VIEWS OF MANU AND KAUTILYA ON THE ADMINISTRATION OF JUSTICE.

SOCIAL VISION AND SPIRITUAL UNITY.

(The following article is an abstract from the speech delivered by Dr. Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan at Annamalai University on 05th August, 1962).

I am grateful to the Chancellor, the Pro-Chancellor and the Chairman of the Municipal Council of Chidambaram for their gracious words of welcome to me on this occasion of my visit to this city.

You have referred to the sanctity of Chidambaram, how learning and art are controlled, so to say, by a spiritual outlook. You have referred to the Mathematics and Psychology Departments which were to be mainly located in the Arts and Science Buildings, though for other reasons some other departments like Agriculture and Sociology now find their habitation there.

This temple, if it means anything, means that there is one Supreme Reality, incomprehensible and which cannot be described in words or expressed in a logical concept. It also implies that no religion is complete if it does not establish a satisfactory social order, abolishing social inequalities. Nandanar's association with this temple is a warning to us that so long as we insist on artificial distinctions which discriminate against communities, classes or sects, it cannot be regarded as satisfactory. What is said to be Chidambara Rahasya is the mystery of Godhead, a mystery which cannot be described in words.

Mathematics is one of the basic sciences, one of the things which are instrumental for all advanced research. We in this country have made fundamental contributions to it by the decimal system of notation, by the placing of numerals and by the discovery of the zero. Till recently we had continuously made very valuable contributions. You all know the name of Ramanujan; his researches in mathematics, the theory of numbers which he formulated, constitute a subject for advanced study in Cambridge University. In him we have an illustration of how greatness is due to the combination of genius and opportunity. He was a great genius but in impoverished environment. If he had not been given the opportunity, he would have passed away unnoticed. But he was lucky in getting it both at Madras and Cambridge Universities, with the result that so long as science and mathematics are studied, Ramanujan's name will be associated with them.

That is the history of our contribution to mathematics. I would appeal to the youngsters today to hold such examples before them. Other forms of grievances are easy to accomplish by manoeuvring , by intrigue, by exploitation. But  true greatness can be achieved only by concentrated endeavour, selfless dedication, the setting aside of every kind of petty personal preference, the eliminating of yourself and getting absorbed in the subject. That is difficult to achieve. It requires discipline and it is this discipline which students are expected to achieve when they are members of educational institutions. Your career here will be futile, will be trivial, if you are not developing this kind of concentration, the spirit of disciplined dedication to your special subject.  

The Municipal Chairman referred not only to the piety of the place but to the way in which the different arts have been developed here. Art itself is a means for the realisation of the Divine. It is the means by which you are able to grasp the mystery of the Eternal. Art is not merely for the purpose of your entertainment or even education. It is there to produce in you a spirit of satisfaction, to make you different from what you happen to be. Art is not divorced from religion in any sense of the term.

Talking about psychology, there are different ways in which we approach the problem of religion. There is the metaphysical, there is the logical, and there is the spiritual, there is also the psychological approach to religion. In one of our early Upanishads, the author distinguishes the different grades of confluences - akaram, ukaram and makaram, the three put together is omkaram. Akaram is wakeful consciousness, ukaram is svapna, makaram is susupti. There is yet another state of aesthetic consciousness, a state which is called turiya sivam santam. It is the highest state, the state when you transcend the waking consciousness, the dreamless state in which you are face to face with the Ultimate Reality, which is something which cannot be expressed in words. You find it symbolised by the Chidambaram Rahasya, the mystery of Godhead. If it is understood, if it is explained, it ceases to be a mystery. The man who has no sense of mystery is not truly a human being. No doctrine can give you an idea of the Reality. It is like a flame which is passed on from man to man; conceptualism of the Reality - that is something which is subordinate and is not the primary thing. The primary thing is the personal communion with the Ultimate Reality, what is called in the Bhagavadgita Krishnarjuna samvada. It is not a question of dialogue; it is the communion of the individual soul with the Supreme Reality. It is something which cannot be given expression to. You may call it vedanta-vedyam. The way in which you describe it depends on you. Bhagavata Purana tells us that the one Ultimate Reality is called Brahman, something which transcends space. It is something which is impressed in the Reality.  

The symbol of Nataraja is to be found in practically every school from Kashmir to Kanyakumari. Wherever you go, whenever they open a dance, drama or dance school you find there the image of Nataraja in different postures, different ways of Bharata natyam. These are all depicted on the walls of the Nataraja temple here. 

Why are we quarrelling about names today, the names which we should give to the Lord? We know that God is Supreme, is transcendent; there is no man who does not admit the reality of God. What is it that the scientist does? When the scientist is trying to penetrate the mystery of the world of nature, he makes himself a dedicated servant of truth. We regard the Supreme as satya svarupi. Every devotee of truth, every student of science, is automatically a servant of truth and God. Every artist is trying to establish some kind of connection between the effable objects of this world and the eternal mystery which they can reveal. There is no such thing as an aspect of life which is divorced from this ultimate mystery in which it is rooted. Nothing can move in this world, nothing can breathe in this world if there were not this Ultimate Reality; but for It, the whole world would be a mere labyrinth, a maze. 
We recognise that the mystery is ineffable and that the qualifications, the distinctions that we give are merely inadequate expressions, some legendary. When a controversy arose whether it is God Siva or God Vishnu who is supposed to be superior, the answer is given: "We are Saivites, no doubt about it. We are chanting the Siva Mantra every morning. Still our minds run after the Lord of the gopis". There is no fundamental distinction. That is what the Ultimate Reality is. And then we have so many names which we give to God and we give them according to our pleasure - we call the names ista devatas. Even Sankaracharya tells us that God comes to us in the form in which we worship Him to satisfy the desire of our heart.
To quarrel about names, to have communal divisions, communal conflicts and say, "My God is superior to yours", is a sign of illiteracy and ignorance. Until we realise that, we will not avoid communal divisions and conflicts in this country. Here in Chidambaram you have both Siva and Vishnu concepts; you will be able to relaise that there is no difference between the two : the two are but aspects of the one Absolute Reality.
Most of us are unhappy. We think that we are religious; we degrade the name of religion, we do offence to ourselves by sanctifying intolerance, hatred and discrimination. We always say the mahavakyas are there : I am Divine; tat tvam asi - that thou art; the self is divine. Do we practice religion? Our practice belies our professions. You have Nandanar pointing out how man is to be judged by his character. There is no other distinction. Ethical sublimity makes you a great man. Unless in the modern world that we are facing today we are able to attain that spiritual vision, that vision which sees all beings in God and which does not discriminate between man and man, unless we have that social vision and the spiritual unity, unless these two things are combined together, it will not be possible for us to face the future. 
At a time like this when scientific knowledge is being gidden away, when people are developing studies in physics to an abnormal extent and trying not to share that knowledge with other people, now is the opportunity for the prophets of the world to come together at the international level, to recognise that though the roads may twist and  turn, it is the same vision when we get to the top. Every one of us belongs to the same family of the Supreme. If we do not believe in it, religion is a mockery.
I do hope that those who are admitted here will get some idea of the fundamental truths which are never outmoded, which have come to us through centuries, which are there deep down, bred into our consciousness.
I appeal to you to know what this temple of learning, Annamalai University, and that great temple, the Chidambaram temple, on the other side, stand for. Go out into the world as ambassadors of peace.
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