Spirituality and Law : A Study of Hindu Conceptof Marriage through ‘Ardhnarishwaram’
Homo sapiens is one among many species on earth. That they, unlike other
species, have attained the stature of being called as ‘humans’ is only because
of the spiritual journey they have taken up since time immemorial. They have
escalated to higher degrees of civilization and levels of culture in the past, that
too, with a great exuberance and symphony. It was due to the knowledge of
the ‘inner self’, that has always kept them guided on how to direct human life
settled in a society through which the same inner balance could be achieved
and secured in day to day life.
The present paper is focusing on one such dimension of human being’s life,
that is, marriage, which, in absence of spirituality in it, has lost all its purpose,
and become a ground of battle in today’s time. The bond between man and
woman, which, in the past, used to uplift their consciousness with each other’s
help to a level where they understood the crest of life realized as divine, has
now gone somewhere and taken up the form of a venue where the
constitutional legality and the marital laws have become the norms of the day.
In the present scenario, the marriage system lacks any spiritual dimension in it,
hence the entire cacophony within its ambit while marriage in the past was a
perfect example of a life of harmony between a man and a woman. No law
makers could ever bring this perfection of bonding in them unless they
themselves understood the intricacies of their relationship and live in concord
with each other.
The paper will thus attempt to delineate the reasons of many human follies due
to which restoration of equilibrium in the life of couples in today’s time has
simply become almost impossible. It is certain that there cannot be any law
which will be able to bring back the healthy bond between the two unless the
spirituality is restored within its ambit. The paper will finally talk on the concept of marriage in the past vis-à-vis ‘what’s spirituality’, the concept of
ardhnarishvaram, modern psychological dimensions, constitutional marriage
laws, the concept of love, the polyandry, the rape incidents, etc. in order to
irradiate the missing thread in today’s marriage system, and thus how they
may be restored for the benefit of the entire generation of today’s time.
Dr. Praveen Kumar Anshuman, Associate Professor, Department of English, Kirori Mal
College, University of Delhi, Delhi – 110007 Email: pkanshuman@kmc.du.ac.in
Dr. Satyender Kumar, Associate Professor, Department of English, Kirori Mal College,
University of Delhi, Delhi –110007