CHAPTER V THE LEGAL PROFESSION
1. A TRAINING GROUND
One afternoon a lawyer was presented to His Holiness and the friend who introduced him said : 'It is usually thought that modern education has a tendency to injure the brāhmaṇyam of the person who seeks it. If that is the rule, my friend here is an exception, for he continues to be as orthodox as one can be and observes the duties of a Brāhmana with scrupulous exactitude.'
H. H.: I am really very glad to learn that he is able to lead a true Brāhmana life in spite of his modern education. Knowing as I do the nature of that education, I must decline, however, to believe that he is an exception to the rule stated by you. If he had not had this education, I am sure he would have been a veritable Vaśishtha. It must have had its effect in keeping him down.
Friend: It may be as Your Holiness says, but I only desired to point out that he was far better than most of us.
H. H.: It may be so (turning to the lawyer) Yours is an independent profession. You have not the disadvantages which service under a master entails.
L.: Certainly so, but I sometimes feel that service is preferable.
H. H.: Why ?
L.: It is no doubt true that we have no master as such, but it is a misnomer to call our profession an independent profession, for we are never masters of ourselves. We are really at the mercy of our clients and the judges. We have no single master but every client that pays for our services becomes our master ; and we have also to adjust ourselves to the whims and vagaries of each judge.
H. H.: You are at least the master of your own time. It is not necessary for you to apply for leave when you need a holiday. You can, if you so desire, refrain from attending the court ; those who are in service cannot do that.
L.: Certainly we may do so, but that means loss of work and therefore loss of income. Further, in the morning hours we have to take instructions from our clients ; and often far into the night we have to study and prepare for the next day's cases. We have to attend courts during the rest of the day. How then can we say that we are masters of our time ?
H. H.: How much time then do you ordinarily devote for your ablutions and divine worship in the mornings ?
L.: Normally, not more than an hour.
H. H.: You can work wonders in an hour. But I suppose you have to put up with disturbance by the members of your family, your friends or your clerks calling for business which they think too urgent and important to admit of delay till your devotional activities are over.
L.: I must confess I have such disturbances frequently.
H. H.: There is nothing strange in it, for even I who have no business in your sense of the word have to put up with disturbance by well-meaning devotees or servants.
L.: Our case is worse. We have practically no time which we can call ours.
H. H.: I suppose that in the course of your professional work you have very often to acquaint yourself with the private troubles and worries of your clients who seek your help for remedying them.
L.: That is our main function.
H. H.: No doubt the client pays you for the trouble you take on his behalf, but I have heard that sometimes the lawyer may have himself to find the money for a client or suggest to him the means of getting it. If so, the lawyer has to shoulder some of the financial troubles also.
L.: It does so happen sometimes.
H. H.: The larger the number of clients, the greater and the more acute will be your burden of worry for their sake.
L.: It is so.
H. H.: It means that practically you may not have much time left to devote to your own personal affairs.
L.: It is unfortunately so. We have to leave the management of the household to womenfolk or to young boys of the family and of the office to our clerks. We have no time to supervise them.
H. H.: The gentlemen who are in other professions find time, I suppose, to attend to all this.
L.: Certainly.
H. H.: That is, by the peculiar nature of your profession you find less time to devote to personal matters than those in other professions.
L : Yes.
H. H.: You have less opportunity, therefore, to contract or cultivate the habit of selfishness. It is really a very great advantage, if only you begin to view it in that light. Instead of complaining that you have no time to devote to personal concerns, you must learn to congratulate yourself on that fact, as it deprives you of the chances of selfishness taking root in you.
L.: It is no doubt an advantage viewed in that light. But it is really ridiculous that we should waste our brains and life in worrying for others.
H. H.: Do you waste your brains for any client who does not engage you ?
L.: Certainly not.
H. H.: You tax your brains only for the client who engages you.
L.: Yes.
H. H.: Do you worry yourself about his case if you do not get or expect any fees ?
L.: No.
H. H.: Your worrying yourself is therefore not for your clients but for your own gain of the fees.
L.: Certainly.
H. H.: There is nothing ridiculous, I suppose, in your exerting yourself to get some substantial benefit for yourself.
L.: Of course none, if the matter is put that way.
H. H.: If your fee is secure, I suppose, you do not very much care if you win or lose a case.
L.: How can I say that ? I am interested in seeing that I win.
H. H.: Of course, if you win, you will have the mental satisfaction of having won a case ; and if you lose you will be sorry to some extent. I did not mean that. If, for example, thanks to your advocacy, your client gets some property or if in spite of your advocacy he loses it, you do not personally share in the gain or loss.
L.: Certainly not.
H. H.: You are not therefore personally interested in your client’s getting the property actually, but are interested in trying to the best of your ability to win the case for him.
L.: Quite so.
H. H.: That is, you put forward your best efforts to win the case for your client, leave the judgement and the result to the judge and God and do not worry yourself further.
L.: That is so.
H. H.: You do this almost every day. Don’t you ?
L.: We do.
H. H.: Apart from the question of fees and confining our attention to the facts that you put forward your best efforts in conducting a case and that you do not personally very much care about the result of the case, don’t you think that your profession is a very good training ground in nishkāma karma or desireless action ?
L.: It is no doubt so. But we never stop to consider the matter in this light.
2. SHARPENING OF THE INTELLECT
H. H.: Further, in your profession you daily have the opportunity of pitting your intellect against that of another lawyer, who appears on the opposite side.
L.: Yes.
H. H.: You may also have to use your intellect keenly, if you happen to cross-examine a clever witness on the other side.
L.: Yes.
H. H.: If the judge happens to be dull, you will have to put forth your best efforts to make him understand your position ; if he is intelligent, you will have to answer his searching questions before you can make him come round to your view. In either case, your intellect and his will have to clash with each other till some finality is reached.
L.: Certainly so.
H. H.: Daily therefore you have to use your intellect as you come into contact with the lawyer on the opposite side, his witnesses and also the judge.
L.: Certainly.
H. H.: A teacher has only to repeat to his student what probably he had himself learnt as a student and has ordinarily no opportunities or necessity of whetting his intelligence. While he has to deal with students, he is dealing only with his inferiors. But in your profession you have to pit your intelligence against more acute brains.
L.: It is so.
H. H.: An instrument which is in constant use can never get rusty.
L.: No.
H. H.: An instrument which is not only in constant use but is being sharpened at every use must get sharper and sharper with every use.
L.: Yes.
H. H.: A lawyer’s intellect therefore must get keener and keener as he advances in years, unlike the intellect of persons in other professions, who have ordinarily no such opportunities of keeping them in constant use, much less of sharpening them.
L.: It would seem so.
H. H.: Why seem ? It is so. That is why we find the lawyers leading in any society, good or bad ; and that is why we find them intellectually very active even in their old age.
L.: Yes, it is so.
H. H.: Thus, your profession has these advantages over others, that you do not have much opportunity for selfishness, that it is a good training ground in nishkāma karma and that it gives you unparalleled facilities for refining your intellect.
L.: It is no doubt so, but I had never considered the matter in this light before.
H. H.: Now you will agree with me that advancing age—leave alone senile old age—is no disqualification to a lawyer, but is really a positive advantage as his intellect will become keener.
L.: Yes.
H. H.: A keener intellect means less time to grasp a thing. Does it not ?
L.: Certainly.
H. H.: A lawyer therefore can learn many things in the time which others may require for learning a single thing.
L.: Yes.
H. H.: Given the same span of life for all, the lawyer has the chance of learning more things than the others.
L.: It is logically true.
H. H.: To acquire the same knowledge as others or even to acquire more knowledge, he requires less time than others.
L.: That naturally follows.
H. H.: His being seemingly more busy than others in worldly pursuits is not inconsistent with his ability to put to the best advantage the few moments of leisure that he may command.
L.: No.
H. H.: In fact, you will find that the busiest of men will have the most leisure and the laziest will always be short of time, for the former utilise time and the latter only waste it. Now, may I know how you utilise your leisure moments ? It cannot be that you spend all your time in your professional work ; you must be having some other things to engage yourself, if only for a change.
L.: I study Tamil literature. It is a vast storehouse of priceless teachings.
H. H.: I have no doubt it is. But have you come across any kind of spiritual or religious teaching in the whole of the Tamil literature which does not refer back to the original in Sanskrit ?
L.: I have not, though some of the modern Tamil scholars want to make out that the Tamil religion was different from the Āryan.
H. H.: Don't you think you will do well to study the original Sanskrit itself ?
L.: But I am getting old and it may not be possible for me to turn to the study of Sanskrit now.
H. H.: Please don’t forget or disturb the conclusion we have already arrived at, namely, that advancing age is not a handicap to a lawyer, but a positive advantage.
L.: But will it be possible ?
H. H.: Try it and then see if it is possible or not. Further, you are a Brāhmaṇa and therefore in duty bound to study Sanskrit. Even in this age of materialism, your parents performed the ceremony of upanayana for you ; even in this age of decadent learning, scholars are available who can and will undertake to teach you. You must not let this opportunity go. For, who knows whether these advantages will be available to you in your next birth ?
3. NEED FOR IMMEDIATE EFFORT
L.: I find it very difficult to get good vaidikas even for the ordinary religious functions in my house ; and during recent years, disgusted with the behaviour of some of them, I had to cut down some of these functions. While the position is such even for formal ceremonial rites, where can I get really good scholars to teach me ?
H.H.: Do you really believe that the times are getting worse and worse and that the chances of adhering to Dharma are growing less and less ?
L.: Certainly I do.
H. H.: What do you think will be the state of our society say a hundred years hence ?
L.: Infinitely worse.
H. H.: Don’t say ‘infinitely’, for even when the Lord proposes to incarnate at the end of the Kali Yuga, four hundred thousand years and more from now, there will remain some pure dhārmika families in which He the Ever Pure can take birth. Say therefore only far worse.
L.: Let it be far worse, then.
H. H.: A man who is born, in the very same place where we are now, a hundred years hence will have therefore far less opportunities of adhering to the Vedic observances or of acquiring right knowledge.
L.: Certainly.
H. H.: A man who hears of a place where no food is available takes care not to go to that place at all. Does he not ?
L.: He will certainly avoid going.
H. H.: If however, he has to go, he takes with him supplies sufficient to last him during his stay in that place. Is it not so ?
L.: Yes.
H. H.: That is, either he avoids going there altogether or equips himself in time to counteract the disadvantages that he may have to face.
L.: Certainly so.
H. H.: Applying the same reasoning, will you tell me what a person, who is now in the world of the living and may expect to be reborn a hundred years later, is to do, if he really feels that then he may not have the advantages which he now possesses ?
L.: He must equip himself now for it.
H. H.: Or avoid being reborn at all ?
L.: Certainly. But how can that be done believing as we do in the inevitability of future births ?
H. H.: Do we believe so, when we postulate that there is a state called Moksha which transcends both birth and death ?
L.: Oh ! But Moksha is not easily got.
H. H.: Easily or not, I suppose it is attainable by human effort.
L.: Certainly.
H. H.: If it is attainable and if it will free us from all trouble and for ever, is it not our bounden duty to make all possible efforts to attain that state or at least to approximate to that state, to the best of our abilities ?
L.: Certainly it is.
H. H.: If therefore you really and earnestly believe that the few facilities that you now have for spiritual advancement are likely to be wanting a hundred years hence, when you may have your next birth, you must with earnestness and faith and redoubled vigour make the best use of the opportunities available to you now, so that you can escape for ever the need to be reborn.
L.: No doubt it is so ; but it is not possible for such as I to hope for Moksha in this life itself.
H. H.: There is no reason at all why you should think yourself incompetent. In any case you will grant that you must equip yourself now as much as you can, so as to prepare yourself for the lesser facilities of the future life a hundred years hence.
L.: Yes.
H. H.: The money, the food and clothing that you may collect in this life here will have to be left behind when you die, and these things can never form any part of the equipment that you will need for your next birth.
L.: No.
H. H.: You know that the only things which accompany the departing soul are Dharma and Adharma. The former is a help and the latter a hindrance. You must therefore in this birth accumulate as much of Dharma as you can and at the same time minimise Adharma as far as possible.
L.: But I find this a very difficult thing, for the surroundings are so bad that it is practically impossible to do a single religious ceremony properly.
H. H.: It may be so. But Dharma is twofold, one which takes the form of ritual that requires a number of persons and accessory things to carry it out and the other japa, concentration and introspection which can be done by yourself. The surroundings cannot affect your acquiring this latter kind of Dharma.
L.: Still the spiritual darkness that is over-running our country is very disheartening.
H. H.: The sun sets every evening and the darkness of night envelops the land. But do we all lie down to sleep immediately the sun sets, saying that darkness has come and therefore we are helpless ? Do we not, each one of us, light a small lamp and get on with our normal activities as long as we can with the aid of that lamp ? If we feel that there is any urgency, we walk miles and miles together during the darkest of nights guided by the flickering light of a torch. We do not stop our work, saying that the sun has set.
L.: That is so.
H. H.: Therefore, if only you feel earnestly and keenly the urgency for escaping from the cycle of birth and death, you will ignore the spiritual gloom prevailing in the land and seek out a guiding torch which will dispel the gloom for you, though it may not do so for the rest of the world. Such a guiding torch is the Guru, your spiritual master. Surrender yourself entirely to him ; he will take you by the hand and lead you to the goal ; he is not blinded by the enveloping darkness and is sure to guide you aright. But you must have true faith in him.
L.: But where in these days can such a Guru be found ?
H. H.: That is an unnecessary question. If you wish for him in all earnestness, he will be before you in no time ;. but if you require his presence only to enable you to test his competency to be a Guru, he will be farther off than before.
4. THE STUDY OF SANSKRIT
H. H.: Now, to return to our subject. I want you to make the best use of your present Brāhmaṇa birth and undertake the study of Sanskrit.
L.: But why insist on the study of Sanskrit ?
H. H.: There are many things in the Sanskrit sacred literature, especially the concepts of Dharma and Brahman, an accurate conception of which you can never get through translations or adaptations.
L.: Why not ?
H. H.: Is any of your boys studying in the higher classes ?
L.: Why ? One of my sons is in the B.Sc. class.
H. H.: What is the subject which he has taken up for special study ?
L.: Physics.
H. H.: I hear the sound that you make when you pronounce the word. As I do not know the language to which it belongs, it has no significance for me and is no more than a sound or a name to me. Will you please explain it to me in Tamil so that I can grasp its significance ?
L.: It is the science which deals with the forces of nature.
H. H.: I see. It explains how thunder and rain are caused.
L.: No, no. That is done by another science called physiography. This deals with the inter-action of things upon each other.
H. H.: How the betel leaf, lime and nut yield the red colour, if used together ?
L.: No, such things are reserved for another science called chemistry. This deals only with states of motion and states of rest of particular things in relation to others.
H. H.: I now understand. Evidently you can learn from it how the earth, the moon and the stars are kept in their places in space or are made to move ?
L.: No, it is not that. That belongs to the province of another science called astronomy.
H. H.: What then is the exact significance of the English word of which I heard the sound ?
L.: I regret I am unable to convey to you in Tamil the exact significance. There is no corresponding term in Tamil and, even if I begin to define it in so many sentences, I may not be able to convey to you the full sense of the term.
H. H.: It does not matter. Leave Tamil alone. Can you define it accurately in Telugu, Canarese or any other language known to you ?
L.: I fear, not.
H. H.: You mean then that there is a concept of science which has a single word in English to denote it but cannot be accurately defined in other languages, even though you may use several sentences.
L.: I have to say so.
H. H.: Now, I hope you will grant me the same concession if I say that there are concepts which can be conveyed by single words in Sanskrit, but which can never be defined accurately in other languages.
L.: Now I see there are bound to be such concepts.
H. H.: Brahman is one of them, as it is said to be aupanishada or capable of being known only through the Upanishads. Let those, who are not authorised or are otherwise incompetent to read the Upanishads in the original, resort to translations or adaptations. It is problematical if the latter are of any use. But why should you resort to them ? That is my point.
L.: I quite understand and I shall try to conform to Your Holiness’ directions.
H. H.: Do so. I say all this only for your own sake. For, what guarantee is there, as I have already pointed out, that you will have the same facilities when you come again into this world ? Make the best use of the opportunities you have at present. If, in spite of your best efforts, you are unable to escape altogether from the cycle of birth and death, you will have, in any case, made yourself strong and prepared for the shortcomings in the facilities that you may have in your next birth. Remember, in this busy world, your profession more than those of others affords opportunities for such a preparation, as I have pointed out before ; and I hope you will profit by them.
L.: I hope to do' so with Your Holiness’ gracious blessings.