From ignorance of the truth about
man's real nature and faculties and their action and condition after bodily
death, a number of evils flow. The effect of such want of knowledge is much
wider than the concerns of one or several persons. Government and the administration
of human justice under man-made laws will improve in proportion as there exists
a greater amount of information on this all-important subject. When a wide and
deep knowledge and belief in respect to the occult side of nature and of man
shall have become the property of the people then may we expect a great change
in the matter of capital punishment.
But
even though those of the second class are not by intention enemies of Society,
as are the others, they too before their execution may have their anger,
resentment, desire for revenge and other feelings besides remorse, all aroused
against Society which persecutes them and against those who directly take part
in their trial and execution. The nature, passions, state of mind and
bitterness of the criminal have, hence, to be taken into account in considering
the question. For the condition which he is in when cut off from mundane life
has much to do with the whole subject.
All the modes of execution are
violent, whether by the knife, the sword, the bullet, by poison, rope, or
electricity. And for the Theosophist the term violent as applied to death must
mean more than it does to those who do not hold theosophical views. For the
latter, a violent death is distinguished from an easy natural one solely by the
violence used against the victim. But for us such a death is the violent
separation of the man from his body, and is a serious matter, of interest to
the whole state. It creates in fact a paradox, for such persons are not dead;
they remain with us as unseen criminals, able to do harm to the living and to
cause damage to the whole of Society.
What
happens? All the onlooker sees is that the sudden cutting off is accomplished;
but what of the reality? A natural death is like the falling of a leaf near the
winter time. The time is fully ripe, all the powers of the leaf having
separated; those acting no longer, its stem has but a slight hold on the branch
and the slightest wind takes it away. So with us; we begin to separate our
different inner powers and parts one from the other because their full term has
ended, and when the final tremor comes the various inner component parts of the
man fall away from each other and let the soul go free. But the poor criminal
has not come to the natural end of his life. His astral body is not ready to
separate from his physical body, nor is the vital, nervous energy ready to
leave. The entire inner man is closely knit together, and he is the reality. I
have said these parts are not ready to separate - they are in fact not able to
separate because they are bound together by law and a force over which only
great Nature has control.
When
then the mere physical body is so treated that a sudden, premature separation
from the real man is effected, he is merely dazed for a time, after which he
wakes up in the atmosphere of the earth, fully a sentient living being save for
the body. He sees the people, he sees and feels again the pursuit of him by the
law. His passions are alive. He has become a raging fire, a mass of hate; the victim
of his fellows and of his own crime. Few of us are able, even under favorable
circumstances, to admit ourselves as wholly wrong and to say that punishment
inflicted on us by man is right and just, and the criminal has only hate and
desire for revenge.
The
Theosophist who believes in the multiple nature of man and in the complexity of
his inner nature, and knows that that is governed by law and not by mere chance
or by the fancy of those who prate of the need for protecting society when they
do not know the right way to do it, relying only on the punitive and
retaliatory Mosaic law - will oppose capital punishment. He sees it is unjust
to the living, a danger to the state, and that it allows no chance whatever for
any reformation of the criminal.
Theosophy and Capital Punishment, The
Path, September, 1895
No comments:
Post a Comment