Spirituality
The essence of spirituality is distinct from religion and traditions. Spirituality is being true
to oneself. It is a quest for ascertaining the truth. By increased touch with oneself,
spirituality helps us to rise above our baser instincts, prejudices and it stereotypes
everything. When we are true to ourselves, and we are constantly in touch with ourselves,
it is easy for us to locate where the false inputs come from. Spirituality then is what mends
the breach within ourselves.
Justice & -Spirituality
Let us also understand the connect between spirituality and justice in general. Law and
Spirituality are bound together at a fundamental level. Although law focuses on our
separate bodies and spirituality focuses on that unseen which unites us, they are interactive
and mutually dependent entities. Accordingly, one tends to find peace and happiness
flourishing where law supports spirituality and where law, although carefully defined to
protect the individual, is infused with an awareness of the individual’s concomitant
spirituality (unity, oneness). On the other hand, one tends to find strife and warfare where
law denies or is in conflict with spirituality, or where spirituality has lost its legal support.
Justice as an ideal has spiritual value, which expresses spiritual humanism, which is the
ultimate goal of our civilisation. Justice is in fact the central theme of our Constitution. The
Constitution promises social, economic and political justice to all citizens. It also envisages
the establishment of an egalitarian society founded on liberty, equality and fraternity
through the instrument of law.
This correlation of spirituality with justice itself is an indicator of its core value in the legal
process.
The law enlists the rights and duties of the parties, we all know that it is there to come to
the aid of those whose actions have propelled such a protection, and punishes those who
have been the performers of misdeeds. The judgement is nothing but a reflection of one’s
actions of the past that have made them come in front of the courtroom. If one looked at
the law and its process from these lines, then one realises that it is no different, from what
the notion of “Karma” is in the spiritual sphere.
Law has some limitations, sometimes it may not be possible to go to the root cause just by
the Law, Law settles the dispute, and gives the judgement, Spirituality helps in going into
the root cause. Spiritual practices such as Rajayoga meditation enrich the essence of
humanity, imbibe in us empathy for all. It is well mentioned by the Jurists wing that Jurisprudence and Spiritual-prudence are keen disciplines. Both have a common aim: the
promotion of truth and justice and the reduction of crime in the society. Both believe that
people suffer because of their own evil actions. One calls it “crime” and the other calls it
“sin”. So, both can unite their efforts in order to create a better society where people get
social, economic and political justice.
The world has marched into a complex era which is fast paced, one which attributes
happiness to transient material elements, where the simplicity of time spent with oneself
has been overtaken by the complexity of life lived with gadgets, leaving no time spent
alone to reflect on life, on the purpose of our existence, on this corporeal world, on giving
our thoughts a rest, relaxing our physical self, concentrating on all those essentials that
compose our being and meditating to realise that our own consciousness is infinite. If we
understood spirituality as a way of life incorporating all these features, we realise that in
today’s day and age, there is a need especially in the legal profession to incorporate this
particular way of life–for sanity, for wisdom, for reasonableness, to be able to live a life
with dignity, and for stability.
For our conscience to be able to assess the situation at hand and to be able to make our
minds rational, we rely on spirituality. The basic spiritual values and the fundamental
principles of the law which are enshrined in our Constitution are the same, but law gets
refined and evolves into a more socially accepting guidelines in the interest of the society
at large. Though the few similarities that they do share are:
Equal justice – no one should be deprived of their rights which are to be equally distributed
Respect – in spite of differences
Love – as a basic guiding principle of social inclusiveness.
Peace – as a fundamental base to nurture society.
Equality – everyone is equal before GOD and the Law and so on.
Growing spiritually is to raise your values to a higher level and translate those higher
values into action in all that you do. Values are spiritual skills that direct our energies to
very higher levels of accomplishment.
The lawyer who argues passionately steps into the shoes of his client, paints the offence for
the court. In such situations, in a profession where the life of the litigant rests in the hands
of certain individuals, there is a need to understand the importance of the mind, a mind
which can work rationally only if it’s in peace, can cogently form arguments only when its
relaxed and able to concentrate on the vital aspects. This is where medication lends us a
helping hand, where it shows us the path that ought to be taken, brings about a sense of
tranquility where the mind is able to reason and make us value the interminable reach of
our consciousness. We need to use our conscience to aptly understand the rights and
responsibilities, for which we require the subtleness and sensitivity in our conscience and
this can only be developed and nurtured through spiritual prudence and practice of spiritual
values and meditation like Rajayoga.
Lawyers are bound by Code of Ethics which is laid down for them, and has a statutory
force. These ethical values which the legal profession is supposed to practice has inherent
spiritual values. Like the law prescribes the rules for a smooth functioning of the society,
when judges and lawyers imbibe spiritual values in enforcing these laws, we aim to
achieve a better governed society. Spirituality says Sarvajan hitaya, Sarvajana Sukhaya
and this is the basic spirit of the Judiciary but without compromising the rights of any
individuals and a group. Hence, Spirituality and Judiciary should play a complementary
and collaborative role to bring about peace and harmony in the society.
References
Spirituality and the legal profession
Aishwarya Says:
I have always been against Glorifying Over Work and therefore, in the year 2021, I have decided to launch this campaign “Balancing Life”and talk about this wrong practice, that we have been following since last few years. I will be talking to and interviewing around 1 lakh people in the coming 2021 and publish their interview regarding their opinion on glamourising Over Work.
If you are interested in participating in the same, do let me know.
Do follow me on Facebook, Twitter Youtube and Instagram.
The copyright of this Article belongs exclusively to Ms. Aishwarya Sandeep. Reproduction of the same, without permission will amount to Copyright Infringement. Appropriate Legal Action under the Indian Laws will be taken.
If you would also like to contribute to my website, then do share your articles or poems at adv.aishwaryasandeep@gmail.com
We also have a Facebook Group Restarter Moms for Mothers or Women who would like to rejoin their careers post a career break or women who are enterpreneurs.
We are also running a series Inspirational Women from January 2021 to March 31,2021, featuring around 1000 stories about Indian Women, who changed the world. #choosetochallenge