"Law as an Instrument of Compassion"

Wednesday, 17 March 2004 - New Delhi Senior advocate of the Supreme Court in Delhi, Shri. R. Venkataramani, is playing an important role in one of the Mata Amritanandamayi Math's newest social welfare projects: a free legal cell called Amritakripa Neeti Pratishtan.

Inaugurated in September 2003 during Amma's 50th birthday, the Pratishtan has already brought together more than 1,008 lawyers, professors of law and retired judicial officers from across India with the aim of providing free legal aid to the poor. Although the Pratishtan's initial effort is in helping India's poor resolve simple domestic disputes, the Ashram's intention is to put it in use for human-rights, environmental- and tribal-law cases in the future..

Amritapuri.org spoke with Shri. Venkataramani when he came to have Amma's darshan at Her New Delhi ashram in March 2004.

When did you first hear about Amma?

"I first heard about Amma some six years ago through newspapers and people talking about Her. Then four years ago, I attended a conference in Kerala. Since I was spiritually interested, I decide to go to Amma's ashram in Vallikkavu. It was a very brief first meeting, but I felt that I would go there again. Then last August, Amma called me. She wanted me to participate in a new project. So together with some legal friends, I came to Amritapuri, spent a day there and had Amma's blessing. She told me nothing specific at that time but said, 'Come back soon.' I came again just before Christmas, and it was then that Amma asked me to get involved with the ashram's child-trafficking and prostitution rehabilitation effort, a project Amma is starting in Calcutta. I am working on that now.

Why is a project like this legal cell of 1,008 lawyers needed?

"We have a good system of free legal aid in many states, and there is attention for litigation and mediation, but it is not on a very sustaining basis. That would involve continuous interaction of people.

"I see the potential for Amma's legal cell to closely interact with the problem areas in a state and work towards a reduction of violence in the domestic sphere. It could use the available legal resources for enhancing the capacity of governance at a local level. These are also possible means to deal with corruption.

"As part of Amma's team of lawyers, I see a lot of potentiality in using all this legal talent, not for only solid cases, but more from the point of view of using spirituality as a means of sinking social differences and changing them.

"We talk about the 'greater potentiality of law' and 'the greater potentiality of spirituality.' We need to merge the two. That is only possible if we start looking at law as a great compassionate tool."

How will this legal cell function?

"It really calls for a dedicated body of legal persons. Ninety percent of lawyers and law are not fashioned in this manner. Even if you look at the wide range of welfare legislation in this country, I would call them dry leaves. And unless you add green content to it, it will not work. You can have a law, for example, that promises equal pay for women, but if you don't have the means to litigate these rights, it doesn't really matter. The pioneering work that has been done in social advocacy by well-meaning jurists shows that these problems definitely can be tackled, but it also shows that state-funded legal aid is not sufficient to deal with these problems.

"Many of these lawyers do excellent work, but their impact is not felt because their work is too fragmented. A lot of effort is getting wasted. I have been thinking over time that science of spirituality needs to be brought in here. And, in my view, that basically means looking at law as an instrument of compassion. Everything seems to be ruled by reason; it is hard to take leave of that. I call that the 'willing suspension of disbelief.' All systems of governance will fail somewhere; therefore, this point of compassion is so important. And in this we need Amma's guidance and inspiration. She comes from a much broader vision. That is where I place Amma's role: some silent work that will reshape what is good governance."

—Devadath