People appreciate spirituality from a practical angle

Auroville Today: Can you tell us something about your background?

I have a long association with both the Sri Aurobindo Ashram and with Auroville. I was born in Madurai, studied business administration, political thought and law, and did a Masters and obtained a Ph.D. in International Law. I started my teaching career in the year 2000 and worked in different places. In 2006, I joined the Sri Aurobindo Ashram and lived there for three years. During these years I used to visit Auroville regularly. This was the most fertile period in my life, inwardly and also outwardly: the ashram life helped me to understand how to apply Mother’s teaching in life and work in the world. I now live and work in Gandhinahar in Gujarat. I teach at the university and in the evenings and weekends help a centre which has Sri Aurobindo’s relics. I give classes in Sri Aurobindo’s Savitri and my wife Ojasi teaches the Bhagavad Gita at the centre.

You presently work as a law professor in the Gujarat National Law University. Is law an area in which you can introduce Sri Aurobindo’s and The Mother’s teaching?

Yes, of course. I see this as one aspect of Integral Yoga. I have been teaching a specialised area, that of public and private international law. Public international law deals with peace between nations, whereas private international law deals with resolving conflicts between parties from different countries. But I was not satisfied as the existing legal systems are in essence punitive in nature. They deal with the social and economic consequences of an issue, but they don’t deal with the psychological causes and consequences. This also applies to international law: sometimes a state refuses to adhere to the verdict of an international court.

In municipal civil law, one party loses and the psychological origins and consequences of a dispute are almost never considered. In criminal law, the aim is to punish the criminal. Restorative justice to heal the victim and collaborative conferencing to put the offender and the victim in a different space rarely happens. Even when it happens, it has certain limitations. The criminal or an offender in civil obligation is never counselled how to change and the state with legal systems is not motivated to change the situation that led to the crime and secure the prevention of a crime and violations.

The Indian legal system has become insufficient. As is well known, there is a backlog of cases – according to one estimate there are 25 million cases pending in subordinate courts, some 4 million cases in the High Courts and more than 50,000 cases in the Supreme Court.

This means that many people will not get ‘justice’ by going to court. And the system of justice is also inefficient in another way: it doesn’t address the need for prevention of injury. So I am working on developing a system in law to prevent injustice and, if injustice happens, to correct it; and finally, to remove the cause of injustice. For that, an integral knowledge of the human being and life, and the role of individual and collective life in society is necessary, a knowledge of all levels of being – from the mind to the vital to the body, and finally how human beings impact environment with their consciousness, and it is here that Sri Aurobindo’s and The Mother’s teachings of integral knowledge and consciousness come in. My legal research is to show how this integral method of Sri Aurobindo and the Mother can help the legal and justice system for our future.

This sounds extremely idealistic.

It is. The legal system is very fixed in its concepts with only rationality as its basis. I used to tell my wife that if one likes to understand human life in any social collectivity and the struggle of legal systems in relation to justice, the pain and suffering of life, one should read Sri Aurobindo’s Savitri. It has two cantos which describe it very well: the Descent into Night and The World of Falsehood, the Mother of Evil and the Sons of Darkness. What I intend to explain is the role of ignorance – separative and perverse consciousness plays in bringing suffering to human life and the role higher consciousness ‘unity, multiplicity and integration’ plays in transforming it. What is applicable in individual life becomes applicable in social life the moment the individual enters social space. So, the ignorance and lack of experience of this higher consciousness results in ‘disconnect’ within and without through which crimes or violations originate. State, legal systems and its research must understand this disconnect with ultimate justice as their goal.

So how do you introduce the teaching of Sri Aurobindo and The Mother?

I decided to introduce some spiritual values into the practice of law and started a course in Ethics Skills Development for lawyers and corporate attorneys. There I introduced the twelve qualities that a lawyer should have, which are, of course, the twelve powers of The Mother. But it was a bit too goody-goody for some people, so I also introduced their opposite qualities – the twelve qualities they should not have! I connected them to legal reasoning and justice, and it worked. For example, sincerity is a spiritual value of awareness and concentration. Its world-value is efficiency. Goodwill inside is mutual-respect outside. Harmony in oneself results in external order. Greed or ambition crushes other’s self-existing rights. Lack of empathy leads to violence at various levels etc. Simply put, spiritual harmony within and without is ultimate justice. I am doing this course now as a training workshop all over India. Next month I will be embarking on a larger adventure, which is judicial ethics for judges. This is all done in my function as professor of law at the Gujarat National Law University, and the participants are invited to come to the university and take this as a course.

Incidentally, I also introduced the twelve qualities in our Gujarat National Law University campus. When the university was built, there was a proposal to name the lecture halls after important people. I was a member of the Executive Council at that time and suggested that we shouldn’t give the rooms the names of big political persons but rather the names of the qualities they had manifested. I proposed the twelve qualities of The Mother (without, of course, referring to the source). That was accepted. So we now have rooms named Sincerity, Purity, Humility, Courage, Peace, Progress etc and everyone reads them every time they pass by or enter the rooms. And shortly afterwards, the large auditorium was named ‘Aura’. I do not know who named it, but I was more than pleased when I saw it.

You mentioned the need to prevent crime and disputes .

I have come to the conclusion that the prevention of crime and civil disputes can only be done from an integral understanding of what one is, what human nature and being consists of. That prompted me to take a new turn. I have recently started a full course, The Integration of Law, Religion, Spirituality and Justice. This brings in psychology, psychiatry, some sociology, and is topped up with the spiritual dimension of life in legal reasoning and justice-quotient. In this way I bring in the teachings of integral knowledge of Sri Aurobindo and The Mother. But as it is sometimes difficult to speak directly about Sri Aurobindo and The Mother to an audience which has not studied their works, I often speak of my own experience, of what I have understood from Them. I have observed that law students, advocates or judges appreciate the value of spirituality from a practical angle. My course is about how to prevent injuries or injustices, starting from the most material to the most psychological. I concentrate on problem solving, not on theorising. I bring examples from existing methods of legal systems, constitutional and international laws and show how to move ahead. This is what everybody is interested in. I have done three training programmes so far, and they have been successful with very good feedback.

Are your ideas used in other law universities in India or abroad?

There is some response. I hope I will get more after the publication of my book on the Integration of Law, Religion, Spirituality and Justice and another one on why lawyers should be spiritually ethical. I have also been invited by three top Ivy League universities in the USA to teach and research on this course, which will happen in 2020. There I want to illustrate my method based on 20 different crimes and show 45 instances where spiritual dimensions can work in law, reasoning and justice in both individual and collective life.

To what extent do alternative conflict resolution systems meet your ideas?

The alternative dispute solution systems, such as mediation and arbitration, are indicative of the direction law and society is moving into. But they are not always fully effective as they usually do not deal with the integral knowledge of the society, of the human being, his psychology, sociology and spiritual aspects of life. And I often see that instead of using the prescribed process to remove the conflict, people contest the process because they are not sure they’ll get ‘justice’.

But the change towards ‘something else’, towards spiritual values and a new age is slowly happening in legal systems and can also be seen in other parts of society. The humanistic approaches, jurisprudence embracing the earth as a whole, therapeutic methods, the ideals of sustainable development, are all based on spiritual values. In India, we also have the concept of ‘corporate social responsibility’ where large corporations are obliged to make donations for humanistic and sustainable projects. Change is happening in all legal systems in the world. We are moving from human to humane, individual to collective, mere commerce to more ecology etc. All these indicate the evolution of consciousness, from social-external to psychological-internal. My research sees all these from a spiritual angle and brings solutions for issues that are not only curative but preventive too.

To give some examples: nowadays, in family-law disputes, people no longer want to go to court. Instead, they are advised to go for mediation and, at the same time, for counselling. For these disputes are not only about the social and economic aspects of a dispute such as a divorce, but also about its psychological costs. I tell my students that all issues should be laid out before the parties so that they can consciously choose the issues they are ready to address.

An example in criminal issues is the work of Ms. Kiran Bedi who, as the first female Inspector General of Prisons, introduced a different management system in New Delhi’s Tihar Jail, one of the toughest jails in Asia. Ms. Bedi believed in reformation rather than punishment, and empowered the prisoners to take a positive attitude to life through yoga, meditation and creative pursuits. Her idea was to give the prisoners hope of a better future once they stepped out as free people. She introduced Vipassana meditation and even formed a panchayat with the inmates as representatives. They became the bridge between authorities and fellow inmates to talk about various problems and come up with solutions.

Is the international legal scene changing?

There are a few indications of change. The best known is the Truth and Reconciliation Commission which was developed in South Africa. Yet, it hasn’t been successful in other countries. It succeeded in South Africa because there was active victim participation through a proper facilitator. People found out that this is required, that including those who suffered and the experience of the facilitator is necessary. The system cannot be mechanically used.

Another example is that of the Indian spiritual leader Sri Sri Ravi Shankar, who mediated in the Colombian crisis and played a role in brokering a peace agreement between the Columbian government and the guerrilla movement FARC. He met the FARC commanders in Havana where he urged them to pursue peace and meditation and his mediation led first to the FARC’s unilateral declaration of ceasefire, then to the bilateral ceasefire and ultimately to the peace agreement between FARC and the Colombian government.

Yet another example is the Five Point Peace Plan which His Holiness the Dalai Lama has presented to the world to resolve the issue of Tibet. He mentioned the increasing interdependence of the nations of the world and said that lasting peace – national, regional and global – can only be achieved if we think in terms of broader interest rather than parochial needs. He spoke of comprehensive solutions that take into account the aspirations of the people most directly concerned.

But, the integral method of Sri Aurobindo and the Mother is deeper, fundamental, collective and transformative. Their life-oriented and world-affirmative spirituality, its experiment in the Ashram and Auroville, is the beginning of a new creation, the rectification and transformation of consciousness.

So you are hopeful that more change will happen?

I am, in the words of The Mother, a voluntary optimist.

In spite of the regressive policies of many countries today?

Sri Aurobindo explains that with every new evolutionary movement that takes place, the old systems crumble. We are now seeing that crumbling everywhere. But it is from the ashes that something new will develop and it has been happening since the advent of the descent of new consciousness on Earth. If we have a conscious positive and cheerful attitude, we will surmount challenges and be the agents of change. One thing that inspires me the most is the Auroville Charter given by the Mother, “Auroville wants to be the bridge between the past and the future. Taking advantage of all discoveries from without and from within, Auroville will boldly spring towards future realisations”. This is our focus.

You have spent three days in Auroville. What are your impressions?

My impression is very satisfying and fulfilling. I have interacted with many people during this visit and was amazed to realize how many great developments there are in Auroville which are unnoticed in the outside world. A number of Aurovilians have done truly remarkable work. My appointment as a Member of the Board has given me the chance and privilege to serve this project.

Auroville is an example of service to the Divine. Matrimandir is a living reality, and Auroville’s psychology is changing impossibilities into possibilities. Auroville’s green ecology is another example of this. These two are something unimaginable. This is the first experiment in human consciousness on the whole earth in which more than 50 nationalities are living together in a state of conscious experimentation at various levels, integrating both material and spiritual, moving from old to new. All over the world, people are now talking about Peace and Human Unity, Oneness and Sustainable Development but an experiment like Auroville with spiritual consciousness as the basis has not been done anywhere else. Its success in the last 50 years gives hope to humanity. Consciousness of the Divine Mother and Sri Aurobindo is present, alive and at work here. Those who practice this are pioneers, forerunners and architects of a new spiritual community and creation that is constantly unfolding. No wonder, UNESCO and prominent international organizations and communities are interested in Auroville’s work of bringing Divine Consciousness into life itself.

I felt Sri Aurobindo’s and The Mother’s presence very alive in all the spaces of Auroville and the assurance of the Divine’s Love which is protecting and leading.