Assignment No 1

Name:- Shrushti Ravindra Satpute Program:- Artificial Intelligence

Course:- Universal Human Values II Roll No:- 21

Q 1. What do you mean by values or human values?

ANS Human Values are the principles, standards & believes that people adopt
as their guidelines in their daily activities
Values are universal & eternal. Truth doesn’t change with time & calendar.
Through generations some values have crystallised as
eternal & universal,which give us our clear do’s & don’t s .
Many of us believe in relative value & think that - Every thing is ok . What is
right for you may not be right for me . If values are
subjective & keep on changing from person to person & situation to
situation, then they are not values .
Consistency in human behaviour: If under ten similar situations, a person
behaves in ten different ways - he becomes incredible
and in turns unreliable. Consistency in behaviour reflects one’s sense of values

Q2.What is value education? Why there is a need of value education?

ANS Values education is the process by which people give moral values to each
other. According to Powney et al. It can be an activity that can take place in any
human organisation. During which people are assisted by others, who may be
older, in a condition experienced to make explicit our ethics in order to assess
the effectiveness of these values and associated behaviour for their own and
others’ long term well-being, and to reflect on and acquire other values and
behaviour which they recognise as being more effective for long term well-
being of self and others

Q3.How does value education helps in fulfilling one's aspirations?

ANS Value education is important to help everyone in improving the value
system that he/she holds and puts it to use. Once, one has understood his/ her
values in life he/she can examine and control the various choices he/ she
makes in his/ her life. Value education enables us to understand our needs and
visualize our goals correctly and also helps to remove our confusions and
contradictions and bring harmony at all levels. It also helps remove our
confusions and contradictions and enables us to rightly utilize the
technologicalinnovations.
Values form the basis for all our thoughts, behaviours and actions. Once we
know what is valuable to us, these values becomes the basis, the anchor for our
actions. We also need to understand the universality of various human values,
because only then we can have a definite and common program for value
education. Then only we can be assured of a happy and harmonious human
society.

Q4.What are the basic guidelines for value education?

ANS. The subject that enables us to understand ‘what is
valuable’ for human happiness is called value education. In order
to qualify for any course on value education, the following
guidelines for the content of the course are important:
● Universal: It needs to be applicable to all the human beings
irrespective of cast, creed, nationalities, religion, etc., for all times
andregions.

● Rational: It has to appeal to human reasoning. It has to be

amenable to reasoning and not based on dogmas or blindbeliefs.

● Natural and verifiable: It has to be naturally acceptable to

the human being who goes through the course and when we live on the
basis of such values it leads to our happiness. It needs to be experientially
verifiable, and not based on dogmas, beliefs orassumptions.

● All encompassing: Value education is aimed at transforming

our consciousness and living. Hence, it needs to cover all the dimensions
(thought, behaviour, work and realization) and levels (individual, family,
society, nature and existence) of human life andprofession.

● Leading to harmony: The value education ultimately is

targeted to promote harmony within the individual, among human beings
and withnature.

Q5.Explain the process of value education?

ANS. The process for value education has to be that of self-exploration, which
includes two things:verification at the level of natural acceptance and
experiential validation in living. Self exploration is the process to find out what
is valuable to me by investigating within myself, what is right for me, true for
me, has to be judged within myself. Through self exploration we get the value
of ourself. Various aspects of reality facilitating the understanding of human
values will be presented as proposals. We need to verify these proposals for
our self and examine our living in this light.

Q6.What is the need for value education? Write a short note on

the need for value education in today’s seenario.
ANS. The subject that enables us to understand ‘what is
valuable’ for human happiness is called value education. Need for
value education is:
● Correct identification of our aspirations. The subject which enables us
to understand ‘what is valuable’ for human happiness is called ‘value
education’ (VE). Thus, VE enables us to understand our needs and visualize
our goals correctly and also indicate the direction for their fulfilment. It also
helps to remove our confusions and contradictions and bring harmony at
alllevels.
 ● Understanding universal human values to fulfil our aspirations in
continuity. Values form the basis for all our thoughts, behaviours and
actions. Once we know what is valuable to us, these values becomes the
basis, the anchor for our actions. We also need to understand the
universality of various human values, because only then we can have a
definite and common program for value education. Then only we can be
assured of a happy and harmonious humansociety.

● Complimentarity of values and skills. To fulfil our aspirations both values

and skills are necessary. When we identify and set the right goals and
produced in right direction. This is known as value domain, the domain of
wisdom, and when we learn and practices to actualize this goal to develop
the techniques to make this happen in real life, in various dimensions of
human endeavour (struggle). This is known as domain of skills.
Hence, there is an essential complementarity between values and skills for
the success of any human endeavour. For example, I want to lead a healthy
life. Only wishing for good health will not help me keep my body fit and
healthy and without having understood the meaning of health, I will not be
able to choose things correctly to keep my body fit andhealthy.

● Evaluation of our beliefs. Each one of us believes in certain things and we

base our values on these beliefs, be they false or true which may or may
not be true in reality. These believes come to us from what we read, see,
hear, what our parents tells us, our friends talk about, what the magazines
talk of, what we see from TV etc. Value Education helps us to evaluate our
beliefs and assumedvalues.

● Technology and human values. The present education system has

become largely skill-based. The prime emphasis is on science and
technology. However, science and technology can only help to provide the
means to achieve what is considered valuable. It is not within the scope of
science and technology to provide the competence of deciding what really
is valuable. Value Education is a crucial missing link in the present
education system. Because of this deficiency, most of our efforts may
prove to be counterproductive and serious crises at the individual, societal
and environmental level aremanifesting.

Q 7. Illustrate the content of value education.What should be the content of

value education to make it complete?How do values relate to our day to
day living?
ANS .The subject that enables us to understand ‘what is valuable’ for human
happiness is called value education. The scope of value education includes all
dimensions (thoughts, behaviour, work and realization)and all levels (individual,
family, society and nature – existence). Accordingly, the content of value
education will be to understand myself, my aspirations, my happiness;
understand the goal of human life comprehensively, understand the other
entities in nature, the innate inter-connectedness, the coexistence in the
nature- existence and finally the role of human being in this nature/existence
entirely. Hence, it has to encompass understanding of harmony at various levels
and finally, learning to live in accordance with this understanding by being
vigilant to one’s thoughts, behaviour andwork.

Q8. Define self-exploration. What is the content of self

– exploration?
ANS.Self exploration is the process to find out what is valuable to me by
investigating within myself, what is right for me, true for me, has to be judged
within myself. Through self exploration we get the value of ourself. We live with
different entirety (family, friends, air, soil, water, trees, etc.) and we want to
understand our relationship with all these. For this we need to start
observinginside.
The main focus of self-exploration is myself - the human being. Content of self
exploration is just finding answers to the following fundamental questions of all
human beings:
1. The Desire/Goal: What is my (human) Desire/ Goal? What do I really want in
life, or what is the goal of humanlife?
2. Program: What is my (human) program for fulfilling the desire? How to fulfil
it? What is the program to actualize theabove?
In short, the above two questions cover the whole domain of human aspirations
and human endeavour. Thus, they form the content of self- exploration.

Q9. Self-exploration is a process of dialog between “what you

are” and “what you really want to be” .Explain with suitable
diagram.
ANS. It is a process of focusing attention on ourself, our present
beliefs and aspirations vis-à-vis what we really want to be (that is to
say, what is naturally acceptable to us). If these two are the same,
then there is no problem. If on investigation we find that these two are
not the same ,then it means we are living with this contradiction(of
not being what we really want to be) and hence, we need to resolve
this contradiction this conflict within us. It is a process of discovering
that there is something innate, invariant and universal in all human
beings. This enables us to look at our confusions and contradictions
within and resolve them by becoming aware of our natural
acceptance.
Q10. In order to fulfill basic human aspiration- right understanding, right
relationships and physical facilities are needed. Explain meaning of each
one of these.
ANS. Our basic aspirations are happiness (mutual fulfillment) and prosperity
(mutual prosperity).
Happiness is ensured by the relationships with other human beings and
prosperity is ensured by working
on physical facilities.
Right Understanding: This refers to higher order human skills – the need to
learn and utilize our
intelligence most effectively.
Good relationship: This refers to the interpersonal relationships that a person
builds in his or her life–
at home, at the workplace and in society.
Physical Facilities: This includes the physiological needs of individuals and
indicates the necessities as
well as the comforts of life. It means the feeling of having or being able to have
more physical facilities than is needed.

In order to resolve the issues in human relationships, we need to understand

them first, and this would
come from ‘right understanding of relationship’. Similarly in order to be
prosperous and to enrich nature,
we need to have the ‘right understanding’. The ‘right understanding’ will enable
us to work out our
requirements for physical facilities and hence correctly distinguish the
difference between wealth and
prosperity. With nature as well, we need to understand the harmony in nature,
and how we can
complement this harmony.

Q11. What do you mean by your natural acceptance and experiential

validation?
ANS. Natural acceptance is a mechanism of self exploration. Self exploration is
a method to explore our self. Natural acceptance is process to understand our
self first. Natural acceptance implies unconditional and total acceptance of the
self, people and environment. It also refers to the absence of any exception
from others. In other words, Natural acceptance is way to accept the good
things naturally. Experiential validation is a process that infuses direct
experience with the learning environment and content. It may be regarded as a
philosophy and methodology in which the direct experience and focused
reflection of the individual helps to increase knowledge, develop skill and clarify
values. Most of what we know about our self is not only through our own
opinion of our self but also because of how others view us. When what we
already believe to be true of us is validated by some situations, phenomena or
outcomes. We may term it as experiential validation.

Q12. Explain the process of self-exploration with a diagram.

“Process of self-exploration leads to realization and understanding.”
Explain with example.
ANS. Self exploration is the process to find out what is valuable to me by
investigating within myself, what is right for me, true for me, has to be judged
within myself. Through self exploration we get the value of ourself. The process
of self exploration is a follows: First of all we have to keep in
mind that, Whatever is being
presented is a PROPOSAL.
● Don’t assume it to be true immediately, nor reject it without
properexploration.

● Verify it in your own right, on the basis of it being naturally

acceptable to you, o Not just on the basis ofscriptures
o Not on the basis of equipment/instrumentdata
o Not on the basis of the assertion by other humanbeings.
Therefore, it is essential to carefully ponder over these on your own right.
Neither
accept these as true immediately nor reject them prematurely without
properexploration.
Don’t just accept / reject these only on the basis of the following:
 ● Because something like this/ different from this, has been mentioned
inscriptures,

● Or, because it has been preached/ denied by some greatmen,

● Or, a large number of people possess such a view / a differentview,

● Or it is claimed to have been verified through some physical instrument or,

claimed that
this is beyond the domain of verifiability by physicalinstruments. Then what
to do

● Verify on the basis of your naturalacceptance

● Live accordingly to validate itexperientially

o If the proposal is true in behaviour with human leadsto mutual happiness
o If the proposal is true in work with rest of the natureleadsto mutual
prosperity
Remember, it is a process of self- exploration, therefore, it has to be
authenticated by us alone by means of verification at the level of natural
acceptance and experiential validation. The process is shown in the
diagram below:
But this process is not complete. It will be completed when on verification
on the basis
of natural acceptance and testing in our living ultimately results in
‘realization’ and ‘understanding’ in us.

● Verify on the basis of your naturalacceptance

● Live accordingly to validate itexperientially

o If the proposal is true in behaviour with human leadsto mutual happiness

o If the proposal is true in work with rest of the natureleadsto prosperity

● Results in realization andunderstanding

● On having realization and

understanding we get Assurance
o SatisfactionUniversality (Applies to all time, space andindividual)
Take for example: a proposal- ‘respect’ is a value in human relation. When I
verify at the level of natural acceptance, I find that it is naturally acceptable to
me. Similarly, when I behave with respect, it is mutually fulfilling to me and to
the other.
Thus the proposal is ‘True’. If it fails on any of the two tests, it is untrue.
This verification leads to realization of the truthfulness of the proposal and it
becomes part and parcel of my understanding. It is reflected in my thoughts
and in my behaviour.
Q13.What do the abbreviations given as SVDD, SSDD and SSSS signify?
ANS. To achieve our basic aspirations we need to work for right understanding
as the base on which we can work for relationship and then physical facilities.
Today we are not working according to this that why we can see that there are
two kind of people in the world:
. Those that do not have physical facilities/ wealth and feel unhappy
and deprived. i.e. SVDD: Sadhan Viheen Dukhi Daridra – Materially
Deficient, Unhappy andDeprived.

. Those that have physical facilities/ wealth and feel unhappy and
deprived. i.e. SSDD: Sadhan Sampann Dukhi Daridra – Materially
Affluent, Unhappy andDeprived.

● But these are states we don’t want to be in. We want to move from this to
third category i.e.

● 3. Having physical facilities and feeling happy and prosperous i.e. SSSS:
Sadhan
Sampann Sukhi Samriddha – Materially Adequate, Happy andProsperous.
Presently, as we look around, we find most of the people in the above two
categories called SVDD and SSDD, while the natural acceptance of all
human beings is to be in the category of SSSS.

Q14. What are the requirements to fulfil basic human aspirations?

What is the program to fulfil the basic human aspirations? Explain
Explain the basic requirements to fulfil human aspirations. Give the correct
priority among them.
ANS. Our basic aspirations are happiness (mutual fulfilment) and prosperity
(mutual prosperity). Happiness is ensured by the relationships with other
human beings and prosperity is ensured by working on physical facilities.
Right Understanding: This refers to higher order human skills – the need
to learn and utilize our intelligence most effectively.
Good Relationships: This refers to the interpersonal relationships that a
person builds in his or her life – at home, at the workplace and in society.
Physical Facilities: This includes the physiological needs of individuals and
indicates the necessities as well as the comforts of life. It means the feeling of
having or being able to have more physical facilities than is
needed.
In order to resolve the issues in human relationships, we need to understand
them first, and this would come from ‘right understanding of relationship’.
Similarly in order to be prosperous and to enrich nature, we need to have the
‘right understanding’. The ‘right understanding’ will enable us to work out our
requirements for physical facilities and hence correctly distinguish the
difference between wealth and prosperity. With nature as well, we need to
understand the harmony in nature, and how we can complement this harmony.

Q15. What do you mean by animal and human consciousness? Explain with
the help of a diagram. Distinguish between ‘human consciousness and
‘animal consciousnesses. How “shiksha and sanskar” are helpful in raising
man to “human consciousness” level.
ANS. Giving all priorities to physical facilities only, or to live solely on the basis
of physical facilities, may be termed as ‘Animal Consciousness’. Living with all
three: Right understanding, Relationship and Physical facilities is called ‘Human
Consciousness’.

From the diagram we can say that:

For animal, physical facility is necessary as well as complete – whereas for
human beings it is necessary but not complete.
Working only for physical facilities is living with Animal Consciousness.
● Working for right understanding as the first priority followed
by
relationship and physical facilities implies living with Human
Consciousness.
 ● There is a need for transformation from Animal
Consciousness to Human
Consciousness. It can be accomplished only by working for right
understanding as the first priority.
● This transformation from Animal Consciousness to Human
Consciousness forms the basis for human values and values based living.
The content of education is the understanding of harmony at all the four
levels of our existence – from myself to the entire existence. Right living or
sanskar refers to the ability to live in harmony at all the four levels of living.
This dimension of society works to ensure ‘right understanding’ and ‘right
feelings’ in individual. Or all encompassing solution called samadhan in
every individual and ensures that our succeeding generation have both the
content and the environment available to work towards achieving their goal
of
continuous happiness and prosperity.

Q16. What is the difference between animal consciousness and human

consciousness? How does the transformation take place in a human
being?
ANS. Giving all priorities to physical facilities only, or to live solely on the basis
of physical facilities be termed as 'Animal Consciousness'. Living with all three:
Right understanding, Relationship Physical facilities is called 'Human
Consciousness
From the diagram we can say that:
• For animal, physical facility is necessary as well as complete — whereas for
human beings it is necessary but not complete.
• Working only for physical facilities is living with Animal Consciousness.
• Working for light understanding as the first priority followed by relationship
and physical fa( implies living with Human Consciousness.
• There is a need for transformation from Animal Consciousness to Human
Consciousness. It accomplished only by working for right understanding as the
first priority.
• This transformation from Animal Consciousness to Human Consciousness
forms the basis for values and values based living. The content of education is
the understanding of harmony at all the four levels of our exist( from myself to
the entire existence. Right living or sanskar refers to the ability to live in
harmony at four levels of living. This dimension of society works to ensure 'right
understanding' and 'right feeling individual. Or all encompassing solutions
called samadhan in every individual and ensures th, succeeding generation
have both the content and the environment available to work towards achieving
the goal of continuous happiness and prosperity.

Q17.“To be in a state of harmony is happiness”. Explain this statement and

illustrate with two examples from your day to day life.
ANS. Happiness is a state of mind or feeling characterized by contentment,
love, satisfaction, pleas joy. Happiness may be described as consisting of
positive emotions and positive activities. In other freedom from want and
distress, consciousness of the good order of things, assurance of one's place,
universe or society, inner peace and so forth. Happiness is the state of mind,
where we feel good in the walk of life. One important characteristic of this
feeling is that we like to continue this feeling. in other words, "The state/
situation in which I live, if there is harmony/ synergy in it, then I like to be in that
situation." i.e. "To be in a state of liking is happiness." If we explore our life we
will find that respect is a state of harmony between two humans. When I
respect the other and the other respects me, I like to be in that situation. It
gives me happiness. Another example, when there is harmony in my thoughts
and feelings, I feel relaxed and I want to be in a situation. This feeling is
happiness.

Q18.There are many problems manifest today at the level of individual,

family, society and the nature. Identify some of these problems humans
suffer from.
ANS. Today we are generally trying to achieve happiness and prosperity by
maximizing accumulation and consumption of physical facilities. This effort is
giving rise to many problems manifest today at the level of individual, family,
society and the nature. These problems are:At the level of individual– Rising
problems of depression, anxiety, suicides, stress, insecurity, increasing health
problems, lack of confidence and convictionetc.
● At the level of family– Breaking up of joint families, mistrust and
disharmony in relationships, divorce, generation gap, dowry deaths,
neglect of older peopleetc.
● At the level of society– Growing incidences of terrorism, violence,
communalism, racial and ethnic struggle, corruption, adulteration, sex-
crimes exploitation, wars between nations, proliferation of lethal
weaponsetc.
● At the level of nature– Global warming, weather imbalances, depletion of
mineral and energy resources, deforestation, soil degradationetc.
All the problems are a direct outcome of an incorrect understanding, our
wrong notion about happiness and prosperity and their continuity.

Q19. What is happiness and prosperity? Are they related to each other?
Can happiness be obtained without prosperity? Explain.
ANS. Happiness may be defined as being in harmony/synergy in the state/
situation that I live in. “A state or situation in which I live, if there is harmony in it
then I like to be in that state / situation. The state of liking is happiness.”
Happiness is a state of mind or feeling characterized by contentment, love,
satisfaction, pleasure or joy. Happiness may be described as consisting of
positive emotions and positive activities. There may be three kinds of
happiness: pleasure, engagement, and meaning. In other words, freedom from
want and distress, consciousness of the good order of things, assurance of
one’s place in the universe or society, inner peace and so forth. Happiness is
the state of mind, where we feel good in most of the walk of life.
The feeling of having or making available more than required physical
d. facilities is prosperity. Almost all of us feel that wealth alone means
prosperity
and try to explain this phenomenon on this nonexistent or half fact. We are
trying to achieve happiness and prosperity by maximizing accumulation and
consumption of physical facilities. It is becoming anti-ecological and anti-
people, and threatening the human survival itself. For prosperity, two things are
required-
1. Identification of the required quantity of physical facilities, and
2. Ensuring availability / production of more than required physical
facilities.
We can be prosperous only if there is a limit to the need for physical
facilities. If there is no limit what so ever be the availability the feeling of
prosperity cannot be assured.
Secondly, just assessing the need is not enough. We need to be able to
produce or make available more than the perceived need.

Q20.“Right understanding + Relationship = Mutual fulfilment; Right

understanding + Physical facilities =Mutual prosperity.” Illustrate the
above with two examples for each.
How do right understanding, relationships and physical facilities help in
fulfilling the aspirations of human beings?
ANS. Our basic aspirations are happiness (mutual fulfilment) and prosperity
(mutual prosperity). Happiness is ensured by the relationships with other
human beings and prosperity is ensured by working on physical facilities.
Relationship refers to the interpersonal relationships that a person builds in his/
her life - at home. at the workplace and in society. Physical Facilities includes
the physiological needs of individuals and indicates the necessities as well as
the comfort of life.
It means the feeling of having or being able to have more physical facilities
than is needed.
Today we are unable to have fulfilling relationships all the time: in familv.
outside family, and as a
society - in the world at large. If there is a problem in relationship, we feel
uneasy, it bothers us. Even if we are interacting with someone, and something
we said or did offends them, it makes us uneasy; i.e. we want mutual fulfilment
in relationship. Similarly, we want to feel prosperous, but end up working only fo
accumulation of wealth. We want to enrich nature, but are exploiting it,
destroying it. But our natural
acceptance is that we want to live in harmony with nature.
The reason behind these problems is that we have to focus on one more
aspect. i.e. right understanding.
Right Understanding refers to higher order human skills - the need to learn and
utilize our intelligence most effectivelv.
In order to resolve the issues in human relationshios. we need to understand
them first. and this would come from 'right understanding of relationship.
Similarly in order to be prosperous and to enrich nature, we need to have the
'right understanding'. The 'right understanding' will enable us to work out our
requirement: for nhvsical tacilities and hence correctly distingush the
ditterence between wealth and prosperitv. With nature as well. we need to
understand the harmony in nature. and how we can complement this harmony.
1. Right Understanding
2. Relationship
3.Physical Facilities
Happiness - with human beings
Mutual Prosperity - with rest of the nature
Thus we can say that when we use right understanding with relationships it
gives us mutual fulfilment
because if we have right understanding, then we can be happy in ourselves and
work to have fulfilling relationships with humans and mutual prosperity with
nature. If we do not have the right understanding, Thus. our happiness depends
on the fulfilment of these three basic requirements
Right understanding + Relationship = Mutual fulfillment.
Right understanding + Physical facilities = Mutual prosperity.