CHAPTER NINE

Harmony in the Society – From Family

Order to World Family Order

W e studied the harmony at the first two levels of existence, i.e. the individual and the
family. In this chapter we will study about harmony in the society.

Extending Relationship from Family to Society

As we begin to understand our relationships in the family and live harmoniously in these
relationships, we become aware of our relatedness to all human beings. Family is the first
place to understand our relationships, recognize the feelings in these relationships, live
according to these feelings and attain mutual happiness. As we begin to understand that
relationship exists between my Self (‘I’) and the other’s Self (‘I’), we begin to see that
relationships are not limited in the family but extend to include all human beings.

Ask yourself the following-

“Do I want to live in harmony only within a limited set of people or with everyone?”

Our natural acceptance is to feel related to everyone. We can easily explore this within
ourselves. We find that in reality we not only want ourselves to be happy but also want to
make others happy, even beyond the confines of our family. We see this with our friends,
our colleagues, our co-workers, our teachers, people in the social web that we live in and
even the stranger on the road! Whoever we come in contact with, our natural acceptance is
to be in harmony, to co-exist with them. Our competence might be limited at the moment
and we might feel we are unable to do so but we spontaneously accept that we wish for their
happiness as well, along with ours; this is our intention. We expect the same from the other.
We feel relaxed when we are with people who we feel related to us and we enjoy a feeling of
assurance and trust when we live in this social web. Do we not want this satisfaction, trust
and fearlessness to exist at all times and at all places on this planet?
 162 A Foundation Course in Human Values and Professional Ethics

Harmony in the family is the building block for harmony in the Society. Harmony in
society leads to an undivided society when we feel related with each and every human
being. Today our feelings for our society have become very limited and each one of us lives
in a very small web of relationships. Even these simple relationships in a family may appear
burdensome to a lot of us, not to talk of the world family! Our natural acceptance, however,
is for relatedness with all and we can very naturally expand into the world family. This is
the basis of an undivided society ( Akhandaˆ Samãja*), a feeling of relatedness with all. As
we begin to understand and become aware of the harmony at this level in our living, we
begin to see our responsibility and participation in it.

Identification of the Comprehensive Human Goal

In order to facilitate the fulfilment of the basic aspirations of all human beings in the
society, the following comprehensive human goal needs to be understood. This is what will
be conducive to the fulfilment at the individual level as well as sustainable prosperity, peace
and harmony in the society:

1. Right Understanding 2. Prosperity 3. Fearlessness(Trust) 4. Co- e xistence.

(S am ãdhãna*) (S am riddhi) (A bhaya*) (S aha-astitiva*)

In E v ery In d ivid ua l In E v ery F a m ily In S o cie ty In N a tu re

1. Right understanding is necessary for the human being, for all human beings. When one
does not have the right understanding, one remains disturbed and also acts in a manner
so as to create disharmony with other human being as well as with rest of nature.

2. Prosperity is needed in every family. Prosperity in the family means that the family is
able to identify its needs and is able to produce/achieve more than its requirements.

3. Trust in society means every member of society feels related to everyone else and
therefore there is trust and fearlessness.

4. Co-existence in nature means there is a relationship and complementarity among all

the entities in nature including human beings.

This is the Comprehensive Human Goal. Now ask yourself the following questions:

Are all the four constituents required, or can we do away with any one of them?

If the above is ensured, what else would we need in the society? What else do you
desire living in a society?

* Can be spelt as Akhand Samaj, Samadhan, Abhay, Sah-astitva respectively too.

 Harmony in the Society – From Family Order to World Family Order 163

With little exploration, we find that all four are required for human society. We are not
satisfied with anything less than this. This is the basic minimum requirement to ensure
sustainable happiness and prosperity. We can’t cut down any of them. This is the minimum
level that each one of us wants, and also the maximum we can think of. We can’t think of
anything more than this. This is the target for each one of us, the whole human race and
the human tradition. The moment we leave anyone of them out, there will be loss of
continuity, and the goal cannot be achieved.
We will find that the above mentioned goal is not only comprehensive but also universal
i.e. equally applicable to all human beings and for all times. It includes all our aspirations
and this is the goal for each one of us. As our understanding and awareness deepens (our
competence increases), we begin to take responsibility that spreads beyond the confines of
ourselves and our family and begin to include the entire human society in working towards
the above goal.
Let us revisit the above to verify them. Ask yourself these questions and you will be able
to explore each of the above goals in detail:

1. Do I want right understanding for every human being or do I want that some should
have this right understanding and others may follow them?
2. Do I want every family to be prosperous or do I want only some families, or only my
family to be prosperous and the rest to live in a state of deprivation?
3. Do I want to work for a society in which I can be assured, in which there is trust or
fearlessness or am I okay with a society in which we have mistrust, suspicion and fear
all around? Am I comfortable living with a sense of fear?
4. Do I want to live in co-existence with all of nature or do I want to be in opposition
with nature? Do I want to exploit nature or do I want to enrich it? Do I want prosperity
for both myself and nature?
These are quite relevant questions pertaining to our well-being. We need to explorer
and answer these to ourselves, before we go to make any program for the society.

Thus, this becomes the goal of human society, or the basic need of human civilization.
Now, how are these related?
You will find the following when you look for the relation in the above:

1. The harmony in the society begins from the individual. We need to ensure right
understanding in the individual as the foundation of harmony in the society.
2. With right understanding, the need for physical facilities in the family can be
ascertained. By assessing our needs correctly and by producing more than required,
the family can be prosperous.
 164 A Foundation Course in Human Values and Professional Ethics

3. Assurance of right understanding in the individuals and prosperity in the families,

understanding of human relationships leads to harmony and trust (fearlessness) in
the society. When every individual is able to live harmoniously in relationship, and
the needs of all the families are ensured, fearlessness (mutual trust) in society will
naturally follow.

4. When human beings with right understanding interact with nature, it will be in
consonance with the co-existence and will be mutually enriching.

We may also understand it in the following sequence.

1. Right Understanding Æ 2. Prosperity Æ 3. Fearlessness (trust) Æ 4. Co-existence

Where are we Today?

Now let us evaluate the current situation in this context. Where are we with respect to the
above goal? How do we fare presently?

Right understanding in individuals? - Are we really working for this? You will find that
we are talking so much about information and skills, but we are ignoring the need for right
understanding, we are ignoring the need to understand happiness correctly. We are ignoring
the need to understand and be in relationship.

Prosperity in families? - We are not able to see that the need for physical facilities is
limited and that, we can have more than what we need! We are only talking about how to
generate more wealth. All our economy, education, market is luring individuals to generate
as much wealth as possible. We feel proud in declaring the number of billionaires and
trillionaires in our society, without ever evaluating whether this is taking us to the state of
prosperity! We seem to have forgotten that the need to have wealth is connected with the
need to keep the body healthy and use it for the right purpose and not for maximizing
accumulation for the purpose of sensory enjoyment.

Fearlessness (trust) in society? - In place of working for fearlessness, we are working for
strategic powers. In the name of defence, we are misusing the valuable resources of nature
to make weapons and ammunitions. We are becoming increasingly more fearful of each
other, paranoid that the other human being is out to get me, finish me. So, most of the
countries in the world are busy preparing for war, in the hope that more and more
competence for war will lead to peace! We have organizations like United Nations, but here
too, we do not have programs to ensure mutual trust among people, which is the basis of
fearlessness, peace and harmony.

Co-existence with nature? - Instead of co-existing, we are busy figuring out better ways
to exploit nature. The results are there for all of us to see today. We have tended to assume
 Harmony in the Society – From Family Order to World Family Order 165

that the goal of our technological development is to get victory over nature, to subjugate
the entities in nature and to disrupt nature’s cycles, in pursuance of our whims and fancies.
We even have disregarded the obvious truth that nature is our basic support system and
disturbing its balance will result in our own destruction.

Thus, we have missed out on the core things, and there is need for us to re-align our
focus towards ensuring the right understanding and relationship. For this, we have to
understand the harmony at all levels of our living. We have to move from living with
assumptions to living with right understanding. Each one of us needs to start this journey
within to be able to contribute towards rectification of this dangerous situation.

The problem with us today is that the program to ensure the first step, i.e. right
understanding in the individual, is missing. The route to prosperity and social harmony is
through right understanding only.

Programs Needed to Achieve the Comprehensive Human Goal: The

Five Dimensions of Human Endeavour
In the light of the comprehensive human goal, let us visualize how the following five salient
dimensions of human endeavour are to be shaped and implemented in society. It will be
necessary to develop appropriate systems and programs to cater to the above goal in order
to ensure human welfare.
The five dimensions of human endeavour are:

1. Education – Right Living ( Sikshã - Sanskãra ) (or ‘Shiksha-Sanskar’ for simplicity)

2. Health – Self-regulation (Svãsthya-Sanyama) (or ‘Svasthya-Sanyam’ for simplicity)

3. Justice – Preservation (Nyãya-Surakshã) (or ‘Nyaya-Suraksha’ for simplicity)
4. Production – Work (Utpãdana-Kãrya) (or ‘Utpadan-Karya’ for simplicity)
5. Exchange – Storage (Vinimaya – Kos.a) (or ‘Vinimaya-Kosh’ for simplicity)
These five dimensions broadly cover all the activities that are necessary and fundamental
to the harmonious existence of human society. Let us look at each of these in the light of
comprehensive human goal:

Education-Right Living ( Sikshã-Sanskãra )

‘Education – Right Living’ is made up of two words – Education & Right Living.
 166 A Foundation Course in Human Values and Professional Ethics

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 Sanskãra refers to the ability to live in harmony at all the four levels of
living.

Thus,

Education = To understand harmony at all four levels of living.

Right Living = Commitment and preparedness to live in harmony at all four levels of
living.

It is important to realize that understanding of harmony is accompanied by learning to

live in harmony at all the levels and doing things that ensure harmony at all the levels. The
competence gained from understanding enables us to live in harmony.

We have to ensure the availability and continuity of Education-Right Living in our society.
This dimension of society works to ensure ‘Right Understanding’ and ‘Right Feelings’ or ‘All-
encompassing Solution’ called samãdhãna’ in every individual and ensures that our succeeding
generations have both the content and the environment available to work towards achieving
their goal of continuous happiness and prosperity. This is the goal and objective of education.

Health-Self-regulation (Svãsthya-Sanyama)
We have already discussed about sanyama and health in chapter 7. We will just recall a few
points.

Sanyama refers to a feeling of responsibility for nurturing, protecting and rightly utilizing
the body.

When the body is fit to act according to the needs of the Self (‘I’), and, there is harmony
among the parts of the Body, it is referred to as health or Svãsthya.

Sanyama (or self-regulation) is the basis of Svãsthya.

Justice-Preservation (Nyãya-Surakshã)
We had discussed about justice in the previous chapter.

Justice (Nyãya) refers to harmony in the relationship between human beings, while
Preservation (Surakshã) refers to harmony in the relationship between human being and the
rest of nature.
 Harmony in the Society – From Family Order to World Family Order 167

Justice = ‘Human-Human relation’ – its recognition, fulfilment, evaluation

– leading to mutual Happiness.

Preservation = ‘Human – Rest of nature’ relation - its recognition, fulfilment,

evaluation - leading to mutual Prosperity.

= Enrichment, Protection, Right Utilization of nature.

Justice
We say there is justice in a relationship when there is mutual fulfilment i.e. both individuals
are satisfied: which means the values are rightly recognized, fulfilled, rightly evaluated and
mutual happiness is ensured. Mutual happiness is the goal in relationship and each one of
us has a responsibility in ensuring a continuity of justice or Nyãya in our society.

Preservation
Besides human-human relationships, we also have to work to ensure that our relationship
with the rest of nature is mutually enriching for humanity as well as for nature. This
dimension of our society works to ensure ‘Surakshã’. This involves ensuring the following
three aspects –

1. Enrichment ( I cultivate wheat; this enriches wheat as the quantity grows)

2. Protection (I protect it so that it is fit to eat)

3. Right Utilization (I use it for nurturing of the body and do not let it get wasted).

S urakshã

P rotection R ight U tilization

E nrichm ent
(S anrakshana) (S adupayoga)
(sam vardhana)

Production-Work (Utpãdana-Kãrya)
Work refers to the physical efforts made by humans on the rest of nature, while production
refers to the output/physical produce that is obtained through these efforts.
 168 A Foundation Course in Human Values and Professional Ethics

Work – Labour that human does on the rest of nature.

Production - Things obtained out of work.

There are two important questions that come to mind when we talk of production-
work:

1. What to produce?

2. How to produce?

What to produce
The decision of what to produce depends on the right identification of needs. For this, we
have to identify the physical needs of the body, i.e. what is needed for the nourishment,
protection and right utilization of the body. When we look into this, we can see that there
is a need for: food, clothing, shelter, and various kinds of instruments (ex: means of transport,
communication, remote viewing of images, etc.) for the right utilization of the body.

How to produce
When we come to the question of how to produce, we are referring to the technology or
systems we use for production. On understanding of the harmony at all the levels of our
living, it becomes evident that there is an inherent balance, a harmony in nature. So, it is
only natural that any production system we design or implement is within the framework
that is present in nature, i.e. it does not violate the framework/harmony in nature. When
we look at the way in which nature is organized, the following becomes apparent:

1. The systems in nature are cyclic i.e. they are not open ended.

2. The systems in nature are mutually fulfilling or mutually enriching.

Thus the way to produce is:

Through Cyclical ( Ãvartans ïla ) Process, in harmony with nature.

1. It has to be Cyclic

2. It has to ensure that every unit is enriched

Example of cyclic and enriching process in nature: When a seed is planted in soil and
water is added, it grows to be a tree and in turn, bears leaves, flowers and fruits. The fruits
ripen, leaves mature and fall to the ground and enrich the soil forming manure by decaying.
Seeds are scattered from the fruit into the soil and once again these fruits form a plant and
bear fruit. This way the soil gets enriched, seeds are multiplied and tree grows. Everything
is regenerated. This is nature’s way of enriching the soil. We can see mutual enrichment in
 Harmony in the Society – From Family Order to World Family Order 169

nature in this way. This process is also cyclic. It is not that the seed grows once, and then
the whole process is over. This process continues. We can thus see that the processes in
nature are both cyclic and enriching. Numerous such examples can be taken, between
plants and soil, within plants, between plants and birds, and animals, etc. There is an
inherent balance, in the species, in the entire cycle.

We don’t notice this enough today and appreciate it. When we do start noticing, we
will be highly delighted. We are so lost in our imagination, in our own make-believe worlds
of aims and misconstrued notions of existence, that we don’t pay attention to the very
system that supports all of us. You only need to start paying attention to this yourself, and
you can see the incredibly different ways in which nature is organized. We can start noticing
this ourselves, paying attention to this, when we either walk on the road, or in the park.
You will find that even as you begin to see this balance in nature, as you see and understand
its processes, you will feel more comfortable and more assured.

Examples of enrichment in nature: There is another interesting fact that comes up

when we start paying attention to nature. Production is already taking place in it! Once a
plant starts to grow in nature, it manages its own fertilizer, its own water. We don’t have to
“manage” anything for it, it is not that we ‘grow’ trees today. Trees and plants grow of their
own accord. We can only facilitate that process, by first understanding it, and then learning
the skills. The basic requirements for human and animal survival are already occurring in
nature. So, when we talk of production [with respect to human beings], it is not that we are
going to produce something in nature for the first time! In a sense, we are only extending
the process. Rice and wheat anyway grow in nature, we only work out how we can have
more of it, or only certain varieties in a given land mass – we call this agriculture. Even
today, most of the work in basic production is being done by nature: for example, in
agriculture, most of our effort is in sowing, collecting and storing the food. Rest of the work
is being done by nature.

Hence, when we are talking of production, it is desirable to extend this production

system that is already inherently present in nature, which is cyclic and mutually enriching.
For example, guavas are grown in nature, we eat them and finally it goes back to soil
through human excreta. We can extend this process by making jam or jelly out of guava
and eat the jam or jelly. This making of jam or jelly is production, which is essentially an
extension of the cyclic production process already taking place in nature. If we start
paying attention, it is very much possible for human being to ensure production process
which is cyclic and enriching for nature. Let’s take an example. The tress and plants are
anyway growing in nature. The amount of wood one person would require in his life time
can be obtained from four full grown trees. How many trees can a person plant in his life
time? Certainly more than four, it can even be ten, twenty or hundred. So, if aware, a
human being can be enriching for nature in a much more effective manner than an
animal can do.
 170 A Foundation Course in Human Values and Professional Ethics

Let us study a little about nature here. We will do this study further in the next chapter
in detail.

S oil, air,
w ater, etc.

P lants H um an B eings
?

A nim als,
B irds

In nature, there are four different kinds of entities. One kind of entity includes materials
such as air, water, soil, metals & non-metals, etc. The other kind has plants, herbs, etc. The
third kind has animals & birds, and the fourth kind includes human beings. When you
look at their interrelationship, you find that the materials, plants and animals are enriching
for the other entities including human beings. We saw some examples above about the
interwoven cycles and enrichment in nature. Based on these cycles and mutual enrichment
only, the production is naturally taking place in the nature. Humans only have to understand
this feature of nature. The purpose of science and technology is to facilitate the cyclic
processes in nature and make human beings more and more fulfilling to the other entities.
But you will find that human beings are neither enriching (fulfilling) for humans nor for
the other three kinds of entities. If only we understand the processes in nature, we can
design our production systems through application of science and technology in such a
way that this mutual fulfilment is better ensured, rather than disturbing it.

Exchange-Storage (Vinimaya-Kosa& )
Exchange (vinimaya) refers to the exchange of physical facilities between the members of
the society, while storage (kos.a) refers to the storage of physical facilities that is left after
fulfilling the needs of the family.
 Harmony in the Society – From Family Order to World Family Order 171

It is important to note that exchange and storage is done for mutual fulfilment and not
for madness of profit or exploitation or hoarding.

Exchange- Exchanging of produce for mutual fulfilment.

(With a view of mutual fulfilment, not MADNESS of profit)

Storage – Storing of produce after fulfilment of needs.

(With a view of right utilization in future, not HOARDING)

Each family has the capacity to produce more than what it needs for itself. Say, if a
family produces wheat, it can produce for ten families together. The other family can similarly
produce cotton for all its neighbourhood. Summing up all the needs in the society, the
families are capable to produce more than the need. And then we can exchange things. This
exchange can take place in the form of commodities themselves, or through currency, wherever
required.

When we produce more than required, we exchange for our current needs and store for
future needs. This storage is to be used when the production is not taking place, or some
relative of ours needs it.

One thing to observe in the two activities is that we are exchanging so that all of us are
able to fulfil our needs together. It is meant for mutual fulfilment, and not to exploit the
other, not with a madness of profit. This is what is naturally acceptable to us, though we
may be living far from it. Similarly, we are storing for proper utilization of the physical
facility in the future. We are not doing it with a view to hoard. As soon as we are able to
recognize the relationship with the other human being or the rest of nature, we cannot
think of exploiting anything. This is what our natural acceptance is, what our basic aspiration
is.

We can now see how these five dimensions of humanistic society are able to ensure the
human goal:

Education – Right living ——— leads to ———————— > Right understanding

* Having the process of education and right living leads to right understanding in the individual

Health – Self-regulation ———— leads to ————————> Prosperity

* Having the program for health and sanyam leads to well being of the body, and identification
of need for physical facilities which along with production ensures feeling of prosperity in the
family.

Justice – Preservation —————— leads to ————> Fearlessness and Co-existence

(respectively)
 172 A Foundation Course in Human Values and Professional Ethics

* Ensuring justice in relationship, or mutual fulfilment in relationship on the basis of values

like Trust, Respect, etc leads to fearlessness in society, while Surakshã of nature – via enrichment,
protection and right utilization leads to co-existence in nature.

Production – Work ———— leads to ———————> Prosperity and Co-existence

* Production and work are for physical facilities, and this leads to a feeling of prosperity in the
family. Production is done in harmony with nature, and hence, this also leads to co-existence with
nature.

Exchange – Storage —————— leads to ——————> Prosperity and Fearlessness

* When we store and exchange for mutual fulfilment and not for exploitation, then it leads to
fearlessness (trust) in society.

We can summarize it as follows:

Sikshã - Sanskãra ————————————————> samadhãana

Svãsthya-sanyama ————————————————> samriddhi

Nyãya-Surakshã ————————————————> abhaya & saha-astitva

Utpãdana-Kãrya ————————————————> samriddhi & saha-astitva

Vinimaya-kos.a ————————————————> samriddhi & abhaya

What is our State Today?

Let us observe our programs today in these five dimensions and evaluate whether they are
leading to the fulfilment of human goal.

Education-Right Living
On this account, we have progressed in terms of taking literacy to all corners of the society.
Information which was limited to a selected few has got spread to the masses. We have
developed means of communication to reach out to every human being. Girls and boys,
both are able to attain education. But, we need to relook at the content of education and
the effect of this content on the living of human beings.

Certainly, we have progressed in terms of making education within reach to all, but the
programs of education have become mere programs of literacy, training and information
transfer. The real mark of an educated human being, as we saw above, is that he/ she is able
to lead a happy and prosperous life in oneself, and be mutually fulfilling all around. But do
 Harmony in the Society – From Family Order to World Family Order 173

we see this today? We find that the educational programs of today are making the individuals
feel more dissatisfied and deprived. In the whole process, we just learn how to multiply
physical facilities, without ever trying to make out how much is needed. Training and
information transfer programs, including literacy programs are of course required. But they
are a small part of the whole education process; they are not the complete education. This
needs to be understood by all of us.

As mentioned above, human education ensures understanding and living in harmony

at all levels of human existence, from self to entire existence. We are missing in the very first
level. Do we study about our own self in twenty years of our education and training?

Health-Self-regulation
We had discussed on this in chapter 7.

In this dimension, we have made progress in terms of reducing infant death, increasing
the life expectancy through medication, removal of epidemics, implanting artificial parts in
the body to support the functioning of the body and so on.

These facilities are of course an asset. But as we learnt, Sanyama is basic to Svãsthya.
Lack of understanding of the Body as an instrument of the Self (‘I’) coupled with the
technological progress has led us to go for newer sources of sensual pleasures, irresponsible
practices in living, etc. In place of being responsible to the Body, we are relying more on
medication. We are developing micro- and nano- technologies to cure smallest parts of the
body, but we are producing new diseases day by day through irresponsible living.

Justice-Preservation
In terms of justice, we have progressed on account of bringing every act of crime to the
court of law. Every issue related to relationship can now be debated in the court of law. But
is the court of law the place to get justice? If we look at the situation today, we find that we
have thousands of courts and lawyers and they are all trying to settle injustice in relations.
Judgements are passed and punishments are given. This does not ensure justice! In justice,
there is mutual fulfilment for both parties.

The fulfilment of relationship at the level of individual and family is deteriorating. TV

serials depict in great detail the bad state of our affairs and are creating large viewership for
such things. At the level of nations, we have rising fears of destructive wars with growing
innovations in science and technology. The competition and enmity between nations or
communities is on the hike, the feeling of mistrust and fearl in villages and cities is slowly
growing. The number of legal suits is increasing exponentially, families are breaking for
trivial gains, communal violence and conflicts between factions of society are multiplying.
 174 A Foundation Course in Human Values and Professional Ethics

Regarding Surakshã, we can see from history how we humans have fared well in
developing new technologies which have high degree of utilization for the mankind. We
have explored new dimensions of science to get information about every corner of nature.
But due to lack of understanding, we have misused them more than rightly using. We can
see that in terms of:

1. Enrichment: We have largely disturbed nature via chemicals and depletion of resources
rather than enrich it. Urgent steps are needed to rectify this trend.

2. Protection: The natural resources have been depleted to a large extent, birds and
animals are fast getting extinct, the forested areas are on the wane, pollution is on the
rise, be it air pollution, water pollution, soil pollution, plastic pollution, and so on.
We have produced bombs to destroy the earth multiple times, while destroying even
once is not desirable!

3. Right utilization: Again, we have fared very poorly. Today is an era of consumerism
and wastage! We produce many times more clothes, electronics, cars, watches, cell-
phones, etc. than we need! Managing all this production has become a major problem
for us today! All we are interested in is having more and more of it (accumulation).
Hence, instead of right utilization, we have ended up exploiting and disposing off vast
amounts of natural resources.

Mentioned above are certain things that need attention in our living too. Check for
yourself, in your house. How many pairs of footwear do you need? How many do you have?
Repeat this for towels, for clothes, shirts, pants, etc. Are you utilizing all these things
properly? Are you even paying attention to it? When we rightly utilize something, it gives
us fulfilment. It also ensures there is no wastage at the level of nature. Whereas today, we
hear of companies overproducing chocolates and butter, and dumping thousands of tons of
this into the sea! We hear of people having hundreds of pairs of footwear! While these can be
extreme examples, each one of us can check and see what we are doing today to ensure right
utilization: of water, of clothes, of food and of vehicles. Right utilization is the most important
part of Surakshã. Nature already has such things of use in abundance that we need not
produce, only utilize rightly. But we are destroying even them.

Production-work
We have seen that nature is cyclic and enriching. How do we, as human beings, fare when
it comes to interacting with nature? On this account, we have done very well in terms of
making our production systems efficient and automated, reducing the time, material and
energy requirement in production, ability to produce variety of complicated parts and
mechanisms, reducing the dependence on natural processes, and so on.
 Harmony in the Society – From Family Order to World Family Order 175

But all of us know how we have multiplied the environmental problems in the process
and how we have increased consumerism today. We have disturbed the ecological balance
and our production activities have upset the cycles in the nature.

Let us take into account some more facts here:

Cyclic – Acyclic: While nature’s processes are all cyclic (close ended) our processes are
acyclic (open ended). If nature functions in such a way that all resources are continuously
renewed and replenished (like water, manure in the soil, etc), man’s processes deplete them.

For example, when we burn coal, it is a non-renewable resource. We can never again
produce the coal we are burning today. This is what we mean when we say ‘open ended’.
This is true for all fossil fuels: petrol, diesel, coal. All these are being pulled out from the
bottom of the earth and being consumed by us. There are two problems with doing this:

l The utility of all these fossil fuels at the bottom of the earth is to keep the temperature
on the earth's surface in a steady state – from the heat in its own core, and the heat
from the sun. By depleting fossil fuels, we are tampering with the ability of the earth
to maintain its temperature. This is an irreparable damage we are doing.

l When we burn the fossil fuels in enormous quantities, it pollutes the atmosphere, and
poisons the air we breathe. And our basic need, to keep the body healthy, is affected.

We can take many such examples (plastics, foams, etc), where the production systems
designed by man, violate the cyclic principle inherent in nature thus causing an imbalance
in nature. This in turn effectively causes trouble for man himself.

Enriching-not enriching: Are we enriching nature, or are we not? Largely the answer is
NO. Take the example of pesticides and fertilizers. It is common knowledge today that the
land that has seen heavy use of chemical fertilizers becomes unfit for agriculture. And the
pesticides are poisoning our own bodies and the animals and birds as well. In the process of
moving towards a global economy, we have increased our technological capabilities and
increased the production capacities of our industries and factories. In this process, we have
managed to make extinct thousands of plant, animal and insect species. The statistics on
this is quite terrifying. We seem to be hurtling towards problems of great magnitude as we
continue down the path of environment destruction.

Exchange – Storage
In terms of exchange and storage, we have developed efficient ways of selling and buying,
sending or receiving money and investing them to multiply faster than nature could ever do.
Sitting with the laptop, we can purchase commodities across the world and invest our capital
in distant markets. Profits can multiply overnight, and we can enter the list of trillionaires
without any physical work. We can also store hoards of currency within a digital map.
 176 A Foundation Course in Human Values and Professional Ethics

But with these rising modes of exchange and storage, the exploitation of mankind and
nature has shot up. The disparities in wealth have increased, and the madness for profit has
become the general motivation.

Liquidity of money has of course helped us by providing a smooth mode of exchange.

But it has created more problems than solutions. These problems are the outcome of our
mis-perception in visualizing money which is a notional entity to be the same as physical
facilities which are tangible and are our real needs. It needs to be remembered that money
is not a need in itself but only a mechanism to facilitate exchange of physical facilities.

Harmony from Family Order to World Family Order: Universal

Human Order
Having understood the comprehensive human goal, we are able to be in harmony not only
with human beings, but also with the rest of nature. We are able to see that we are related
to every unit in the nature and ensure mutual fulfilment in that relationship. Working on
the five dimensions of human endeavour in the light of right understanding, we are able to
work for an orderly living of the human society, whose foundational unit is the family and
the final destination is the world family. Thus, a number of family units in the form of a
village and a number of villages integrate to larger clusters of human society – expanding in
this sequence finally to a universal human order on this planet. Living in this order, we are
able to plan for the need of physical facilities, the availability of natural resources and the
role of human beings in ensuring the need at the level of planet. We are able to work for
inculcation of universally acceptable human values through education, plan systems to
ensure justice for all human beings, make policies for the well-being of all.

ˆ Samãja)- feeling of being related to every human being.

Undivided Society ( Akhanda

Universal Human Order (Sãrvabhauma Vyavasthã) - feeling of being related to every

unit including human beings and other entities of nature.

Summary
l Society is our third level of living. Understanding of values in relationship helps us to
extend our harmonious living with people in the society.

l The comprehensive human goal is (1) right understanding in every individual,

(2) prosperity in every family, (3) fearlessness (trust) in the society, and (4) co-existence
in nature.
 Harmony in the Society – From Family Order to World Family Order 177

l Lack of understanding of harmony has led astray our programs and we are not able to
work for the fulfilment of comprehensive human goal today.

l The programs to fulfil the human goal are included in the five dimensions of the
society:

(a) Education – Right Living ( Sikshã - Sanskãra )

(b) Health – Self-regulation (Svãsthya-Sanyama)

(c) Justice – Preservation (Nyãya-Surakshã)

(d) Production – Work (Utpãdana-Kãrya)

(e) Exchange – Storage (Vinimaya – Kos.a)

l Education is to understand harmony at all four levels of existence.

Right Living is the commitment and preparedness to live in harmony at all levels.

l Self-regulation (Sanyama) is the feeling of responsibility for nurturing, protecting

and rightly utilizing the body.

Health (Svãsthya) is the state of body when it is fit to act according to the needs of the
Self or ‘I’, i.e. there is harmony among the parts of the Body.

l Justice (Nyãya) is the recognition, fulfilment and evaluation of values in ‘Human-

Human relation leading to mutual Happiness.

Preservation is the recognition, fulfilment and evaluation of values in ‘Human – Rest

of nature’ relation leading to mutual Prosperity.

= Enrichment, Protection, Right Utilization of nature.

l Work is the labour that human does on the rest of nature.

Production is the physical facility obtained out of work.

Here two issues are important:

1. What to produce ?

- Physical facilities for nurturing, protecting and rightly utilizing the body.

2. How to produce?

- Through Cyclical ( Ãvartans ïla ) Process, in harmony with nature

1. It has to be Cyclic.
 178 A Foundation Course in Human Values and Professional Ethics

2. It has to ensure that every unit is enriched.

l Exchange- Exchanging of produce for mutual fulfilment, not MADNESS of profit.

Storage – Storing of produce after fulfilment of needs, with a view of right utilization
in future, not HOARDING.

l Our state today is that we have worked hard in all the five dimensions of human
endeavour but the lack of right understanding has created a variety of problems today.

l The way out is to understand and to live in harmony at all the levels of living, right
from oneself to the whole existence.

l This paves way for moving towards a universal human order on earth.

REVIEW QUESTIONS

1. Right understanding in the individuals is the basis for harmony in the family, which is the building block
for harmony in the society. Give your comments.
2. What is the comprehensive human goal? Explain how this is conducive to sustainable happiness and
prosperity for all.
3. Critically examine the state of the society today in context with the fulfilment of comprehensive human
goal.
4. What are the five dimensions of human endeavour in society conducive to 'mãnaviya vyavasthã'?
Explain.
5. What is the meaning of education and sanskãra? How does sanskãra follow education?
6. Write a short note on the concept of 'surakshã'.

7. What is Ãvartansïla process of production? Explain with two examples.

8. Explain, giving examples, how pollution and resource depletion are both the direct outcomes of ignoring
Ãvartansïlatã ?
9. How can exchange of physical goods be mutually fulfilling? Evaluate the motivation of exchange in
today's scenario.
10. Why is storage required in a society? Suggest any two ways in which you can store the produce for right
utilization in the future.
11. What in your opinion, is an effecting way of ensuring prosperity in the family? What programs can you
undertake in this respect?
12. Indicate a few feasible steps to promote harmony in the society and co-existence with nature.
13. What do you mean by 'universal human order'? What could be your role in moving towards it?
 CHAPTER TEN

Harmony in Nature – Understanding the

Interconnectedness and Mutual Fulfilment

W e started by saying that the basic human aspiration of every human being is continuous
happiness and prosperity. Exploring the meaning of happiness, we found that
happiness is to understand and live in harmony at all levels of living. So far, we discussed
the harmony at the level of the human being, the family and the society. While discussing
the harmony at the level of society, we came across the relationship of human being with
the rest of nature. In this chapter, we will discuss the harmony in the nature and see how
the entities in nature are interconnected and mutually fulfilling.

The Four Orders in Nature

If we look around, everything that we see can be put into one of the following four ‘orders’.

a. Material Order (padãrtha avasthã*) – e.g. soil, water, air, etc.

b. Plant/Bio Order (prãn.a avasthã*) – e.g. grass, plants, trees, flowers, fruits, etc.

c. Animal Order (jïva avasthã*) – e.g. Animals and Birds.

d. Human (Knowledge) Order ( gyãna avasthã*) – Human Beings.

The big land mass of the continents, gigantic water bodies like ocean and seas, mountains
and rivers, the atmosphere above, the heaps of metals and mineral below, the dense gases &
fossil fuels deep below the surface of the earth – all fall into the Material Order or padãrtha
avasthã. In fact, if we look around beyond the earth, the material order is visible even in the
form of stars, planets, moons and several astronomical bodies.

*
Can be spelt as padarth avastha, pran avastha, jiva avastha, gyan avastha, respectively too.
 180 A Foundation Course in Human Values and Professional Ethics

Our land mass is covered with grass and small shrubs and they form the lining on the
entire soil. Shrubs, plants, and trees form huge forests along with the flora in the ocean. All
of this is the plant/bio order or prãn.a avasthã and it is the next big order on our planet.
(The material order is far greater in quantity compared to the plant/bio order)

Animals and birds form the third largest order and we call them the Animal Order or
jïva avasthã. Here again, we see that the plant/bio-order is far greater in quantity than the
animal order.

Humans are the smallest order and they are referred to as Human Order or gyãna
avasthã. Animals are far greater in quantity as compared to the human order.

Each one of us can recognize all these four orders around ourselves and see that together
these four orders comprise of all the units that we see and understand around us.

Interconnectedness and Mutual Fulfilment (Paraspartã aur Paraspara

Pürakatã)
*“paraspartã” means ‘interconnectedness’. “paraspara püraka” means ‘mutually fulfilling’

Let us look at the first three orders namely the Material, Plant/Bio (pranic) and Animal
Order. We can easily see that they are interconnected. Each order is connected to each
other order. And the relationship between these orders is in such a way that they all fulfil
each other and coexist with each other.

M a teria l O rd e r
P a dartha-av as thã
s oil, w ate r,etc

P la n t/B io -O rd e r
P rãn a-ava sth ã
plants , he rbs

A n im a l O rd er
J ïva -av as thã
anim als , birds
 Harmony in Nature – Understanding the Interconnectedness and Mutual Fulfilment 181

Material Order and Plant/Bio-Order

The Material Order provides the nutrients to the Plant/Bio-Order in the form of soil,
minerals, etc while the Plant/Bio-Order decays and forms more nutrient, thus enriching
the soil. The Plant/Bio-Order also decays to substances like oil and coal, which are stored
deep within the earth as protection against the heat from the molten core inside the earth
as well as the heat from the sun (today, this is the material we are removing and using as fuel!).
Plants help move the nutrients through the various layers of the soil. The roots of the plants
hold the soil together and prevent the soil from erosion. Plants produce oxygen/ carbon
dioxide and thus help in the movement of the Material Order. Thus Pranic order and
Material Order, naturally exist in a relationship of mutual fulfilment with each other. They
also co-exist, they don’t deny the other. There is a mutual interdependency and co-existence
we can see here.

Material Order, Plant/Bio Order and Animal Order

The Material Order provides the basis for movement of all animals, birds and fishes. Water,
Oxygen and other gases are necessities for both plants and animals. At the same time, the
Animal Order helps enrich the soil with its excreta and this excreta helps the plants with
nutrients. The Plant/Bio Order provides food for animals, birds and fishes. The Animal
Order helps in pollination of the flowers of the Pranic order. The relationship across all
three orders is – naturally one of mutual fulfilment. None of these orders denies the other.

Material Order, Pranic Order, Animal Order and Human Order

It is clear that the above mentioned three orders are fulfilling to each other. When we look
at the connectedness with human beings, we find that each of these orders is fulfilling to
the human order. This we can verify looking at the multiple uses we are drawing out of
these entities. We humans also have a natural acceptance to be mutually fulfilling to these
three orders. However, we are not able to ensure this mutual fulfilment. We are dependent
on the material order for soil and minerals and metals, but only end up polluting the soil
and depleting the fossil fuels; we are dependent on plants for our food and holding together
the larger ecosystem, but we have destroyed forests and destroyed multiple species of plants
and herbs; we are dependent on animals to carry out our production and transportation
activities, but have made many species of animals enxtinct, and are today known for our
cruelty towards animals.
 182 A Foundation Course in Human Values and Professional Ethics

M aterial O rder
P a dartha-av as thã
s oil, w ate r, etc

P lant/B io-O rder H um an O rder

P rãn a-ava sth ã G yã na-ava sth ã
plants , he rbs hum an b eing s
?

A nim al O rder
J ïva -av as thã
anim als , birds

We thus see that the three orders besides the Human Order are in harmony and are
fulfilling to the human order. However, we as humans have not yet understood and
learnt to live in relationship of mutual fulfilment with these three other orders. This is
because we have not understood the harmony that exists between these orders. We
have not even understood our own needs properly, nor have we understood harmonious
ways to fulfil our needs. Consequently, we have disturbed ourselves and also the balance
amongst the other three orders. This is evident when we see that we have pretty much
plundered the body of the earth of all the heat absorbing materials like coal and oil and
burnt these fossil fuels in our atmosphere causing a significant deterioration in the
temperature regulation of our planet. We have significantly deforested huge forest masses
and through it, altered the weather system of our planet. Our burgeoning cities and
industries have spilled huge amounts of industrial and human waste into the water
bodies and even drinking water has to be now chemically treated before it can be
consumed by humans. The air we breathe has become polluted; the food we grow has
become chemically affected. The effect of this disharmony is now affecting our lives in
the form of diseases and maladies.

On the other hand, if we explore our natural acceptance, we find that we want to live
harmoniously with nature. This is important for our own happiness. This is an undeniable
and a very significant relationship for each one of us. This is a relationship we need to
properly understand.
 Harmony in Nature – Understanding the Interconnectedness and Mutual Fulfilment 183

Recyclability and Self-regulation in Nature

There are several cyclical processes that we can see in nature. For example the cycle of water,
evaporating, condensing and precipitating back to water giving the weather phenomena.
The quantity of water on the surface of earth remains conserved by itself, no need for
human intervention. You have studied cycles of carbon, oxygen and nitrogen in nature in
your school. The cycles keep these materials self-regulated on the earth. Breeds of plants
and animals are similarly self-regulated in their environment. In a forest, the growth of
trees takes place in a way so that the amount of soil, plants and animals remains conserved.
It never happens that the number of trees shoots up and there is lack of soil for the trees!
The appropriateness of conditions for growth of both plants and animals are self-regulated
in nature keeping the population proportions naturally maintained. You will find that the
population of grass, deers and tigers remains such that all can continue. This phenomenon
is termed as self-regulation. You will appreciate that in a single breed of animals, the number
of males and females generated through procreation is such that the continuity of species is
ensured by itself. This happens with humans too, but inhuman practices have led to
disproportionate numbers of men and women. Nature exhibits self-regulation in various
ways across the plant/bio, animal and human orders, but we humans have disturbed it due
to lack of understanding. We seldom see a problem of over-population of a species in nature
(some of what we see is man created!), nor do we see any instance of some by-product from
nature not being absorbed and becoming a source for pollution (ex: nature does not produce
plastic and foam).

These two characteristics namely, cyclical nature and self-regulation provide us with
some clues of the harmony that is in nature. These are visible signs we can see with our eyes,
and understand. But, there is also more to nature than meets the ‘eye’. This is something
we shall explore next.

Understanding the Four Orders

* As we navigate through this chapter, we need to keep in view that the aspects we are trying to
understand here are not always seen through the senses or the ‘eye’. We ‘understand’ these things in
‘I’ – so just ‘seeing’ through the senses is not enough.
 184 A Foundation Course in Human Values and Professional Ethics

Let us look at the four orders in more detail.

Order Material Plant/Bio Animal Human
Things Soil, Air, Water Plants, Animal Animal Body + 'I' Human Body + 'I'
(vastu) Body, Human
Body
Activity Composition/ Composition/ (Composition/ (Composition/
(kriyã) Decomposition Decomposition Decomposition, Decomposition,
+ Respiration Respiration) in Respiration) in Body
Body + Selection + (Selection,
in 'I' Thought, Desire) in
'I' & need for
Realization &
Understanding
Innateness Existence Existence + (Existence, (Existence +
( dhãranã ) Growth Growth) in Body + Growth) in Body +
& Will to live in 'I' Will to live with
happiness in 'I'
Natural Composition/ Composition/ (Composition/ (Composition/
Characteristic Decomposition Decomposition Decomposition, Decomposition,
(svabhãva) + Nurture/ Nurture/Worsen) Nurture/Worsen) in
Worsen in Body, + (Non- Body +
cruelty, Cruelty) in (Perseverance,
'I' Bravery,
Generosity) in 'I'
Basic Activity Recognising, Fulfillment Recognising (Recognising (Recognising
(kriyã) Fulfillment Fulfillment) Fulfillment)
in body + in body + Knowing,
Assuming, Assuming,
Recognising, Recognising,
Fulfillment in ‘I’ Fulfillment in ‘I’
Conformance Constitution Seed Breed Right
(anu-sangitã) conformance( parinãma conformance conformance values/sanskãra
& (bïja anu- conformance
anu sangitã) ( vansa anu-
sangitã) sangitã) (sanskãra anu-
sangitã)

The table above outlines the four orders and we will study the salient aspects in each of
these orders:
Things (Vastu)
Activity (Kriyã*)
Innateness (Dhãran.ã*)
Natural Characteristic (Svabhãva*)
Basic Activity
Conformance (Anu-sangitã*)

*
Can be spelt as Kriya, Dharana, Svabhava, Anu-sangita, respectively too.
 Harmony in Nature – Understanding the Interconnectedness and Mutual Fulfilment 185

Things (Vastu)
Each order is composed of a number of ‘things’. Each one of these ‘things’ is also called a ‘unit’.

Material Order: It is clear to us that the material order is the most abundant in nature
and exists in the form of all the soil mixtures, metal and compounds, various gases, water
and other liquids etc.

Plant/Bio Order: Pranic order exists as the smallest seeds to the plentiful grass, the
various plants and trees and the all the vegetation in the ocean. When we consider humans
and animals, we can understand that they are as a coexistence of the Self (‘I’) and the Body.
If we look at the body, we find that in its fundamental unit, there is a cell. The cell belongs
to the pranic order. Thus, the body of both animals and humans is essentially made up of
cells and this belongs to the pranic order.

Animal Order: The Animal order is made of various kinds of animals and birds. These
entities display both a body (physico-chemical activity) as well as a conscious activity (Self
or ‘I’). The Animal Order thus is the coexistence of the Animal Body (Pranic Order) and
the Self (or ‘I’ = consciousness)

Human (Knowledge) Order: The Human order is constituted of all the human beings.
Each human being is co-existence of the Self (‘I’, conscious entity = consciousness) and the
Body (Pranic Order).

Activity (Kriyã)
Each unit in the order can be understood as an ‘activity’ (or kriyã). We will try and understand
the activities (kriyã) that distinguish one order from the other.

An activity means something that ‘has motion’ and/or ‘has a result’. The material order
is active in multiple ways, and the same with the plant order or animal order or human
order. You are sitting in a room. But you are active. You are thinking, desiring, the body has
breath running, heart throbbing. The air in the room is blowing. The walls standing
constantly also have activity. Isn’t it? Yes, it is! The chair in your room is also active. It may
not be very visible to our eyes but the chair is still active. We can understand this in the
following ways

1. Let’s say the chair is made of wood. If you leave the chair at rest, for let’s say, 70 years,
what would happen? You will say, the wood may decay. It means, the chair has been
interacting with the environment. Or, the wood in the chair has been interacting with
the environment. If it is interacting with the environment, it means the chair, or the
 186 A Foundation Course in Human Values and Professional Ethics

wood is actually active, even though we could not immediately see it with our naked eye.
This is one way to understand ‘activity’ in a chair that is not visibly moving when seen
by the naked eye. So, even if something is not visibly moving when seen through our
eyes, it does not mean it is not “active”.

2. Now, if you take the wood in the chair and place it under a microscope, what would
you see? You will see that the wood is actually made up of thousands of smaller
particles. If you have a very powerful microscope (also called an electron microscope)
you will see that there are many thousands of minute particles in the wood that are all
‘active’ i.e. they will even be visibly moving, when seen through the microscope.

Thus, we can see that:

l Things that we see are “visibly moving”, through the naked eye, such as a spinning
top, a moving bus, a running man, are active, and

l All things that are “visibly stationery”, or not moving, are also active: like a stationary
chair, and the walls and roof in the house, bus at the stand, etc.

All units around us, including ourselves, are active, all the time. They are interacting
with the environment. In the activity, there is a state or configuration and motion
simultaneously. This remains all the time.

We often look at units around us as a fixed and a solid ‘thing’. We can now see that
these things are actually active…each unit is made of hundreds of smaller units…and all
these units are active. So, when you walk on the road, its not that the road is stationary! The
road is active, very active…made of thousands and thousands of particles that are all
throbbing, all active.

Activity in the Material Order

All material things (i.e. units in the material order) can be understood as an activity of
‘units’ coming together to form a bigger unit. We call this ‘Composition’. For example, the
chair is made of smaller pieces of wood. Bigger units can also separate from each other to
form smaller units and we call this ‘Decomposition’. Like a wooden chair can decay after a
few years. Thus any unit in the material order can be understood as an ‘activity of
Composition/Decomposition’.

Activity in the Plant/Bio Order

The plant order is basically structurally made up of the material order. However, an additional
activity of ‘respiration’ is exhibited by the plant order. For example: we all know that plants
‘breathe’. Plants are made up of smaller cells that also ‘breathe’ or ‘pulsate’. So, when we
 Harmony in Nature – Understanding the Interconnectedness and Mutual Fulfilment 187

look at all the units that make up the plant/bio order we will find that they can be understood
in terms of Composition/Decomposition and Respiration. Not only do plants compose
(forming new plants) and decompose (decaying), they are also breathing, or pulsating,
which we call Respiration.

Activity in the Animal Order

When we explore the Animal Order, we find two fundamentally different set of activities.
One set of activities is the ‘physico-chemical’ or activity of the body and the other is the
‘conscious’ activity of the Self.

Body in animals– Physico-chemical activities

The body displays the same activities that we see in the plant. The body displays respiration,
or breathing, or pulsating, as we call it. We can verify this ourselves quite easily and we can see
that the body indeed breathes and also decays. The body is also formed at one point in time
and keeps building cells as well, i.e. there is composition in the body. Hence, the activities in
the body are the same as that in the plant/bio order, which are: composition/decomposition
and respiration. Hence, we say that the body belongs to the plant/bio order.

‘I’ in animals – conscious activities

The activities in ‘I’ are fundamentally different from those in the Body. We have already
seen for ourselves that ‘I’ is a unit that has the ability or capacity of assuming. Animals make
assumptions. If you have a dog, and some stranger comes into the house, the dog may start
barking at him. If this person stays at your house for a few months, then the dog stops
barking at him, but will continue to bark at other strangers. What has happened here is
that the dog’s ‘assumption’ about this person has changed, due to which, the way in which
it responds to the person has changed. We call this assuming. Only conscious entities or
only ‘consciousness’ has this faculty of assuming. Plants and stones do not have it. This
ability to assume is not present in the plant/bio and material orders.

It is important to note that this consciousness or faculty of assuming is not in the Body. The
Body belongs to the plant/bio order, and is physico-chemical in nature. It just responds to
physico-chemical inputs. The Body does not ‘assume’ things. The faculty of assuming
exists in distinct entity we have been referring to as ‘I’ and we also call this ‘consciousness’.
In animals, we can predominantly see the activity of selection/taste in ‘I’, the activity at
number 5 in the discussion in chapter 6. If a cow is given fodder to eat, it is enough for the
cow. The cow does not question how the fodder is grown, and why it grows that way only?
If a dog is given food from time to time, it does not bother how the house owner earns? So,
we can see that in animals, only the activity of Selection/Taste is predominant. There is
 188 A Foundation Course in Human Values and Professional Ethics

hardly any thinking and desiring in animals. Also, animals do not have this need to know
(natural acceptance) as we humans.

Activity in the Human Order

We have already seen that human beings are co-existence of a physico-chemical body and a
conscious Self, or ‘I’. The activities in the human body are similar to that in the animal
body; and we have seen this in detail as: composition/decomposition and respiration.

When it comes to consciousness or ‘I’, however, the human displays more than just an
ability to ‘select’ or make choices as animals do. As humans, each one of us also has desires
that we pursue, an ability to think and the ability to make choices. In this Desire, Thought
and Selection, we exhibit more activities than any unit in the animal order. As a result,
humans are in a separate order than animals. We make assumptions, but also have a need to
know, or a will to know. Animals just assume, humans can also ‘know’ or have the need to
know.

Thus, in human beings, ‘I’ has the activities of Desiring, Thinking, and Selecting/
Tasting, with a possibility or need for Understanding and Realization. Only humans have the
this need to now and that is why it is called Gyãna Avasthã- the Knowledge Order.

Thus, underlying every entity/unit, there are activities like physical activity, chemical
activity or conscious activity (‘I’) and all units/entities can be understood as one of these
activities or co-existence of these activities.

Innateness ( Dhãranã& )
Each unit in existence exhibits an innateness, an intrinsic quality that cannot be separated
from it. We refer to this principle as ‘Innateness’ also called ‘ Dhãranã ’ of that unit. This is
&
intrinsic to the unit. What exactly do we mean by this?

Innateness of the Material Order

Look at all the material order. It is possible to convert material things from one ‘form or a
way of being)’ to another ‘form or a way of being’. However, it is not possible to annihilate
it. We cannot make it cease to exist. The particles that make up that unit continue to exist.
For example, when you burn coal and it has finished burning and only some ash is left and
smokes have gone out, it is not that the basic material, the fundamental particles in coal,
have ‘ceased to exist’ or ‘disappeared’ from existence! They may not be visible to the eye at that
moment, but they continue to exist, they still are in the form of other matter or in the form
 Harmony in Nature – Understanding the Interconnectedness and Mutual Fulfilment 189

of gases, etc. We can see this for any material unit. This is there with all material units. You
cannot destroy matter, you can only convert it from one form to the other. Thus, “to exist”, or
‘existence’ is intrinsic to all material, it is innate to it. We cannot separate the ‘existence’ of
a thing from the thing itself!

Innateness of the Plant/Bio or Pranic Order

Because the pranic order is a development of the material order, it also has the innateness of
‘existence’. In addition, it also exhibits the ‘growth’. This principle of ‘growth’ cannot be
separated from any units of this order. If it is of pranic order, it will grow. For example, if
you have a plant, you cannot stop it from growing. It will continue to respire and keep
changing in this way. The only way you can stop it from growing is by cutting it, but when
you do that, it ceases to belong to the pranic order, instead decays and then belongs to the
material order! So, as long as you have a plant, it will grow. Further, just like in the case of
coal; you cannot destroy the fundamental particles that make up the plant. You can only
convert it from one form to the other. Thus ‘existence’ and ‘growth’ together are the innateness
of the pranic order.

Innateness of the Animal Order

The Animal Body is a development of the pranic order and therefore this order inherits the
innateness of the previous order namely ‘existence’ and ‘growth’. This is at the level of the
body, which is physico-chemical in nature.

In addition, all units in this order have the ‘will to live’ in ‘I’. Indeed no unit in this
order can be separated from this ‘will to live’. It is intrinsic to every unit in this order. For
example, you cannot separate this will to live from a dog. This “will to live” in the dog is in
‘I’ (consciousness) and not in the Body. Thus, on the one hand, the fundamental particles
the body is made up of cannot cease to exist (existence) and the ‘live body’ cannot stop
pulsating (growth); on the other hand, the will to live cannot be separated from ‘I’. Thus
the animal order imbibes ‘existence’ & ‘growth’ in the body and a ‘will to live’ in ‘I’ as its
% % ’.
innateness. The will to live is also called as ‘jïne kï asa

Innateness of the Human Order

When we look at the human being, we find that ‘existence’ and ‘growth’ are fundamentally
present in the body, just as in the animal body. At the level of ‘I’ however, in addition to the
will to live, a human being’s innateness is the ‘will to live with happiness’. We can all see
this and verify this for ourselves. We can verify in ourselves and we can verify this in others.
As long as it is a human being you cannot separate him/her from the will to live and the
need for happiness. Each one of us not only wants to live but also wants to ‘live with
 190 A Foundation Course in Human Values and Professional Ethics

happiness’. This is the innateness of the human order and it characterises the human order.
We also say ‘mãnav sukha dharmï hai’, i.e. the will to live happily cannot be removed from a
human being..

This is what we have been discussing in this course! All along, we have been exploring
into ourselves and when we do, we find that just surviving is not enough for us; we also
desire happiness and its continuity! We don’t desire to not be happy, even for an instant. It
is our basic need. So, we have been looking into the causes of unhappiness, and when we
did, we discovered that the basic cause for our unhappiness is that we are living only with
assumptions, only at the level of desiring, thinking and selecting/tasting in ‘I’. This is
insufficient for us, since it leads to conflict and is driven by beliefs/preconditionings. Hence,
we have to exercise our need to know, which is what we started with. We said that we need
to have the right understanding, which is the knowledge or understanding of the harmony
at all 4 levels of our being [Realization and Understanding in ‘I’]. We have been trying to
ensure this through self-exploration, i.e. by establishing a dialogue between, ‘what we are’
and ‘what we really want to be’ which is essentially the verification on the basis of our
natural acceptance.

Natural Characteristic (Svabhãva)

When we look at the different orders, we find that each order has a certain value. In a
fundamental way, this is the ‘usefulness’ or ‘participation’ of the order in existence. This
‘value’ or ‘participation’ is also referred to as “natural characteristic”. The ‘characteristic’ the
order displays is ‘natural to itself ’. This is the same as the value of the entity, or its participation
also called ‘svabhãva’.

Svabhãva of Material Order

The fundamental characteristic or ‘svabhãva’ of ‘Composition/Decomposition’ enables units
or entities to come together and form a bigger unit. Bigger units transform to smaller units.
Particles of soil combine to form a brick. Bricks combine to form towers. This is a case of
composition. When the tower falls, it breaks down to small particles of soil. This is
decomposition. This is the way material entities participate with other material units. It is
on this account that we are able to construct buildings, roads, vehicles etc. And the good
thing is that they go back cyclically to the original state based on their characteristic.

Svabhãva of Plant/Bio Order

We can see in this order that pranic units nurture or worsen other pranic units. To nurture
means to be supportive, to aid other pranic activities in the growth of pranic units. For
 Harmony in Nature – Understanding the Interconnectedness and Mutual Fulfilment 191

example, vegetable is a pranic unit and our body is also a pranic unit. If I eat vegetable, it
helps my body grow. Similarly, if I eat datura, the thorn apple, another pranic unit, it will
worsen my body. If I eat the same vegetable in larger quantity than required, it will work to
worsen my body. To worsen means to be a deterrent, repressive to the other pranic activity.
Hence, we say that the svabhãva or ‘value’ or ‘natural characteristic’ of the plant/bio order
is to ‘Nurture/Worsen’. This is the ‘value’ of the pranic in existence for all the orders.

Svabhãva of Animal order

When we look at the animal order, the body of the animal belongs to the plant/bio or
pranic order, and hence has the same ‘usefulness’ or ‘value’ as the pranic order. Thus ‘nurture/
worsen’ is the svabhãva of the animal body.

The svabhãva of the Self (‘I’) of the animal order is non-cruelty (akrüratã*) and cruelty
(krüratã*)’. We can understand these values with the following definitions:

Cruelty (krüratã) – The feeling that it can fulfil its needs through violence and forcefulness.

We can observe the above in animals and may find more-or-less predominance of one of
the above in certain kinds of animals. For example, cows may largely be living with a feeling
of non-cruelty(akrüratã); while animals like tigers and lions may exhibit cruelty (krüratã).

Svabhãva of human order

Similar as to the case in animals, the human body also belongs to the plant/bio order and
hence has the same Svabhãva or value/natural characteristic as the pranic order. It either
nurtures or worsens other pranic units. As in the example above, when I digest the vegetable,
I absorb the plant and it worsens, while my body is nurtured.

The svabhãva/value of the Self (‘I’) in human beings is ‘ Perseverance (dhïratã*), Bravery
(Vïratã*) and Generosity (Udãratã*).

Perseverance (dhïratã) – Being assured that the all encompassing solution is to

understand and live in harmony at all levels of existence, living with this commitment
without any perturbation.

Bravery (vïratã) – Being assured that the all-encompassing solution is to understand

and live in harmony at all levels and I am ready to help the other to have the right understanding.
This is the commitment to help the other have the right understanding of the harmony
and living at all levels of existence.

*
Can be spelt as akrurata, krurata, dheerata, veerata, udarata respectively too.
 192 A Foundation Course in Human Values and Professional Ethics

Generosity (udãratã) – Being assured that the all-encompassing solution is to understand

and live in harmony at all the four levels and I am ready to invest myself, my body and
wealth to help the other have the right understanding.

As human beings we participate in the innate order of things with our ‘values’ of
Perseverance, Bravery and Generosity. This is also our ‘participation’. This is our natural
characteristic. This is what is natural to us. This is naturally acceptable to us. This is what we
have been talking of, in this course! However, we find that human beings are not living as
per this natural characteristic; even though we have a svabhãva, we are not living according
to this. This is the basic reason for the contradiction and conflict that we see in human
being. This is what leads to a state of unhappiness. Only when we live according to our
basic human characteristic as mentioned above, we have a definite character, Otherwise, it
is not definite, it is uncertain, unlike other three orders as discussed above.

Basic Activity
As an extension to the discussion we had about the activities in all the four orders, let us
understand here how the activity in the different orders is different at the basic level. In the
material and pranic order, there is only recognising and fulfilment. Such units do not have
the activities of assuming and knowing. Take for example, hydrogen and oxygen recognise
the relation to each other, and combine to form water. A brick and the other brick have a
definite relation, recognise it and get arranged to form a building. A plant recognises the
relation with sun and water, and fulfils it by acting accordingly. Such activities take place in
a similar way all the time, there is no selection involved here. A plant does not choose to
turn or not to turn to sun, absorb or not to absorb water. Similarly, the fan in your room
does not choose to rotate clockwise or anti-clockwise. It turns as per the winding in the
motor! No choice.

When we look at animals and humans, we find selection taking place. We do select, no
need to take any examples here. Animals also select. We saw one example above. We can see
several such examples in nature. You get a puppy in your house and start calling it ‘Tommy’.
The same voice falls in its ears repetitively, but the response changes with time. After some
time, it assumes that when you utter that word, it has to come to you. And the recognition
thus changes as per the assumption, followed by fulfilment. Do humans behave the same
way? Well in a more sophisticated way. This is because the assumption in animals is related
predominantly to the body. Like if you give your puppy to eat after uttering its name, it will
assume faster the relation to that word. But it is not the same with you. If the same person
calls you also Tommy, you will feel offended and may turn hostile to him. Your behaviour is
more sophisticated as the assuming not only involves selecting/ tasting but desire and thought
too. At the same time, human beings have the faculty to know and not only assume. The
 Harmony in Nature – Understanding the Interconnectedness and Mutual Fulfilment 193

animal does get to know. We do get to know. We ask ‘why?’, ‘how?’, ‘what?’. Human beings
have all the four activities, knowing, assuming, recognising and fulfilment.

Conformance (Anu-sangitã)
Each unit ‘conforms’ through the principle of conformance or anu-sangitã. This is better
understood via examples from the four orders:

Material order: The continuity of the fundamental nature of the material unit is preserved
through the physical and chemical processes. Take iron for example. Each atom of iron
conforms to the constitutional structure of ‘Iron’. There is no atom of iron that will be
unlike the other atom of iron, if it were, we would not call it iron. We call this ‘constitution
conformance’. The material order exhibits constitution conformance. We can verify this for
all things in the material order. For example: oxygen, nitrogen, other gases, gold, silver,
aluminium….all of them conform to and are always according to the constitution of their
kind. Hence, we say that any matter conforms to its constitution or has ‘constitution conformance’.
We also say ‘padãrtha avasthã parinãm anusangï hai’. This constitution conformance method
is the mechanism by means of which the continuity of a species in the material order is
maintained in nature/existence.

Plant/Bio or pranic order: A neem seed will always sprout a neem plant. All of us know
this. Even if you never went to school, you know this. Everything in the neem plant, its
flowers, its fruits, its leaves, the taste of the leaves, the colour of the leaves, all this information,
this basic information of every neem plant is stored in the seed. Thus, we say the plant is
always as the seed, or we can say, ‘as the seed, thus the plant’. We can take numerous such
examples, and we shall always find that plants exhibit this – as the seed, thus the plant.
Hence, we say that a plant conforms to the seed, or has ‘seed conformance’. We also say ‘prãn.a
avasthã bïj anusangï hai’. This ‘seed conformance’ method is the mechanism by means of
which the continuity of a plant species is maintained in nature/existence.

Animal order: Have you ever seen a cow chase a rabbit, kill it and eat it up raw? Have
you ever seen a dog only eating grass and nothing else? We see that a cow is always like a
cow, and a dog is always like a dog. Animals, we can see conform to their lineage. How
animals are, their behaviour, is according to the lineage they belong to, the lineage they
come from. As the lineage, so the animal. Hence, we say that an animal conforms to its breed,
or has ‘breed conformance’. We also say, 'Jeeva avasthã vansh anu-sangi hai'. Cows, dogs, lions,
elephants, are all according to their lineage or breed. This breed conformance method is the
mechanism by means of which the continuity of an animal species is maintained in nature/
existence.
 194 A Foundation Course in Human Values and Professional Ethics

Human Order: In humans, we see a distinct shift from how animals are, as far as
conformance is concerned. A cow’s offspring is always like a cow. A lion’s offspring is always
like a lion. Is a barber’s offspring necessarily a barber? Is a mathematician’s son always a
mathematician? If your mother likes music, is it necessary that you also like music? The
answer is no! We can clearly see that we humans are not according to our lineage or race, as
in animals. We may pick up something from our parents as we grow up, but we are usually
very different in many ways from them. We humans are according to our imagination;
according to our desires, thoughts and selections in ‘I’. The desires, thoughts and selections
we have in ‘I’ can come from anywhere. It can come from past memories, it can come from
our parents, the environment, the media, anywhere. In the case of humans, we can say ‘as
the education, so the human’. We are according to our desires, thoughts and selections.
Together, we call these ‘sanskãra’. Hence, we say that a human being conforms to his or her
sanskãra, or has sanskãra conformance. Or, we also say gyãna avasthã sanskãra anu-sangi hai’.
Today, we can see that there is a difference in our sanskãrs - it keeps changing, and hence,
we demonstrate indefinite behaviour. It is only with right understanding, with knowledge
that we have definite sanskãra and can thus exhibit definite behavior.

We have thus been able to study the different aspects of each of the four orders that
constitute nature. In fact, based upon this study we can now identify the different orders in
nature.

Human Beings - Our State Today

Order Animal Human
Things (vastu) Animal Body + 'I' Human Body + 'I'
Innateness Existence+Growth in Body + Existence + Growth in Body + Will to live with
( dhãrana ) Will to live in 'I' happiness in 'I'
&
Natural Composition/ Decomposition, Composition/ Decomposition, Nurture/Worsen in
Characteristic Nurture /Worsen in Body, + Body + Perseverance, Bravery, Generosity in 'I'
(svabhãva) Cruelty, Non-Cruelty in 'I'

Mode Reaction Response

Needs Physical facilities Physical facilities + Relationship + Right
Understanding/ Knowledge

Ask yourself this question:

“Do I want to live as in the left side column, or in the right side column? What is
naturally acceptable to me?”

Now ask yourself another question:

“Am I living more like in the left side column, or as in the right side column?”
 Harmony in Nature – Understanding the Interconnectedness and Mutual Fulfilment 195

We can make the following observations based on the table above:

l What is written for ‘I’ on the right side makes the basic needs for us as human beings.
Without these, there is no definiteness in our conduct; without this, we don’t have
satisfaction, we don’t have a continuity of happiness.

l We can’t do away with our need for continuous happiness, because it is our innateness,
it is intrinsic to us, it is our Dhãranã – it is inseparable from us. So, surviving alone is
&
not enough for us, we want to live with happiness and its continuity, and this is not
possible without having the right understanding/knowledge.

l We can’t live with cruelty or just avoiding to be cruel, and still be happy, because,
that is not our natural characteristic, it not our svabhãva, it is not our natural
acceptance, it is not naturally acceptable to us. Our natural acceptance is for
perseverance, bravery and generosity, and this is our svabhãva, this is our natural
acceptance. Unless we are according to our natural characteristic, we are not according
to our natural acceptance, we cannot be happy. We can try many things, but it is
not possible for us to be happy.

l Our basic need is not just physical facilities, but relationship and right understanding/
knowledge as well.

l To live as in the left is called living in animal consciousness and to live as in the right
is called living in human consciousness.

l Unless we exercise our need and capacity to know, we shall continue to create problems
for ourselves and the rest of the orders in nature, since we have far greater faculties and
the ability to have a large impact on our environment.

l This is the difference between “what we are” and “what we really want to be”.

If we as human beings do not exercise our capacity to know, then we end up being
more like animals, and hence we get defined as social animals! We become worse than
animals since we have more faculties and greater impact over everything. No lion in his
lifetime can kill 60,00,000 people, but there have been some human beings in history
that have done exactly that! Just living is not enough for human beings. We want to
know, and live with happiness. We can see in human beings that this will-to-be-happy
is related to this will-to-know, this is why human being is said to be in Knowledge
Order- Gyãna Avasthã. This Knowledge, this right understanding is what we have been
discussing all along. We need to start the process of self-verification in us, we have to
start becoming more aware, and start exploring into the proposals at all four levels of
our living.
 196 A Foundation Course in Human Values and Professional Ethics

Today, we don’t know what we are, we don’t know what we want, hence we don’t
know what to do, we largely only learn how to do. We don’t know ‘what to do’ and are
busy working out ‘how to do’. Irrespective of how much you know of ‘how to do’, as
long as you don’t know ‘what to do’, you end up getting dissatisfied. Thus, before
producing something, we don’t see if it is really needed, and what use it is for us, and
what impact it will have on the environment (“what to do, why to do”). Instead, we end
up producing more and more of it, in different varieties, shapes, sizes and packages!
(All this being “how to do”).

Technology deals with the latter part – ‘how to do’. It’s to do with technique. Technology
does not give us the answers of why to do, and what to do….this answer comes from right
understanding and the values we understand on this basis. Thus, it is only with right
understanding that we identify and understand what is valuable to us, what is of value to
us, and we can then use technology as a means to ensure what is valuable to us.

What is the Way Out?

The way out would be largely clear to you now. We need to work in the direction of
development of mankind from animal consciousness to human consciousness. And this
entails working for the right understanding. We have been talking about it throughout the
book. We saw how due to lack of right understanding, the human order, though it wants to
be fulfilling to one and all, fails to fulfil the human order itself. It fails to take care of its own
body, what to talk of other units in nature. Knowledge is the basic need of the human
order, and it needs to get on to the focus of its every thought and action.

Summary
l There are four orders in nature: material order, plant/bio (pranic) order, animal order
and human order.

l There is interconnectedness among all the orders. The first three orders are mutually
fulfilling to the rest three orders, only human order is not able to be fulfilling to the
other orders.

l There is recyclability and self-regulation in nature.

l We can understand the four orders in terms of the things under the group, their
activities, the innateness, the natural characteristic, the basic activity and the
conformance. The table provided in the chapter gives a comprehensive look at each of
these aspects.
 Harmony in Nature – Understanding the Interconnectedness and Mutual Fulfilment 197

l A critical appraisal of where we stand today shows that humans are largely living like
animals.

l The way out is consciousness development of mankind.

REVIEW QUESTIONS

1. What exactly is implied by the term - 'nature'? Explain.

2. What are the four orders in nature? Briefly explain them.
3. What do you mean by mutual fulfilment in nature? Cite a few examples.
4. "Other than human order, the three orders are mutually fulfilling to each other." Explain with examples.
Why does human order fail to be mutually fulfilling to itself and to the other orders?
5. Write a short note on the recyclability and self-regulation in nature.
6. What do you mean by 'innateness'? What is the innateness in the four orders?
7. What is the Svabhãva (natural characteristic) of a unit? Elaborate on the Svabhãva of a human order.
8. Explain the activities in the four orders of nature. How are the activities in the human order qualitatively
different from those of other three orders?
9. What do you mean by 'conformance'? Explain the conformance in the four orders.
10. Suggest ways to enhance the fulfilment of human order with the other three orders. Mention any two
programs you can undertake in light of the above.
 CHAPTER ELEVEN

Harmony in Existence – Understanding

Existence as Co-existence

S o far we have been talking about units, be it a human being or animal or plant or any
material entity. All the units together constitute nature. All the units of nature exist in
space which is an important reality to understand. Existence is nothing but the nature in
space. In this chapter, we will explore the harmony in existence in the form of co-existence
of all the units in space.

An Introduction to ‘Space’ ( Sünya )

We had started our exploration at our innermost level of being – with (our) Self (‘I’). Our
natural acceptance has been a key mechanism for us to explore the harmony of (our) Self
and the harmony with the Body. Exploring further, we discovered that we feel related with
others and we experience the feelings (or values) in our relationship. We then saw that this
feeling of relationship starts from our family, and then slowly extends to the world family.
Beyond humans, we explored the harmony in nature and we discovered that every ‘thing’
that we can see around us can be understood as a part of one of the four orders of nature
namely the material order, plant/bio or pranic order, animal order and the human order.

These four orders are interrelated, in harmony, and our natural acceptance is to live in
harmony with these orders. So far, we have been discussing what are called ‘units’. We
define a unit as something that is limited in size. Like a small blade of human hair to the
biggest planets we know of, they are all limited in size, i.e. bounded on six sides. So, all the
‘things’ we have been studying so far: the human beings, animals, lumps of matter as well
as various atoms and molecules, are all ‘units’. We can recognize them as such, they are
‘countable’. But there is another ‘reality’ we have not yet studied or explored. This is the
space ( sünya , or spelt as shoonya for simplicity). Let us try to understand the significance of
this reality in order to complete our study of the whole Existence.
 200 A Foundation Course in Human Values and Professional Ethics

If I ask you a question ‘What is between you and the book you are reading right now?’
Your answer may be “Nothing”. If I now ask you what is between the earth and the sun,
you answer may still be ‘nothing’, or, some of you may say ‘empty space’’ or ‘space’. If I ask
you where is the earth? Where is the sun? What is the answer? That’s space.

Yes, we are talking about space! We normally don’t pay attention to this ‘reality’, because
it’s not a ‘unit’. You can’t touch it, smell it. We normally just ‘see through it’. But the fact
is, because you can’t ‘touch it’ or ‘see it’ as you would see a unit like your body, your friend,
or a piece of rock, doesn’t mean it does not exist! Space exists everywhere. Note that space
does not just exist between the earth and the sun, but is all around you. It is between you
and the book you are reading right now, it is inside you, it’s around you. When we start
paying attention to it, we can each see that what we call as space or emptiness, is actually
everywhere! We don’t really generally bother about it (except perhaps in an academic sense
in subjects like physics or astronomy), because, space does not seem to play any role in our
daily life.

So why are we talking about it here then? Well, we want to understand all levels of our
living, and when we go to explore that, it turns out that what we call as ‘existence’ or ‘all
that exists’, includes space as well. We may think that space has no role in our life, but let
us ascertain this impression of ours. Let’s find out.

Co-existence of Units in Space

‘Units in Space’
When we look at the existence around, the first thing we see is space. You may not note it,
but it is there. And then you see the units in space. Between every two units, there is space.
As we saw in the example of book and the reader, the same holds true for every other unit,
be it material, or plant, or animal or some human being. The units exist in space. If we were
to define this, we would say that there are two kinds of realities in existence and these are:
Space and Units (in Space).

So, we say, Existence = Space + Units (in Space).

Each unit of every order viz., material, plant/bio or pranic, animal and human order,
‘exist in space’ or they ‘are in space’. We also say they are ‘submerged in space’.

Since nature consists of the four orders we have been discussing, we can say ,

“Existence = Nature submerged in space”.

Nature = Four orders (Material, Plant/Bio or Pranic, Animal and Human Order)
 Harmony in Existence – Understanding Existence as Co-existence 201

We can understand this reality from the smallest particle to the largest galaxies. Let’s
explore this further:

Existence

Units ( ikãï) submerged in Space ( Sünya)

Limited (sïmit) Unlimited(asïmit)

All pervading (vyãpaka)

Active (kriyãsïl) N o-activity (kriyã sünya = sünya)

Energized (ürjit) Energy in Equilibrium (sãmya ürjã)

Constant Energy

Each unit recognizes and fulfils Reflecting, transparent ( pãradarsï )

its relation with other units
( parasparatã ko pahachãnanã, nirvãha karanã)

Self- organized Self- organization is available

(niyantrit) (niyantran upalabdha)

All nature is submerged in space. Space is not a ‘unit’ but it exists, as a reality. Let us
look into the various attributes of units and space:

‘Limited’ and ‘Unlimited’

Nature has four orders and there are units in each order. Each unit is limited in size. The
size ranges from being really small (atom) to really big (galaxies). Each and every unit is
finite and limited in size, be it the smallest particle or the biggest galaxies. Space, on the
other hand is Unlimited. Space has no ‘size’ as, unlike units, it is not bounded. Space is not
bounded on any side! So, there is no beginning or end to space, as there is to units! For
example, when you take a book, you know that it starts and finishes. We say the book is
‘limited’ in size. When we take space, there is no such thing. For example, there is space
behind you, inside you, between you and the book, between the book and the earth, in the
book, in every page of it, inside the page, and beyond the earth….all the way till you can
imagine. Even if you say space ends <here> and there is “nothing” after that, that “nothing”
is still space or empty space as we call it! We find that space pervades; It is all-pervading.
Units, on the other hand are not all-pervading. That is how we recognize them as units!
 202 A Foundation Course in Human Values and Professional Ethics

‘Active’ and ‘No-activity’

We can understand each unit as something that is dynamic and active. Be it a physical
activity, physico–chemical activity or a sentient activity. Each unit or entity of all the four
orders is active. We already explored this in the previous chapter, “harmony with nature”
where we explored activities in the four orders like: composition/decomposition, selection/
taste, etc. For example: you can yourself see that ‘thinking’ is an activity you do, and so is
‘desiring’.
Space on the other hand has no activity. Only units are active or in other words, when
‘something’ is active or has activity, we call it a ‘unit’! There is empty space between you
and the book right now and it does not have any activity. The particles of gases and dust in
between are active, but space is no-activity. That’s how we come to know of it.

‘Energized’ and ‘Energy in Equilibrium’

What we normally call or consider as energy today, is the ‘transfer of energy’. For example:
when you place water in a vessel on the stove, we say the ‘heat energy from the flame was
transferred to the water in the vessel’. What about the water before we put it on the stove?
Was it energized? What about the stove before we lit it, was it energized? We may normally
think ‘no, it was not’, but the fact is, it is! Anything that is a unit, has activity. Anything
that has activity, is energized. All the particles in the water and the metal stove are active,
very active, and energized. We can’t see this very easily or we don’t see the ‘physical effects’
of the unheated water or unlit metal stove, but they are still energized! Space, on the other
hand, is not a unit, it has no activity. Hence, we don’t say space is energized but we say
‘Space is energy in equilibrium’ or it is ‘constant energy’. All units are energized in space.
This energy is available to all units. In other words, space is equilibrium energy; all units are in
space; all units are energized and active being in space.

‘Each Unit Recognizes ..Space is Reflecting & Transparent’

When you pour water into the soil, the soil soaks it up. We call this as, ‘the water is
recognizing its relationship with the soil and fulfilling it’. (When we use the term ‘recognizing
and fulfilling’ for ourselves, humans, we use it also in the sense that we are ‘aware’ of the
‘recognition’ & ‘fulfilment’. Since the activity is basically the same, except awareness, we
use or extend the same words for things like soil, plants, etc.) When we look around, we see
that even in the physical world, there is a relationship between all things around us. The air
recognizes its relationship with the soil, the soil with the water, the water and soil with the
tree, etc. There is relationship and we see all around us. This is the meaning of each unit
 Harmony in Existence – Understanding Existence as Co-existence 203

recognizing its relationship and fulfilling it. As humans, we have seen that we too want to
recognize our relationship with the four orders and fulfil it. We called this ‘living in harmony
with all the four orders’. We can easily see this, understand ourselves if we pay a bit of
attention that each unit recognizes and fulfils its relationship with the other unit.

What about space? Well, space is not a unit. Space is reflecting. What that means is,
every unit is reflected in the other units in space. It is due to this reflection that there is a
relationship, and this is why all units are related to each other. This is why, we as humans
also feel or are related to one another and this is the basis for our relationship with the four
orders. All the units are related to each other being in space.

Space is transparent. It is the same as saying reflecting. What this means is that in space
there is no obstruction. Hence, all these objects or units are able to recognize each other in
space, are related to each other being in space, since space is transparent.

‘Self-organized’, and ‘Self-organization is Available’

Every unit is an organization. A unit recognizes other units and combines to form a bigger
organization. Starting from the atom, to the big galaxy, this organization goes on, as a self-
organization. At every level, we get a self-organization. Sub atomic particles recognize each
other and come together to form atoms. Cells recognize each other and form organizations
like organs and a body. Planetary bodies, solar systems, galaxies are still bigger organizations.

We can see for ourselves, very easily. Take for example, a stone. It is self-organized. The
stone maintains its own organization. Or take a piece of iron, it is self-organized.

We are not organizing it. We are not supplying it organization from outside.

Think of a cow. It is self-organized. The body of the cow is self-organized; and so is the
‘Jïvana’ of cow. It does not create havoc for others around it. It has a definite behaviour.

Now take humans. When we look at it, we see that we are self-organized at the level of
the body. We are not organizing the body. We are not doing anything for the coordination
between the heart, kidneys, lungs, eyes, brain, hands, legs, etc. All these are functioning
together. Our input is needed only to provide the required nutrition, and to assist the body
when we fall sick/get injured. At the level of ‘I’, we are not self-organized, but being in
space, self-organization is available to the Self (‘I’). That’s why we are in pursuit of happiness,
which is essentially being in harmony. Whenever we are not in harmony, we are unhappy.
This prompts us to explore the real meaning of happiness, and we keep striving for being in
harmony.

We can clearly see, via countless examples from the four orders that all these units are
self-organized. No one is organizing them from outside. No one is supplying this organization.
 204 A Foundation Course in Human Values and Professional Ethics

This self-organization is available to units being in space. Hence, for space, we say ‘self
organization is available’.

To sum up

l There are two kinds of realities in existence: space and units in space.

l These units are in co-existence with space and in co-existence amongst themselves .

l We can thus understand the whole of existence as Nature submerged in Space. We

can understand this harmony.

l Each unit is

v energised and active in space

v self-organized in space

v recognizing and fulfilling its relationship with other units in space

l Space is in continuum. It is all-pervading and is no-activity.

l We are also units in space and there is acceptance in us (in ‘I’) for self-organization.

‘Existence is Co-existence’
Now that we have studied ourselves, our family, society, nature and space, let us see the
interconnectedness between all these units and space. We find that being in space, the
units are mutually fulfilling to other units. This is being in co-existence.
 Harmony in Existence – Understanding Existence as Co-existence 205

Existence
(= Co-existence = Units subm erged in space)

U n its (N a tu re) S pa c e (A ll-p erv a din g)

Lim ited in s iz e U nlim ited
A c tive N o-ac tiv ity
S e lf-organ iz ed S e lf-organ iz atio n is av ailab le
E n ergiz ed C on stan t ene rgy
R ec ogn is es relations hip and fulfills R eflec ting , Trans paren t

M aterial (Jad a) ‘I’- Conscious ( C h aitan ya)

Tem po rary (gatha ns ïla) C on tinu ous (gatha npürna )

R ec ogn iz ing , F ulfillin g K n ow in g, A s sum ing ,

R ec ogn iz ing , F ulfillin g

M a te ria l O rd e r P ra nic O rd e r

+
A to m A nim a l O rde r
P la nt Ce lls = ' I' + Bo dy

M o le c ule
P la nts
+
M o le c ula r s truc tu re Hum an O rder = 'I' + Body
A nim a l Bo dy
K n ow le dge
(G yã na ) A c tivity c om ple tenes s
L um p F luids H um a n B o dy (K riyã pürna tã )
E v idenc e/Living
(P ram a na ) C on duc t co m pletene ss
(Ã chara na pürnatã )

Development – not cyclic

Cyclic-
Keeps going back,
cannot ‘develop’

The figure above depicts all the four orders (material, plant/bio, animal and human) and
their co-existence with space. We have already covered the relationship between units and
space in the previous section. We saw that units co-exist in space or units are submerged in
space. In this section, we shall explore into units and see how they are inter-related in existence.

*You keep referring to the figure above as you read through the rest of this section.

Material and conscious units

You will see in the figure above that we have categorized units into two types:

l ˆ
Material or jada

l Conscious or chaitanya
 206 A Foundation Course in Human Values and Professional Ethics

What does this mean? We have already been discussing this, so let’s go over it:

Material units are those that are only recognizing and fulfilling. There is no assuming in
them. There is no potential in them to know or assume. Everything in the material order:
stones, minerals, soil, petrol, etc; everything in the plant/bio order: plants, shrubs, grass,
animal body and human body fall into this category of ‘Material’ or jada ˆ kind of units. It
is interesting. If we consider the animal and human body, we find that there is only
recognition and fulfilment. There is no assuming in the animal and human body.

We had discussed about this in chapter five. Let us recapitulate it. Taking an example,
suppose you take a blade and cut your finger. If the blade is sharper than your skin then the
skin gets cut and will bleed. No matter how many times you try this. If you ask a friend to
do this, the result is the same. The skin does not respond in different ways depending on
who is cutting it. But what happens at the level of the Self, where assumption is involved.
Let’s say you have gone to the doctor’s clinic and the doctor takes a blade to make a cut in
your skin. Since you know that you have gone to the doctor to be treated, you cooperate
with the doctor and allow him/her to make a cut on your skin. Now, if you assume that the
person is not a doctor, you are sitting in a bus and someone takes a knife and tries to cut
your skin, what would you do? You would be alarmed and resist the person. Of course, if he
succeeds in putting a knife to your skin, your skin will still bleed!

It becomes clear, that

At the level of the body there is only recognizing and fulfilment,

At the level of ‘I’, there is assuming and knowing, in addition to recognizing and fulfilment..

As indicated earlier, we call ‘I’ (Jïvana) a conscious entity or chaitanya or consciousness.

We call the body material or jadaˆ . Each one of us can distinguish the units around us based
on this categorization. Why are we doing this? Simple: to better understand the things we
live with, including ourselves!

If we understood which units assume and which don’t, then we would know how to
interact with them. In our interactions with the material order, such as a stone, we know
that there is no assumption involved, and we can be assured of its behaviour. While interacting
with animals or humans, we know that there is assumption involved, and hence keeping
this in consideration, we can improve our interaction and relationship.

ˆ ’ units:
Thus, Material or ‘ jada

l Have the activities of recognizing & fulfilment.

l ˆ
Are temporary in nature, they undergo structural changes. We also call them gathansïla .
 Harmony in Existence – Understanding Existence as Co-existence 207

Conscious or chaitanya units:

l Have the activities of knowing, assuming, recognizing & fulfilment. Currently,

assuming, recognizing and fulfilment are predominant in humans. We have the capacity
to know, and we explored this via our natural acceptance. ‘Knowing’ means having
the ‘right understanding’, understanding the harmony at all four levels of our being.

l Are continuous, there is no structural change in them. There can only be a qualitative
ˆ
change in them. We also call them gathanpurna .
&

Material units: from atoms to the human body

Now that we have explored that basic classification in units, let us explore into the material
ˆ ) units. Material Units are the basis for all material things – soil, metal, rocks, liquids,
( jada
gases to the basic cells and all the way to animal and human bodies. The material units
undergo changes through physical and physico-chemical processes. In the material order,
an atom combines with another atom to form molecular structure. The molecular structures
can exist either as lumps (pinda), or fluids (rasa). Fluids are the basis of a plant cell (pranic
order) and such cells combine to form plants, the animal body and the human body. Thus,
we can see that in the material units, starting from the smallest fundamental particle that is
stable, the atom, a sequence of natural events takes place, and solids (like stones, minerals,
etc.), fluids (like water, fossil oil, etc.), plant cells (that go on to form the innumerable
variety of plants we know of ), animal bodies (of various species) and finally the human
body, (in which we find a lot of variety in physical appearance) – all these are formed. All
these processes are taking place in a self-organized, natural manner. There is nothing controlling
these processes, these processes occur naturally in co-existence.

These events, these processes starting from the atom all the way to the highly complex
human body are all happening in a self-organized manner. We humans are not creating these
processes or units, neither are we responsible for controlling this entire process. When we
understand this self-organisation, we are also able to understand our relationship with
them and its fulfilment.

Conscious (sentient) units, the animal order and the human order
We have been talking about the material units so far, up to the animal and human bodies.
What of animals and human beings? What else is left to have an animal and human being,
the way we know them? The answer is: conscious/ sentient units! We also referred to these
units as the Self or (‘I’). We have already discussed that animals and human beings are as
co-existence of the conscious/sentient (‘I’) unit and the material body. We have been exploring
this in the chapters so far.
 208 A Foundation Course in Human Values and Professional Ethics

Animals or Animal Order = ‘I’ + Animal Body

Humans or Human Order = ‘I’ + Human Body

What is my role in existence?

Let us do the following: Take a look at the picture of existence we have a few pages earlier.
Now answer these questions for yourself:

What have I done for any of these to exist?

What have I done for space to exist?

What have I done for material and conscious units to exist?

What have I done for atoms, molecules, lumps, fluids, and plants to exist?

What have I done for animals and humans to exist?

What have I done for the existence of my own body? My teeth, hands, eyes, feet, etc?

What I have done for my own existence?

Have I created any of this at all?

Am I controlling or directing any of this at all?

Am I the one directing the formation of molecules, the growth of plants, or the beating
of my own heart?

We are not doing any of these. We are not creating any of these!

What is my role in this existence then, if I have not created, or am not controlling any
of these?

All I can do is learn to live with all this! And how would this learning be possible? This
is what we have been discussing from the beginning of this book: understanding the harmony
at all four levels of our living. This is happiness; this ensures the continuity of happiness in
us. When we are able to have the right understanding, we live with the understanding and
are hence able to fulfil our relationship with the four orders.

We have been discussing the need to have the understanding of harmony at all four
levels of existence so far. The detail of this is as follows:

Existence is Co-existence. Co-existence is in the form of:

Every unit is submerged in space (Harmony in Existence)

 Harmony in Existence – Understanding Existence as Co-existence 209

Every unit is related and mutuallly

fulfilling to every other unit (Harmony in Nature)

Human being is related and wants to be

mutually fulfilling to every other unit (Harmony in Society)

‘I’ is related and wants to be mutually

fulfilling to every ‘I’ (Harmony in family)

‘I’ is related and wants to be mutually

fulfilling to Body (Harmony with Body)

Different activities in ‘I’ are also interrelated

and active to be in harmony (Harmony in ‘I’)

(realisation and understanding ensure harmony in desires, thoughts, expectations)

Understanding the self (‘I’), the activities in ‘I’, and their interrelation, understanding
the reality of ‘I’ as being distinct from the body is called knowledge of Self (‘I’).

The knowledge of Self (‘I’) or Jïvana is called jïvana gyãna .

Understanding the harmony at all the levels above means we have understood existence.

This is called knowledge of Existence or we also call it astitva darshana gyãna .

Having understood ‘I’ (jïvana) and the entire existence, we understand our relationship
with every unit in existence and fulfil it, leading to mutual happiness and prosperity.

This is called knowledge of human(e) conduct, also called mãnavïyatã pürna

&
acharana gyãna .
&
The knowledge of these three put together is called right understanding: understanding
of existence, understanding of the Self, and understanding human(e) conduct. This is the
same as understanding the harmony at all four levels of our existence.

When we have this right understanding, the activities of 1) Realization and 2)

Understanding – which are currently dormant in ‘I’ also get expressed, hence we also call
this ‘activity completeness’ or ‘ kriyãpurnatã ’. All the activities in ‘I’ are now expressed, not
&
only desiring, thinking and selection, as is the case now.

When there is completeness in the ability of ‘I’ to live with right understanding at all
the four levels, leading to mutual fulfilment, it is called ‘conduct completeness’ or
‘ãcharanpurnatã’.
 210 A Foundation Course in Human Values and Professional Ethics

Thus, we can see that each material and conscious unit is submerged in space and
being in space, each unit is energised, self-organized and recognizes and fulfils its relationships
with other entities. This is the entirety of existence and it is harmonious.

So, Existence is in the form of Co-existence. It is in Harmony. We don’t have to create

this harmony, it already exists. We only have to understand it to be in it. This means that
having the knowledge of existence and knowledge of self (‘I’) gives me the knowledge of
humane conduct (how to live in existence, with the four orders). With this knowledge, I
can live with humane conduct. This is the pending task we have to complete!

What are we Doing Today?

“Growing what does not grow”, “stopping what anyway grows”!

Look at the diagram below:

<W here w e are>

M ate rial (Jada) 'I' - C onsciou s ( Ch aitenya)

Tem po ra ry (gath ansïla) C on tinu ous (gath anpürna )

R ecogn izing , F ulfillin g Kn ow in g, As sum ing ,

R ecogn izing , F ulfillin g

M aterial O rder Pranic O rder

+
Atom An im al O rd er
Plan t C e lls = 'I' + Bo dy

M olecule
Plan ts
+
M olecule structure H u man O rde r= 'I' + Body
An im al B ody
Kn ow le dge
Ac tivity com ple teness
Lum p H u man Bo dy (G y ã na )
Fluids (Kriy ãpürnatã)

Ev idenc e/Living
C on duc t co m pletene ss
(Pram a na )
(Ãcharana pürnatã )

W e are a ccu m ulating thing s h e re an d ca llin g it W e are n o t allo w in g plan ts W e are h a rd ly p a yin g a n y a tte n tio n to I.
‘g ro w th ’. T h is w ill n ev er grow, b ec au se ‘g ro w th ’ to g row – w e a re d estroy in g W e are h a rd ly loo kin g a t th e n e e ds o f
is n o t th e na tu ra l ch ara cteristics o f the m ate rial fo re sts, bu t w e ca nn o t s to p th e I: the n ee d fo r k no w led g e an d th e
o rd e r ! th is, sin ce th e na tu ra l n ee d for re la tio nsh ip . A ll ou r fo cu s is
ch a ra cteristic o f p la nt o r sim p ly skill b as ed , w h ich is b a sica lly to
p ra n ic o rd e r is to grow a ccu m u la te p h ysic al fa cilitie s

A ll th e foc us is he re Trying to exploit th is Ign oring th is

* We are trying to grow in the left side (material order) and somehow trying to stop
growth on the right side (plant order) –which does not.

We can understand the basic nature of all units. We can understand the natural
characteristic of an order, and then know what to do with it. For example:
 Harmony in Existence – Understanding Existence as Co-existence 211

Material Order – is characterized by composition-decomposition. This is its natural

characteristic, its participation. It does not ‘grow’. i.e. stones do not ‘grow’, gold does not
‘grow’, money; the paper it is printed on does not ‘grow’.

Plant/Pranic Order - is characterized by growth and maintaining the form of growth.

Ex: a plant grows, a shrub grows.

Now, if you want ‘growth’, would you focus on material order, or on the plant order?
The answer seems obvious: if we wanted growth, we would look towards the order that has
growth as its ‘natural characteristic’ and work on it. We find that this is in the plant order
as in existence, naturally, without us having to do anything about it, plants or the plant
order anyway grows.

Now, if you look at the diagram we have above, you will find that today we are putting
all efforts into the material order. All the ‘growth’ we talk of is here: by making more cars,
eating more chocolate, building more roads, making bigger buildings and robots, we think
we are ‘growing’. But this is not possible, since by its natural characteristic itself, the material
order does not grow! Howsoever, we try for growth here, we cannot be satisfied, because at the
end of the day, it is only accumulation. Hence, we can accumulate money, but we cannot grow
money! On the other hand, that which naturally grows i.e. plants, we are trying to stop! We
seem to be trying very hard to stop the growth in plants today!

Thus, our attempts at growth are quite mixed up today. There is an inherent problem
in the kind of ‘growth’ we are talking about. We are focusing on the material order or
padãrtha avasthã which does not grow and not paying attention to the plant order or
prãna avasthã, which anyways grows. We don’t have to do anything for it! This is because
&
we do not have the right understanding. We do not understand the natural characteristic of
these orders and our actions are not aligned according to the natural characteristics of these
orders. Thus, when we talk about growth now, we are not really ‘growing’, we are only
‘accumulating’. And that is the reason for the problem. Today, we think, we all have to
struggle to survive; that if I have to have growth, or what I am trying to grow does not grow
by natural design, I have to snatch it away from the other. Thus, we only end up having a
lot of competition, and no growth in the real sense. Now, if you wanted growth you would
plant trees, say, a banana tree. In a few years it would have grown so much that you will
have more than you can manage. There is growth taking place in existence anyway, even if
we don’t initiate it, there is no need to compete for it.

It is also clear that we are ignoring the needs of the Self (‘I’) and mainly focusing on
physical facilities, which are in the material order.

Accumulation in the material order cannot be a substitute for the needs of knowledge/
understanding and relationship in ‘I’. Work on the material order needs to be done in the
light of understanding in ‘I’ and the needs of ‘I’.
 212 A Foundation Course in Human Values and Professional Ethics

“Developing where it cycles back”, “not developing where it does not”

Let’s start with a question:

If you had ‘development’, would you want it to be reversible or irreversible? Whatever

you gained out of development, would you want it to stay, or go away/back to where you
started from?

The answer, one can guess, is we want development to be irreversible, to stay with us,
to be permanent. So, if something we do is in a cycle, i.e. if we go back to where we started
from, we would not call it ‘development’. Take a look at the figure below:
<W here w e are>

M aterial (Jada) 'I' - C on scious (Ch aiten ya)

Tem po rary (gatha ns ïla) C on tinu ous (gatha npürna )

R ecogn izing , Fulfillin g Kn ow in g, A ssum ing ,

R ecogn izing , Fulfillin g

M aterial O rde r Pranic O rde r

+
Atom An im al O rder
Plant C ells = 'I' + B ody

M olecule
Plants
+
M olecule structu re H u man O rder = 'I' + Bo dy
An im al Body
Kn ow le dge
Ac tivity c om ple tenes s
Lum p Fluids H u man B ody (G yã na )
(Kriyã pürnatã)

Ev idenc e/Living
C on duc t co m pletene ss
(Pram a na )
(Ãchara na pürnatã )

Cyclic
- Keeps going back, Development – not cyclic
cannot 'develop'

Th is is cyclic b y n ature. N o m atter w ha t w e do w ith th e Th ere is qualitative ch an ge in I. T his is

m a te ria l and p lant o rd er, it w ill transform , w ill go ba ck. perm an en t. Th is is de ve lopm en t. If w e w an t
So , w e cann ot ‘d evelop’ he re. W e shall kee p losing this deve lopm en t, this is w here w e need to be
‘deve lopm en t’ sin ce it is cyclic. W e can put th e thin gs w o rking – for righ t u nd ersta nd in g (know ledg e)
here to ‘use’–but th at is not ‘d evelop m en t’ and righ t living

What we are doing today in the name of ‘development’ is to focus on the material order
and the plant order. Now, by nature, these are cyclic. They undergo composition/
decomposition. Hence, if we work on this order, it is in a cycle, it is not ‘development’, each
time going back to where we started from!

Where does ‘development’ take place then? Development has to take place in the
human being – in ‘I’, by knowing the reality, knowing the entire existence and living in
accordance with it.
 Harmony in Existence – Understanding Existence as Co-existence 213

Where do we want to be?

We want to interact with the material order with a view to make things that remain as
constructed, like our houses, implements. We want to use them for composition. We want
to use plant order where growth is required. And for ourselves, we want to develop as
responsible human beings. This is depicted in the diagram below:
<W here w e really want to be>

M ate rial (Jad a) 'I' - C on sciou s ( C h aiten ya)

Te m po ra ry (gath an sïla) C on tinu o us (gath an pürna )

R ec ogn izing , F ulfillin g K n o w in g, A s sum ing ,

R ec ogn izing , F ulfillin g

M a te ria l O rd e r P ra n ic O rd e r
+
A to m A n im a l O rd e r
P la n t C e lls = 'I' + B o d y

M o le cu le
P la n ts
+
M o le cu le stru c tu re H u m a n O rd e r = 'I' + B o d y
A n im a l B o d y
Kn o w le dge
Activity com ple tene ss
Lum p F lu id s Hum an B ody (G y ã na )
(Kriyãpürnatã)

Evide nce /Living

C on duct co m pleten e ss
(Pra m a na )
(Ãcharana pürnatã )

M a te rial things h a v e a ro le to pla y in ou r liv es : in W e un d er s ta nd the role a nd E n s urin g righ t un d e rs ta nd in g a nd rig h t

term s of ne ed s o f the b od y : m a in ta in in g ne ed fo r th e pla n t/pra nic liv in g in I ens u res tha t ou r inter ac tion
ha rm o n y w ith th e bo dy an d fo r v ario us or de r a nd intera c t w ith it w ith a ll th e 4 or der s is in h a rm o ny, a nd
re qu irem e n ts in s o c ie ty – lik e tra ns po rt, ac c o rdin g ly – w e w o rk to w e a re in h arm o ny in o u rs elv es . W e
c o m m u nic a tion , etc . W e c an w ork he re, an d th e en ric h n atu re , a n d the re is also fin d re s o lu tio n to ou r va rio us
pr od u c tion c a n b e w ithin th e na tu ra l fra m e w o rk – en ou g h in na tu re for a ll o f u s qu es tion s a bo ut our se lv es , and
of re c y c lin g ev e ry thin g aro un d us

For com position/construction, For growth , focus here For deve lopm ent , focus here
focus here

Summary
l There are two kinds of realities in existence: units, and space. Space is a reality and can
be understood.

l The units are in co-existence being in space.

l We can thus understand the whole of existence as Nature submerged in Space.

l The units are limited, active, energised, recognize and fulfil the relationship with
other units, and self-organized. Space is all-pervading, no-activity, equilibrium energy,
reflecting (transparent), and, self-organization is available in space.
 214 A Foundation Course in Human Values and Professional Ethics

l Existence is co-existence. Being in space, the units are in harmony, and fulfil the
relationship with each other. This can be understood for all the four orders.

l My role in existence is only to understand the co-existence to reach the state of

&&
kriyãpurnatã * and live accordingly to attain ãcharanpürnatã *.
& & &
l With lack of right understanding, we are investing ourselves to grow things that do
not grow, develop things where it cycles back.

l We need to work on the material order for composition or construction, on plant

order for growth and for development, we need to work for right understanding.

REVIEW QUESTIONS

1. “Existence = Nature submerged in space”- Elaborate this point.

2. Differentiate between units and space. How are units self-organized in space?
3. What do you mean by co-existence? How are units in co-existence being in space?
4. Draw the chart showing in detail, the different categories of units of nature in co-existence in space. What
is your role in Existence?
5. Where is the scope of development in nature? How have we come to wrongly place our developmental
programs?
6. What is the role of material order and bio-order in the fulfilment of human needs? How does understanding
of existence help in right identification of the above?
7. How will the understanding of harmony in Existence influence the R&D programs in science and
technology?

* Can be spelt as Kriyapoornata and Acharanpoornata respectively too.

 SECTION III
IMPLICATIONS OF THE RIGHT
UNDERSTANDING

This Section Contains:

Chapter 12: Providing the Basis for Universal Human Values and Ethical Human
Conduct
Chapter 13: Basis for the Holistic Alternative towards Universal Human Order
Chapter 14: Professional Ethics in the Light of Right Understanding
Chapter 15: Vision for Holistic Technologies, Production Systems and
Management Models
Chapter 16: Journey towards the Holistic Alternative: The Road Ahead
 CHAPTER TWELVE

Providing the Basis for Universal Human

Values and Ethical Human Conduct

I n section-II, we explored the content of right understanding, discovering the innate

harmony at various levels of existence right from the human being to the whole of existence.
This included a correct appraisal of the needs, characteristics and activities of the self (‘I’)
and the Body and also the salient aspects of synergy between these. Then we also understood
human-to-human relationships and the values characterising these relationships leading to
harmony in family and society. We went further to explore the inherent interconnectedness,
cyclability, self-regulation and mutual fulfilment existing in Nature. Finally, we concluded
this study by identifying co-existence in the entire existence. This manifests in the form
harmonious interaction of units (both sentient and insentient i.e consciousness and material)
with each other being in co-existence with the all-pervading space. This reality- ‘space’ is
no-activity, transparent, equilibrium energy and the units of nature are ‘submerged’ in
space. Being in space, they are energized, self-organized and fulfil the definite relationship
with each other, leading to the complete existential order-‘samagra vyavasthã’.

All the above investigations were carried out through a process of self-exploration and
studying the things around us. While the process of self-exploration has to continue to
enable realization and understanding, we can start looking at the significant implications of
such an understanding in our life and profession. This forms the subject matter of the five
chapters of this section.

Here we can also visualize how such an understanding of the truth of existence and our
ability to live in accordance with it, can pave way towards collective and sustainable human
happiness and prosperity. Such an understanding enables the human being to achieve
harmony in oneself, harmony with other human beings and harmony with rest of nature.
This unfolding of truth through the process of self-exploration seems to be the direction of
evolution of the entire mankind. This also is the purpose of human life. It is for us to get
adequately convinced through our own exploration, that this is the only effective way of
establishing peace within as well as peace outside.
 218 A Foundation Course in Human Values and Professional Ethics

In this section, we will also be able to visualize how the right understanding provides
us the vision for carving out the ‘Holistic Alternative’ and perpetuate it in the human
tradition in contrast to the present indefinite and highly unsustainable model of human
living. It also provides the basis for ethical conduct of profession in a natural way and the
development of appropriate technologies, production systems and management models to
facilitate the holistic way of life. So let us start appreciating these implications and also
visualize how we could undertake the journey towards the ‘Holistic Alternative’.

Values in Different Dimensions of Human Living

We studied the harmony at the four levels of human living in section-II. Based on this
understanding of harmony, when we participate in the larger order, this participation at
different level is our value. The identification of values starts from the participation of the
activities of the Self (‘I’) in the form of definite conduct of the human being based on
realization and understanding. Further, the participation of the human being is seen in two
forms: behaviour and work. We studied about the values pertaining to behaviour as the
nine values in relationship, - viz., trust, respect, affection, care, guidance, reverence, glory
and love. Since we discussed them in detail in chapter 8, we will not discuss them here.

Likewise, working with material things, we have two values:

Utility-value: The participation of a human being in ensuring the role of physical

facility in nurture, protection and providing means for the body.

Artistic-value: The participation of a human being in ensuring the role of physical

facility to help and preserve its utility.

For example, the utility value of a pen is that it aids in writing. This provides a means
to the body. Providing a cap to the pen so that the ink does not spill, a proper design for
holding of the pen while writing, etc. preserve the utility of the pen. A shirt has the utility
that it protects the body. This is its utility value. Designing the shirt so that it can be easily
put on is the artistic value. Thus we provide buttons in the front, the size of the shirt is as
per the size of the body and so on. Similarly, with food, we find that the utility of the food
is that it helps nurture the body. But cooking the food in such a way, that it can be easily
chewed and swallowed, served in the dish, etc. is the artistic value. Taking the example of a
book, when we are printing a book, it adds utility to the paper. The content that is printed
helps us store it for a longer time so that we could refer to it from time to time. If you have
to memorise everything, it is going to be a huge engagement for you. But printing it on
paper saves our energy and time. This is utility value. Now keeping the font size so that the
book is legible, designing its size so that it is easy to carry it, etc. is adding artistic value to
the book.
 Providing the Basis for Universal Human Values and Ethical Human Conduct 219

One important point to be noted here is that artistic value is there only when utility
value is there. When there is no utility, it has no scope for art too.

In appendix II, we have listed some more values for you to familiarize. You will see that
all these values are nothing but the participation of the human being in different dimensions
of living.

Universal Values Naturally Emerging from the Right Understanding

Let us now understand how the inculcation of universal values is a natural outcome of the
right understanding. From the discussions of section-II, we can easily infer that there is an
innate harmony and orderliness in the existence. The human beings only need to understand
it (and not to create it). The universal human urge for happiness and prosperity is actually
the quest for understanding this harmony and being in tune with it. The universal human
values are the parameters which designate this harmony at various levels and highlight the
universal purpose in terms of understanding this harmony. Thus, the universal human
values are nothing but manifestation of the truth of existence (harmony, co-existence) in
various dimensions of human interaction in terms of the participation in the universal
order. These are naturally acceptable to all human beings and conducive to human happiness.
Only our ignorance, our wrong pre-conditionings, our illusion about ourselves, about the
existence, about the nature of sensory interactions and about our relationships with things
around us, leads to all the difficulties and confusions in appreciating and inculcating these
universal values. Continuous self-observation and self-exploration into entire existence enables
us to realize this truth. We are able to appreciate the universality and the innateness of
human being. On our own right, we can experience how such a realization leads to fulfilment
at all levels. Once we are able to get rid of our false pre-conditioning and anchor ourselves
to our natural acceptance, the inculcation of human values becomes spontaneous. And this
is true for all human beings and for all times. This is what all of us really cherish and as
human beings we also have the requisite potential and wherewithal to realize it. This
understanding is thus a source of great solace, great relief and great confidence to the whole
human race.

The universal values are the truths of existence and are always there. It is for us to
discover these through self exploration and learn to live in accordance with these in order to
be happy. You will also find that these values cannot be enforced through fear or greed or
false beliefs.

l The values are not to be enforced through fear (bhaya)

l The values are not to be enforced through greed (pralobhana)

l The values are not to be enforced through blind faith/ belief (ãsthã)
 220 A Foundation Course in Human Values and Professional Ethics

The values are naturally acceptable as we have seen, and hence there is no need for
imposition or enforcement. Only right understanding through the process of self-exploration
will lead to harmony in the society or organization.

This gives a very strong base to ensure value based living among human beings. Any
attempt to inculcate values through fear, greed or a false belief will not be conducive to
sustainable harmony in the society or organization. Only the process of understanding
through self-exploration will work in the long run.

Definitiveness of Ethical Human Conduct

What is innateness of human beings? What is our humaneness in reality?

As we identify a neem tree or a mango tree by its well defined specific characteristics
which always remain the same; as we identify water or air or iron or a cow by their respective
characteristics - their innateness, similarly let us also try to identify the innateness of a
human being. So as a mango tree has a definite ‘mango-ness’, iron has a definite ‘iron-ness’,
cow has a definite ‘cow-ness’; similarly let us understand our humane-ness.

The right understanding gained through self-exploration also enables us to identify

the definitiveness of human conduct which may also be called the ethical human conduct.
It is the same for all human beings. So we are also able to understand the universality of
ethical human conduct which is in consonance with the universal human values. Accordingly,
all debates and confusions about what is ethical for one may not be ethical for others etc.
also lose their base. Let us now understand the salient features of this definite human
conduct i.e. the ethical human conduct.

As we have already explored in this book, each one of us wants to have a definite
conduct but presently we may not be able to ensure that. This is because we are presently
living on the basis of our pre-conditionings or assumptions which are not in consonance
with the truth or the right understanding. But, this situation neither gives satisfaction to
us nor to others. We do see the human beings struggling to find out what the right conduct
is and in the process, exhibiting a wide variety of attributes. We also see people debating
endlessly about what they consider to be ethical. But unless we have the right understanding,
we are not able to identify the definitiveness of ethical human conduct. It can be understood
in terms of the following: (See appendix II for more details)

1. Values (Mülya): Values are a part of our ethical conduct. They are the outcome of
realization and understanding, which are always definite. As already mentioned, when
I understand the reality correctly, and the underlying harmony at all levels of existence
and my participation in it, I am able to perceive the universal human values as a part
and parcel of this reality. My imaginations are now always in terms of the definite
 Providing the Basis for Universal Human Values and Ethical Human Conduct 221

participation of mine in this existence in terms of fulfilment of these universal human

values.

2. Policy (Nïti): Having been convinced about the values and about the inherent harmony
in the existence, I am able to develop an ethical sense in all my pursuits. I always
think, behave and work towards nurturing this harmony. It leads us to adopt policies
conducive to human welfare – conducive to enrichment, protection and right utilization
of mind, body and wealth. This is an outcome of the definiteness of my desire, thought
and expectation (selection) as guided by right understanding.

3. Character (Charitra): The definiteness of my desire, thought and selection gives

definiteness to my living. Definitiveness of character is the outcome of the
definiteness of my behaviour and work. This can be mainly characterised in terms
of the following:
v Chastity in conjugal relationship i.e. chastity in husband-wife relationship- (sva-
narï, sva - purusa )
&
v Rightful production acquisition and utilization of wealth (sva-dhana)
v Humane behaviour and work with kindness (dayãpürna kãrya-vyavahãra)
This definitiveness of human conduct in terms of values, policies and character is termed
as Ethics.
On this basis, we get a definite notion of ethics. We get a definite criterion to judge
whether an act of human being is ethical or unethical, and a definite way to work for ethics
in life and profession. We can see that the ethics in the living of an individual can be
imbibed only through inculcation of values, policies and character, and this is possible
through the process of ensuring right understanding through self-exploration.
At the same time, we can see that a human being with ethical human conduct coupled
with requisite professional skills only can be a good professional, namely, a good engineer,
a good manager, a good teacher and researcher, a good technocrat, etc.
We can further qualify the ethical human conduct on the basis of the following:
l ‘Ethical conduct’ implies that it is naturally acceptable to me and does not give rise to
conflict within.
l ‘Ethical conduct’ implies that it is in consonance with the right understanding of the
reality – the underlying harmony at all levels.
l ‘Ethical conduct’ implies that it leads to mutual fulfilment with other people and
mutual enrichment with rest of nature.
Thus, the ‘ethical conduct’ is self-satisfying, people-friendly, eco-friendly and universal.
 222 A Foundation Course in Human Values and Professional Ethics

Identification of Svatva Leading to Svatantratã and Svarãjya

We discussed about these three terms in chapter two. We had said that we will be exploring
our Svatva; and in the process of Self-verification and living accordingly, we will be attaining
Svatantratã and Svarãjya. Having discussed the content of right understanding, we can see
how we explored our Svatva (our natural acceptance) at different levels of our living and
how the dialogue that started in us helped us getting rid of our preconceived notions, our
dilemmas, contradictions and compulsions, either external or internal. Having explored
our Svatva, we are able to live accordingly and this way, we become Svatantra. The more,
we attain this self-organized state, we are able to live in harmony with others and also we
are able to help others attain this state. This leads to our participation in Svarãjya. You will
note that this is a natural process. It leads by itself, without any external force. The more we
are in dialogue with our innateness, the more organized we become.

From here we get an important message: the effort towards ensuring orderliness in the
society is possible and is sustained by ensuring orderliness in ourselves. Every mechanism
to bring order in the society needs to be based on this. This is an important implication of
right understanding when we go to make policies for nations and the world.

Development of Human Consciousness

As explained earlier, the journey towards right understanding in fact brings a transformation
in the human being from ‘animal consciousness’ to ‘human consciousness’. We talked about
this in chapter two. Having gone through the self-exploration, we can see how it helps us to
initiate the development process of our consciousness. Accordingly it affects a change in
one’s goals, priorities and selection criteria. In ‘animal consciousness’ we give all the weightage
to physical facilities, to the maximization of sensory pleasures, to accumulation of wealth.
Our criteria of evolution are primarily body-centric, targeted towards maximization of
comforts and sensory pleasures. As indicated earlier, this propensity proves to be a misery
trap for human beings causing multifarious problems within us as well as in outside world
as we are experiencing now a days. As we transform to the human consciousness, we are able
to base our thoughts and activities on right understanding, give relationship a higher priority
than physical facilities, identifying our physical needs and ensure it through ãvartans ïla
production, enriching rest of the nature as well.
 Providing the Basis for Universal Human Values and Ethical Human Conduct 223

Implications of Value-based Living

The implications of value-based living can be studied in the following terms:

1. At the level of individual: Transition towards happiness and prosperity will take place
at the individual level. The individual will slowly start getting rid of the contradictions
and conflicts within, and attain a state where one is able to answer his/her questions
by exploring within the self. This will help the individual get rid of the tension,
frustration, depression, one-upmanship and other such situations that he/she doesn’t
want to be in and will facilitate definite and predictable human conduct in him/her.
The feeling of Sanyama will enable a proper care and use of the Body. It will instill self
confidence and spontaneous joyfulness in the individual. This will in turn help the
individual reduce the feeling of financial insecurity caused due to ill-health.

2. At the level of family: The value-based living will facilitate peace and harmony in the
family, with just and fulfilling behaviour. People will feel prosperous and the feeling
to nurture others will grow in the families. This will help raise the feeling of
togetherness in the families, and reduce the family feuds. The prevalent problems of
families will be on the wane once human living is more based on human consciousness
than animal consciousness. Such harmonious living will also help reduce the
competitive and consumeristic behaviour in family celebrations like marriages, parties
and other social occasions.

3. At the level of society: When relationship gets higher priority over physical facilities,
fearlessness and mutual trust start emerging in the society. Differentiations on the
bases of body (in terms of gender, age or race), physical facilities (in terms of wealth or
posts) and beliefs ( in terms of isms, sects, etc.) will be reduced. The conflicts between
communities, nations, races, factions and problems like naxalism, terrorism,
consumerism can be solved to a large extent without any coercion or war. The feeling
of undividedness will surface in the society. Fulfilment of human goal will start getting
to the fore in our plans and projects at the levels of societies and nations and a universal
human order based on trustful relationships can slowly emerge.

4. At the level of nature: Human beings will be in a better position to place themselves
in relation with other units in nature. The problems of pollution and resource depletion
can be solved as people are able to judge their needs for physical facilities correctly
and fulfill these in a recyclable manner matching with the process of nature. Better
methods of farming and production (avartansheel-cyclic) will help cut down problems
of greenhouse gases, ozone depletion, ecological imbalance. The population of animals
and birds can be saved from extinction and forests can be replenished.
 224 A Foundation Course in Human Values and Professional Ethics

One important point to be noted here is that, to validate the above, the qualitative
shift in our participation in harmony at the four levels is a significant indication. The
above mentioned implications will take place and start showing in the the world
outside slowly.

Summary
To conclude, we have tried to highlight the following implications of right understanding
in this chapter.

1. The right understanding enables us to discover that values are a natural outcome of
the right understanding. They need not be imposed through fear, greed or blind
belief.

2. The definitiveness of ethical human conduct is understood in terms of definiteness of

values, policies and character and it is universal.

3. Identification of the innateness of human being, Svatva, leads to Svatantratã and

Svarãjya.

4. Right understanding helps the human being to transform from animal consciousness
to human consciousness.

5. This will help show positive signs of improvement in living of human beings at the
level of individual, family, society and nature.

REVIEW QUESTIONS

1. How does right understanding provide the basis for ethical human conduct? Give two examples.
2. What are the values in interaction of human beings with the material things? Give one example of each.
3. “Human values are universal and naturally acceptable, hence these are to be explored and realized, not
be enforced” - comment.
4. What do you understand by definitiveness of ethical human conduct? Why is this definitiveness desirable?
5. What is ethical human conduct? Explain it in terms of values, policies and character.
6. You were introduced to the words Svatva, Svatantratã and Svarãjya in chapter 2. How does the self-
exploration in the following chapters help you to identify swatva and transition to Swatantratã and
Swarãjya?
7. What would be the pragmatic implications of value-based living at the four levels? Briefly explain.
 CHAPTER THIRTEEN

Basis for the Holistic Alternative

towards Universal Human Order

I n the last chapter, we have seen how right understanding provides the foundation for the
identification of universal human values in all the dimensions of life. It also facilitates the
recognition of the definitiveness of ethical human conduct. It helps us to perceive the close
correlation between universal human values and happiness and to realize that the ethical
human conduct is our intrinsicness. This helps the mankind transform to living with human
consciousness. In this chapter, we will see further how right understanding enables us to
visualize universal human goal in a comprehensive way and also provides a holistic view of
human welfare. It may be pointed out that such a vision is in stark contrast to the prevailing
notion of human welfare which is primarily perceived in terms of proliferation of physical
facilities.

Identification of Comprehensive Human Goal

So, an important implication of the right understanding is the visualization of comprehensive
human goal which is conducive to human welfare in a holistic and sustainable manner.
Presently, human welfare is primarily perceived in economic terms only. We have already
seen how such a narrow objective leads to problems in various spheres of life and is not
sustainable. Further, in the light of the right understanding, it is possible to visualize the
pattern of ‘Holistic Alternative’ to cater to the comprehensive human goal, a model of
human living which is people friendly and eco-friendly and therefore mutually fulfilling as
well as sustainable. In this process, it will be possible to visualize an alternative set of
criteria to evaluate the education, healthcare systems, technologies, production systems
and the models for commercial activity and management. As we have seen in chapter nine,
the comprehensive human goal consists of the following:
1. Right Understanding and freedom from contradictions at the individual level
(Samãdhãna)- In every individual
 226 A Foundation Course in Human Values and Professional Ethics

2. Prosperity and its continuity at the level of family (Samriddhi)- In every family

3. Fearlessness and mutual trust (Abhaya)- In the society

4. Co-existence (Sah-astitva) - In the nature

Such a comprehensive objective will be conducive to the welfare of all (abhyudaya) for
all times. This will apply to all the human beings on earth. We can also understand that
facilitating and empowering human beings towards the fulfilment of the above mentioned
comprehensive human goal is real human welfare.

Now, on this basis, we can identify the goals of any organization, system or society,
either working for production, justice, exchange... etc. We can evaluate whether the goals
set by the system are humane or not, whether these are comprehensive or having a limited
vision. Once we are able to identify the comprehensive human goal, it becomes clear to us
that in all our programs, this is going to be the primary motivation. And if any program is
not subservient to these, it is not going to be fit for the society and human welfare.

In terms of these goals, we can evaluate the inadequacies in the prevalent education
system, judiciary system, administration and governance, market policies and other such
systems. Are we working to achieve the human goal which is naturally acceptable to us, or
moving away from it? We had a brief review of our present systems in chapter nine. It
revealed how our society and societal systems have deviated from human welfare. But there
is no need to blame an existing system or trend. We only need to focus on the development
of right understanding. We have seen that nobody accepts naturally to do wrong, we just
have to provide the right direction to facilitate this.

Vision for the Holistic Alternative

A correct appraisal of the comprehensive human goal and human welfare and the realization
of co-existence at all levels enable us to visualize and gradually evolve a viable alternative to
the prevailing pattern of human living. Thus the right understanding prepares us for moving
towards the ‘holistic alternative’ (universal human order, svarãjya) which will be sustainable
as well as conducive to fulfil the basic human aspirations for all human beings. It will be a
mode of living which is self satisfying, people-friendly and eco-friendly. Then, all human
ingenuity and creativity, all the knowledge and skills available can be harnessed to actualize
such a model of living. There is an urgent need to initiate research and development in this
direction as our present model of living is proving to be more and more problematic and
unsustainable.

Right understanding also provides us the basis to evolve a humanistic education system,
holistic health care systems, appropriate technologies, production systems and management
 Basis for the Holistic Alternative towards Universal Human Order 227

models, and an economic order based on recyclability and compatibility with nature. Also
with the help of right understanding, it will be possible to visualize a humanistic constitution
which will facilitate the development of a harmonious world family and a universal human
order (Mãnavïya Vyavasthã). The five dimensions of such a universal human order (Mãnavïya
Vyavasthã) can be worked out in detail in tune with the above mentioned objectives to
usher in the holistic alternative.

Basis for Humanistic Education and Humanistic Constitution

The primary step to move towards the holistic alternative is to develop the right
understanding among human beings and the commitment to live accordingly and then to
develop the requisite skills and know-how to implement the right understanding in real
life. In the first place, it calls for a change in the education system towards humanistic
education. The right understanding provides us with the vision of such a humanistic
education. As we discussed earlier, education means to imbibe the understanding of harmony
at all the levels of living. It is not just reading, writing and arithmetic, but rather a process
to enable the human being to live in accordance to the natural acceptance. It calls for a
major shift in vision and emphasis as comparison to the existing system.

Humanistic Education
Inculcation of the right understanding at all 4 levels( from self to entire existence) and
development of the competence to live in accordance with it forms the core of humanistic
education. One should be able to evaluate all the endeavours in the light of right
understanding. Humanistic education will incorporate appropriate integration of values
and skills so that human beings are able to understand their physical needs correctly and
adopt suitable techniques and production systems to cater to these needs in an eco-friendly
and people friendly manner.

The humanistic education will facilitate the process of self exploration which will lead
to continuous self evolution of human beings. It will also enable the realization of one’s
innateness (svatva) as well as the universality and definitiveness of ethical human conduct.
It will also develop the conviction that only value based living can be conducive to continuous
happiness and prosperity for one and all.

Adequate research effort is needed to evolve and implement the models of such an
education. To begin with, the education of a child starts at home. The child learns and
understands things living in close relations at home. So every model will entail the right
kind of environment at home for the child to develop. When the child needs more exposure
to skills and knowledge, he/she will need a formal system, in the form of some collective
effort in the society. To start with it is necessary to introduce the required inpurts of value
 228 A Foundation Course in Human Values and Professional Ethics

education. But in the longer run, the whole education system will need to be re-designed
in the light of right understanding. It is a useful exercise for us to learn how a child can be
facilitated to have the right understanding since childhood, how it will learn languages,
reading, writing and arithmetic skills, and skills that form a part of higher education.

Humanistic Constitution
In addition, the right understanding also provides us the basis for a humanistic constitution
which is essential to provide clear guidelines and policy framework conducive to the
development of an un-fragmented human society and a universal human order. Working
towards the comprehensive human goal and developing the competence for ethical human
conduct will be among the salient directive principles of a humanistic constitution. It will
safeguard the social justice in true sense.

Presently, the human society is divided into various castes, creeds, religions and
nationalities whose objectives and interests are proving contrary to those of others.
Accordingly, a major part of human endeavour is used in handling these conflicts and
contradictions. Paradoxically, the human beings are spending a substantial part of their
energies and resources in preparing themselves for war, only to ensure peace! As we can
now understand, when the parameters of human welfare are universal, i.e. commonly
applicable to all human beings, why should the human endeavour in pursuit of these
common objectives be conflicting to the interests of each other? This can only be there
because of our ignorance, because of our incorrect assumptions/beliefs about happiness
and about reality. Presently, our effort is directed towards trying to stop a wrong behaviour
by means of an equally or more wrong behaviour - a crime by executing a bigger crime, a
violence by greater violence. This can never be successful in the long run and only gives
rise to a vicious circle to perpetuate the wrong doings. Things can only be set right by
developing human consciousness, by developing right understanding and living among
people and in no other way. Thus, the right understanding also offers a satisfactory and
spontaneous resolution of the prevailing human conflicts ranging from the family level
and going up to the global level.

Here again, it may be an educative exercise for the reader to visualize a model of humanistic
constitution. In the light of the right understanding, what will the fundamental rights and
duties be, what will the way be to ensure justice and protection in the society, what will the
format be of working for a universal human order, how will people connect to the world
family, how will the representation of people be ensured in maintaining order in the society,
these all issues are to be addressed. To begin with, the family will be smallest unit of order
in the society. Moving from family to the world family, the humanistic constitution will
provide the basis of harmonious living. These are relevant issues in terms of visualizing the
holistic alternative to the present scenario.
 Basis for the Holistic Alternative towards Universal Human Order 229

Universal Human Order and its Implications

So finally, it may be concluded that it is possible to move towards a universal human order
with the help of suitable systems and policies evolved in the light of right understanding.
Such a development will be naturally acceptable to all human beings. The whole existence
except the human beings is already operating in harmony. It is for us, the human beings, to
understand, to appreciate this harmony and to play our role in this total order.

On the basis of the understanding of harmony, we get the notion of an undivided

society and universal human order. The universal human order will comprise of:

1. The five dimensions of human endeavour (education, heath etc.) towards a fragmented
society.

2. The steps of organization from family to world family, each anchored in right
understanding will integrate in the following way:

family fi family cluster fi village/community fi village cluster fififi world family

We had listed the five dimensions in chapter nine. In each of the five dimensions, we
can visualise a humane system, be it education, health, production, exchange or justice and
conceptualize a harmoniously functioning society. The social organization can proceed from
family to world family with representative bodies of persons endowed with the right
understanding at each level.

In contrast, one can also study the functioning of nations and states today, and evaluate
their working in the light of a universal human order. We definitely need to avail from the
tremendous store house of know-how and skills available at present times and use these in
the above mentioned humane way.

Summary
1. The right understanding helps us identify the comprehensive human goal in terms of
Samãdhãna, Samriddhi, Abhaya, Sah-astitva and set all our sub-goals based on these.

2. This gives us the vision of the ‘holistic alternative’ in all the dimensions of human
living.

3. The understanding of harmony gives the basis and framework of humanistic education
and humanistic constitution.

4. The universal human order in terms of five dimensions of society and steps of
organization from family to world family can be visualised on this basis.
 230 A Foundation Course in Human Values and Professional Ethics

REVIEW QUESTIONS

1. What do you mean by the ‘holistic alternative’? What is the vision for the holistic alternative?
2. Visualize a framework for humanistic education for children. Suggest a few ways to modify present day
school education.
3. How does right understanding provide the basis for humanistic constitution? Suggest some aspects of
such a constitution to promote holistic living.
4. What do you mean by Universal Human Order? What are its implications on the different dimensions of
a society?
5. Choose any one dimension (education, heath, production, justice, exchange) of human endeavour in a
society. Suggest what role can you play in the chosen dimension through the orientation you are going
to have through your professional education.
 CHAPTER FOURTEEN

Professional Ethics in the Light

of Right Understanding

P rofession is a significant domain of human activity targeted towards participating in

the larger order which includes the society and nature around. Thus, it is a meaningful
participation for each one in one or more of the five domains of human endeavour needed
for a harmonious society. Of this, one important domain happens to be in the form of
production and production related activities. It also makes available the necessary physical
facilities (livelihood) for oneself and one’s family. Here, one has to interact with other
human beings as well as the living and non-living entities of rest of nature. Through
professional education, one acquires the specific skills and knowledge in order to make this
contribution in the larger order. Ethical conduct of profession implies the right utilization
of one’s professional skills towards the fulfilment of comprehensive human goal and thus,
meaningfully participate in the larger order. Therefore, it is expected from a competent
professional to carry out one’s profession with right understanding, dexterity and
commitment so that the effort is conducive to human welfare i.e. conducive to the happiness
and prosperity of all and also to the enrichment of rest of nature. However, to be able to
achieve this, it is essential to develop the value competence or the ethical competence in the
human beings along with the requisite skills. Presently, there is an increasing thrust on
sophistication of professional skills and most of the effort in education is directed towards
this objective. There is hardly any emphasis on developing the ethical competence which is
acquired through appropriate Value Education. It may be easily appreciated that a significant
implication of the right understanding is to develop this ethical competence and thereby
facilitate professional ethics.

The issues pertaining to the unethical conduct of profession are presently becoming a
matter of widespread concern. With increase in skills and know-how and with the availability
of sophisticated technologies and systems for large scale networking to harness these skills,
the human beings have acquired tremendous power to influence the lives of their fellow
beings as well as the state of nature on this planet. In such a situation, it becomes crucial to
 232 A Foundation Course in Human Values and Professional Ethics

ensure the ethical utilization of the professional capabilities. And such competence can
only be acquired through right understanding and the orientation to live in accordance
with it i.e. ethical human conduct (discussed in detail in chapter 12).

If we look at the driving ethos in the present times, it is noticed that the main thrust all
around is towards the so called economic development which in practice essentially reduces
to widespread tendencies towards wealth accumulation or profit maximization and
proliferation of physical facilities which are imagined to be the means to achieve happiness
and prosperity. As a result, all the skills, know-how, technologies and resources get harnessed
in this direction only. This is creating multiple global maladies as well as contradictions
and dilemmas at various levels. The globalization of this trend is already resulting in hazardous
consequences. Hence, it is becoming increasingly urgent to rectify this situation and this
can be done effectively only through the development of right understanding.

In this chapter, we shall first try to understand the profession in right perspective and
then visualize how the real competence in professional ethics can be ensured. Further, we
will also have a glance at the current scenario in regard to professional ethics – resulting in
widespread proliferation of unethical practices in a variety of ways. We will also draw
attention to the inadequacy of various methods being used to curb this trend. We will try
to understand how the inherent dichotomy of the prevailing worldview vis-à-vis the
expectation of professional ethics is generating multiple contradictions and dilemmas which
can not be resolved unless there is a change in human consciousness through right
understanding.

Profession – In the Light of Comprehensive Human Goal

As mentioned earlier, any profession is a channel for participation by human beings in the
larger order in pursuance of comprehensive human goal. In the process, one is able to
contribute towards the livelihood of one’s family and also participate in the larger order
constituting the society and the nature around. All these activities do require a certain
degree of skill and are expected to be performed in consonance with the comprehensive
human goal. Then only, these will be conducive to the sustained welfare of the individual as
well as the society. The excellence or the success of any professional activity is to be judged
from this comprehensive point of view only and not in terms of just wealth generation.
Accordingly, the profession is not only a means of earning one’s livelihood but a means of
one’s evolution by appropriate participation in the larger order. It is an important activity
to authenticate one’s understanding, whereby we interact with other human beings and
with rest of nature in a mutually fulfilling manner. Thus, profession is a ‘service’.
 Professional Ethics in the Light of Right Understanding 233

Having understood the above notion of profession, let us pause a while to investigate
how we are presently looking at the profession. What is in our mind when we try to choose
a professional career? What do we consider as a good profession? What is the general view of
the parents in regard to an appropriate profession for their children? In what way do the
people in society give value to various professions? This is very important for us to find out.
The general perception in which the professions are presently looked at, is in terms of being
able to earn more and more money, getting more power, getting more perks or comforts
etc. Isn’t it? Varify this yourself.

Such a view which is widely prevailing inherently comes in conflict with the expectations
of professional ethics to ensure the sustained welfare of all. These aspects will be discussed
subsequently when we will have a look at the current scenario in detail. Here, it may suffice
to sum up that the real way to ensure ethical conduct of profession is to have a correct
understanding of profession, a correct understanding of happiness and prosperity and then
to develop the competence to fulfil this notion. The whole purpose of value education is to
enable the development of this understanding and competence which is essential to ensure
professional ethics.

Ensuring Competence in Professional Ethics

Having understood the profession in right perspective, let us clearly demarcate what we
mean by developing ethical competence or the value competence of an individual which is
the only effective way to ensure professional ethics. In absence of such a competence,
administering oaths and prescribing codes of conduct etc. become mere formalities. Before
proceeding further, let us also try to visualize as to why a person acts unethically. It is
primarily because of lack of correct understanding about happiness and prosperity. If a
person views happiness in terms of maximization of sensory enjoyment and prosperity in
terms of accumulation of physical facilities, then the motivation naturally becomes that of
wealth maximization. In this pursuit, all other considerations become secondary. Therefore,
it leads to more and more unethical practices as these seem to cater well to the above
misconceived notion of happiness. Immediate attractiveness of the outcome of such pursuits
tends to make people adhere to this wrong notion firmly. As many other people seem to be
following the same path and apparently ‘gaining’ from it, this is believed to be the only
pragmatic way of living. In this context, the ethical considerations are considered to be too
idealistic to follow in real life.

As already mentioned, the development of ethical competence is a long-term process to

be achieved through appropriate value education. As profession is only a subset of the life
activities, the competence in profession will only be the manifestation of one’s right
understanding.
 234 A Foundation Course in Human Values and Professional Ethics

The salient features characterizing this competence can be summarized as follows:

Competence in Professional Ethics

1. Clarity about the comprehensive human goal: Samãdhãna-Samriddhi- Abhaya- Sah-
astitva and its fulfilment through universal human order from family to world family.

2. Confidence in oneself as well as confidence in the harmony, co-existence and self-

regulation prevailing in entire existence based on the right understanding of oneself
and the rest of existence.

3. Competence of mutually fulfilling behaviour, clarity and confidence in ethical human

conduct and its correlation with sustainable personal as well as collective happiness
and prosperity.

4. Competence of mutually enriching interaction with nature, ability to assess the needs
for physical facilities for the family and their fulfilment through production systems
ensuring harmony in the nature.

5. Competence of actualizing one’s understanding in real life.

Issues in Professional Ethics – The Current Scenario

The issues in professional ethics are becoming very complex in the current scenario. The
unethical practices are rapidly increasing and their impact is also becoming far-reaching.
Corruption in multifarious manifestations is afflicting all the professions like a virus. Similarly,
other unethical practices are also proliferating and getting out of control. It appears as if
human ingenuity is being increasingly harnessed to devise newer and subtler ways to thwart
the ethical conduct of profession, to twist the laws and to beat the system. A good number
of people have started nurturing the feeling that with money, everything can be
accomplished, any person can be ‘purchased’, and any system can be bent to one’s advantage.
As a result of this ‘epidemic’ of unethical practices, we are frequently coming across serious
scams, major economic offences and kickbacks in large scale purchases. These are also
manifesting in the form of hawãlã and benãmï transactions, in fact, leading to a parallel
black market economy. Lapses on the part of big organizations in ethical conduct of profession
have led to large scale disasters, such as Bhopal Gas Tragedy, the Chernobyl Disaster, etc.,
endangering public life and property, and causing serious degradation to environment.

This menace becomes even more serious as unethical policies are adopted collectively
by large industries, cartels, multinational corporations and even national governments. As
a result, there is a sort of ‘legitimization’ of these unethical policies by projecting them to
be in the interest of large groups of people. We also observe strong influences being exercised
 Professional Ethics in the Light of Right Understanding 235

by various such groups which are frequently referred to as drug-mafia, builder-mafia and
arms-mafia etc. by the media. Such vested interest groups lobby together and destabilize
the economies and even governments of different nations. The strong influence exerted by,
say oil companies and oil-producing countries, on international politics is well-known.

We are also quite familiar how misleading propaganda, advertisements using sex-appeal,
the influence of show-business and celebrities are being employed to influence the public
mind for promoting all types of products which are not quite conducive to human welfare.
There is no need to elaborate too much on all these forms of deteriorating professional
ethics, as all of us are not only victims of this degradation, but at many occasions feel
compelled to even contribute to it directly or indirectly or remain helpless onlookers. We
may enlist some salient categories of these unethical practices as follows:

l Corruption in multiple forms and at various levels

l Tax evasion, misappropriation and misuse of public funds

l Misleading propaganda, unethical advertisements and sales promotion

l Cut-throat competition

l Exploiting the weakness of consumers through various enticements

l Adulteration and spurious production

l Endangering the health and safety of public at large

l Hoarding and over-charging etc.

…the list could be much longer.

Why is all this happening? Who is contributing to the aggravation of this situation?
What is its impact on our happiness and prosperity? These are important points for us to
ponder and explore.

In this context, it will also be educative to look at the various methods and mechanisms
which are being presently employed to check these trends and their effectiveness.

It is true that the adverse impact of this malaise is being widely felt, and the concern for
rectifying the situation is increasing in the society. Many agencies such as the government
bodies, professional societies, NGO’s, media and professional educators etc. are all trying
to devise ways and means to control the situation. However, all the methods being adopted
are either of symptomatic nature or punitive measures or crisis management techniques
rather than real solutions to the whole problem. For example, the following methods are
being increasingly proposed and implemented:

l Promoting awareness about professional ethics by introducing new courses, refresher

 236 A Foundation Course in Human Values and Professional Ethics

programs and case studies

l Administering oaths and prescribing codes of ethical conduct for specific professional
disciplines

l Setting up mechanisms for intensive audit inspection and monitoring the activities

l Framing more stringent laws and devising harder punishments for offences

l Promoting transparency in working systems through mechanisms like RTI (right to

information act), etc.

l Carrying out ‘sting operations’ and widely publicising serious lapses in ethical conduct
of profession through media

l Encouraging whistle blowing by individuals or groups

l Setting up vigilance commissions, ethics committees, tribunals, consumer protection

forums etc.

l Filing public interest litigations etc.

While there is no denying the fact that all the above methods are with earnest intention
to tackle the present situation, however, these have a temporary utility and prove deterrent
to a limited degree only. The focus in these methods is primarily towards curbing the ill-
effects rather than rectifying the root cause, namely the faulty world-view, which continues
to remain dominant. The real way out is to work towards developing the ethical competence
by transforming the consciousness of the people through right understanding. Unless the
inherent dichotomy between the wrongly perceived notion of happiness through wealth
maximization and the expectations of human welfare, the expectations of common good is
resolved, no breakthrough is possible.

Inherent Contradictions and Dilemmas and their Resolution

We can understand more clearly through examples how the contradictions and dilemmas
are inherently generated by the prevailing worldview in which wealth maximization is
perceived to be the prime objective. In such a paradigm, ‘your loss is my gain’. Thus the
other person’s happiness seems to be in conflict with my happiness. In that case, the other
people have to be exploited for one to gain affluence and there is no possibility of mutual
fulfilment in a sustainable way. In the same way, exploitation of nature also becomes
acceptable as it helps a person to accumulate wealth easily and there is no limit to this.

Let us analyse how such a world view affects the propensity of people in different professions.
Take the example of business circles, whenever there is a scarcity of commodity due to say –
 Professional Ethics in the Light of Right Understanding 237

monsoon failure or other natural disturbances or wars etc, the people in general are in distress
and need succour; however in such a situation the businessmen endowed with materialistic
world view will feel elated and look at it as an opportunity to make maximum profit. They
feel that the market is ‘improving’ and they should take the maximum advantage of it, even
accentuate it by hoarding and black marketing to serve their objective. Thus the interest of
such businessmen and the consumers in general come in direct conflict. While in reality they
are expected to be mutually complementary. In a similar way, unethical practices like
adulteration and spurious production etc. are also adopted in an attempt to increase profits-
albeit at the cost of greatly endagering public health and safety.

An interesting example of the prevailing dichotomy is evident in the advertisements that

we daily come across, particularly in case of various evidently harmful products like cigarettes,
pan masala etc. Where on one hand, the use of these products is highly glamorized to attract
the consumers and in the end there is an inconspicuous statutory warning indicating that the
use of these products is injurious to health. Thus there is clear tendency of making profits by
promoting the sale of the products which are injurious to public health. In such a situation
the dilemma as to how much importance is to be given to one’s profit and how much to the
welfare always remains unresolved.

Similarly, let us highlight the dilemma in any profession which arises when the prime
motivation is towards profit maximization. Take the example of practising medicos with the
urge of profit maximization. Supposing there is an epidemic and a large number of people
become sick, the doctors endowed with materialistic world view will feel excited as it would
give them an opportunity to earn a lot of money. Thus, the degradation in the health of
society becomes a welcome opportunity for those whose expected role in the society is to
facilitate the health of people. Here again the dilemma always persists whether to give
importance to one’s profit or to the welfare of people needing help. Driven by the profit
mania one can adopt methods of extreme exploitation of the patients who are already in
serious trouble.

We can make similar visualizations for each profession whereby the motivations of
profit maximization eventually lead to unethical practices of various dimensions and thwart
the very objective of these professions in contributing towards the common good, towards
the larger order. With all this, a continuous contradiction persists in the mind of such
people as these unethical processes are not naturally acceptable to anyone. They create
tension and anxiety at the personal level and one is tempted to adopt dual personality in
terms of trying to appear to be ethical and in reality acting differently. There is a need to hit
the nail on the head. The resolution of all these contradictions and dilemmas can only
come through right understanding. Thus, the crux of all this discussion is that sincere
effort towards building up the ethical competence of human beings in general and
professionals in particular through proper value education is the only effective way to
safeguard professional ethics.
 238 A Foundation Course in Human Values and Professional Ethics

Summary
1. Profession implies meaningful participation in the larger order including society and
nature in pursuance of comprehensive human goal and in the process also making
available the necessary physical facilities for one’s family.

2. Developing ethical competence in the individuals (professionals) is the only effective

way to ensure professional ethics.

3. The competence in professional ethics manifest as follows:

a. Clarity about the comprehensive human goal: Samadhan-Samriddhi- Abhay- Sah-

astitva.

b. Confidence in oneself as well as confidence in the harmony and co-existence

prevailing in entire existence based on the right understanding of oneself and
the rest of existence

c. Competence of mutually fulfilling behaviour, clarity and confidence in ethical

human conduct and its correlation with sustainable personal as well as collective
happiness and prosperity.

d. Competence of mutually enriching interaction with Nature, ability to assess the

needs for physical facilities for the family and their fulfilment through production
systems ensuring harmony in the nature.

e. Competence of actualizing one’s understanding.

4. The increase of unethical practices in various professions, the contradictions and

dilemmas are primarily due to the prevailing worldview focussing on profit
maximization. These can only be resolved through right understanding.

REVIEW QUESTIONS

1. What do you mean by ‘profession’? Why is it required to acquire ethical competence in profession?
2. What do you understand by competence in professional ethics? Elaborate.
3. Critically examine the issues in professional ethics in the current scenario. List any five unethical
practices in profession today and the methods being tried to curb them. Comment on the long term
effectiveness of these methods.
4. What are the inherent contradictions and dilemmas of professional ethics in the prevailing world view?
How does right understanding resolve these issues?
5. Imagine that you have joined at middle management level in an organization where you find unethical
practices prevalent. How will you proceed to promote ethics among your colleagues? Mention a few
steps you may take to improve the situation without creating an atmosphere of opposition.
 CHAPTER FIFTEEN

Vision for Holistic Technologies,

Production Systems and
Management Models

A s discussed in Chapter-13, the right understanding provides us the vision for a

holistic alternative. It provides the vision for mãnavïya vyavasthã – a model of living
which is inherently conducive to the needs of all human beings and also compatible with
nature; a model which is conducive to the development of harmonious human society at
a global level; a model which paves way for a sustainable, universal human order leading
to happiness, peace and prosperity. Of course, such a model will necessitate the visualization
and development of appropriate technologies, production systems and management models
which cater to the comprehensive human goal of ‘samãdhãna, smriddhi, abhaya and sah-
astitva’. It will be necessary to develop and popularize technologies and systems conducive
to human welfare – to abhyudaya or sarvodaya and not merely focus attention on economic
growth.

The development of such systems and devices requires right understanding and a
close scrutiny of the systems and processes of nature, as these are all basically holistic,
time tested and self regulated. Of course, there is an ample scope for creative processing
on the part of human beings to make them more conducive to human use. Further, it
will also require a careful learning from some of the traditional practices, critically
examining them so that we are able to identify their strengths and desirable features and
retain them while evolving technologies and systems for our present needs. Only then we
can appropriately harness the store house of traditional wisdom along with the present
day knowledge of science and technology. In this chapter, we will try to identify the
salient criteria for assessing and developing appropriate technologies, production systems
and management models. Thereafter a glimpse of such systems will also be presented
through typical examples.
 240 A Foundation Course in Human Values and Professional Ethics

The Holistic Criteria for Evaluation

The modern technologies and systems are all human inventions in response to the needs
visualized under the influence of the prevailing worldview. Accordingly, they have been
designed and optimized to the objective functions best suited to this world view. In order
to facilitate the development of holistic technologies and systems, it will be necessary to
visualize alternative objective functions and to formulate appropriate criteria for evaluation
compatible with comprehensive human goal.

Generally speaking, there are three broad criteria to guide the development of such
technologies and systems, viz.,

(a) Catering to appropriate needs and lifestyles,

(b) People-friendly, and

(c) Eco-friendly.

In addition, these have to promote local self-sufficiency and optimal utilization of local
resources and expertise.

In accordance to the above general considerations, the specific criteria for judging the
appropriateness of technologies, production systems and management models may be
identified as follows:

Criteria for Technologies

The above mentioned general criteria can be itemized into more specific form as follows:

l Catering to real human needs

l Compatible with natural systems and cycles

l Facilitating effective utilization of human body, animals, plants and materials

l Safe, user-friendly and conducive to health

l Producible with local resources and expertise as far as possible

l Promoting the use of renewable energy resources

l Low cost and energy efficient

l Enhancing human interaction and cooperation

 Vision for Holistic Technologies, Production Systems and Management Models 241

l Promoting decentralisation

l Durability and life cycle recyclability of products

For Production Systems

In determining the type of production systems, the key questions to be answered are:

l What to produce?

l How to produce?

l For whom to produce?

l And how much to produce?

All these will be decided in the context of availability of local natural resources and the
needs of the people for any given community. Of course, the needs are to be characterised
in consonance with the comprehensive human goal. The specific criteria to judge the
appropriateness of the production systems may include the following:

l Optimal utilization of local resources and expertise

l Economic viability and sustainability

l Priority for local consumption

l Matching the pattern of production with the availability/ producibility in the local
environment and the pattern of consumption

l Decentralized systems capable of meaningful employment of people in the community

l Facilitating production by masses and not mass production in a centralized mode

l Promoting individual creativity and sense of accomplishment

l Using people-friendly and eco-friendly technologies

l Ensuring requisite quality of production

l Safe and conducive to the health of persons involved in production as well as others

For Management Models

The management needs to focus at the fulfilment of the people involved in the production
system as well the users of the produce and not to profit-mania. The following criteria can
be chosen for a humanistic management model:
 242 A Foundation Course in Human Values and Professional Ethics

l The whole unit working as a well-knit family

l Cooperative and motivational

l Ensuring correct appraisal of human labour

l Targeting employer-employee as well as consumer satisfaction and not profit

maximisation

l Sharing of responsibility and participative mode of management

l Continuous value addition of the persons involved

l Effectively integrating individual competencies and complementarity

A Critical Appraisal of the Prevailing Systems

It will be educative to critically examine the characteristics of the present models which
have been developed under the influence of the materialistic worldview. It is important to
point out that the structure as well as the use of all human innovations is strongly influenced
by the worldview and values. Therefore, the present day technologies and systems are designs
best suited to serve the prevailing worldview. This way, we can easily appreciate how the
present day systems, even though they employ the best of human ingenuity, latest scientific
knowledge and sophisticated technologies, are largely proving to be incompatible with
ecology and also not conducive to sustainable human welfare.

The most concerning feature of the present day systems is their heavy dependence on
non-renewable sources of energy/materials rendering them unsustainable. The modern
development primarily dwells upon fossil fuels which are being consumed at exponential
rates. This has caused menace of resource depletion on one hand and environmental
degradation manifesting in the form of pollution and global warming etc. on the other.
There is no compatibility with the rate of consumption and the rate of production in
Nature. The other undesirable characteristics of modern technologies and systems include
their centralized configurations, promotion of wastefulness, excessive transporation and
substitution of human, animal and other natural resources.

These systems are becoming more and more complex and large in size, and they are
highly capital and energy intensive. Increased automation and mechanization is being used
for promoting mass production which is not conducive to large scale employment of people.
Such systems also lead to exploitation, alienation and conflict between the so-called working
class and management. Inspite of a high degree of sophistication, quality consciousness,
standardization, miniaturization and user-friendliness, these technologies and systems are
not proving conducive to general human welfare. It is an irony that with all the technological
 Vision for Holistic Technologies, Production Systems and Management Models 243

advances, we have come to a passé where the whole planet is under a serious threat.

Learning from the Systems in Nature and Traditional Practices

If we really wish to gain an insight into the holistic systems, we have a lot to learn from
systems of nature and from traditional practices. With modern developments in science
and technology, and their widespread application, an impression has grown that the
nature is primarily for exploitation as per the whims and fancies of human beings, the
nature has to be tamed/controlled and exploitated for human enjoyment. Further, it is
believed that the systems in nature are all primitive and have to be replaced by man-
made systems. This is how one looks at ‘development’. Similarly, it is also believed that
the traditional practices are all obsolete and have to be rejected outright. This arrogant
attitude towards nature and the traditional know-how has caused much damage to
humanity in recent times. It is high time we critically examine these beliefs and rectify
them in the light of right understanding.

In reality, nature is not only our nourisher but also a learning ground. The human
beings are an integral part of this self-sustaining nature and it is essential to understand its
functioning and systems to live in harmony with it. After all, it is only by diligent study of
nature that all the laws and principles governing various processes have been discovered by
human beings. In a similar way, the systems and cycles of nature also need to be understood
and emulated as required in man-made designs. Then only, we can correctly visualize and
evolve the holistic way of living.

As for the traditional practices, it is true that with increase in knowledge and skills, and
with changing needs, it is necessary to make improvisations in technologies and systems of
human use, however, in order to do that it is essential to critically evaluate their strengths
and weaknesses. It is important to identify the characteristics which have enabled the
traditional practices to serve humanity for long periods. The eco-friendly and people-friendly
characteristics of many traditional practices are very much worthy of our recognition and
retention. Then we will be in a better position to utilize our present day knowledge to
augment the systems and make them more effective, efficient and more suited to current
needs. For example, we can learn a lot from the traditional practices of eco-friendly agriculture
techniques, watershed management, eco-restoration, herbal formulations, preservation
techniques, artisanal practices and so on. It does not amount to going backwards but rather
enables us to avail from the vast storehouse of wisdom and experience so that we become
better prepared to take the leap forward in the right direction.
 244 A Foundation Course in Human Values and Professional Ethics

Holistic Technologies and Systems – Typical Case Studies

Visualizing a Holistic Model of Living in Harmony at All the Levels
In the light of understanding gained so far, it will be a very educative exercise for us to
visualize broadly how a typical community, say, of one thousand people will live in a holistic
way in harmony with each other and the rest of nature, being largely self-sufficient in fulfilment
of its needs and setting up systems which are conducive to comprehensive human goal. It may
be easily appreciated that such a planning in detail is a project worthy of serious research and
experimentation to evolve a viable alternative model. We may call this as a model for Grãma-
svarajya. About hundred years ago, a vision of self-sufficient village republic was presented by
Gandhiji in his famous book Hind Swarajya. It is high time we start working for actualization
of the model of Grãma-svarajya in the light of right understanding. We may carry out a
techno-economic feasibility study and the design for such a model keeping the comprehensive
human goal as our objective function. Since it will be necessary in this model to rely on the
local resources as far as possible, such a model will also need attention to augment these
resources as well which includes promotion of bio-diversity, cattle, water harvesting, effective
utilization of biomass, solar, wind and hydel energy sources etc. This would also involve
careful planning of the agriculture, artisanal and agro-industrial activity. The matching of
resources and needs will also need to be accomplished This visualization will enable us to
identify, select or develop appropriate technologies, production systems and the methods to
organize these activities in a harmonious way. It is left to the reader to exercise his/her creativity
and try to broadly visualize the scenarios for making Grãma-svarajya possible. Several groups
of people have started working in this direction seriously. And as a result, many technologies
and systems have been evolved even though the full scale demonstration of such alternative
ways of living are yet to emerge.

In the face of the environmental and other problems aggravating because of the wide-
spread use of fossil fuels and other non-renewable resources, there is an increasing interest
throughout the world to evolve alternative renewable technologies and modes of production.
However, this is only possible in the light of right understanding, with adoption of
appropriate life-styles and with proper assessment of needs. It will be desirable to get
acquainted with these developments by conducting case studies on the salient renewable
and eco-friendly technologies and systems. There needs to be an increasing and wide spread
thrust to evolve holistic technologies and systems through dedicated R&D efforts working
within the framework of right understanding. Some salient topics for case studies are given
below:
 Vision for Holistic Technologies, Production Systems and Management Models 245

Topics for Case Studies

l Renewable and Decentralized Energy Technologies

(a) Biomass based Energy Conversion systems such as;

t Systems for generation and utilization of Biogas obtainable from anaerobic

digestion of all kinds of moist biomass such as animal and human excreta,
kitchen waste, moist agro-waste, sewage effluents etc. This bio-conversion
also results in production of valuable bio-manure in the form of slurry.
Therefore, a study of slurry handling systems is also relevant.

t Systems for generation and utilization of Producer gas obtainable from

partial combustion of all kinds of dry biomass such as wood, charcoal, rice-
husk, sawdust, dry agro-waste etc.

t Systems for decentralized production of Biodiesel obtainable from

esterification of various vegetable oils.

t Decentralized systems for production of ethanol as a liquid fuel for engines

obtainable form agro-waste

t Technologies for Briquetting to obtain a compact/smokeless solid fuel from

all kinds of loose biomass.

t Technologies for smokeless and energy efficient cook stoves

(b) Gadgets and Implements to facilitate efficient utilization of Human muscle power
and Animal draught power such as:

t Human operated agricultural tools and domestic appliances

t Animal (bullock) operated irrigation pumps, tractors and other agricultural

equipments

t Improvised designs of animal driven carts

(c) Devices for efficient utilization of Solar energy such as:

t Solar water heaters, solar cookers, solar driers etc.

t Solar Photo-voltaic systems

t Decentralized Solar power generation and refrigeration systems

(d) Decentralized Wind power devices for water pumping, electricity generation
etc.
 246 A Foundation Course in Human Values and Professional Ethics

(e) Microhydel electro-mechanical power generation systems utilizing the hydro-

energy of waterfalls, check-dams and flowing water in streams and rivers in a
decentralized manner.

l Systems for water conservation and water shed management for efficient utilization
of rain water and for eco-restoration.

l Technologies and architecture promoting green building materials and energy

conservation such as:

t Construction with compressed/stabilized mud-blocks and terracotta tiles

t Bamboo architecture

t Lawry-Baker low-cost brick work construction etc.

t Solar architecture with energy conservation and passive heating/cooling of

buildings

l Organic/natural farming techniques including technologies for vermi-composting,

production of bio-manures and bio-pesticides

l Eco-sanitation techniques for small scale decentralized sewage disposal and waste
water recycling

l Low cost and energy efficient technologies for small scale production systems such as

t Systems for food processing

t Systems for production of herbal, forest-based and animal-based (panchgavya)

products

t Systems for facilitating multiple crafts and artisanal work

l Humanistic organizational/management models

The work on the above technologies and systems is being carried out in several technical
institutions, agricultural universities, government agencies and a large number of
NGO’s and socio-spiritual organizations as well as by some motivated individuals. It
will be quite fruitful to familiarize with some of these through the above case studies.

Summary
1. The holistic criteria of evaluation basically emerge from correct appraisal of the
comprehensive human goal.
 Vision for Holistic Technologies, Production Systems and Management Models 247

2. The main guidelines are;

(a) The capacity to cater to appropriate needs and lifestyles.

(b) People-friendliness and eco-friendliness.

(c) Effective utilization of local resources, local expertise and manpower and priority
for local consumption.

(d) Decentralized structure.

3. Most of the prevailing systems are human innovations in consonance with the prevailing
world view. Hence, inspite of utilization of the advanced knowledge of science and
technology, these are not quite conducive to sustainable human welfare.

4. A careful study and evaluation of the systems of nature and the holistic traditional
practices will be helpful in the development of suitable systems as per the current
needs.

5. Understanding the status and characteristics of various renewable and eco-friendly

technologies and systems being developed in recent times through case studies will be
helpful in motivating R&D effort in this direction.

REVIEW QUESTIONS

1. What is the vision for Mãnaviya Vyawasthã? Explain.

2. What are the broad holistic criteria for evaluation of technologies, production systems and management
models? How do they map with the comprehensive human goal?
3. List some of the specific criteria for holistic evaluation of technologies. Elaborate on any two of them.
4. Mention some of the specific criteria to judge the appropriateness of production systems. Critically
examine the present day systems on any two criteria.
5. What do you mean by holistic management model? List down a few specific characteristics of such a
model.
6. In what way, is the learning from the systems of nature and traditional practices useful in the development
of holistic systems?
 CHAPTER SIXTEEN

Journey towards the Holistic Alternative –

The Road Ahead

W e are now approaching the end of this course which was intended to orient you
towards right understanding and its implications in life and profession. At this
concluding stage, it is appropriate to recapitulate how clearly you have been able to grasp
the core message of this course and its relevance in day-to-day life. Also, it is important to
ascertain whether the whole discussion has only been an academic exercise which may have
been interesting but cannot be of much practical use unless, we can identify some tangible
steps to move in the cherished direction. Hence, in this concluding chapter let us briefly
recapitulate the core message of this course and then visualize the steps that each one of us
can take for transition from our present state towards a holistic way of life.

The core message of this course may be summarized as follows:

To be able to fulfil the basic human aspirations viz. happiness and prosperity in continuity,
it is essential to gain the right understanding – the understanding about oneself vis-a-vis
the rest of existence, the understanding about human conduct and how it ensures continuous
happiness and prosperity. This involves the realization that there is an innate harmony at
all levels of existence. In fact, the whole existence is co-existence. It is the purpose of human
beings to understand this harmony and co-existence and learn to live in accordance with it
and be fulfilled. This truth has been grossly ignored in our present worldview whereby
happiness and prosperity are perceived primarily in terms of maximization of sensory
enjoyments, maximization of wealth and accumulation of more and more physical facilities.
This misperception is leading to serious problems in all walks of life and is not conducive to
sustainable happiness and prosperity. Hence, it becomes imperative to change this worldview,
to change from ‘animal consciousness’ to ‘human consciousness’. Guided by the right
understanding, the values in relationships can also be properly understood and fulfilled.
Also, in the light of right understanding, the life-styles can be appropriately designed and
the need for physical facilities can be properly assessed. Further, guided by the right
understanding, suitable methods of production can be adopted to fulfil these needs in a
 250 A Foundation Course in Human Values and Professional Ethics

people-friendly and eco-friendly manner. Appropriate Value Education inputs are essential
to initiate this transformation towards human consciousness at a mass scale.

In this course, a preliminary outline of the framework of right understanding has been
presented. An attempt has also been made to initiate the process of self-exploration to move
towards right understanding.

Having obtained a brief exposure to the universal basis of values and ethical human
conduct and its implications in life and profession, let us now conclude this course by
indicating a few practical steps that we may take to begin this important journey towards
the holistic alternative.

Appreciating the Need for Self-Exploration

The first and foremost step to begin this journey is to be adequately convinced about the
need for carrying out self-exploration. The need for seriously analyzing ‘what we presently
are’ and ‘what we really want to be’, the need to verify our beliefs and pre-conditionings,
the need to understand what is motivating our actions presently and what its consequences
are – has to be duly appreciated so that we may be able to put in the required effort and
give due priority to make the transition possible.

When, through self-exploration we are able to see a big chasm between what we really
want and what we are presently pursuing, then the urgency of taking the corrective steps
becomes clear. Getting ready for self-exploration is, thus, the first vital step towards transition
to the holistic way of life. Today, we are mostly motivated by what other people around us
seem to be doing and by the attractive consequences of such actions in the immediate
future. Whatever seems to be pleasant to our sensory experience appeals to us as worth
pursuing. Thus, in spite of increasing problems all around we do not get motivated enough
to seek a viable alternative because of our strong pre-conditioning and sensory attractions.
In fact, we tend to find superficial justifications to defend our present worldview and thereby
carry on with the status-quo. The whole orientation towards right understanding has been
grossly missing from our present education system. Thus, the appreciation of the need for
right understanding is the first trigger to transition.

Facilitating the Understanding of Harmony at Various Levels

Having realized the need adequately, the next important step is to have access to the ways
and means to facilitate the process of self-exploration towards right understanding. This
implies that we need to have a proper framework of understanding so that we can discover
 Journey towards the Holistic Alternative – The Road Ahead 251

the harmony at various levels starting from our own-self and spanning up to the entire
nature/existence as discussed in this course. So, in order to facilitate this journey, it is
important to make available appropriate methodology and the necessary wherewithal for
Value Education which can effectively enable the process of transformation. Appropriate
inputs in Value Education need to be made an integral part of all our education– both
formal as well as informal. This needs a large scale effort to develop a rational and universally
acceptable methodology for value education, preparation of appropriate resource material
and adequate orientation of teachers to carry out this task effectively and at a large scale.
Giving due priority to value education will be essential to make available the required space
for this essential input in the present curricula and also devoting sufficient effort and resources
to implement it successfully. The present foundation course is a step in this direction. In
fact, the whole education pattern will eventually need to be revamped in the light of right
understanding with due emphasis on self-exploration, value inculcation and right living
( Sikshã - Sanskãra ). Accordingly, all the disciplines of study will have to be redesigned in
the light of right understanding. The efficacy of value education will be judged on the basis
of the transformation achieved in the ethos, i.e. on the basis on the clarity gained in
discovering the harmony and co-existence at various levels and the competence to live in
accordance with this understanding in our day-to-day life. This change of ethos among
human beings will be the real harbinger of transition towards the holistic way of life leading
to happiness and prosperity in a sustainable way and therefore all efforts need to be focused
towards this objective.

Steps for Evolution at the Individual Level

The change of ethos involves a long drawn effort for evolution at a personal level among
human beings. This begins with an exposure to the framework of right understanding as
provided in this course to facilitate the process of self-exploration. Going through such a
course once provides only an introductory outline, at best, a broad framework and perhaps
a conviction that it is worthwhile to seek the holistic alternative seriously. A number of
iterations and recapitulations through careful self-study, self-analysis, contemplation on
the key proposals and guidance from competent persons will be necessary to get a clear
grasp of the domain of right understanding. In this process, it will be necessary and beneficial
to interact with persons who have consolidated this understanding and are sincerely trying
to implement it in their day-to-day life. This has to be carried out with perseverance and
commitment till we ourselves become confident to carry out the process of self-exploration
and self-evolution in all our endeavours. It is also helpful to have a networking and close
interaction with other people who are also convinced about this need and are trying to
make efforts in this direction. Such networking will definitely expedite the individual efforts
to implement the right understanding.
 252 A Foundation Course in Human Values and Professional Ethics

The framework presented in this course with the help of systematically presented proposals
will help us self-evolve through the process of continuous self-observation and self-exploration.
It will also facilitate the correct evaluation of our present beliefs and pre-conditionings. By
focussing attention more frequently on the activities of the self and the body, it will be possible
for us to clearly observe the distinction between these and correctly correlate our happiness to
our natural acceptance. In the process, we will gradually move to make our behaviour more
mutually fulfilling and our work with rest of nature more mutually enriching. In other words
we shall move towards being more people-friendly and eco-friendly. Realizing the needs of
the ‘self’ correctly and attempting to be in tune with the co-existence at various levels we shall
also be more in harmony within, more confident of ourselves. So we understand that the
major thrust of the effort towards transition is through personal evolution only, anchoring
ourselves firmly and clearly in the right understanding and translating this understanding in
thought, behaviour and work. The outcome of this effort will of course be highly rewarding
with affirmation resulting from our own realization, our own experiential validation.
Simultaneously, it will also be fulfilling to others. Once such a breakthrough is achieved, we
become our own guide, we become svatantra – the rest will follow rather spontaneously.
Once a critical mass of human beings goes through such a transformation, it will become a
self-sustaining process in the society. The results of such efforts made so far with various
spectra of people in the society have been very encouraging.

Steps for Transition at the Level of Family, Society and Profession

We can now appreciate that there is a strong interconnectedness and co-existence among
human beings as well as in human being and rest of nature. The efforts towards self-
evolution by the individuals will always be through appropriate interaction at the level of
family, society and nature at large. In the paradigm of right understanding, there is an
essential complementarity among all the entities including the human beings. So the steps
for personal evolution are not in alienation but in proper collaboration with family, society
and nature. In fact, the extent of mutual fufilment in such interactions will be an evidence
of the maturity of one’s understanding. Mutual fulfilment is the guiding principle which
finally ensures personal happiness as well as collective happiness and harmonious co-existence
with nature. So it will be an integral part of one’s evolutionary effort to participate in the
larger order. The participation in this respect on the part of individuals will follow the
following sequence:

1. Right Understanding (Samajhadãrï)- Effort to gain right understanding.

2. Honesty (Ïmãnadãrï)- Sincerity to acknowledge what one has understood and be

ready to work for complete understanding. This is followed by spontaneous reflection
in one’s thought, behaviour and work.
 Journey towards the Holistic Alternative – The Road Ahead 253

3. Accountability (Jimmedãrï)- Feeling one’s responsibility to participate in the larger

order in the light of right understanding.

4. Participation (Bhãgïdãrï)- Effort to actually participate in the larger order including

the family, the society and the nature around according to one’s competence, capacity
and aptitude.

This will generate the process of mutual complementarity towards evolution of all –
‘sarvodaya.’ The person with better understanding and/or physical facilities will be keen to
facilitate others as this is the proof of one’s own level of evolution and understanding. This
is how a person having obtained right understanding will become a nucleus of change for
the family and people around, a spontaneous promoter of the revolution of the right
understanding. And this effort is not seen as an obligation or a sacrifice but only as a means
of one’s evolution. Such a transition will be comforting for everyone. It will also be helpful
in dissolving the contradictions and dilemmas which arise only out of ignorance. The real
effort required is only in the process of getting rid of one’s false pre-conditionings in the
light of the truth of Existence. The families will provide the natural training grounds for
the evolution of its members, so will be a society. Such individuals and families will then be
instrumental in collectively working towards svarãjya – working towards akhanda ˆ samãja
and sãrvabhauma vyavasthã . The ethos in the society will gradually change from the present
untenable sensuality-mania (Kãma-unmãda), consumerism-mania (bhoga-unmãda) and the
profit-mania (lãbha-unmãda) to that of working for comprehensive human goal-‘samãdhãna,
samriddhi, abhaya and sah-astitva’. This is what is conveyed by the concept of Saha-
astitvavãda.

Major transition steps at the level of society will consist of the following

(a) Promoting Mass Awareness and Moving towards Humanistic Education

(b) Evolving Holistic Models of Living

(c) Amending Policies, Programs and Social Systems in tune with Comprehensive Human
Goal

These steps are elaborated below:

Promoting Mass Awareness and Moving towards Humanistic Education

As already mentioned, the most crucial step to affect transition in the society is by way of
creating mass awareness and motivating people for self-exploration, drawing attention towards
‘what we really want’ and what we are presently embarking on and the consequences thereof.
This awareness can be through personal interaction, through popular literature, through
 254 A Foundation Course in Human Values and Professional Ethics

formal course inputs, through workshops and seminars and utilizing the powerful network
of media. This has to be followed by wide spread introduction of value education at
appropriate levels including schools, colleges, professional institutions etc. In the longer
run, it will be necessary to revamp the education system towards humanistic education to
enable the coming generation to move towards the holistic alternative. A serious effort to
carry out research, experimentation and planning to facilitate this development is essential.

Evolving Holistic Models of Living

Another important step for bringing about the requisite transition is to provide adequate
thrust for carrying out R&D towards evolving holistic models of living which include
development of holistic technologies, production systems and management models to actualize
the holistic way of life. Presently, the trend in our institutions and research laboratories is
largerly towards working on various fashionable research areas advocated by those who have
pioneered the modern development and whom we have accepted as our ‘role model’. However,
after being amply clear that the present model and the present worldview are not sustainable
and not conducive to comprehensive human goal, it will be essential to work out new models
in the light of right understanding. Once the need is appropriately identified, there is no
reason why, with all the human ingenuity and creativity and the vast storehouse of knowledge
and available infrastructure, appropriate models cannot be developed.

Amending Policies, Programs and Social Systems in Tune with

Comprehensive Human Goal
Presently, all our policies, programs, technologies and professions, as well as the economic,
political and social systems have evolved to best cater to the prevailing worldview – which
is seriously in error. Therefore, all these will need to be gradualy modified to suit the
holistic worldview, to suit right understanding and comprehensive human goal. This may
be a gradual process and will depend on the extent to which the society is able to imbibe
the new ethos.

Is the Transition too Difficult?

Many a time, when the vision for the holistic alternative is discussed, apprehensions are
expressed that since the ongoing trends are quite in a different direction throughout the
globe, will it at all be possible to bring about the proposed changes which may appear to be
idealistic! This is a point for serious exploration for all of us. We only wish to point out that
 Journey towards the Holistic Alternative – The Road Ahead 255

human beings have accomplished what they thought was right for them. Now, if we become
clear that our worldview had been in error, nothing prevents us from understanding and
adopting a worldview which is more compatible with reality and work out our way of living
in consonance with it. It may be pointed out that as the consequences of the prevailaing
world view are becoming more and more distressing and unaffordable, the movement towards
the holistic alternative is becoming imminent. It has been amply demonstrated through
the experiements conducted so far that even small steps towards right understanding are
very soothing, mututally fulfilling and confidence/giving and therefore these will be welcome
by individuals.

Concluding Remarks
To conclude, let us see whether we are sufficiently clear about the following proposal:

To ensure happiness and prosperity and their continuity to all human beings, the transition
to human consciousness is essential. This requires a dedicated effort to implement at a mass
scale, the humanistic education focusing on right understanding. It can be initiated by
introduction of appropriate value education inputs in the present curricula. The urgency of
this task has to be adequately realized and accordingly efforts are to be made commensurate
with the need. The evolution at the personal level has to be given priority. Further, efforts are
also to be directed towards evolving the new models for the holistic alternative and appropriate
policies, programs and systems. Let us join hands to make the cherished transition possible!

Summary
1. Adequate realization of the need for self-exploration is the first necessary step towards
transition.

2. Development of effective methodologies to facilitate self-exploration among individuals

is the next essential step.

3. Major work needs to be accomplished towards evolution at the personal level, getting
rid of our false pre-conditionings and clearly grasping the right understanding,
identifying the harmony at various levels and actualizing such an understanding in
real life.

4. The meaningful participation in the larger order is the practical way to facilitate our
evolution.

5. To expedite transition towards holistic alternative, it will be necessary to create mass

awareness and facilitate wide spread humanistic education. Further, extensive research
thrust has to be put to evolve and implement holistic technologies and systems.
 256 A Foundation Course in Human Values and Professional Ethics

Accordingly, it will also be necessary to make appropriate amendments in the policies,

programs and social systems to facilitate the transition.

REVIEW QUESTIONS

1. What have been your achievements through this course? List the achievements in your thought, behaviour
and work.
2. What are the steps for evolution at the level of family, society and profession in transition to the holistic
alternative? Explain.
3. Imagine you are given a chance to represent the people. What changes in policies for the public will you
make to facilitate holistic living of the people in a given time-frame?
4. List some suggestions to make value education more effective in the present scenario.
APPENDICES
 APPENDIX-1

Activities of the Self (‘I’, Jïvana)

The activities, powers and potential of the Self (‘I’, Jïvana) are presented below:

Sakti Kriyã Bala

(Power) (Activities) (Potential)

Gati Gati Sthiti Sthiti
(Manifestation) (Manifestation) (State) (State)
Pramãna Pramãnikatã Anubhava Ãtmã
& &
(Authenticity) (Authentication) (Realization) (Soul)
Ritambharã Samkalpa Bodha Buddhi
(Resoluteness) (Resolution) (Understanding) (Wisdom)
Ichchhã Chitrana Chintana Chitta
&
(Desire) (Imaging) (Contemplating) (Contemplation)
Vichãra Vislesana Tulana Vritti
& &
(Thought) (Analysing) (Discriminating) (Cognition)

Ãsã Chayana Ãsvãdana Mana

(Expectation) (Selecting) (Tasting) (Mind)

We discussed about some of the activities of the Self in chapter six. Here we mention some
more activities and powers. The above chart can be referred to Vyavahãrvãdï. Samãjshãstra
(Ref.-2).
The Jïvana (Self, ‘I’) is continuously active. Thus, it has activities (Kriyã). The capacity for the
activity is termed as power ( Sakti ). The state of the Self to be active is the potential (Bala). We
understand the Potential and Power from the Activity.
The activities are of two kinds: activities of Sthiti (state) and activities of Gati (manifestation).
Let us understand with an example. I eat rasgullã. The taste of rasgullã gets placed in me as
Ãswãdana. When I want to get the same taste, I select the sweet taste that I get from rasgullã.
This is Chayana. Thus Chayana is expression which shows as action, while Ãswãdana is the
state. The state and manifestation go together.
Existence is co-existence. This is the subject of realization (Anubhava) by the Self. The same
gets authenticated as Pramãnikatã in the Self as the activities in the Self get into order based
on the realization. The potential to realize is the Soul (Ãtmã) and the power is the Authenticity
(Pramãna).
On the basis of realization, the Self understands the innateness of units in every order of the
existence. This is Understanding (Bodha). The same gets reflected as Resolution (Samkalpa).
This potential is called as Wisdom (Buddhi) and the power is Resoluteness (Ritambharã).
Based on right understanding, the Self is able to see the natural characteristic, i.e. the
participation of every unit in the larger order around it. This is Contemplating (Chintana).
Imaging ( Chitrana ) is the activity to visualize what one wants to be (which essentially means
&
Contd...
260 A Foundation Course in Human Values and Professional Ethics

being according to the natural characteristics i.e. svabhãva). The power of Chitrana is Desire
and the potential for Chintana is Contemplation (Chitta). &

The Jïvana is always active analyzing ( Vislesana ) and discriminating (Tulana). The analyzing
& &
involves splitting an image into sub-parts. Discriminating involves accepting or rejecting on
the basis of the Perception ( Dristi ). The power to analyze is Thought (Vichãra) and the potential
&
is cognition (Vritti).
There are six ways of perception ( Dristi )- Priya (being pleasant to senses), Hita (being
&
conducive to body), Labha (being profit-oriented), Nyãya (being just, in human-human
relations), Dharma (fulfilling the comprehensive human goal, the innateness of human being),
Satya (being true, as co-existence in existence).
Based on right understanding, which the Jïvan gets through realization, the activity of Tulan
has the priority set as Satya Æ Dharma Æ Nyãya and the perceptions of Lãbha, Hita and
Priya get redefined in terms of fulfillment of the comprehensive human goal. With lack of right
understanding, one gives higher priority to sensations, physical conduciveness or profit and
the activity of Tulan remains limited to Priya, Hita or Lãbha.
The activity of selecting (Chayana) and tasting (Ãsvãdana) is there in Jïvana at the fifth level.
We have talked extensively about these two activities in earlier chapters. The power to select
% % ) and the potential for taste is Mind (Mana).
is Expectation ( Asa
Note:
1. The words in English have been chosen to best fit with the meaning of the words in Hindi.
2. The listed words can also be spelt as Jeevan, Shakti, Kriya, Bal, Praman, Pramanikata,
Anubhav, Atma, Ritambhara, Samkalp, Bodh, Ichchha, Chitran, Chintan, Vichar,
Vishleshan, Tulan, Asha, Chayan, Asvadan, Man, Hit, Labh, Nyaya, Dharm respectively by
reader for simplicity.
 Appendices 261

APPENDIX-2

Ethical Human Conduct or the Humane Conduct

Humane Conduct (Mãnavïya Ãcharana ) - The conduct that is naturally acceptable to human
being, the conduct of a human being& living with human consciousness.
There are three aspects of it-.
1. Value (Mülya)- The participation of a unit in the larger order- its natural characteristic or
svabhãva .
2. Policy (Nïti)- The decision (plan, program, implementation, results, evauation) about the
enrichment, protection and right utilization of the resources (Self, Body and Wealth-
Mana, Tana and Dhana).
3. Character (Charitra)- The definiteness of behaviour and work of human being.
Value (Mülya)
The values of a human being can be enumerated as thirty, which are listed below:
(a) Values in the Self (Jïvan, ‘I’): Jïvan Mülya
The values in ‘I’ are:
1. Sukha (Happiness)
2. Sãnti (Peace)
3. Santosa (Satisfaction)
&
4. Ãnanda (Bliss)
You may refer to the figure on activities in ‘I’ for this:
Understanding based on Realization manifests as Bliss.
Definiteness of Desire based on Understanding manifests as Satisfaction.
Definiteness of Thought based on definiteness of Desire manifests as Peace.
Definiteness of Expectation (Selecting/Tasting) based on definiteness of Thought
manifests as Happiness.
(b) Values of a human being in its participation in universal human order: Mãnav Mülya
When we look at the human being with regard to its participation in universal human
order, the values are:
1. Perseverance (Dhïratã)
2. Bravery (Vïratã)
3. Generosity (Udãratã)
4. Kindness (Dayã)
5. Beneficence (Kripã)
6. Compassion ( Karunã )
&
Contd...
262 A Foundation Course in Human Values and Professional Ethics

Out of these, we have already studied the first three: i.e. perseverance, bravery and
generosity in the chapter ten, when we looked at the natural characteristic or svabhãva of
a human being. The next three: i.e. kindness, benevolence and compassion are also
natural characteristics of the human being. These values are naturally acceptable to us,
and we want to live with them.
Perseverance (Dhïratã) – Being assured that the all-encompassing solution is to
understand and live in harmony at all levels of existence, living with this commitment
without any perturbation.
Bravery (Vïratã) — Being assured that the all-encompassing solution is to understand
and live in harmony at all levels and I am ready to help the other to have the right
understanding. This is the commitment to help the other have the right understanding of
the harmony and living at all levels of existence.
Generosity (Udãratã) - Being assured that the all encompassing solution is to understand
and live in harmony at all the four levels and I am ready to invest myself, my body and
wealth to help the other have the right understanding.
Kindness (Dayã) – If a person has the ability (pãtratã) but does not have the means
(vastu) to fulfil his/ her needs, the participation in relation to make available the means to
fulfil the needs is kindness.
Beneficence (Kripã) - If a person has the means to fulfil his/ her needs but does not have
the ability (competence) to utilise it, the participation in relation to imbibe the ability in
him/ her is beneficence.
Compassion ( Karunã )- If a person neither has the ability nor has the means to fulfil his/
&
her needs, the participation in relation to make available the both is compassion.

(c) Values in human-human relationship: Sthãpita and Sista ˆ Mülya

&
In Human relationships, in family and in society, we had identified nine values: Trust,
Respect,…….Love. These values are called Sthãpita (established) values. There are also
nine Shisht (expressed) values. The expressed values are easy to understand: the
established values are in Self or ‘I’ and manifest as expressed values in behaviour with
other humans. For example: If we have the feeling of trust established in us, it gets expressed
as complementariness in behaviour with others. If we have the feeling of reverence
established in us, it gets expressed as us being obedient with someone we revere. If we
have the feeling of affection in us, it gets expressed as commitment in the relationship.
What we need to have is the established value; the expressed value is a natural outcome.
In this way, we can see that there are 9 x 2 = 18 values in human relationships.

Established-Values Expressed-Values
1 Visvãsa (Trust) Saujanyatã (Complementariness) 10
2 Sammãna (Respect) Sauhardra (Compliance) 11
3 Sneha (Affection) ˆ
Nisthã (Commitment) 12
&
4 Mamatã (Care) Udãratã (Generosity) 13
5 Vãtsalya (Guidance) Sahajatã (Spontaneity) 14
6 Shraddhã (Reverence) Pujyatã (Obedience) 15
7 Gaurava (Glory) Saralatã (Ease) 16
8 Kritagyatã (Gratitude) Saumyatã (Self-restraint) 17

9 Prema (Love) Ananyatã (Unanimity) 18

Contd...
 Appendices 263

We defined the established values in chapter eight. The reader may kindly refer to the
definitions given therein. The expressed values can be understood as the expression in
relationship of the feelings that go with the established values.
(d) Values of human being in the interaction with the rest of nature: Vastu Mülya
So far, we have seen the values in ‘I’, the values as a human being and the values in
human relationship, with other I. We can now see the values in relation with rest of
nature. The Vastu Moolya (physical entity- value) is the participation of the human being
with the rest of nature. It is further categorised as-
1. Upayogita mülya (Utility Value)
2. Kalã mülya (Artistic value)
We talked about these values in chapter 12. Let us summarise them here:
Utility-value: The participation of a human being in ensuring the role of physical facility in
nurture, protection and providing means for the body.
Artistic-value: The participation of a human being in ensuring the role of physical facility
to help and preserve its utility.
If we add these values up, we can see that there are 30 values in all, for the human being.
This is what is valuable to us:
v Within the self: in ‘I’ (4 values)
v As a Human being (6 values)
v In Human relationships, with other human beings (18 values)
v With Nature (2 values)
Policy (Nïti)
Policy is the manifestation of right understanding in deciding upon the enrichment, protection
and right utilization of the resources. The resources are the Mana (Mind), Tana (Body) and
Dhana (Wealth).
The policy has three parts:
1. Economic Policy (Artha Nïti)
2. Political Policy (Rãjya Nïti)
3. Policy for universal human order (Dharma Nïti)
v Artha Nïti is the policy for enrichment of wealth.
v Rajya Nït is the policy for protection of body and wealth.
v Dharma Nïti is the policy for right utilization of mind, body and wealth.
Character (Charitra)
Humane character means living with one’s own wealth (produced by work on nature),
conjugality in marital relationship and kindness in behavior and work.
It comprises of the following:
l Chastity in conjugal relationship i.e. chastity in husband-wife relationship- (sva-narï,
sva - purusa )
Contd...
264 A Foundation Course in Human Values and Professional Ethics

l Rightful production, acquisition and utilization of wealth (sva-dhana)

l Kindness in behaviour and work ( dayãpürna kãrya-vyavahãra)
&
Note:
1. The words in english have been chosen to best fit with the meaning of the words in Hindi.
2. The listed words can also be spelt as Manaveeya Acharan, Moolya, Neeti, Sukh, Shanti,
Santosh, Anand, Dheerata, Veerata, Udarata, Daya, Kripa, Karuna, Sthapit, Shisht, Vishvas,
Samman, Mamata, Vatsalya, Shraddha, Gaurav, Kritagyata, Prem, Saujanyata, Sauhardra,
Nishtha, Sahajata, Poojyata, Saralata, Saumyata, Ananyata, Upayogita, Kala, Man, Tan,
Dhan, Arth, Rajya, Dharm Sva-nari, Sva-purush, Sva-dhan, Dayapoorna, Karya-vyavahar
respectively by reader for simplicity.
 Appendices 265

APPENDIX-3

Typical Course Syllabus

Module 1: Introduction to Value Education No of Lectures [6]

1. Understanding the need, basic guidelines, content and process for Value Education
2. Self-exploration – its content and process; 'Natural Acceptance' and Experiential Validation
– as the mechanism for self exploration
3. Continuous Happiness and Prosperity – A look at basic human aspirations
4. Right understanding, Relationship and Physical Facilities – The basic requirements for
fulfillment of aspirations of every human being
5. Understanding Happiness and Prosperity correctly – A critical appraisal of the current
scenario
6. Method to fulfill the above human aspirations: Understanding and living in harmony at
various levels
Module 2: Harmony in the Human Being No of Lectures [6]
7. Understanding human being as a co-existence of the sentient 'I' and the material 'Body'
8. Understanding the needs of Self ('I') and 'Body' - Sukh and Suvidhã
9. Understanding the Body as an instrument of 'I' (I being the doer, seer and enjoyer)
10. Understanding the characteristics and activities of 'I' and harmony in 'I'
11. Understanding the harmony of 'I' with the Body: Sanyam and Svãsthya; correct appraisal
of physical needs, meaning of prosperity in detail
12. Programs to ensure Sanyam and Svãsthya
Module 3: Harmony in the Family and Society No of Lectures [6]
13. Understanding harmony in the Family – the basic unit of human interaction
14. Understanding values in human-human relationship; meaning of Nyãya and program
for its fulfillment to ensure Ubhaya –tripti; Trust ( Visvãsa ) and Respect (Sammãna) as
the foundational values of relationship
15. Understanding the meaning of Visvãsa ; Difference between intention and competence
16. Understanding the meaning of Sammãna, Difference between respect and differentiation;
the other salient values in relationship
17. Understanding the harmony in the society (society being an extension of family):
Samãdhãna, Samriddhi, Abhaya, Sah-astitva as comprehensive Human Goals
18. Visualizing a universal harmonious order in society – Undivided Society ( Akhand Samãj),
Universal Order (Sãrvabhauma Vyavasthã)- from family to world family.
Module 4: Harmony in the Nature (Existence) No of Lectures [4]
19. Understanding the harmony in the Nature

Contd...
266 A Foundation Course in Human Values and Professional Ethics

20. Interconnectedness and mutual fulfillment among the four orders of nature – recyclability
and self-regulation in nature
21. Understanding existence as co-existence (Sah-astitva) of mutually interacting units in
all-pervasive space
22. Holistic perception of harmony at all levels of existence
Module 5: Implications of the Holistic Understanding – A Look at Professional Ethics
No of Lectures [6]
23. Natural acceptance of human values
24. Definitiveness of Ethical Human Conduct
25. Basis for Humanistic Education, Humanistic Constitution and Universal Human Order
26. Competence in Professional Ethics:
(a) Ability to utilize the professional competence for augmenting universal human order,
(b) Ability to identify the scope and characteristics of people-friendly and eco-friendly
production systems, technologies and management models
27. Case studies of typical holistic technologies, management models and production
systems
28. Strategy for transition from the present state to Universal Human Order:
(a) At the level of individual: as socially and ecologically responsible engineers,
technologists and managers
(b) At the level of society: as mutually enriching institutions and organizations
Note: After every two lectures, there will be a two-hour practice session. Typical exercises for
practice sessions are given below:

EXERCISES FOR PRACTICE SESSIONS

Module 1: Introduction to Value Education
PS 1: Introduce yourself in detail. What are the goals in your life? How do you set your goals in
your life? How do you differentiate between right and wrong? What have been your salient
achievements and shortcomings in your life? Observe and analyze them.
Expected outcome: the students start exploring themselves; get comfortable with each other
and with the teacher and start appreciating the need and relevance of the course.
PS 2: Now-a-days, there is a lot of talk about many techno-genic maladies such as energy
and material resource depletion, environmental pollution, global warming, ozone depletion,
deforestation, soil degradation, etc. – all these seem to be man-made problems, threatening
the survival of life on Earth – What is the root cause of these maladies & what is the way out in
your opinion?
On the other hand, there is rapidly growing danger because of nuclear proliferation, arms
race, terrorism, criminalization of politics, large scale corruption, scams, breakdown of

Contd...
 Appendices 267

relationships, generation gap, depression & suicidal attempts etc. – what do you think, is the
root cause of these threats to human happiness and peace – what could be the way out in
your opinion?
Expected outcome: the students start finding that technical education without inculcation of
human values can generate more problems than solutions. They also start feeling that lack of
understanding of human values is the root cause of all problems and the sustained solution
could emerge only through understanding of human values and value-based living.
PS 3:
1. Observe that each one of us has the faculty of ‘Natural Acceptance’, based on which one
can verify what is right or not right for him. (As such we are not properly trained to listen to
our ‘Natural Acceptance’ and many a time it is also clouded by our strong pre-conditionings
and sensory attractions).
Explore the following:
(i) What is ‘Naturally Acceptable’ to you in relationship—the feeling of respect or
disrespect for yourself and for others?
(ii) What is ‘Naturally Acceptable’ to you – to nurture or to exploit others?
Is your living in accordance with your natural acceptance or different from it?
2. Out of the three basic requirements for fulfillment of your aspirations- right understanding,
relationship and physical facilities- observe how the problems in your family are related
to each. Also observe how much time & effort you devote for each in your daily routine.
Expected outcome:
1. The students are able to see that verification on the basis of natural acceptance and
experiential validation through living is the only way to verify what is right or wrong.
Referring to any external source like a particular text or instrument or any person cannot
enable them to verify with authenticity; it may only help develop assumptions.
2. The students are able to see that in many cases, their actual living is not in harmony with
their natural acceptance, and the first thing they need to do is to refer to their natural
acceptance, to remove this disharmony.
3. The students are able to see that lack of right understanding leading to lack of relationship,
is the major cause of problems in their family and with friends - not the lack of physical
facilities in most of the cases. However, most persons give higher priority to acquiring
physical facilities in their life, ignoring relationships. They are so far not aware that right
understanding is the most important requirement for any human being!
Module 2: Harmony in the Human Being
PS 4: List down all your important desires. Observe whether the desire is related to Self (‘I’) or
the Body. If it appears to be related to both, visualize which part of it is related to Self (‘I’) and
which part is related to Body.
Expected outcome: the students are able to see that they can enlist their desires and the
desires are not vague. Also they are able to relate their desires to ‘I’ and ‘Body’ distinctly. If any
desire appears related to both, they are able to see that the feeling is related to ‘I’ while the
physical facility is related to the body. They are also able to see that ‘I’ and ‘Body’ are two
distinct realities, and a large part of their desires are related to ‘I’ and not the body, while their
Contd...
268 A Foundation Course in Human Values and Professional Ethics

efforts are mostly centered on the fulfillment of the needs pertaining to the body, in the hope
that it will meet the needs of ‘I’ too.
PS 5:
1. a. Observe that any physical facility you use, follows the given sequence with time:
Necessary and tasteful Æ unnecessary but still tasteful Æ unnecessary and tasteless
Æ intolerable
b. In contrast, observe that any feeling in you is either naturally acceptable or not
acceptable at all. If naturally acceptable, you want it continuously and if not acceptable,
you do not want it any moment!
2. List down all your important activities. Observe whether the activity is of ‘I’ or of Body or
with the participation of both ‘I’ and Body.
3. Observe the activities within ‘I’. Identify the object of your attention for different moments
(over a period of say 5 to 10 minutes) and draw a line diagram connecting these points.
Try to observe the link between any two nodes.
Expected outcome:
1. The students are able to see that all physical facilities they use are required for a limited
time in a limited quantity. Also they are able to see that in case of feelings, they want
continuity of the naturally acceptable feelings and they do not want feelings which are not
naturally acceptable even for a single moment.
2. The students are able to see that activities like understanding, desire, thought and
selection are the activities of ‘I’ only, the activities like breathing, palpitation, blood
circulation etc. are fully the activities of the body with the acceptance of ‘I’ while the
activities they do with their sense organs like hearing through ears, seeing through eyes,
sensing through touch, tasting through tongue and smelling through nose or the activities
they do with their work organs like hands, legs etc. are such activities that require the
participation of both ‘I’ and body.
3. The students become aware of the activities of ‘I’ and start finding their focus of attention
at different moments. Also they are able to see that many of their desires are coming from
outside (through preconditioning or sensations) and are not based on their natural
acceptance.
PS 6:
1. Chalk out some programs towards ensuring your harmony with the body - in terms of
nurturing, protection and right utilisation of the body.
2. Find out the plants and shrubs growing in and around your campus, which can be useful
in curing common diseases.
Expected outcome: The students are able to list down activities related to proper upkeep of
the body and practice them in their daily routine. They are also able to appreciate the plants
wildly growing in and around the campus which can be beneficial in curing different diseases.
Module 3: Harmony in the Family and Society
PS 7: Form small groups in the class and make them carry out a dialogue focusing on the
following eight questions related to ‘TRUST’;
1a. Do I want to make myself happy?
Contd...
 Appendices 269

2a. Do I want to make the other happy?

3a. Does the other want to make himself/herself happy?
4a. Does the other want to make me happy?
What is the answer?
Intention (Natural Acceptance)
1b. Am I able to always make myself happy?
2b. Am I able to always make the other happy?
3b. Is the other able to always make himself/herself happy?
4b. Is the other able to always make me happy?
What is the answer?
Competence
Let each student answer the questions for himself and everyone else. Discuss the difference
between intention and competence. Observe whether you evaluate yourself and others on the
basis of intention/ competence.
Expected outcome: The students are able to see that the first four questions are related to
our Natural Acceptance i.e. Intention and the next four to our Competence. They are able to
note that the intention is always correct, only competence is lacking! We generally evaluate
ourselves on the basis of our intention and others on the basis of their competence! We
seldom look at our competence and others’ intention as a result we conclude that I am a good
person and other is a bad person!
PS 8:
1. Observe, on how many occasions, you are able to respect your related ones (by doing
the right evaluation) and on how many occasions you are disrespecting by way of under-
evaluation, over-evaluation or otherwise evaluation.
2. Also, observe whether your feeling of respect is based on treating the other as you would
treat yourself or on differentiations based on body, physical facilities or beliefs.
Expected outcome: The students are able to see that respect is actually the right evaluation,
and only right evaluation leads to fulfillment in relationship. Many present problems in the
society are an outcome of differentiations (lack of correct understanding of respect), like
gender bias, generation gap, caste conflicts, class struggle, domination through power,
communal violence, clash of interests, and so on. All these problems can be solved by
realizing that the other is like me. The other also has the same natural acceptance, potential
and program to ensure a happy and prosperous life for him and for others though he may
have differences in body, physical facilities or beliefs.
PS 9:
1. Write a narration in the form of a story, poem, skit or essay to clarify a salient Human
Value to the children.
2. Recollect and narrate an incident in your life where you were able to exhibit willful
adherence to values in a difficult situation.

Contd...
270 A Foundation Course in Human Values and Professional Ethics

Expected outcome: The students are able to use their creativity for clarifying about Human
Values in a simple manner and communicating with children in this respect. Also they are
encouraged to introspect on their own behaviour in context with Human Values.
Module 4: Harmony in the Nature (Existence)
PS 10: List down some common units (things) of Nature which you come across in your daily
life and classify them in the four orders of Nature. Analysis and explain the aspect of mutual
fulfillment of each unit with other orders.
Expected outcome: The students are able to differentiate between the characteristics and
activities of different orders existing in Nature and study the mutual fulfillment among them.
Their attention is also drawn towards the expected role of human beings in mutual fulfillment
with all the orders of Nature.
PS 11: Make a chart to show the whole existence as co-existence. With the help of this chart try
to identify the role and the scope of some of the courses of your study. Also indicate the areas
which are being either over-emphasized or ignored in the present context.
Expected outcome: The students are able to obtain a Holistic vision about existence and in
the light of this understanding they are able to place various educational inputs appropriately.
Module 5: Implications of the Holistic Understanding – a Look at Professional Ethics
PS 12: Identify any two important problems being faced by the society today and analyze the
root cause of these problems. Can these be solved on the basis of natural acceptance of
human values. If so, how should one proceed in this direction from the present situation?
Expected outcome: The students are able to clearly visualize the co-relation between lack of
Human Values and the prevailing problems. They are also able to visualize tangible steps
and a roadmap for moving in the cherished direction.
PS 13:
1. Suggest ways in which you can use your knowledge of Science/Technology/Management
etc. for moving towards a universal human order.
2. Propose a broad outline for Humanistic Constitution at the level of Nation.
Expected outcome: The students are able to visualize an appropriate utilization of the
knowledge in their respective streams to ensure mutually enriching and sustainable systems.
PS 14: The course is going to be over now. It is time to evaluate what difference in your thinking
has it made. Summarize the core message of this course grasped by you. How has this
affected you in terms of;
a. Thought
b. Behavior
c. Work and
d. Realization
What practical steps are you able to visualize for the transition of the society from its present
state.
Expected outcome: The students are able to sincerely evaluate the course and the
transformation achieved in this process. They are also able to make use of this understanding
for moving towards a happy and prosperous life including an ethical conduct of their profession.
 Glossary

Note:

1. The words used in this book have a definite meaning which is the reality in the existence. Some of the
words and the associated meanings are given below. It is important to refer to these meanings (realities)
while reading/using these words.

2. The words and meanings provided below are translations from the original Hindi (provided in italics
in the table below). These words have been taken from the reference books listed (ref. 1 to 5).

Word Meaning Hindi equivalent

Activity (1) Units are active, they have activity. Kriyã
(2) Activities can be: physical-activity,
chemical-activity & conscious (jïvana)-activity.
Activity – All ten activities in the Self (jïvana, ‘I’) Kriyã pürnatã
Completeness expressing themselves upon having the &
realization (anubhava).
Affection (1) The feeling of being related to the other in Sneha
relationship – the feeling that the other is my
relative.
(2) Spontaneity in behavior, for mutual
fulfillment.
Animal (1) Living of human being only on the basis of Jïva chetanã
Consciousness physical facilities, and not with right
understanding and relationship.
(2) Living with assumption for oneself as body.
Animal Order – Animals and birds, having will to live. Jïva avasthã
Art – Human-abilities for helping and preserving Kalã
utility of a physical entity
Contd...
 272 A Foundation Course in Human Values and Professional Ethics

Assuming – Activity of the Self (jïvana,‘I’) as in ‘knowing, Mãnanã

assuming, recognizing & fulfilling’. One can
know and assume, or only live on the basis of
assumptions, without knowing
Behavior – Acceptance of relationship with human beings Vyavahãra
and its fulfillment ensuring justice.
Bliss (1) Realization (anubhava) followed by Ãnanda
understanding (bodha)
(2) Living with realization and authenticity.
Bravery (1) Being assured that the all encompassing Vïratã
solution is to understand and live in harmony
at all levels and I am ready to help the other
have the right understanding.
(2) This is the commitment to help the other have
the right understanding of and live in harmony
at all levels of existence.
Character – Living with one’s own wealth (produced by Charitra
efforts on nature), conjugality in marital
relationship and kindness in behavior and
work.
Contemplation – Activity in Self (jïvana, ‘I’) that expresses the Chitta
faculty of desiring.
Co-existence (1) Existence is in the form of co-existence which Sah-astitva
is nature (all material entities and conscious
entities) submerged in space.
(2) To be related, to be in harmony.
Consciousness (1) Self (‘I’) or jïvana. Chaitanya
(2) Ability for knowing, assuming, recognizing
and fulfilling.
Consciousness – Qualitative change in consciousness from one Chetanã vikãs
Development plane to the other: from animal consciousness
to human consciousness
Conduct (1) Living with humane conduct and its Ãcharan pürnatã
Completeness continuity. & &
(2) Activity completeness (realization &
understanding) followed by authenticity in
behaviour and work.
Cruelty – The feeling that I cannot take care of my body Krüratã
and hence I resort to forcefulness and violence.
Cyclic production (1) Actualizing prosperity by production ensuring Ãvartansïla
sustenance of resources required for it. utpãdana
(2) Production systems which are cyclic and close
ended as present in nature.
Contd...
 Glossary 273

Desire – Activity of Self (jïvana, ‘I’) of imaging. Ichchhã

Education (1) Imparting right understanding and skill. Sikshã
(2) Imparting knowledge required for humane-
behavior and humane-occupation.
Ethics (1) Living with right understanding, with Naitikatã
knowledge.
(2) Behavior based on humane conduct, only
possible when living with human
consciousness, with the right understanding.
Established Values – Values in human-human relationship: Trust, Sthãphita mülya
(in relationship) Respect, Affection, Care, Guidance,
Reverence, Glory, Gratitude, Love.
Existence (1) All that exists. Astitva
(2) To be.
(3) Nature submerged in all-pervading space.
Realization (1) Realizing existence as co-existence, as units Anubhava
submerged in space.
(2) Knowing by a human being of existence in its
entirety.
Expectation (1) Wanting to live with happiness Ãsã
(2) Power in Self (jeevan, ‘I’) for selection/taste
Family – Group of individuals living in relationship of Parivãra
mutual fulfillment ensuring right
understanding and prosperity.
Fearlessness – Mutual Trust and Complementariness. Abhaya
Generosity – Readiness to invest oneself, one’s body and Udãratã
wealth to help the other have the right
understanding and live accordingly.
Glory – The feeling for someone who has made efforts Gaurava
for excellence and its emulation.
Gratitude (1) The feeling for someone who has made efforts Kritagyatã
for my excellence.
(2) Acceptance of help received from anyone for
ensuring right understanding and living in me.
Guidance – The feeling of ensuring right understanding Vãtsalya
and feelings in the other (my relative).
Happiness (1) The state/situation I am in , if there is Sukha
harmony/synergy in it, I like being in that
state. To continue to be in a state of liking is
happiness. To be in harmony is happiness.

Contd...
 274 A Foundation Course in Human Values and Professional Ethics

(2) Living with all-encompassing solution.

(3) Harmony in expectation and thought.
Health (1) The Body acts according to the Self. Svãsthya
(2) There is harmony between the parts of the
Body.
Human (1) Living with all three:- right understanding, Mãnava chetanã
Consciousness relationship and physical facilities.
(2) Living with views of justice, resolution, and
truth.
(3) Understanding human being as co-existence of
Self (jïvana, ‘I’) and Body.
Human Goal – Right understanding, prosperity, fearlessness, and Mãnava lakshya
co-existence.
Human Being – Coexistence of Self (jïvana, ‘I’) and human Mãnava
body.
Humane conduct – Combined expression of human-values, Mãnavïya
humane policy and humane-character. ãcharana
&
Humane Society – Tradition of fulfillment of comprehensive Mãnavïya samãja
human goal in society through five dimensions
of universal human order from family to world
family.
Humane Tradition (1) Human beings living with fulfillment of Mãnavïya paramparã
comprehensive human goal.
(2) Humane conduct, education, constitution and
universal human order, its continuity.
Human Values – Perseverance, Bravery, Generosity, Kindness, Mãnava mülya
Beneficence, Compassion.
Innateness (1) The innateness of a unit. Dhãranã , dharma
&
(2) That which is inseparable from a unit.
Knowing (1) Having the right understanding from Self Jãnanã
(jïvana, ‘I’) to entire existence.
(2) Having knowledge of Self (jïvana, ‘I’),
knowledge of existence and knowledge of
humane conduct.
Knowledge (1) Having the right understanding of reality. Gyãna
(2) Knowledge of Self (jïvana, ‘I’), knowledge of
existence and knowledge of humane conduct.
Love (1) The feeling of being related to every unit in Prema
existence.
(2) Complete value in human-human relationship
Contd...
 Glossary 275

(4) Combined expression of kindness, beneficence,

and compassion.
Material Order – Physico-chemical units – i.e. soil, stone, gems, Padãrtha avasthã
and metals in the form of solid, liquid, and
gaseous matter.
Care – The feeling of responsibility for nurture and Mamatã
protection of the body of the other.
Mutual Fulfillment – To be related in a mutual complementarity, Paraspara pürakatã
not to be in conflict.
Mutual – Togetherness of more than one entity. Parasparatã
Natural (1) That which is innate to the human being. Sahaja svïkriti
Acceptance (2) Reflection of co-existence in the Self (jeevan,
‘I’).
Natural – Participation in the larger order – that is Svabhãva
Characteristic natural to the entity.
Nature (1) Innumerable set of material units and Prakriti
conscious units.
(2) Collection of units – in four orders :
material-order, pranic/bio- order, animal-order
and human-order.
Peace (1) Definiteness of Thought based on definiteness Sãnti
of Desire of Self (jïvana, ‘I’).
(2) Harmonious thought.
Space (1) All-pervading reality. Vyãpaka
(2) Equilibrium energy in which every material
and conscious unit is submerged.
Perseverance – Being assured that the all-encompassing Dhïratã
solution is to understand and live in harmony
at all levels of existence, living with this
commitment without any perturbation.
Profession (1) Participation in the larger order, in the form of Vyavasthã mein
behavior and work. bhãgïdãrï
(2) To profess what one knows – in human
consciousness with the right understanding.
Plant order (1) Composition of respiring-cells as vegetations Prãna avasthã
and its kinds. &
(2) Vegetation.
(3) Traditions of seed-inheritance.
Prosperity (1) The feeling of having or producing more than Samriddhi
required physical facilities.

Contd...
 276 A Foundation Course in Human Values and Professional Ethics

(2) Absence of feelings of not-having the required

resources for living.
(3) Efforts by a family resulting in more
production than its needs for the nurture,
protection and right utilization of the body,
and for its participation in human-
organization.
Reality (1) All that exists. Vastu
(2) Unit with its aspects of appearance, qualities,
natural-characteristics, and innateness in space.
Right Utilization (1) The utilization of a physical facility in fulfilling Sadupayoga
the comprehensive human goal.
(2) Activities of extending and offering one’s
resources (body, mind, and wealth) in fulfilling
human values.
All-encompassing (1) Right understanding. Samãdhãna
solution (2) Absence of problems in the Self.
(3) Completion of activities of Knowing,
Assuming, Recognizing, and Fulfilling
(4) Answer for why and how.
(5) All-encompassing solution = Human
innateness (dharma) = Happiness.
Respect (1) Right Evaluation of the other in relationship. Sammãna
(2) Continuous acceptance of talent and
personality in other human being.
Right – Understanding of harmony at four levels of Samajhadãrï,
Understanding living from Self to entire existence. Samãdhãna
Reverence – The feeling of acceptance of excellence in the Shraddhã
other and spontaneous effort towards it.
Satisfaction (1) Desire being in harmony with the Santosa
understanding in Self (jïvana, ‘I’). &
(2) Definiteness of desire based on understanding
in the Self and assurance of its fulfillment.
Self (‘I’) (1) Conscious entity. Human being is co-existence Jïvana
of the Self (jïvana, ‘I’) and Body.
(2) Exhibits knowing, assuming, recognizing &
fulfilling.
Self-regulation (1) Self regulation – concerning the body. Sanyama
(2) The feeling of being responsible to the Body
for its nurture, protection and right utilization.

Contd...
 Glossary 277

Skills Techniques to work with the rest of nature and to Dakshatã

express feelings through behavior.
Trust (1) Having assurance on the intention of the other Visvãsa
– that the other wants to make me happy at all
times.
(2) Acceptance of values innate in a relationship.
Values (1) Self-Values, Human-Values, Established- Mülya
Values, Expressed-Values, Utility-Values, and
Artistic-Values.
(2) Participation in the larger order.
Values in Self (I) Happiness, Peace, Satisfaction, and Bliss. Jïvana mülya
Work (1) Interaction of human being with the rest of Kãrya
nature.
(2) Production for ensuring prosperity.
Wisdom – Potential in Self (jïvana,‘I’) for understanding Buddhi
(bodha).
 References

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2. A Nagraj, 1999, Vyavahãrvãdï. Samãjshãstra, Jïvana Vidyã Prakã sana, Amarkantak.

3. A Nagraj, 2002 , Ãvartansïla Arthasãstra , Jïvana Vidyã Prakã sana, Amarkantak.

4. A Nagraj, 2003 , Manava Vyavahãra Darsana, Jïvana Vidyã Prakã sana, Amarkantak.

5. A Nagraj, 2007, Manavïya Samvidhãna Sutra Vyãkhyã, Jïvana Vidyã Prakã sana, Amarkantak.

6. A N Tripathy, 2003, Human Values, New Age International Publishers.

7. B L Bajpai, 2004, Indian Ethos and Modern Management, New Royal Book Co., Lucknow. Reprinted
2008.

8. B P Banerjee, 2005, Foundations of Ethics and Management, Excel Books.

9. Donella H. Meadows, Dennis L. Meadows, Jorgen Randers, William W. Behrens III, 1972, Limits to
Growth – Club of Rome’s report, Universe Books.

10. E F Schumacher, 1973, Small is Beautiful: A Study of Economics as if People Mattered, Blond & Briggs,
Britain.

11. E G Seebauer & Robert L. Berry, 2000, Fundamentals of Ethics for Scientists & Engineers , Oxford
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12. Fukuoka, M., 1984, The One-straw Revolution: An Introduction to Natural Farming, Published (in
India) by Friends Rural Centre, Rasulia.

13. Ivan Illich, 1974, Energy & Equity, The Trinity Press, Worcester, and HarperCollins, USA

14. M Govindrajran, S Natrajan & V.S. Senthil Kumar, Engineering Ethichs (including Human Values),
Eastern Economy Edition, Prentice Hall of India Ltd.
 280 A Foundation Course in Human Values and Professional Ethics

15. M K Gandhi, 1938, Hind Swaraj, Navjeevan Publishing House, Ahmedabad.

16. P L Dhar, RR Gaur, 1990, Science and Humanism, Commonwealth Publishers.

17. Subhas Palekar, 2000, How to Practice Natural Farming, Pracheen (Vaidik) Krishi Tantra Shodh,
Amravati.

18. Sussan George, 1976, How the Other Half Dies, Penguin Press. Reprinted 1986, 1991

Relevant Websites, CDs and Documentaries

1. Value Education website, http://www.universalhumanvalues.info

2. UPTU website, http://www.uptu.ac.in

3. Story of Stuff, http://www.storyofstuff.com

4. Al Gore, An Inconvenient Truth, Paramount Classics, USA

5. Charlie Chaplin, Modern Times, United Artists, USA

6. IIT Delhi, Modern Technology – The Untold Story

7. Anand Gandhi, Right Here Right Now, Cyclewala production

(Note: The Teacher’s Manual for this course is also available with M/s Excel Books, New Delhi.)