CRIME AND PUNISHMENT FROM A SOCIOLOGICAL VIEWPOINT
Crime and punishment can be examined from so many different angles. One angle would be the sociological one, which is what most people are concerned about. Then, of course, there are metaphysical and philosophical angles in which we can examine what crime is, what punishment is, who should mete out punishment, and who is a criminal.
The laws of sociology are based on one principle: to preserve some form of stability in society. To have this stability in society, limitations have to be put on people’s actions. As we know, sociologists usually do it with a stick. The stick is held there like a school master would – my apologies to the school masters – the stick is there, and thereby fear is instilled into people’s minds, that “If you do this, you will get that”. But the funny thing is that if a criminal steals a million pounds, he will go to jail for 6 months, and if he steals an egg, he will go to jail for a year. Why is this? Psychologists will tell us that the person who has embezzled a million pounds has used far greater brainpower in his planning. Is that planning to be appreciated in lowering the sentence? What a funny business. It brings to mind a remarkable story written by Victor Hugo, “Les Misérables” – the miserable life – where this man, because his wife and children were starving, went to steal a loaf of bread, and stealing that loaf of bread got him into so much trouble. Was this justice?
People who create laws in our social systems cannot always be right. There are many inconsistencies in their judgments and in the background that led to these laws. But the main idea is that they need to instill fear in people’s minds so they will not do wrong. If a traffic cop is behind you while you are driving, you are likely to be careful not to break any traffic laws. Similarly, in all forms of criminal activity, if there were no punishment, people might go out of control and commit all kinds of acts that hurt both society and themselves. So, these laws are necessary.
How these laws are enacted, promulgated, and implemented might need significant reform. Though it could be a curb on others trying to embark on that path, how is criminal punishment going to help the individual? The most significant number of criminals born in this world are made in jail. If a person is convicted, that person will be put in touch with others of like sort, and through the exchange of ideas and views, they do not come out as better people. So, in most cases, if the crime is not severe, the appropriate course is rehabilitation, which alters the criminal’s mind and changes his old mental attitudes and concepts, so that he can try to live a better life. And this can be done through meditational means and by providing knowledge to people in jail. There are other methods. Many people who become policemen do so not because they want to uphold the law, but because of a personal vendetta. We do not say all, but many of them in their childhood have been so oppressed by their schoolmates, their friends, their environment, that they grow up and say, “Let me become a policeman and I will show them.” So, they become policemen. A criminal becomes a criminal because his upbringing has also instilled in him a grudge against society.
So, the criminal has a grudge, and the policeman has a grudge, and the two negatives can never make a positive. Recently, I was invited to talk to a group of policemen. If these very policemen could be put through a course in human psychology, they could learn how the human mind works and then reform the man without further deforming his mind. So far as laws go, there is a lot that is to be desired left out. But punishment has to be there to preserve a specific stability in society.
CRIME AND PUNISHMENT FROM A PHILOSOPHICAL VIEWPOINT
That is from the sociological point of view. Let us examine this: crime and punishment from the philosophical point of view – what is crime? What spurs a person to perpetrate a particular act? Are there any karmic values that might extend further than his childhood? Can we say that all the tendencies of an adult come from childhood, or do they go even further back? Tendencies are not things that could never, never be rubbed out; tendencies can be overcome. Perhaps this person in previous lives might have lived such a life whereby a certain tendency, a particular impression, has been formed in the memory box of his mind, and that he has taken another birth to manifest that tendency, and by manifesting that tendency, he is trying to overcome that tendency.
If everyone tried to manifest their tendencies, this world would be in chaos, because no human being is entirely animal, entirely human, or altogether divine. Every person has these three aspects within them. Through evolution, they have travelled a long journey through thousands, maybe millions, of lifetimes. They have accumulated experiences from the mineral kingdom to plants and animals, and within their minds, they carry all the impressions they have gained. When they were animals, it was in their nature to kill. It is not wrong for a tiger to kill; it is part of the tiger’s nature to hunt for prey to feed itself. A tiger never kills for fun, nor does any other animal. Predators never kill for entertainment; they kill out of necessity. However, that impression of killing remains in the human mind.
The criminal allows his lower nature, as we call it, to dominate his life. He comes with this animal tendency, and then the principle of heredity comes in, and the principle of training the child comes in. When a person comes with that tendency, we say the tendency cannot be rubbed out; it will manifest itself. Here comes the parents’ duty: should the tendency manifest in a retrogressive or a progressive way? Should it be devolutionary or evolutionary? It depends a lot on the parents how to teach the child to sublimate that tendency. Because in any good or bad deed, the same energy is used; it is a matter of direction. All problems in grown-up days are caused only because the direction is wrong. Self-help is one of the principles of our Meditation Foundation, where, through our spiritual practices, we are brought face to face with our problems and weaknesses, and, with effort in daily life, we try to overcome them. By overcoming these tendencies, we are working out our Karmic debts.
When a person is born with criminal tendencies, it is due to Karmic debts, his past Karma, the actions in this life, and previous lives are all brought together, and they would boil up and boil up and boil up so that it could take a wrong turn, it could take a destructive turn. It does not take a constructive turn, as we have said: in destruction or construction, the same power, the same energy, is used. When a person embarks on a destructive course, we say that “SATAN has possessed him”, and if he goes on a constructive course, we say, “He is goodly and Godly”. There is no goodness and no godliness here; it is what he has done and the tendencies and the pattern he has formed. That energy is neutral, and that neutral energy, that Divine energy, which is neutral, can be used by Man because he has free will.
For example, the parents who did not know how to teach the child or direct his tendencies in a good, Godly way have missed that opportunity. Now that the person has grown up, those tendencies are running rampant in him. What must he do? That is the question. If we meet a person who has criminal tendencies, what can he do, or what can we do for him? Now, I know of one power that works that is infallible. I have spoken to people in prison, and I have found that if we, through our meditational practices, uplift our own vibrations, then when we talk to such a person, it inevitably affects that person. And that is why it is said in the Bible, “If they smite you on one cheek, give the other.” “Love thy neighbour as thyself”. So must I look upon the criminal as a criminal, or should I look upon the criminal as a human being that carries within himself a Divine potential? Who is here on earth that is NOT a criminal? Who is here that is sinless? But we condemn because we are trying to cover up our own faults, and the best way to do that is to find the fault in others. And by finding fault in others, we forget our own faults, which leads to condemnation and a tendency to look down on criminals. But if we can show that same person love and care and give that person some understanding, then we are not passing judgment, we are helping, we are rehabilitating the person, and by doing that, who benefits most – WE benefit most. Because by showing that love, by showing that understanding, by recognising the Divinity in that person, we are understanding ourselves better, we are overcoming our crooked tendencies, and at the same time we are helping another. See how beautiful it works; it is so simple.
I wonder why there are criminals on earth. By showing this understanding and by having experience, you have sympathy. When you have sympathy, you have empathy; when you have empathy, you have compassion. All the Scriptures of the world teach all the virtues, and that is why Christ said, “Judge ye not, that ye be not judged”. He said that, and when the prostitute came to him, he said, “I forgive you, my daughter, but sin no more, sin no more”. What great love and what great compassion was shown, and that very love and compassion that was shown, which not only Jesus could do but we could do, too, in our daily living, perhaps in smaller measure. So, where is the question of punishment? When you love, you do not punish. Sometimes punishment is necessary. The child is naughty; you pick up the strap, but even that is done with so much love that the pain inflicted on the child will produce pleasure in him. The child will say, “Oh, I must have been naughty, I must have been naughty, so Mummy picked up the strap.” So even punishing a child should be done with such love that although the body stings, the heart feels love, the heart does not feel hatred, and yet the backside smarts.
CRIME AND PUNISHMENT FROM A SPIRITUAL VIEWPOINT
When it comes to the level of the heart, we do not see crime; we see wrongdoing. We guide the person onto a better path only if we know ourselves. If we recognise Divinity in ourselves through our meditational practices, we can recognise it in others, and by recognising Divinity in others, we do not see the faults. When a woman loves her husband or a husband loves his wife, there can be many discrepancies in the wife or the husband. But because she loves, and love is divine, she does not see the faults, nor does he see the faults.
If there is no love, then those little faults, those little molehills become mountains, while where there is love, mountains are reduced to molehills. That is the power of Love, that is the power of understanding, and all this brings out the greatest virtues in us, and the greatest of these is compassion. We do not hate, we love.
If you have committed a crime, who am I to judge you? How do I know that in my previous lives I have not committed worse crimes? You are a thief now; I might have been a bigger thief. No sinner has not a future, and no saint has not a past. Remember that. By understanding these very few simple principles, we begin to love and transcend the improper actions of our brothers. It is so easy to love thy neighbour as thyself if all our neighbours were good, but love thy neighbour as thyself, whoever they are. They might even be emptying their dirt box over your fence, but if you really love them, they will not do it; that is a promise. If you really love them, they do not do it.
That love and understanding also have to be demonstrated; it is no good just feeling it inside, explain it. And there are millions of ways of showing love. Love can be walled up. Get rid of the walls, get rid of the blocks, and meditation and spiritual practices are the surest means of breaking down the walls and opening the heart so that this heart can flow in its own Divine glory. And it flows, and every one of us can do it, and because we do not want to break down these walls, the love will consciously stagnate. When love stagnates, it affects not only our bodies but also our minds, and when love stagnates, it brings quirks into our minds and turns us into bigger criminals than those we regard as criminals.
So, when we love, it is not a question of punishment – kill if you want to kill, but kill with love. That is the greatest atom bomb in the world, the greatest hydrogen bomb – the “love bomb”. So, spiritual seekers do not think in terms of punishment. Let us get down to home life; all philosophy should be efficient.
WE HAVE TO BE PRACTICAL
Let me tell you a little story. There was a village, and on the other side of the river was the city. There were no industries in the town, so people had to travel by ferry boats across the river to go to work. The ferry boats have all kinds of people. Nevertheless, as we take trains to work at 3 minutes past eight every morning, or 5 to 9, whatever the timetable is, so, like that, the ferries operated on timetables. On this ferry, there was a peasant who used to take it every day to the city, and there was a Pundit. A Pundit is a man who is learned in scriptures, but he was a vain man; he knew all the scriptures, and that had produced vanity in him; he was proud of all the books he read and all the studies he had made. So, on this ferry, the Pundit used to ask the peasants with him, “Have you studied the Vedanta?” They said, “No, revered sir”. “Have you studied the Sankhya Yoga?” they said. “No, revered sir,” they replied. “Have you studied Patanjali, the Vedas, the Upanishads?”. They said no. And he used to boast and show off, “I am a learned man.” So, everybody called him ‘Sir’. But one day, a storm came up, and the boat rocked and the ship sank. The peasant started diving off the boat, and while he was diving off, he asked the Pundit, “Can you swim?” The Pundit could not swim. Who is the practical man? Every day they had to cross the river twice, going to work and coming back. The peasant was a sensible man in that, in the event of a storm brewing or the boat capsizing, let me learn to swim. He was a practical man, so he learned to swim. The Pundit no, in all his Scriptures and books, and he drowned. THAT is the value of practicality.
FROM A SPIRITUAL POINT OF VIEW, WE DO NOT JUDGE CRIMINALS
So, all the Scriptures and all the learning and all the Gurus – they can be parcelled up and thrown into the river. So, what we are trying to say is that all philosophies of life have to become practical; otherwise, they remain up here, only in the brain box, and if you have too much of it there, it can drive you crazy. But if it is conjoined with the heart, then it has practical value. I said that love is a quality to be demonstrated, and we can prove it with our neighbour sitting right next to us. Look at Mr and Mrs Bonnicut sitting so happily there, elbows touching. Married about 50 years, I think, are you? Lovely. It must be demonstrated at all times. So, from a spiritual point of view, we do not judge criminals. You have done an act. I might have done worse. What can I do to help you?” What I can do is love you and give you understanding, and that love and understanding will change your mind and your attitude. And if that does not work either, come with me and we will attend one of the FISU meetings – perhaps some understanding can be found there!
… Gururaj Ananda Yogi: Satsang UK 1978 – 01
