the subject of criticism. We all enjoy criticizing others. It provides a great relief to the people as the evil of hatred accumulated in their hearts gets a safe outlet. Since you generally criticize a person behind his back and most of the time, the criticized person may not even come to know about it, it is almost a nonviolent method to let go your evil thoughts without harming others. You can have the cake and eat it too, if others can keep secret of your criticism.

 (7)        Accumulation of Wealth

Wealth is considered to be the biggest hindrance in being good. A wealthy man is universally envied and disliked by people as most people link pleasures and power to his wealth. Jesus denounced wealth when he said–‘It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle, than for a rich man to enter into the kingdom of God’ (Mark 10:25).

People accumulate wealth which they may never use in their life. The reason for earning wealth is not merely the pleasure of senses but also to get a sense of superiority over fellow human beings. Accumulation of wealth is usually not possible by honest and moral means. A wealthy man extracts maximum price for his goods and services so that he makes maximum profit in his business. He also exploits his employees by paying them less than their fair share of wages. Thus a wealthy man follows all tricks of the trade to become rich. So a person whose goal of life has become accumulation of money can exhaust many evils in the process of earning wealth as the evil of earning wealth can guard the person from doing other evils. You would not see many rich businessmen committing heinous crimes as they are releasing their evil in the acquisition of wealth itself.

 Release the Evil

The evil thoughts are created in every man as soon as a good thought is born in his mind. Hence, it would not be safe to let only good thoughts released while allowing the evil thoughts to be pent-up. People like Hitler became evil for they left no escape route for their evil thoughts. Hitler had no evil. He was an idealist, teetotaler, vegetarian and avoided married life. He provided no escape route for his evil thoughts which were born naturally in him as he was striving to make Germany the greatest country of the world. The result was that all his evil thoughts got accumulated and burst in the form of extreme hatred for Jews, Russians, French and almost everyone else. The hatred was translated into action that resulted in the loss of millions of human lives. The other great leaders of his time like Roosevelt and Churchill provided safe outlets to evil, so they maintained their sanity and remained more humane. It is, therefore, advisable to allow evil thoughts to escape by following simple methods like sports, competitions and mild intoxicants rather than allowing the evil to take over your thoughts and cause immeasurable damage to yourself, the society and the world.

Reference

1: ‘Why the #$%! Do We Swear? For Pain Relief’, Scientific American URL: http://www.scientificamerican.com/article/why-do-we-swear/

(This article is from the book "Good and Evil: Two Sides of the Same Coin". Please visit http://awdheshsingh.com/book/11/Good-and-Evil:-Two-Sides-of-The-Same-Coin.html for more)