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gradational integration of consciousness, both in quantity and quality simultaneously,
until it reaches its culmination, which is known as the Absolute. Law is, thus, an
operation of the system of the Absolute, in different evolutionary degrees of
comprehensiveness and perfection, right from the Ultimate Causality of the universe
down to the revolution of an atom or the vibration of an electron. Social laws and
political systems of administration cannot, therefore, be separated from the requisitions
necessitated by the law of the Absolute. It is just this Universal Transcendent Principle
that either rewards or punishes individuals by its gradational actions and reactions, and
it is this, again, that is the basis of all human behaviour, looking so inscrutable, and this
is the explanation as to why individuals strive for mutual love and cooperation, and, at
the same time, keep themselves ready with a knife hidden in their armpits. Here we
have, perhaps, the foundation of the philosophy of law. Ethics and morality have, thus, a
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necessary value. Law has a meaning, and it points to a truth beyond itself.
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CHAPTER 11
A STUDY OF THE LOGICAL BASIS OF LEGAL AND ETHICAL
PRINCIPLES
An understanding of the foundational principle, behind different controlling systems of
law would require an enquiry into the nature of that intriguing something, known as
relationship among things. In a way it can be said that the various philosophical
systems of the world are only the laboured edifices raised by minds who have struggled
hard to investigate into the true meaning of this apparently invisible but very
substantially real permeating essence termed relation . We almost take it for granted
that the relation of one thing to another is something very clear and so obvious that it is
pointless to spend time in trying to understand what it is. But, on a careful study of the
situation, it will be found that it is a hard nut to crack, and it has defied the grasp of even
the best thinkers of all times. It is because of this difficulty that man simultaneously
entertains a hope for a higher and higher type of unification and a greater bond of
togetherness among people, he can never give up the expectation that such a thing is
perhaps possible, and, at the same time, he has never achieved it up to this time, and is
always in a state of unmanifest war with his brothers subtly lurking within himself, quite
in contradistinction to the hope for a higher tie of oneness which he is longing for and
which everyone seems to be working for everywhere in human society. This double-
edged ambivalent attitude and disposition of man towards life has been his joy as well as
his sorrow. Is this possibly the reason why life has managed to remain an unsolved
mystery?
This enigmatic state of affairs is explicable only by the inscrutable nature of human
relationship . This is also the reason why the basic principles of law and ethics are even
today the subjects for newer and newer research, the end of which has not yet been
reached. Human relationship is a tantalising necessity, a grandeur and beauty, due to
which reason it has been always the theme of magnificent intellectual deliberations and
conferences as well as the ever-beckoning objective, though one never realised fully, of
philanthropists, social welfare circles and even religious idealists. At the same time,
human relationship has also been an unclear spectre which keeps people perpetually in
a state of insecurity due to the suspicious character of its essential nature and a doubt it
often evokes in the minds of everyone that it is not always a trustworthy friend capable
of being relied upon entirely on its face value. Thus it is that we have two kinds of
geniuses in the world: one group which holds that life is a superb manifestation of
universal harmony and a cosmic equality of everything with everything else in a
profundity of love, sacrificing goodness and organic oneness towards which everyone
and everything is tending and must tend; and the other which regards life as a scene of
devastating suffering brought about by the irreconcilability of the psychological
structures of different human individuals, holding, consequently, that social solidarity
and perhaps individual satisfaction cannot be had unless there is the operation of the
mighty machine of legalistic and moral control exercised upon individuals by a ruling
authority, whether it be a single person or a body of persons, a Government or a
Scripture. But, are we anywhere near the finale of human effort and aspiration if we
remain content with a life of anxiety and tense nerves engendered by an eternal conflict
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of these two opposing camps of human idea and action?
We may try to go a little deeper. The crucial point seems to be a necessity to consider
why there should have been these two viewpoints at all of life and its meaning. The
reason appears to be that two constitutive factors have gone to make up what is known
as human life: the factor of unity and the factor of diversity. Both seem to be playing a
uniform role of equal intensity in the present state of human evolution, though it may be
conceded that in a past or a future stage of evolution one or the other of these two
factors may be predominant in varying proportions. Man is happy and unhappy at the
same time, every day, indicating that he has within himself an irresistible urge for a
realisation of oneness of himself with all creation and also a simultaneous pressure of
his ego-ridden psycho-physical individuality which speaks in the language of selfishness
and difference; physical pleasure and egoistic self-assertion which ceaselessly come in
conflict with similar features characterising every other human being also. The world is
both a dharmakshetra and a kurukshetra, a field of the righteousness emanating from
the unitary Absolute existing as the only reality; and at once also a field of activity and
struggle against the heavy odds that one has to confront daily in the teeth of heavy
opposition from other people than one s own self, each one of whom enshrines an
unconquerable passion for affirming the satisfaction of the body and the pleasure of the
ego.
But these are the two major acts in the drama of universal life, and unless we are able to
witness the two scenes in their mutual connectedness aiming at presenting an ordered
completeness of the total picture of the whole drama, we can neither live life nor have a
moment s peace of mind. And what is the solution? In the East, Acharya Sankara and
Gautama the Buddha; and in the West, G.W.F Hegel and Arthur Schopenhauer tended
to emphasise the unity-aspect and the diversity-aspect, respectively, in their own novel
fashion of presenting the ultimate metaphysical and psychological aspects of life s
significance. There is, doubtless, a need to bring these two aspects together, which we
may call the integration of life, a Herculean task indeed.
Here, we also find the basic suggestiveness of social law and order, as well as of ethical
and moral mandates. The political theory of Hobbes is perfectly consistent with the
empirical, the psychological and the seamy-side of human relationship, but the other
side, which is not in any way less important, is the ultimate ontological status of life,
which was the particular specialisation of Hegel s genius. The Social Contract Theory of
human relationship and political organisation will call for a strict State-control by way
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