Universal Human Values-2 Understanding Harmoney

UNIT-1: INTRODUCTION TO VALUE EDUCATION

 Value Education
The value of an entity or individual unit is its participation in the larger order of which it
is a part. The context is always the larger order & Value has to do with the participation of
a unit in the larger order. For Better to Understanding let’s take some example, a piece of
chalk is a unit. The classroom is the larger order for this unit. The value of chalk is that it
can be used to write on the blackboard for the desired functioning of the classroom.
Same concept can be applied to human being, the value or role of a human being is its
participation in the larger order. E.g. my role in living with the Family is to ensure the
feeling of respect in the family. Interestingly, I feel happy in fulfilling my role; and it is
fulfilling for the other as well. This concept leads to value for any human being is worth
understanding, worth thinking about, worth living. The value of human being is to ensure
mutual fulfilment of Role in the larger order, i.e. in the entire nature or existence, but
starting from within themselves, then extending in their family and in the society.
Hence, to understand human values, we need to study the human reality along with all that
is there in the entire nature or existence which constitutes the larger order. We need to
explore and understand things as they are so that we are able to recognize and fulfil our
participation with them. That means study has to be all encompassing i.e.
 It has to cover all dimensions of human being – thought, behaviour, work and
realization.
 It has to cover all levels of human living – individual, family, society, nature and
existence
Accordingly, Value Education has to be to understand
 Human being
 Human aspirations & happiness
 Understand the goal of human life comprehensively
 Understand the other entities in nature & the innate inter-connectedness
 The harmony in the nature & existence
 The role of human being in this nature & existence.

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 Need for Value Education Today’s Scenario

The subject that enables us to understand ‘what is valuable’ for human happiness is called
Value education.
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 all levels.
Understanding universal human values to fulfil our aspirations in continuity.
Values form the basis for all our thoughts, behaviors and actions. Once we know what is
valuable to us, these values become 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.
Complementarity 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 endeavor (struggle). This
is known as domain of skills. Hence, there is an essential complementarity between values
and skills for the success of any human endeavor. 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 and healthy.
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 assumed
values.

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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 are manifesting.
 Basic Human Aspiration
Whatever we think, whatever we do is with some end state in mind. That end state is our
basic aspiration.
When you ask yourself:
Do I want to be happy? Or Do I want to be prosperous? Or Do I want the continuity of
happiness and prosperity?
Most of times any normal human beings gives the answers are continuity of happiness and
prosperity with in affirmative or strongly yes, because we have a natural acceptance for
continuity of happiness and prosperity. These are our basic aspirations.
There are two basic aspirations of every human being. Continuous happiness and
prosperity. These are the bases of all our desires and the efforts that go towards achieving
these. The correct meaning of these two terms are discuss below

Happiness:-
It’s a process of assemble circumstances which make a person feel happy. There is a set of
state of mind which we are able to accept naturally. Such as trust, respect, loyalty being
confident about your future etc. It is a continuous process and these feeling always continue
is ourselves. We find these are the situations when we are in harmony and these feeling are
a replication of that harmony. For an example- respect is a state of harmony between two
human beings. When I respect the others and the others respect me, I like to be in that

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situation. It gives me happiness. When I observe myself I have harmony in my thought,

my feelings I feel relaxed, happy. If this harmony disturbed, I feel uneasy.
From this it is evident that the state of happiness can be define as the state or situation in
which I live if there is coherence or collaboration in it then I like to be in that state or
situation & To be in a state of liking is happiness.
On the other hand when we experience feeling such as failure, disrespect, lack of
confidence, being doubtful in ourselves or about other, we feel unhappy as they are states
of conflict. These are the states when there is lack of harmony either within us, or between
us and others. So the state of unhappiness can be define as the state or situation in which I
live, if there is conflict or contradiction in it then I do not like to be in that state or situation
& To be in a state of disliking is unhappiness.
From above discussion, we can define happiness and unhappiness as:-
 To be in a state of harmony is happiness.
 To be in a state of disharmony is unhappiness.
Prosperity:-
Generally, The material things or what we say physical facilities is related to prosperity. It
is conception that to acquire more physical facilities are prosperity. But to know what
prosperity is, we need to understand two things are essential.
 Correct assessment of need for physical facilities.
 The competence of making available more than required physical facilities.
One thing can be clearly stated that we can prosperous only if there is a limit to the physical
facilities. If there is no limit what so ever be the availability in us. The feeling of prosperity
can’t be assured.
Secondly just assessing the need is not enough. We need to be able to produce or make
available more than the need. Suppose, a person has a lot of money, but does not want to
share even a bit of it. The person has wealth but feels deprived similarly a person who not
have a lot of wealth may welcomes you and ask you to stay back for a few days and help
you out. This is an indication of feeling prosperity. So, Wealth is a physical thing. It means

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having money or having a lot of physical facilities or both. Prosperity is a feeling of having
more than required physical facilities. It is not just physical facilities.
It is the misconception in the society that only accumulate physical facilities are prosperity.
But we need to understand that the basic requirements for fulfilling the Human aspirations
are something else
 Basic Requirements for Fulfilment of Human Aspirations
When we try to find out if we have fulfilled our basic aspiration, it is not always so
affirmative. There is quite a gap between our basic aspiration and our state of being. When
we reflect on all the effort we are making, we can easily see that we are generally working
for accumulation of physical facility!
The basic problem is that we have assumed that ‘happiness and prosperity will
automatically come when we have enough physical facility’.
This is something we need to explore in our own life that Where are we putting in our
effort? If continuity of happiness and prosperity is not achieved by just accumulating
physical facility then what else is essential to do?
Let’s try to find out by asking this question to ourselves that There is the unhappiness in
my family, if it is there then it is due to lack of physical facility or lack of fulfilment in
relationship?
When you explore into it, you will find that the major reason for the unhappiness in the
family is the lack of fulfilment in relationship and not just the lack of physical facility.
Now to look at the investment of your effort, find out:
 How much time and effort you are investing for physical facility
 How much time and effort you are investing for fulfilment in relationship
Generally, most of the time and effort is being invested for physical facility, assuming that
everything is going to be fine when there is enough physical facility and there will be no
unhappiness in the family. The problems are more due to lack of fulfilment in relationship,
and we are investing major part of our time and effort for physical facility. With this
discussion, the conclusion that can be draw out of this is

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For human being physical facility is necessary, but relationship is also necessary.
While we do have a natural acceptance to live in relationship, are we actually able to ensure
it while living in relationship? Have we understood this or just assumed it? To understand
this further, find out if:
1. You want to live in relationship (harmony) with others or
2. You want to live in opposition with others or
3. You believe, living has to be necessarily in opposition with others, i.e. there is 'struggle
for survival', ‘survival of the fittest’
Which one you feel makes you happy & want living this way?
A little introspection will show that out of these three, what is naturally acceptable to us is
the first one. You certainly do not want to live in opposition with others. But you may be
conditioned to think in a manner as mentioned in the third option. If we adopt the third
option, it has significant negative implications in our life, in the family and in the society.
That is very evident, what we can see all around today.
In relationship, what is generally happening today is something like this: Every time when
there is fight, we want to resolve it. We start the next day with the thought that we don’t
want to fight today; but a fight takes place again (sometimes by the end of the same day).
Does this happen with you, with your brother, sister, father, mother, spouse, children, with
your friends, co-workers, etc.? Getting irritated, angry, not speaking for days, and dragging
each other to court, divorces etc. are indicators of the situation in relationship.
For ensuring fulfilment in relationship, it is necessary to have right understanding about
relationship.
From the above discussion, it may be concluded that for fulfilment of human being
aspirations, physical facility, relationship and right understanding – all three are necessary.
We can see that physical facility, relationship and right understanding are three distinct
realities. All three are required for fulfilment of human being. One cannot be substituted
for the other. If we investigate into the priority among these, we can see that right
understanding is the first priority, fulfilment in relationship with human being is the second
priority and ensuring physical facility with rest of nature is the third priority.

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Right Understanding:-This refers to our skills – the need to learn and utilize our
intelligence effectively.
Good Relationships:-This refers to the interpersonal relationships that a person builds at
home, at the workplace and in society.
Physical Facilities:-This includes the physical needs of individuals and indicates the
necessities as well as the comforts of life.
On the other hand, if one is living for physical facility alone, and not ensuring right
understanding and right feeling in relationship, then outcome is he or she feels unhappy
and makes others unhappy too.
The other outcome is that if the right understanding is missing, one is not able to identify
the need for physical facility. Now, if we are not able to identify our need for physical
facility then regardless of how much physical facility we accumulate, we never feel that
we have enough. We keep wanting more. This feeling of not having enough is the feeling
of deprivation. As a result, he or she is deprived, exploiting and depriving others.
Now, if we are able to ensure all three, i.e. right understanding, relationship and physical
facility, in that order of priority, let us see what are the outcome (refer to fig.1).

Fig.1 Flow chart for fulfillment of Human aspiration

 Through right feeling in relationship, based on right understanding, we can ensure
mutual happiness i.e. happiness for ourselves as well as happiness for others.

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 With right understanding, we can identify the need for physical facility.
 Learn how to produce using a mutually enriching production process.
Once we are able to ensure the availability of more than required physical facility, we have
a feeling of prosperity.
 Development of Human Consciousness
It is the misconception in the society that happiness and prosperity will automatically come
when we accumulate many more physical facilities whereas physical facility alone may
sufficient for animals but it is not adequate for human being. If any human being is living
with concept that only physical facilities are important in life then him or her living with
‘animal consciousness’s’
While any Human being wants to live with continuous happiness and prosperity and this
is possible by ensuring right understanding, fulfilment in relationship and physical facility
in the correct priority. This kind of living is known as living with ‘human
consciousness’s’.
This transformation i.e. for any human being gone for thought change which is the
transformation from animal consciousness to human consciousness is known as Holistic
Development of human being.

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We can clearly evident holistic development as the transformation of consciousness –to

human consciousness. Of course, it will necessitate working on all three – right
understanding, fulfilment in relationship as well as physical facility; and in that order of
priority. Education & Sanskar has the most significant role to play in this
transformation.
The role of education & Sanskar is essentially to facilitate holistic development, i.e. the
individual transformation to human consciousness as well as the societal transformation to
a humane society. For this, the education-sanskar has to ensure:
 The Right understanding in every child
 The capacity to live in relationship with other human beings
 The capacity to identify the need for physical facility,
 The capacity to identify the skills and practice for sustainable production of more
than what is required, leading to the feeling of prosperity.
Education is developing the right understanding (holistic perspective) Where Sanskar is
the commitment, preparation and practice of living with right understanding. The
preparation includes learning appropriate skills and technology.

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 Natural Acceptance
Natural acceptance implies unconditional and total acceptance of the self, people and
environment. It also refers to the absence of any exception from others. Once we fully and
Truly commit ourself on the basis of natural acceptance, we feel a holistic sense of inner
harmony, tranquility and fulfilment. Actually natural acceptance is way to accept the good
things naturally. Learn everything that is good from others, but bring it in, and in our own
way absorb it; do not become others. We can easily verify proposals in the basis of
characteristics of natural acceptance mentioned below:
a) Natural acceptance does not change with time. It remains invariant with time. For
Example, our natural acceptance for trust and respect does not change with age.
b) It does not depend on the place. Whatever we have accepted, in our life, at any time of
our age, does not change, even if we move from one place to another one.
c) It does not depend on our beliefs or past conditionings. No matter how deep our belief
or past conditioning, as long as we ask ourselves the question sincerely, as long as we refer
deep within ourselves, the answer will always be the same.
d) This natural acceptance is ‘constantly there’, something we can refer to. Natural
acceptance is always there. Whatever we do, this natural acceptance is within us, it is telling
us what is right or wrong.
e) Natural acceptance is the same for all of us -it is part and parcel of every human being,
it is part of humanness. Though each one of us, may have different likes and dislikes and
means to live and to react etc. but if we go deep in our mind the purpose of our work,
behavior, efforts etc. are based on common goals like need to be happy, need to be
respected, need to get prosperity. So our basic acceptance remains the same.
 Self – Exploration
Human Values can be understood by an appropriate process of self-discovery, because they
are potentially there in each and every human being. There is already a natural acceptance
for values in a human being. It is only that we have to discover them or become aware of
them. Thus, the process for Value Education has to be that of self-exploration and not of
giving sermons or telling dos & don'ts.

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Whatever is found as truth or reality may be stated as a proposal and every student is to be
encouraged to verify it on his/her own right. You can check if you want to be able to decide
on your own right or you want somebody else to decide for you? This somebody may be a
group of people; it may be the society or the education system, etc.
If you are not able to decide on your own right then: Someone else is programming you
(deciding what is valuable and what is not valuable for you) Unconsciously you keep
accepting those things as values & You get busy with how to implement them, how to
realize them and materialize them
From this we can defined Self-exploration, It is a process of seeing the reality on our own
right, by our own investigation, observation and analysis. Through this process, we are
trying to understand the reality that exists and our participation with it this participation is
what we are calling values. Self-exploration can be done in two step
The first step: - is to verify the given proposal on your own right, by referring it to your
‘natural acceptance’. If the proposal is naturally acceptable to you, it is right for you. If it
is not naturally acceptable to you, it is not right for you.

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The Second step: - self-exploration is a process of dialogue. To begin with, it is initiated

as a dialogue between us and you. This discussion systematically presents a series of
proposals for your exploration. As you explore, you try to verify the proposals and start
asking these questions to yourself. Then, it turns into a dialogue within your own Self.
The second part of self-exploration is experiential validation. It means trying to live
according to the proposal. In living, there are two parts – one is the behaviour with other
human beings and the second is work with rest of nature. When we are behaving with
human being on the basis of this proposal, we want to verify whether it leads to mutual
happiness or not. If it leads to mutual happiness, it is a right proposal, if it does not lead to
mutual happiness, it is not a right proposal.

The Dialogue Within: - It is a dialogue between “what I am” and “what is naturally
acceptable to me”.
“What I am” has to do with my desires, my thoughts, and my expectations all that is going
on in my imagination. It includes the way I feel, the way I think, how I make decisions,
what I expect from others and all that. It is my current competence on the basis of which I
live.
“What is naturally acceptable to me” is what I really want to be, that is my natural
acceptance. It is my intention. It is a basic reference which is a part and parcel of every
human being. We may or may not be referring to it at present, but it is always there.
When we are in harmony within, we are in state of happiness. When we are in a state of
contradiction within, we are in the state of unhappiness. It is possible for each one of us to
do this self-exploration. The dialogue within constitutes the major part of it. Through this,
we discover our natural acceptance, Become aware of “what I am” & can make effort
to ensure harmony and happiness within by ensuring that “what I am” is in line with my
natural acceptance.
 Content for Self-exploration
Content of self-exploration is just finding answers to the following fundamental questions
of all human beings:

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The Desire/Goal: What is my (human) Desire/ Goal? What do I really want in life, or what
is the goal of human life?
Program: What is my (human) program for fulfilling the desire? How to fulfil it? What is
the program to actualize the above?
In short, the above two questions cover the whole domain of human aspirations and human
endeavor. If we are able to get the answer to these two things, practically all our questions
are answered thus, they form the content of self- exploration.

 Summary
Its needs are feelings in consciousness (like happiness) and these needs are fulfilled by
activity of consciousness, i.e. Right Understanding & Right Feeling Body is material.
Its needs are material (like food) and these needs are fulfilled by material, i.e. Physio
chemical things The needs of consciousness cannot be fulfilled by material The needs of
material cannot be fulfilled by consciousness alone The recognition & fulfillment of the
body is definite
The recognition & fulfillment in the self is on the basis of knowing not in assuming.
If the assumption is based on knowing, the assumption is right and the recognition &
fulfillment is correct → definite conduct.
If the assumption is without knowing, the assumption may or may not be right, so the
recognition & fulfillment is uncertain → indefinite conduct

Q Distinguish between the needs of the Self and the needs of the Body.
What are the needs of the ‘self’ and the ‘body’?
‘The need for physical facilities is temporary’ – explain the meaning of this statement
with any two examples.
Differentiate between the needs of self and the needs of body.
ANS:- The human being is the co-existence of ‘I’ and the body, and there is exchange of
information between the two. We can make this distinction between the self and the body
in terms of the needs as shown in the table below:

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1. Needs are ....The needs of the body like food for nourishment clothes for protection, and
instruments to ensure right utilization can be categorized as being ‘physical’ in nature, or
also called ‘physical facilities’ (suvidha) whereas the need of I is essentially to live in a
state of continuous happiness (sukh). The needs of the body are physical in nature, whereas
the needs of the self (‘I’) are not physical in nature - like trust, respect, happiness etc.
2. In time, needs are... The needs of ‘I’ are continuous in time, unlike the need of the body,
which is temporary in time. We want happiness continuously. We also want the feeling of
respect continuously and so also acceptance in relationship. If we talk about food, clothing,
shelter, or instruments, these are needed only for some amount of time, or we can say that
the need for physical facilities of the body is temporary in time- it is not continuous.
3. In quality, needs are..... Physical facilities are needed for the body in a limited quantity.
When we try and exceed these limits, it becomes troublesome for us after some time. Let’s
take the example of eating. As far as, physical facilities (say rasgulla) go, they are necessary
in the beginning, but if we keep consuming, it becomes intolerable with the passage of
time. This applies to every physical facility. We can only think of having unlimited
physical facilities, but if we try and consume, or have too much of physical facilities, it
only ends up becoming a problem for us. Whereas the needs of ‘I’ are qualitative (they are
not quantifiable), but we also want them continuously. Our feelings are qualitative. Either
they are or they are not. Ex. Happiness is qualitative. Either we are feeling happy or we are
not. Also if a feeling is not naturally acceptable; we do not want it even for a single moment.
If acceptable, we want it continuously.

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4. Needs are fulfilled by....The need of the self (‘I’), for happiness (sukh) is ensured by
right understanding and right feelings, while the need of the body, for physical facilities
(suvidha), is ensured by appropriate physico-chemical

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