No Such Thing as Justice
In this week’s Spot, Sadhguru gives us a glimpse of the recent In Conversation with the Mystic. Dr. Jayaprakash Narayan’s insightful questions are answered with unfailing clarity: “Right now nobody has any right to think about justice. We must become a law-abiding society first; after that the luxury of justice will come... Right now we have no order, where is the question of justice?”
There is no such thing as justice on the planet. What is justice for you will be injustice for someone else. Usually the word “justice” is used to enforce revenge on someone – whether it’s legal revenge or illegal revenge. If somebody does a killing, he thinks he has delivered what someone deserved. That’s why they do it. So let’s not go by justice. Let us simplify the laws and enforce the law. Right now nobody has any right to think about justice. We must become a law-abiding society first; after that the luxury of justice will come. Sometimes when the law itself is cruel, we can break the law and deliver justice. Right now the way we are in this country, there is no luxury like that. Here law must be enforced first. Simply enforce the law – it may be unjust, but enforce it. Because without a semblance of order, there will be no luxury of justice in any society. Right now we have no order, where is the question of justice? Revenge will be labeled as justice.
Now how to bring this about in a society? One most important thing is to simplify the laws. And if you want to live in this country, everybody must understand the basic laws, what the laws are. Most of the people existing in this country do not know what the basic laws are. Every time you ask, they will throw their hands up, they think somebody should tell them. No, we must make it a law that if you want to live in this country at least this many basic laws you must know. If you want to drive on the street, you must know what are the laws of the street, isn’t it? Similarly, if you want to live in this country you must know this, this and this. Not that you heard from your neighbor – not like that. Proper education. Everybody knows that these are the laws, if you break it, this is the punishment. Everybody should know, isn’t it?
And then enforce it. It’s not as simple, enforcing. Making the law itself is complex, enforcement is a super complex thing... because here comes justice, injustice. So for a certain period of time we must be willing to surrender justice and just stick to law. People who are enforcing law sometimes will enforce it in unjust ways – you must endure that. If you don’t endure that, you will have a disorderly society, a lawless society. Then revenge will be the way. But we will call it “justice.” We will go about labeling it as justice, taking revenge on each other. Many things are happening, people are shooting each other, and they think they are rendering justice, because the law is not sensible.
So in making this happen – in creating an orderly society, not a just society – I want you to understand this is a serious sacrifice that we must be willing to make if we want to move ahead. This is a very serious sacrifice that “I don’t ask for justice. Enforce the law on me. Whatever the law, I will go by it. It may not be just, but I will go by the law right now.” If the law is very unjust, we can look at restructuring the law, but beyond the law no justice. Nobody has the discretion to deliver justice. This has to be established. This one thing we have not done yet.
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