In several posts on this site, as well as on other sites and works, we bring a set of information that allow us to clearly understand how the Diversity of levels of psycho-spiritual development is one of the fundamental aspects of the Law of Universal Brotherhood of Humanity. This aspect of Diversity is just as important as the essential Oneness aspect of all human beings. In light of this knowledge, we can then go on to a general view of the Law of Universal Brotherhood of Humanity, as it presents itself in earthly life.
The quote that we bring in this post by C. Jinarajadasa, well-known author and former International President of the Theosophical Society, provides us with a synthetic exposition of the importance of these two aspects. In these passages, he explains in simple language the fundamental aspects of the Law of Human Brotherhood, with due emphasis on the Diversity aspect, as well as some of its main practical implications, such as government issues and the way to deal with criminals:
“Since a man is a unit of a social organization, the value which any ethical teaching may have for the individual is inseparable from its application to the community of which he is a part. Just as an understanding of certain simple truths modifies a man’s conception of himself, so too the conception of what constitutes the true state, when viewed in the light of the Esoteric Philosophy, profoundly modifies a man’s attitude to his life among his fellow men. (…)
The individuals who compose the state are Souls, immortal egos in earthly bodies; they are the members of the State in order to evolve to an ideal of perfection. As souls, and as all partaking of one Divine Nature, all within the State are brothers; whether rich or poor, cultured or ignorant, law-abiding or law-breaking, all are brothers, and nothing one soul does can modify that fact of nature.
The educated or the proud may refuse to see an identity of nature with the ignorant and the lowly; the weak and the criminally minded may show more attributes of the brute than that of the God. Yet is there in high and low alike the one nature of the Divine Life, and nothing a man does can weaken the bond of brotherhood between him and all the others.
But this Brotherhood of all souls is like the relation of brotherhood within a family; brothers are not all of the same age, though they are of the same parents. So too, among the souls that compose a state, there are elder souls and younger souls; it is just this difference of spiritual age and capacity which makes possible the functions of the real State.
The age of the soul is seen in the response to ideals of altruism and co-operation; he is the elder soul who springs forward to help in the welfare of others, and that soul is the younger who thinks of self-interest first and follows its needs in preference to self-sacrifice on behalf of others.
The divisions which we now have in a state’s life of rank and of wealth are no true distinctions which divide the elder souls from the younger souls; one man born into a high class or caste may yet be a very young soul, while another whose birth is ignoble, according to the world’s conventions, may be far advanced as a soul.
There being in each state elder souls and younger souls, the Law of Brotherhood requires that the elder shall be more self-sacrificing, on behalf of the younger, than the younger should be towards the elder. Since life through long ages has given more to the elder souls than to the younger, more is required from the elder, both of self-sacrifice and of responsibility.
By the natural order of events, the direction of a state’s affairs will fall inevitably on the elder souls. (…) when the state begins to perform its true functions, the direction of its affairs is by an aristocracy, by the best souls, that is, the elder and more capable souls. (…)
The great principle to guide them in their administration is that in all the state’s affairs the principle of Brotherhood shall dominate in all things. This will mean the clear recognition that any preventable suffering or ignorance or backwardness of even one citizen is to the detriment of the welfare of all citizens; since the destiny of each is inseparable from the destiny of all, as rises one so rise all, and as falls one so fall all; that there must be no shadow of exploitation of one man by another, of one class or caste by another. Since, too, all men are souls and, even the least developed, Gods in the making, it becomes the duty of the administrator in all laws and institutions continually to appeal to the hidden Divinity in man. (…)
When there comes in the state the recognition of this hidden God in man, a complete revolution will take place in our attitude to and in our treatment of the criminal. First and foremost, whatever he does, he is our brother. He is a younger brother truly to those of us who are the elders and give implicit and willing obedience to the laws of the state; but though he falls a thousand times, he is our brother even after the thousandth time.” (C. Jinarajadasa. Practical Theosophy, pp. 61-66; emphasis added)