DISCOURSE ON UNIVERSAL HUMAN VALUES

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

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

ANS. Character oriented education that instills basic values and ethnic values in one’s psyche is
called ‘Value Based Education’. The subject that enables us to understand ‘what is valuable’ for
human happiness is called value education. 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
technological innovations.

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.

2. 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 and regions.

· Rational: It has to appeal to human reasoning. It has to be amenable to reasoning and not
based on dogmas or blind beliefs.

· 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 or assumptions.

· 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 and profession.
· Leading to harmony: The value education ultimately is targeted to promote harmony within
the individual, among human beings and with nature.

3. What is the need for value education?

Write a short note on the need for value education in today’s scenario.

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 all levels.

· 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 human society.

· 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 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.

· 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.

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1. 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 observing inside. 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 human life?

2. 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. Thus, they form the content of self- exploration.

2. Self exploration is a process of dialogue between ‘what you are’ and ‘what you
really want to be’. Explain and illustrate.

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. 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.

3. How can we verify proposals on the basis of our natural acceptance? Explain with
example.

or

What do you mean by your natural acceptance? Is it innate, invariant and universal?
Explain

or

“Natural acceptance is innate, invariant and universal.” Explain this statement with an
example.

Ans: 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 fulfillment. 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.
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,
behaviour, 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.

7. What is the meaning of prosperity? How can you say that you are prosperous?

Ans: The feeling of having or making available more than required physical 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.

8. What is the difference between prosperity and wealth? What is more acceptable to
us and why?

or

What do you understand by prosperity? What is the difference between prosperity and
wealth? How are the two related?

or

What is the meaning of prosperity? How does it differ from possession of wealth? Explain
with examples

or

Differentiate between prosperity and wealth with examples.

Ans: Prosperity is a feeling of having more than required physical facilities; it is not just physical
facilities. Almost all of us feel that wealth alone means prosperity and try to explain this
phenomenon on this nonexistent or half fact. Wealth is a physical thing. It means having money,
or having a lot of physical facilities or both. This is a very important distinction. We mostly fail
to make this distinction today. We keep working for wealth, without realizing that the basic
desire is for the feeling of prosperity, to have a feeling of having enough. Prosperity is more
acceptable to us because wealth is just a part of prosperity. 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. A person
has lot of money, but does not want to share even a bit of it. The person ‘has wealth’ but feels
‘deprived’. If one felt prosperous he/she would have shared what one has, since there is lot more
than enough wealth anyway.

9. What is your present vision of a happy and prosperous life?

Ans: 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.

Some of the consequences of such trend are summarized below:

Ø At the level of individual: rising problems of depression, psychological disorders,
suicides, stress, insecurity, etc.
Ø At the level of family: breaking of joint families, mistrust, and conflict between older and
younger generations, insecurity in relationships, divorce, dowry tortures, etc.
Ø At the level of society: growing incidence of terrorism and naxalism, rising communalism,
spreading casteism, racial and ethnic struggle, wars between nations, etc.
Ø At the level of nature: global warming, water, air, soil, noise etc. pollution, resource
depletion of minerals and mineral oils, etc.

All the problems are a direct outcome of an incorrect understanding, our wrong notion about
happiness and prosperity and their continuity – this is an issue for serious exploration.

10. 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:
1. Those that do not have physical facilities/ wealth and feel unhappy and deprived. i.e.
SVDD: Sadhan Viheen Dukhi Daridra – Materially Deficient, Unhappy and Deprived.
2. Those that have physical facilities/ wealth and feel unhappy and deprived. i.e. SSDD:
Sadhan Sampann Dukhi Daridra – Materially Affluent, Unhappy and Deprived. 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 and Prosperous.

Presently, as we look around, we find most of the people in the above two categories called SVD
and SSDD, while the natural acceptance of all human beings is to be in the category of SSSS.

11. “Physical facilities are necessary and complete for animals, while they are
necessary but not complete for humans.” Comment.

or

Explain how physical facilities are necessary but not complete for humans while they are
complete for animals.

or

Physical facilities are necessary but not complete for human being. Do you agree with this
statement? Support your answer with reasons and examples.
Ans: Physical facilities are necessary and complete for animals, while they are necessary but not
complete for humans. It is easy to verify.

For Animals: Animals need physical things to survive, mainly to take care of their body. For
example; cow will look for food when it is hungry. Once it gets the grass or fodder. It eats it, sits
around to chew at leisure. Hence, we can say that as long as animals have physical things, they
are largely fine. They don’t desire other things like knowledge or a peaceful animal society or
getting a good MBA.

For Humans: While physical facilities are necessary for human beings, they are not complete by
themselves to fulfill our needs. Our needs are more than just physical facilities. We all have other
needs, other plans, perhaps we think of going to a movie or reading a book, or go to college, or
watch some TV, or spend time with family and friends….. this list is endless. Thus it is easy to
see that while physical facilities are necessary for us human beings, they are not complete by
themselves to fulfill our needs.

Hence we can say that for animals – “Physical facilities are necessary and complete.”

For humans “Physical facilities are necessary but not complete.”

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

or

What is the program to fulfil the basic human aspirations? Explain

or

Explain the basic requirements to fulfil human aspirations. Give the correct priority
among them.

or
Three things are needed in order to fulfill basic human aspirations–right understanding,
right relationships and physical facilities. Explain meaning of each one of these.

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.