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a foundation course in HUMAN VALUES and professional ethics Presenting a universal approach to value education – through self-exploration a foundation course in HUMAN VALUES and professional ethics Presenting a un...

a foundation course in HUMAN VALUES and professional ethics Presenting a universal approach to value education – through self-exploration a foundation course in HUMAN VALUES and professional ethics Presenting a universal approach to value education – through self-exploration R R GAUR R SANGAL G P BA GARIA BAGARIA EXCEL BOOKS ISBN: XXXXXXXXXXXXXXX First Edition: New Delhi, 2009 Copyright © 2009, R R Gaur, R Sangal and G P Bagaria All Rights Reserved EXCEL BOOKS A-45, Naraina, Phase I, New Delhi-110 028 Published by Anurag Jain for Excel Books, A-45, Naraina, Phase I, New Delhi-110 028 and printed by him at Excel Printers, C-205, Naraina, Phase I, New Delhi-110 028  Dedicated with Gratitude to Shri A NAGRAJ Propounder of Sah-astitvavãd, Madhyasth Darshan, without whose fundamental work, this book would not have been possible Brief Contents Foreword xiii Preface xv Acknowledgements xix Note for Students xxi Symbols Used for Hindi Alphabets xxix An Introductory Overview of the Book xxxi SECTION I: INTRODUCTION TO VALUE EDUCATION Chapter 1 Understanding Value Education 3 Chapter 2 Self-exploration as the Process for Value Education 11 Chapter 3 The Basic Human Aspirations – Continuous Happiness and Prosperity 27 Chapter 4 The Program to Fulfil Basic Human Aspirations 35 SECTION II: UNDERSTANDING THE HARMONY AT VARIOUS LEVELS Chapter 5 Understanding the Human Being as Co-existence of Self (‘I’) and Body 59 Chapter 6 Harmony in the Self (I) – Understanding Myself 89 Chapter 7 Harmony with the Body – Understanding Sanyama and Svãsthya 117 Chapter 8 Harmony in the Family – Understanding Values in Human Relationships 127 Chapter 9 Harmony in the Society – From Family Order to World Family Order 161 Chapter 10 Harmony in Nature – Understanding the Interconnectedness and Mutual Fulfilment 179 Chapter 11 Harmony in Existence – Understanding Existence as Co-existence 199 SECTION III: IMPLICATIONS OF THE RIGHT UNDERSTANDING Chapter 12 Providing the Basis for Universal Human Values and Ethical Human Conduct 217  viii A Foundation Course in Human Values and Professional Ethics Chapter 13 Basis for the Holistic Alternative towards Universal Human Order 225 Chapter 14 Professional Ethics in the Light of Right Understanding 231 Chapter 15 Vision for Holistic Technologies, Production Systems and Management Models 239 Chapter 16 Journey towards the Holistic Alternative – The Road Ahead 249 Appendices 257 Glossary 271 References 279  Contents ix Detailed Contents x A Foundation Course in Human Values and Professional Ethics Detailed Contents Contents xi Foreword I Preface The long history of mankind has seen a lot of progress. Science has enabled us to improve our understanding of the physical reality around us, while technology continues to offer conveniences in increasingly newer ways. The human beings are able to see the need for peaceful co-existence at the level of human society and recognize the need for education as a ‘fundamental need’. We have traversed a long way from the times of warring tribes and the fear of natural elements. While we have made tremendous advancements and innovations, the question still remains - are we satisfied with the state of affairs today? On looking into this issue, it becomes evident that we are still faced with serious problems at various levels. At the human level, we can see that there continue to be issues in individuals with respect to lack of clarity on life-goals, contradictions and stress, while at the level of human relationships in the family, we see problems in mutual understanding, increasing mistrust, insecurity and generation gap. Further at the level of human relationships in society we see increasing communal conflict, exploitation and strife, terrorism and violence in various forms. The increasing corruption and other unethical practices in various professions is also causing serious concern. At the level of nature, we have increasing problems of environmental degradation in various forms as well as resource depletion threatening the very survival of the human race. In fact, all these problems are a direct outcome of the ‘well-planned’ human activity carried out in the name of progress and in spite of all the advancements of science and technology. Where then, lies the solution? What exactly is amiss? This is an important question intriguing the human mind today. The overall purpose of education is to enable a human being to live a fulfilling life, in harmony with oneself and with family, society and nature. Hence, it becomes the responsibility of educators to enable the resolution of these issues, so that human society can achieve the cherished goal. In light of this, it becomes essential to find out what is of value, or what is really valuable to a human being? While technology is an important human endeavour, it is only a means to achieve what is considered ‘valuable’ for human beings in an effective and efficient manner. It is thus not within the scope of technology to decide ‘what is valuable’ to a human being. The subject that deals with ‘what is of value’, or ‘what is valuable to a human being’ is called ‘value education’. Values thus provide the basis for all our actions and there is an essential complementarity between values and skills which needs to be ensured in any education system. In the present context, our mainstream education system has continued to become lopsided in favour of skill generation and information enrichment and the value dimension  xvi A Foundation Course in Human Values and Professional Ethics has been languishing. This imbalance has been responsible for the above mentioned problems. Even though, the importance of value education is repeatedly highlighted at various platforms and also has been stressed by various commissions and expert committees on education, the effective methodologies and models for value education have yet to find a rightful place in our education system. As teachers and researchers in the area of technical education, we have been able to experience very strongly, the need for bridging this gap and introducing appropriate inputs of value education in the current system. For several years, we have been trying to develop our own understanding and vision as well as performing several experiments in order to evolve suitable inputs in value education which may be effectively integrated in the current curricula. This book is an outcome of our long search in this direction. In this process, we have been benefitted by various sources of wisdom both occidental and oriental. We have also had consultations and close interactions with a number of stalwarts and experts in the country in this regard. In formulating and experimenting with the methodology described in this book, we have been greatly facilitated by the fundamental work of Sh. A. Nagraj of Amarkantak who has propounded Sah-astitvavãd (also called Madhyasth Darshan) as the philosophy to understand the human reality vis-á-vis the rest of existence with the prime focus on discovering the inherent co-existence (Sah-astitva) and harmony (Vyavasthã) at all level of existence. This philosophy has provided us a tangible basis to develop a holistic approach to value education. We have successfully experimented for several years with the course inputs designed on the basis of above mentioned research efforts primarily in two modes – in the form of a seven-day full time residential workshop, and in terms of a normal, one semester classroom interaction course with two lectures and two hours of practice sessions per week (the proposed course syllabus is given in appendix-3). In the form of seven-day workshops, this input has been experimented very extensively with all spectra of people in the society as well as with teachers and students in the institutional framework. The other mode also has been successfully experimented in several institutions. The experiments conducted at IIIT Hyderabad, IIT Delhi, IIT Kanpur, NIT Raipur and Somaiya Vidhyavihar etc. are worth mentioning. Recently, UP technical university has accepted the proposed course syllabus in the form of a compulsory audit course for all its professional institutions. We are thankful to the Heads of these institutions for their kind support and help provided in our efforts. We have noticed a tangible change in the thinking of students, in terms of their vision about happiness and prosperity, the clarity about life-goals, improvement in human relationships, self-confidence, commitment to learning, feeling more responsible towards the profession etc. The effects of self-exploration are found to be very rewarding. Teachers have benefited by acquiring a better ability to relate to students and evaluating the relevance of various academic inputs, in addition to benefiting in their own personal lives. Institutions  Contents Preface xvii have benefited from being able to have a holistic view of the education being imparted and infusing new energy in both teachers and students alike, in addition to effectively dealing with issues like student discipline, ragging, class absenteeism, etc. We have generally received the following feedback about this course: l It is holistic and not fragmented – i.e. Covers the entire expanse of human living: from self to society, nature and existence and covers all dimensions of human life: thought, behaviour, work and realization. l Addresses the ‘Self ’ – Discusses the human being or the Self and does not just focus on external realities. This proves to be self-empowering since each individual is able to make decisions and find out what is of value to them in their own right. l Is closely associated to life and living – Establishes relevance in a person’s life and does not just deal with information and skills. One can see the results of this understanding in human living in the form of behaviour with people and work with nature l Methodology facilitates understanding and not just rote learning: The focus is on understanding in one’s own right by focusing on reality and its experiential verification and not just on reproduction of information and rote learning. It may be pointed out that this course is presented in the form of a dialogue between the teacher and the students, where in proposals are made and these are to be examined on the basis of reason and whether they are naturally acceptable, are true in reality and experientially verifiable. Both students and teachers benefit from this joint dialogue, which starts in the classroom, but continues beyond it, as a dialogue within the student, for the rest of his/her life. This book is primarily intended to serve as a text book for the foundation course on value education and the style of presentation is adopted to facilitate self-exploration among the students on the key proposals rather than packing up a lot of information. Frequent repetition is introduced intentionally to make the reader grasp the core concepts. A teacher’s manual for facilitating the teaching of this special course input has also been made available. It is our earnest hope that the material presented in this book (along with the teacher’s manual) will enable the introduction of this important course input widely in the professional institutions, other colleges and universities. This book is also expected to provide an interesting orientational material and food for thought to the general reader. Developing the right understanding about oneself and the rest of reality through self- exploration and realization of the inherent co-existence, harmony and self-regulation at various levels in existence is seen to be the real basis for imbibing universal human values and ethical human conduct. This is what will affect transformation towards a holistic worldview (human consciousness) which happens to be the prime purpose of value education.  xviii A Foundation Course in Human Values and Professional Ethics This is what is really crucial to ensure ethical conduct of profession as well. The identification of values, based on right understanding enables the formation of a vision for humanistic education, humane conduct and humanistic constitution that leads to a universal human order. This opens up a lot of scope for R&D to evolve holistic technologies and systems. Of course, it must be emphasised that this book only presents the material for a foundation course and is aimed at providing the basic orientation for the change of ethos. Deeper self-study (of the proposals in their entirety about the reality leading to understanding of oneself, the existence and the human conduct) and practice will be necessary to carry this exploration further and consolidate one’s understanding and realization. Some of the references (Ref. 1-5 in particular) provided at the end of the book will be helpful in this pursuit. This extensive self-study leads to the development of human consciousness which naturally results into inculcation of human values and its expression in human living. The reader is encouraged to do so. We invite you to evaluate the proposals presented herein in your own right and carry out the process of self-exploration. Suggestions to improve the presentation of this book will be welcome.  Contents xix Acknowledgements The development of the course material which forms the subject matter of this book has involved long years of learning, contemplation, consultation and experimentation in effectively presenting this input. In this process, we have received inspiration and guidance from a number of stalwarts and experts and it is our pleasant duty to express our sincere gratefulness to all of them. In particular, we wish to express our indebtedness to respected Sh. A. Nagraj Ji who provided us an intensive guidance for a new universal vision for value education which is aimed at bringing about transformation in consciousness through the process of self-exploration and self-study. Intensive guidance and exhortation received from Sh. Nagraj ji are gratefully acknowledged. We are also very grateful to all the colleagues with whom we collaborated in experimenting with various iterations of the course development with different spectra of people both within the institutional framework as well as outside in society. In synthesizing the contents of this book and in the writing of various chapters, tangible help was provided by our highly motivated young colleagues, namely, Kumar Sambhav from IIT Kanpur, Shriram Narsimhan from Zensar Technologies, Gowri and Anurag Sahay from IIT Delhi. We express our appreciation and thankfulness for their valuable contribution to this book. We are also grateful to Shyam, Abhishek and other volunteers from IIT Kanpur for their help. We will also like to place on record our hearty appreciation for our wives - Santosh Gaur, Nisha Sangal and Archana Bagaria for their dedicated support and encouragement to carry out this important task. Lastly, the painstaking effort made by Harsh Sharma in typing the manuscript is duly acknowledged. Excel Books Publisher About the Authors Prof. R R Gaur has been a senior professor of Mechanical Engineering at IIT Delhi with research focus on renewable energy conversion systems. He has also been the Head of National Resource Centre for Value Education in Engineering at IIT Delhi and has contributed significantly towards integrating Science, Technology and Human Values through curricular development and research. For more than two decades, Prof. Gaur, along with other colleagues at IIT Delhi and other institutions has been seriously experimenting with a variety of innovative inputs in value education. He has recently taken voluntary retirement from IIT Delhi in order to fully devote himself to value education activities. Prof. R Sangal is an internationally known computer scientist in the field of Artificial Intelligence and Natural Language Processing. Presently, he is the Director of IIIT Hyderabad, where he has carried out pioneering work towards integrating value education in the UG & PG curricula as well as in research, besides also heading India's largest academic centre on computational linguistics. He is an alumnus of IIT Kanpur and the University of Pennsylvania. He has also been the Head of the Deptt. of Computer Science at his Alma mater, IIT Kanpur. Prof. G P Bagaria is a highly respected teacher both in Electronics and Communication as well as in Value Education. He has carried out extensive research over past the 15 years in evolving a suitable methodology for Value Education and has successfully experimented with it, both within the institutional framework as well as with a variety of people in the community at large. He is accepted as an inspiring role model by his students and peers. For the work carried out by him in the area of Value Education and as social activist, he was awarded the Satyendra K Dubey Memorial Award for the year 2006 by IIT Kanpur for his contributions. He is an alumnus of IIT Kanpur. Note for Students Life in School and Cvollege Most of us started very early in school. Perhaps we were four or five years old – when we started with alphabets, then moved on slowly to sentences and then to speaking and writing a language. We were taught how to count, and before long subjects like history, science, geography and many others found their way into our classes and into our lives. Through these subjects, we have explored our world in certain ways and these have opened our eyes to many dimensions of our lives and of the world we live in. However, we find that somewhere in the process, we have started looking at all this learning to merely be an aid towards finding a job. This we can see, when we observe that excelling in competitive examinations has become the primary focus for most of us. Be it engineering or medical, CAT or GRE – the final goal – is getting through and making a career. Making a career, getting a job, thus seems to summarise the total purpose of all our education so far! Is this why we have been studying? Is this the purpose of all the education that one gets at school and college? What do we believe as our goal, our purpose of education we have had and the education that we will be going through spending more than 20 years in the process? Life with Family and Friends At the same time, besides spending a lot of time in school, studying and preparing for examinations– we have been living a big part of our lives at our home in relationship with our family and our friends. This network of relationship – with our parents, our siblings and our friends is an important aspect of our lives and brings to us a lot of support and joy. Each one of us values the beauty and joy of growing up. The nurturing and love our parents have given us in our journey to becoming an adult are valuable to us. Indeed, there are very few people in this world who can claim that family and friends have not been important for them in their lives so far! But, many a time, these relationships turn unpleasant and we find ourselves in conflict with the other person. At that point we become unsure and begin to blame, criticize the other and sometimes even ourselves. In the process both of us suffer. Have you suffered conflicts in your relationship with your family or friends? Sometimes, we are intrigued, baffled and even frustrated at the behaviour of other human beings and even our own  xxiv A Foundation Course in Human Values and Professional Ethics behaviour with others. Many a time, we are at a loss to know how to handle these relationship issues properly and it ends up disturbing us. Some of us even look at our relationships with family and friends as a burden and avoid them and our education today does little to help us identify and resolve these conflicts. At school or college - we get little guidance about relationships and how to properly live in them – since it is not a part of the syllabus. Life all around Us The various incidents around the world unfold, and are captured everyday in the newspaper and on the TV. From what is happening in far away countries to local incidents; the newspaper, and Radio and TV help bring the world to us in the comfort of our homes. From lifestyle programmes that tell us what people in different places are eating, what they are wearing and how they live their lives to programmes that bring forth the political and social issues in different regions of the world, to movies and informative documentaries; the media exposes us to another dimension of our lives that is not covered in the formal learning at the school. But is the purpose of all this programming – to merely inform us? What role do these different programmes play in your personal life? We see that the media unleashes upon us ideas of what is ‘right’, what is ‘wrong’, what is socially acceptable and what is not and it does so – by stating this, as well as in a silent way through promotional advertisements and through celebrities. As individuals, we consume all of this and become more fragmented in our opinion and become consumers of the media and the products it has to offer. The media thus dramatically begins to influence our tastes, our opinions and in most cases our choices. We also live in the midst of a wide variety of animals and plants. And there is the soil we walk on, the water we daily use and of course the air we breathe. We may not pay attention to these things around us all the time but they nevertheless form an integral part of our lives, and we are related to, and dependent on them. We keep hearing of issues in the environment and words like pollution, deforestation, global warming etc. now-a-days. How do we interpret these issues? What role do we see for ourselves in helping to resolve these issues? What this book is about What is our own understanding of these matters? As individuals and young adults, how do we go about evaluating what is relevant, what is irrelevant for us? How do we feel about the local issues and the global problems that all of us are facing today? What about our life in the family and with our friends? Are we satisfied and happy in our relationships? How do we understand relationships? Is it even important to understand relationships?  Note forContents Students xxv What are my goals? How do I understand what is important for me? How do I use my education? What am I going to do after my education? What is success? What does it mean to be successful? Do I know what I really want? In whatever I have done so far, did I decide these things for myself, or was I merely acting under external influence? We hardly have the opportunity to explore these questions and to develop clarity and competence in this direction in our present curricula. This new foundation course in human values and professional ethics is being introduced to facilitate us in this direction. This book is an attempt to integrate all the aspects of your life into a single whole and equip you with the capability to find answers to questions which are very important to you. We shall look into issues that shape our lives, our living. We shall look into what we want, and how we can be sure of it. We shall also see why we should be having this course in the first place and how it relates to life and profession. This book is an aid for self-exploration. It will guide you through a process of self- discovery and enable you to have a more complete understanding of your own Self and of the world around you in a way that is verifiable and enriching. Moreover, as we go through student life and beyond, we find that managing our time and commitments, deciding our priorities and fulfilling them becomes a challenge. These things can also be a cause of tension in us. In addition, frequently we go through inner contradictions, confusions and dilemmas which we find difficult to resolve. At times, we feel lack of confidence about our own decisions and actions. We will explore into these aspects as well. Each one of us has been through a long process of studying having put in a lot of hard work and been through a rigorous process of evaluation to reach here. As we look forward to shaping our lives, it is crucial that we get a broader perspective about ourselves, our needs and of the world. It is essential to know what is needed to ensure success, balance, and happiness in life and be responsible human beings and discover our full potential. As students of technology, we would be carrying responsibilities towards the larger society as well. This requires that we be equipped with the ability to make decisions in our own right.. The decisions we make now, the impressions we get, the perspective we develop, will all play a major role in our life ahead. Each one of us has a goal and purpose in life we want to achieve. This book will allow us to explore all relevant areas about ourselves so that we may correctly evaluate and decide them. It will also enable us to see our profession in correct prospective. The book is a set of proposals that each one of us needs to evaluate.  xxvi A Foundation Course in Human Values and Professional Ethics Things to keep in mind while reading this book The following key distinctions are useful to keep in mind as we read the book. ‘Reading’ and ‘Understanding’: Just because we read something and remember, it does not mean that we understand it. ‘Understanding’ means to get to the meaning of the written word – as intended by the author – and be able to verify it in our living. Word & Meaning: There are realities in existence. For example, you exist – that is a reality. You have a name. The name is a word that indicates or points to the reality that is you. Throughout this course, we shall attempt to communicate to you the realities that need to be known. For this, we shall use words. Thus, the words are not that important, it is their meaning as intended that is important. Words are used to point to specific meanings in reality. These words have a ‘precise’ meaning and the book pays special emphasis on their meaning. These ‘meanings’ are very important for us to understand – because through these meanings we are able to accurately identify and understand what exists in reality. It might also be possible that we are already familiar with some of the words used in this book and may already have a meaning associated with it. It is very important to re- associate the new meaning/definitions to properly understand what is being conveyed in the present context. This is a very important point, that needs to be kept in mind at all times. Definitions: The words used in this book have a precise and specific meaning. Many of the words you read, like happiness, trust, relationship, nature, human, self, etc. are words you are already familiar with. You may hence have some interpretation/meaning already associated with these words – which may not be the sense in which they have been used here. You need to refer to the definitions provided in the glossary at the end of the book to grasp the precise meaning. This is very important, since otherwise, the intended meaning will be lost – and you may end up providing your own interpretation to this book! Use of Hindi Words: Hindi words have been provided in the book for the key terms. This is to help you grasp the meaning and be able to relate to the reference material (ref. 1- 5 in particular) for further study. The symbols used for hindi alphabets have been listed and provided separately in the book. For pronunciation of the words, you may refer to the list. Some of the words which have been used quite frequently have been simplified in the pages to follow. The reader or presenter of the material may use these simplified words too. For example, jïvana can also be spelt as jeevan. Life is a Laboratory: The book is an aid to self-discovery. The proposals that are put forward in this book can be verified by you as you go through your life. It is useful to keep the proposals in mind and explore them, and test their validity in all situations of one’s life. This will greatly speed up the process of understanding for each one of us.  Note forContents Students xxvii Ongoing Process: Unlike other lessons, these are not restricted to the classroom! That is to say, the process of analyzing, self-verification and mulling over the proposals takes places after the class as well, in our daily lives and even after these ‘classes’ have stopped. The session in the classroom is to enable a focused discussion on the same and benefit from the different viewpoints put forth by participants – with the objective of better understanding the topic of discussion. Lastly, l This course is not about memorizing some information and reproducing it in the exams to get marks, but about understanding issues that are important to our lives! What we are covering in this course is applicable to every human being - we are talking about our own lives, about living – so it is not ‘some theory that you have to memorize’! l You may find that some statements and concepts have been repeated in the book – this is to bring them to your attention time and again l The contents of this book are not meant to be disruptive or to bring about in you a criticism for yourself or of others around. It is not intended to give some directive prescriptions or do’s and don’ts. It is merely asking you to explore and investigate within yourself - honestly, gently and perseveringly. l The classroom lectures covering this course are a space for collective dialogue, where we shall explore a couple of things together. These are things you can self-verify. Only accept it if you find it true, else do not accept it. l The process that will get started in you during this course will be useful for you not only during your current education program, but also in your life ahead. l The success of this course would depend on how attentively you listen to what is being stated in the classroom and how sincerely and authentically you evaluate the same within yourself. So, this is not something you have to “learn”. This is something you have to start paying attention to and understand in your own right. As you understand, it comes in your living – and leads to your improvement as a person! This book has been written in the form of a dialogue between the writer and the reader. And now, the dialogue begins. Welcome to this course! Symbols Used for Hindi Alphabets v a /k dha vk ã u na b] f i i pa bZ] h ï Q pha m] q u c ba Å] w ü Hk bha vks o e ma vkS au ; ya d ka j ra [k kha y la x ga o va ?k gha 'k sa p cha "k sa & N chha l sa t ja g ha > jha {k ksha V ˆ ta =k tra B ˆ tha K gya ˆ J shra M da ) ddha < ˆ dha ri.k na kta & ä r ta | dya Fk tha } dva n da Note: The words in hindi have been provided using above symbols. But for simplicity of reading for the reader, alternative words have been provided in the book too. For example, Jïvana has also been spelt as Jeevan, Sanyama as Sanyam, etc. An Introductory Overview of the Book This book draws attention to various fundamental aspects concerning human life and human happiness. This book is about all of us. It presents a set of proposals so that we may start exploring our own Self and our expanse of living in order to better understand our life – so we can understand what is valuable for us, what is our ‘value’ in the larger scheme of things we live in. Understanding our ‘value’ means understanding what our participation, our role is, with other humans, animals, plants…etc. We live in human society, in nature, and we want to find out our role in this expanse! In order to find out what is valuable to us, we will explore about ourselves, and we will explore about the things around us, the things we live with everyday. When we look into ourselves, it turns out that what we ultimately want is something seemingly obvious: we want happiness, prosperity and its continuity. Given that this is our basic desire, we will find out what needs to be our program to achieve this desire. If we look at our living, it becomes clear that human living (our own living) can be seen as encompassing the following 4 levels: l Myself l Family l Society l Nature/existence Each one of us lives at all these levels – whether we are aware of it or not, and each one of us wants to understand all these levels of our being, or living. All these levels of our living need to be investigated into. We will look into ourselves – and identify our various activities – our choices, thoughts and desires. This will help us identify how we think, and what we want. We will identify how and why we get so easily influenced by others, by things we read, etc. and how it is possible for us to truly find out what we want, and how we want to be. We will then look into our relationship with other people (starting from the family) and understand what the expectations in human relationships are, whether these can be identified, and fulfilled. As a result, it becomes possible to identify why we have problems in human relationships today. We will also look into the various dimensions of human society, what the comprehensive human goal is, and how this can be achieved. Finally, we will study nature/existence: and understand the interconnectedness in nature, and our role/participation in the totality that exists.  xxxii A Foundation Course in Human Values and Professional Ethics On self-investigation, we find out that we want to be in harmony at all levels of our living: l Harmony in myself (resulting in happiness and a feeling of prosperity) l Harmony in family (resulting in mutual fulfilment in relationship and prosperity in the family). l Harmony in society (resulting in a trustful, undivided, universal society). l Harmony in nature/existence (resulting in being in harmony with nature, understanding the inherent co-existence) The above comprises our desired state of being. We shall, through this course, investigate into whether this harmony is possible at each of these levels, and if so, how it can be ensured. We shall discover that this harmony is indeed possible, and that it is part of the basic design in nature/existence. We don’t have to ‘create’ this harmony – it is already there. We only have to understand it to be in it. Having known this harmony at all levels – i.e. having understood nature/existence, we can then identify our role in it. This role of human being is nothing but his value, i.e. human’s value is its participation in nature/existence. We shall see that these human values are natural and universal. Having identified a definite participation or role for the human being in existence (i.e. human values), we can also understand that the humane conduct or ethical human conduct is definite and universal. The purpose of humanistic education is thus to ensure human values in human beings, i.e. to ensure this right understanding of the harmony – leading to definite conduct. Based on this, it becomes possible to understand the professional ethics also correctly. How is this book structured? The book has been divided into three main sections followed by appendices. Section-I comprising of chapters 1-4, provides ‘Introduction to Value Education’ by highlighting the need, content, process and basic guidelines for value education. It then elaborates on self-exploration as the process for value education and discusses basic human aspirations and the program to fulfil these. Finally, it pinpoints the importance of right understanding i.e. the understanding of harmony at various levels to ensure happiness and prosperity. Section-II comprising of chapters 5-11, forms the core section of the book which systematically facilitates the ‘Understanding of Harmony at Various Levels’ starting from the human being and going over to understanding of harmony in the family, in the society, in the nature and finally in entire existence. Thus, this section presents the crux of right understanding.  An Introductory Overview of Contents the Book xxxiii Section-III comprising of chapters 12-16, presents the salient ‘Implications of the Right Understanding in life and profession’. Here it is explained how the right understanding forms the basis of universal human values, the definitiveness of ethical human conduct, humanistic education, humanistic constitution and provides the vision for the holistic way of living. This section also deals with professional ethics in the light of right understanding. Finally, the book is concluded with the indication of a few practical steps to facilitate transition from the present state towards the holistic way of living.  SECTION I INTRODUCTION TO VALUE EDUCATION This Section Contains: Chapter 1: Understanding Value Education Chapter 2: Self-exploration as the Process for Value Education Chapter 3: The Basic Human Aspirations – Continuous Happiness and Prosperity Chapter 4: The Program to Fulfil Basic Human Aspirations  CHAPTER ONE Understanding Value Education V alue education may seem a vague term to many of us even though we may be hearing about it frequently. While beginning this foundation course in value education, let us understand what we are talking about and what its need is, particularly in the context of professional education. In this course, we are going to clarify certain fundamental issues which are important to all of us in our life - issues which directly relate to our happiness, our welfare, our aspirations, goals and success in life. In a sense, value education deals with what is universally valuable to all of us, what is conducive to our individual and collective happiness and prosperity in a sustainable way. It enables us to be in harmony within ourselves, with other human beings and with rest of nature at large. Such an understanding will be vital for the successful conduct of our profession as well. Let us appreciate the need for such an input more elaborately in the following section. Need for Value Education All of us consider something or the other to be valuable. We set our goals, our aims on this basis, and then set out to work towards achieving them. While the need for determining what is valuable to us may seem evident, let us investigate into this a little more to understand the need for value education. Let us look at the following aspects to appreciate the need for value education. l Correct identification of our aspirations: All human beings have aspirations. You may aspire to become a doctor or engineer or a lawyer, or a film star or something else. You must have made various plans for your future, be it immediate or long term. The planning may include your personal life, your family, your profession, your participation in the society and other such domains. But before you invest your energies to actualize your plans, it is important that you find out what you basically aspire for. Thus you  4 A Foundation Course in Human Values and Professional Ethics need to identify your basic aspiration. Based on the correct identification of this basic aspiration, you can frame your goals and sub-goals appropriately and working for these, you may hope to fulfil your basic aspiration. l Understanding universal human values to fulfil our aspirations in continuity: Just identifying one’s aspiration is not enough. We need to know how to fulfil our aspirations, how to go about actualizing our goals. Generally, we tend to pursue our goals in variety of ways as per our appraisal and beliefs. We keep on making experiments, learning from these and accordingly improving our understanding. This is how human beings have been moving on, right from the primitive ‘Stone age’ to the present day world of modern science and technology. Complete understanding of human values gives us a definite way to fulfil our aspirations. Basically all of us are aspiring to be happy and whatever appears conducive to our happiness becomes valuable to us. Values form the basis for all our thoughts, behaviour and actions. Once we have known what is valuable to us, these values become the basis, the anchor for our actions. We know what we are doing is right and will lead to the fulfilment of our basic aspirations. Values thus become the source for our happiness, our success, our fulfilment. Without an appropriate value framework, we will not be able to decide whether a chosen action is desirable or undesirable, right or wrong. Hence there is a prime need for correct understanding of the value domain.- Value Education is the input necessary to fulfil this need. When we live with the correct understanding of values, we are happy in continuity, otherwise we feel deprived, frustrated and unhappy. What are the values that you hold worthy in your life? Have you verified them to be conducive to your happiness? It is important to explore the value domain in sufficient detail through value education. We also need to understand the universality of various human values, because only then we can have a definite and common program for value education. Then only we can be assured of a happy and harmonious human society. l Complementarity of values and skills: In the endeavour to fulfil our aspirations, two things are essential: (a) First and foremost, one has to know what really is conducive to human happiness - i.e. happiness for one and for all, and happiness at all times. This is what becomes universally valuable to human beings. This is the ‘value’ domain, the domain of wisdom. This helps us to identify and set the right goals and to proceed in the right direction. (b) Secondly, it becomes essential to learn methods and practices to actualize this goal, to develop the techniques to make this happen in real life, in various dimensions of human endeavour. This is the domain of ‘skills’.  Understanding Value Education 5 Thus values and skills have to go hand in hand. There is an essential complementarity between values and skills for the success of any human endeavour. For example, I want to lead a healthy life. I understand that health is the basic requirement for a human being. I then learn skills to judge what food will keep my body healthy, what physical practices will keep the body functioning properly, what would be the possible ways to do certain kinds of work with the body. All these fall under the domain of skills. Thus, both (values and skills) are important and these are complementary. Only wishing for good health will not help me keep my body fit and healthy and without having understood the meaning of health, I will not be able to choose things correctly to keep my body fit and healthy. l Evaluation of our beliefs: In absence of a correct understanding of universal human values, we are driven by our ‘ad-hoc’ values and beliefs. If we look deep into ourselves, we find that each one of us believes in certain things and we base our ‘values’ on these beliefs, be they false or true which may or may not be true in reality. For example, someone may believe that “A corporate job is the best kind of job”, “IIT is the best college to go to”, “Metro cities are the best places to live in” and so on. We can also have beliefs such as “I want to become a famous person. Being a world-famous person will make me happy”, “Money will make me happy”, “Success is the ultimate thing, by hook or by crook”, “If I study longer I will have better grades” etc. All of us live with such beliefs. These beliefs come to us from what we read, see, hear, what our parents tell us, our friends talk about, what the magazines talk of, what we see on the TV etc. i.e. there is a whole body of belief-system that we live with at any given time and these together constitute our worldview. These beliefs spread out far and wide into all our realms of living. The interesting thing about beliefs is that they usually change with time and we can trace examples of these by looking at our life in the past. We might have thought at one point of time that getting into a good college is the most important thing and now that may have changed to being able to get a good job. Once we get into a good job, doing well in that job and earning a lot of money may be important. Once we have the money, getting into a good position may become important – i.e. what we believe is to be important, may keep changing with time. Many times, we may even find ourselves trapped in conflicting beliefs. Another thing about beliefs is that they are usually not the same for everybody. Beliefs could be held by a small group or a large group of people but they are not universal. For example: getting good grades may be important to you, but being able to earn money may be important for your friends. You may think being environmentally - friendly is important, your friend may think that it is okay to pollute the environment. This is not only true for ourselves, but largely true for most people around us: the beliefs keep changing from person to person. What I may believe to be of ‘value’ to me may not be of ‘value’ to your belief-system so when we interact, it may lead to conflicts and unhappiness. We face this problem today because the conditioned beliefs and  6 A Foundation Course in Human Values and Professional Ethics values we hold today are usually contradictory, conflicting and unstable and not based upon the right understanding of values we are not very sure of their correctness. Living our lives based only on beliefs can not ensure happiness for us. This is very important for us to understand. Do we want to live with such shaky beliefs? Or do we want to know things for sure, for ourselves? We can either blindly follow our beliefs and assumed values, towards making our choices or we can base our choices upon values which are based on understanding of reality and we can ourselves validate them as well. What would you prefer? l Technology and Human Values: Technology is only a means to achieve what is considered “‘valuable” ’ for a human beings in an effective and efficient manner. It is not within the scope of technology to decide what is valuable. This decision lies outside its scope. It thus becomes primarily important to know correctly what is ‘valuable’. Without this decision, technology can be aimless, directionless and can therefore be put to any use, either constructive or destructive. It is thus with the understanding of values that we can decide on the appropriateness of technology and its application. Both the structure and use of technology is are decided by values. For example: if we value the relationship with the environment, we will work to create environment-friendly technologies (the structure of technology) and also put it to right use (use of technology), say, for the enrichment of environment, replenishment of natural resources etc. Conversely, if the relationship with the environment is something we do not value, things could be the other way round. As students of technology and management, we will be studying, creating, implementing and managing technologies which will affect the lives of a large number of people. Getting trained on technology without deciding what is valuable, could even prove counter-productive as our technical skills are likely to be misused. Therefore, it is essential that we understand how technology relates to us as individuals and to human society and nature at large before we attempt to put it into practice. Thus, there is a need to supplement technical education with value education. This will enable a human being to decide and pursue what is really ‘valuable’ i.e. conducive to human happiness, human welfare, what is of ‘value’ to him. To conclude, Value Education enables us to understand our needs and visualize our goals correctly, and also indicate the direction for their fulfilment. It also helps remove our confusions and contradictions and enables us to rightly utilize the technological innovations. Value Education is a crucial missing link in the present education system which must be adequately replenished. It must be remembered that to become an excellent professional, the excellence of values along with the excellence of requisite professional skills is required. The present course is an effort in this direction.  Understanding Value Education 7 Basic Guidelines for Value Education Now that we have identified the need for value education, let us also visualize certain effective and widely acceptable guidelines which will enable the introduction of value education in the present system. Given below are broad guidelines to decide on what would qualify as an appropriate input in value education: Universal Whatever we study as value education has to be universally applicable to all human beings and be true at all times and all places. In addition, it need not restrict itself to a certain sect, creed, gender or nationality etc. So it has to deal with universal human values. Rational It has to be amenable to reasoning and not based on dogmas or blind beliefs. It cannot be a set of sermons or Do’s and Don’ts. Natural and Verifiable We want to study something that is natural to us. Being natural means, it is acceptable in a natural manner to all human beings. When we live on the basis of such values that are natural to us, it leads to fulfilment, leads to our happiness and also is conducive to other people we interact with, as well as with nature. We also would like to verify these values ourselves, i.e. we don’t want to assume something just because it is being stated here or written in a book, rather, each one of us will want to verify these to find out whether they are true for us. This has to be done by both checking for validity within ourselves, as being naturally acceptable as well as something which we can implement in our living and observe its outcome to be fulfilling. All Encompassing Value education is not merely an academic exercise. It is aimed at transforming our consciousness and living. Hence, it has to permeate into all dimensions of our living, namely, thought, behaviour, work and understanding/realization; as well as all levels, namely, individual, family, society and nature. Leading to Harmony Finally, value education has to enable us to be in harmony within and in harmony with others. Hence, when we live on the basis of these values, we start understanding that it will  8 A Foundation Course in Human Values and Professional Ethics lead to harmony in us, and harmony in our interactions with other humans and the rest of nature. The Content of Value Education The value of any unit in this existence is its participation in the larger order of which it is a part e. g. value of a pen is that it can write. Here writing is the participation of the pen in the bigger order in which pen, paper, human being, all are present. Value of an eye is that it can be used for seeing. Value of a vegetable plant is that it gives nutrition to animals and humans. What is the value of a human being? This question implies - what is the participation of a human being in the bigger order? That bigger order includes human beings, plants, air, water, soil, animals, birds etc. The value of a human being is the participation of human being in this order. Hence, to understand human values, we need to study the human reality along with all that is there in the existence constituting the larger order, and the role of human being in the relationship with each and every unit in the existence. Scope of Study As mentioned above, any course on value education must include l All dimensions- thought, behaviour, work & and realization, and l All levels of human living - individual, family, society, nature/existence of human living. Accordingly, the content of Value Education will be to understand myself, my aspirations, my happiness; understand the goal of human life comprehensively; understand the other entities in nature, the innate inter-connectedness, the co-existence in the nature/existence and finally the role of human being in this nature/existence entirety. Hence, it has to encompass understanding of harmony at various levels, namely, individual, family, society, nature and existence, and finally, learning to live in accordance with this understanding by being vigilant to one’s thought, behaviour and work. The Process of Value Education The process of value education has to be ascertained before we proceed. Let us now acquaint ourselves with the process of value education which we are going to adopt. In this course, various aspects of reality facilitating the understanding of human values will be presented  Understanding Value Education 9 as proposals. You need to verify these proposals for yourself and examine your living in this light. Let us see how we can verify these proposals. l We will verify these proposals through self-exploration. We shall investigate into these proposals and try to verify within us in our own right. l This self-exploration will be done on the basis of whether the proposals are acceptable to us in a natural manner – i.e. they need to be naturally acceptable to us and not just imposed externally. We shall explore this concept further in the next chapter. l Self-exploration will also include verifying the proposals through experiential validation, i.e. by living according to them. Experiential validation will ascertain that when we live our life on the basis of this education, our living will be fulfilling to us as well as our surroundings. l Since the process is of self-exploration, and not of giving sermons or prescribing do’s and don’ts, you need not agree to all that is said, but only be ready to investigate into them sincerely. We don’t want to just theorize and impose stated truths. l This process of self-exploration has to be in the form of a dialogue, a dialogue between the presenter [teachers] and the receivers [students] to begin with; and slowly to translate into a dialogue within the receiver [students/the reader] himself/herself. Each one of us can conduct this verification within ourselves. l This process is expected to initiate a transformation in our understanding in our consciousness and our living. This process of self-verification needs to be applied to all the proposals. In this way, we will proceed forward, one proposal at a time. Life is a laboratory and we will work on the proposals and verify their truthfulness in ourselves and in our living. Thus to conclude, whatever is being said in this book is to be taken as a proposal to be investigated and verified. This book is not about giving sermons or prescribing do’s and don’ts, but input is aimed at facilitating the student to be able to become authentic about himself/herself through self-exploration. Summary l Value education is required to correctly identify our basic aspirations, understand the values that enable us to fulfil our basic aspiration, ensure the complementarity of values and skills, and to properly evaluate our beliefs. It also facilitates the development of appropriate technology and its right utilization for human welfare.  10 A Foundation Course in Human Values and Professional Ethics l Any course content on value education needs to be universal, rational, natural, verifiable, all- encompassing and leading to harmony. l The value of any unit in this existence is its participation in the larger order of which it is a part. l The content of value education is expected to include all dimensions of a human being and all levels of one’s living. l The process of value education adopted here is that of self-exploration which includes two things: verification at the level of natural acceptance and experiential validation in living. REVIEW QUESTIONS 1. What is the need for value education in technical and other professional institutions? 2. What do you mean by values? How do they differ from skills? How are values and skills complementary? 3. What are the basic guidelines for value education? 4. How do you presently decide what is valuable to you? How do you ensure that your decision is right? 5. What is the difference between ‘belief’ and ‘understanding’?  CHAPTER TWO Self-exploration as the Process for Value Education W e saw in the previous chapter that the process used here for value education is self- exploration. As the name suggests, the process is to find out what is valuable to me by investigating within myself. Since it is me who feels happy or unhappy, successful or unsuccessful, therefore whatever is right for me, true for me, has to be judged within myself. We discussed previously that the value of an entity is its participation in the larger order. In the case of the human being, to understand what is valuable, we need to study ourselves and the “larger order” around us, which is, everything around us. When we look around, we find other human beings; we find animals, plants, birds, insects etc. and then things like air, water, soil, stones, metals, etc. All these are things we live with and there is a need for us to understand our relationship with all of these things. This is depicted below: H um an B eing N ature/E xistence (a ll that exists) (other h um ans , an im a ls , plants , s oil, etc ) P articipation We live with this entirety – we live with our family, our friends, air, soil, water, trees - the nature around us and we want to understand our relationship with all these. Understanding of all these is to be done by me - the ‘self ’. To understand my relationship with all these, I need to start observing inside. Starting to Observe Inside Normally, we are used to exploring outside. For example: we keep looking around, we observe trees, animals and other human beings. Seldom do we observe “what is going on in  12 A Foundation Course in Human Values and Professional Ethics me while I am observing outside”. Thus, it remains only external observation. When we say we want to self-explore, it means we have to now start observing within ourselves too and not observing just outside. Let’s take the example that we are seeing a tree. When I see a tree, here is what is happening: the image of the tree is available on my eyes. From there, the information is passed on to me, and then I say: “I can see a big tree, and it is about 100 meters away and so on”. This is an example of observing outside. But when I start to observe what relation I have with the tree or, how does the tree relate to me, it is observing inside. Now let’s take another example. When I get angry, I ‘know’ I am getting angry. In other words ‘I’, can ‘see’ the anger, in ‘myself ’. I am no longer using my ‘eyes’ to see the anger, but I am observing this anger inside my own self. What is Self-exploration? What is its Purpose? Let us ponder over the following points to appreciate self-exploration and its purpose. 1. It is a process of dialogue between “what you are” and “what you really want to be”. 2. It is a process of self-evolution through self-investigation. 3. It is a process of knowing oneself and through that, knowing the entire existence. 4. It is a process of recognizing one’s relationship with every unit in existence and fulfilling it. 5. It is a process of knowing human conduct, human character and living accordingly. 6. It is a process of being in harmony in oneself and in harmony with entire existence. 7. It is a process of identifying our Innateness (Swatva) and moving towards Self- organization (Swatantratã) and Self-expression (Swarãjya). Now, we will go over the above points in detail. 1. It is a process of dialogue between “what you are” and “what you really want to be”: We will look into ourselves and find out what we are today, and how this contrasts from what we really want to be. If these two are the same, then there is no problem. If on investigation we find that these two are not the same, then it means we are living with this contradiction (of not being what we really want to be) and hence, we need to resolve this contradiction, this conflict within us. Ask yourself this question: “Am I what I really want to be?”  Self-exploration as the Process for Value Education 13 When we look into this, we find that mostly we are not what we really want to be. These two are different and each one of us is faced with this contradiction. We are something and we want to be something else. This basic dichotomy, this basic contradiction has to be resolved. This dichotomy creates a conflict in us, which is a continuous cause for our unhappiness. What we are today- is the result of our pre- conditionings, our predispositions, our impressions and our beliefs. What we really want to be- comes from deep within us, that is naturally acceptable to us. This is something intact in us. It needs to be explored and found out. “What I am” ´ “What I really want to be”. This dialogue needs to be started - between what you are and what you really want to be. On investigating into it, you will find that the contradictions are not outside of you. These contradictions are inside you. In fact, the contradictions that you see outside are mostly a reflection of the contradictions within. For example, we end up believing many things that are instilled in us since childhood – like “living is basically a struggle for survival”. And based on this belief, we plan our whole life. But have we even asked ourselves the question of whether this is the way in which I really want to live? We find that most of the time, we don’t even care to know whether the things we have assumed are really true. We are defining our entire lives, all our desires, based on such assumptions, without even knowing whether these assumptions are naturally acceptable to us! This is a serious matter worthy of our attention. All our unhappiness, all our discomfort, all our unease is because of this contradiction within – between what we are and what we really want to be. Each one of us lives with this feeling of discomfort, the unease within that keeps telling us “something is missing”. Each one of us is faced with contradictions and problems in various aspects of life – contradictions within ourselves, in our behaviour with people, in our interactions and thoughts about society, and in our interactions and notions about nature. And irrespective of where you are placed: in a nice school, in a great college, having a good job, having a lot of money etc., this discomfort is continuously present. On careful self-exploration, we will find that we are being driven by a number of assumptions/ beliefs which are contrary to our natural acceptance and they cause contradiction within us. We have to start looking at these carefully. Many times, you will find, we want something, we think something else, we say something else, we do something else, and the results of our actions do not match with the expected outcomes! This kind of dichotomy continues to exist in us, resulting in a state of unhappiness and as of today we don’t seem to be doing anything at all in order to address these contradictions, whereas it is the basic issue that needs to be resolved. 2. It is a process of self-evolution through self-investigation: By self-investigation, we shall work towards being what we really want to be. Hence, the self-exploration leads  14 A Foundation Course in Human Values and Professional Ethics to our own improvement, our own self-evolution – we will become qualitatively better. We can be more in harmony within ourselves. We saw in the earlier point that it is necessary to find out the contradictions in ourselves, to see that we are in contradiction. Where would we do this? Since the contradictions are in ourselves, it becomes necessary that we investigate into ourselves to find this out! Hence, it is necessary that we do self-exploration. It is not about exploring outside us, but inside us, in us. We have to start exploring ourselves. Through this process of self-exploration we can achieve self-evolution. This process of self- investigation needs to be started. It needs to start in each one of us. Once this dialogue within ourselves has been established, and we start evolving – we become comfortable within ourselves. The very process of being in this dialogue starts facilitating this self- improvement. 3. It is a process of knowing oneself and through that, knowing the entire existence: Thus, self-exploration leads to us knowing ourselves better. Today, we are largely unaware of our own characteristics, our own assumptions, beliefs and pre-conditionings. We will go beyond these beliefs to know ourselves. Once we have known ourselves, and we are sure of it, we can then also know all the things around us correctly. This way, we can be sure of these things in our own right, we can be authentic about them. We don’t have to continue to live merely with assumptions about these things. Ask yourself: Do I want to know myself? Do I want this self-investigation? Am I satisfied in living my life without having known myself? If I don’t know myself, am not sure of myself, how can I be sure of what I want and what I do? – One finds that the need to know ourselves, to understand the self, is an innate need of every human being. This need to know does not have to be instilled from outside, once our attention has been drawn to this fact. Each individual would like to know himself/herself and can carry out this self-exploration and self-evolution. As we know ourselves correctly, we are also able to relate ourselves correctly to the things around us. We can then understand the people we live with, the family we are born in, the people in society we interact with, in fact all the entities in nature/ existence. Ask yourself this question: Are you satisfied with just knowing the immediate things around you, or do you also get curious about the larger reality around you? Each human being wants to know everything. Once we have known ourselves, we can also know the entire existence. This process starts with the self, and once we are sure of ourselves, we can, through that, also know the entire existence. If we look at the basic fallacy in our current approach of understanding things around us, it is that we try to understand things around us without first being sure of ourselves. Since we don’t know ourselves correctly, and it is we who understand the world, hence, all the pre-conditionings we have within, the contradictions we have within, reflect in  Self-exploration as the Process for Value Education 15 our perception of the world, and we start interacting with the external world, with the things around us based on these assumptions, based on these pre-conditionings. Therefore, it is important to know myself first, and when I am sure about myself and that there is no ‘colouring’ there then, I can know about other things properly. Then, I can be sure about the things I know, since I am sure of myself. 4. It is a process of recognizing one’s relationship with every unit in existence and fulfilling it: Once we start knowing ourselves and everything beside us, we shall understand our relationship with them i.e. we shall understand our relationship with other humans, animals, plants and matter etc. We shall then know how we have to live in harmony with all these things. What are the things we live with today? We live in our families – with out parents, grandparents, brothers, sisters, we live in society – we interact with our teachers, with various people engaged in making available goods and services in the society. We live with nature – with animals, birds, plants, insects, materials, etc, and of course, the larger existence – all that space, and all those planets, stars and other entities that are suspended in it. Do we know our relationship with each one of these entities? Do we know and understand our relationship with our parents? With our teachers? With the person next door? What happens when we do not understand this relationship? You would find that this lack of understanding leads to problems. For example: if you wrongly assume that animals may breathe away all the air, and hence all animals need to be killed so that there is enough oxygen left for human beings, it would be disastrous! We need to start seeing various interactions in which we face problems: for example, the problem of misunderstanding in relationships, the problem of wars and crime in society, the problem of pollution in nature, etc. Are these not due to the lack of right understanding of our relationship at various levels? We find that our problems in our relationship with various entities around us are due to our assuming certain things about these relationships which are not really true. For example: if we assume that mistrust is basic to a human relationship, we shall have problems, since all the time we shall mistrust people we come across, and mistrust is not acceptable to us, not acceptable to any human being! The fact that we are related to all these entities can easily be observed in our day to day life. We don’t have to create these relationships. These relationships are already there. We have assumed something else about these relationships. What is needed for us is to correctly understand our relationship with each of these entities. When we are able to understand this, we are able to fulfil our relationship with them. For example, when we understand that trust is basic to a relationship, that it is trust which is naturally acceptable to every human being, we become at ease and are able to orient ourselves correctly and our relationships becomes mutually fulfilling. Similarly, once  16 A Foundation Course in Human Values and Professional Ethics we see that we want to be in harmony with nature, that nature itself is in harmony, our interactions with nature lead to mutual prosperity. On the other hand, if we continue to assume that human beings and nature are at loggerheads, then we shall continue to have problems in multiple ways. Thus, we start with understanding ourselves, and then through ourselves, we understand the rest of existence, and also our relationship with all entities in existence and then fulfil this relationship. 5. It is a process of knowing human conduct, human character and living accordingly: None of us wants to live with uncertainty. If our state of mind, our own behaviour keeps changing, we are not comfortable with ourselves. We all desire for certainty and stability. Once we know our own true nature, we will also understand what is our participation with the other things we live with – this is the ethical human conduct or the humane conduct. This is what characterizes a human being. When we know this true human character, we start moving towards it in a natural manner. All the entities in the existence are characterised by their innateness, by their specific characteristics which are invariant. We recognize any entity by this innateness. What is then the innateness of a human being? Is a human being expected to exhibit different characteristics at different times and with different people? If you ask yourself, whether you want a definite character or indefinite character – what is the answer? The answer is, we all want to have a definite character, a definite conduct. We are not satisfied with having an indefinite conduct, though we are living with indefiniteness. Example: We can’t be sure of how we are going to be this very evening! We are not sure what our mood will be tomorrow morning. Sometimes, we are not sure about what mindset we are going to have the next moment! Are we comfortable with this state of affairs? Or do we want a definitiveness in our conduct? Explore. There is a need to understand this definite conduct in a human being and how it can be ensured. Once we know, through self-exploration, our own true nature and the things around us, we shall also know what our relationship and participation is with the other things we live with, all the things around us – then we will be able to rightly understand ethical human conduct or the humane conduct. Thus, the process of Self-exploration will enable us to identify the definitiveness of human conduct and to live accordingly. 6. It is a process of being in harmony in oneself and in harmony with entire existence: Through the process of Self-exploration, I establish a dialogue with my natural acceptance. This enables me to be in harmony within myself. Through the same process, I am able to explore into the harmony in the entire existence. We slowly come  Self-exploration as the Process for Value Education 17 to realize (and we will keep talking about this in the entire book) that there is an innate harmony in the existence. I only need to discover this. And once I do this, I can learn to live in harmony with the entire existence. Thus the process of Self-exploration helps me live in harmony within myself and in all my interactions with the world around. Would you desire to be in such a state? Well, we need to work for it. 7. It is a process of identifying our Innateness (Swatva) and moving towards Self- organization (Swatantratã) and Self-expression (Swarãjya): When I identify my innateness, what I really want to be and establish a dialogue with it, it enables me to become Self-organized, i.e. I attain harmony in myself. This is Swatantratã. When I start living with this harmony, it starts expressing itself through my harmonious behaviour and work, and it naturally extends to my participation with the surroundings. This is working towards Swarãjya. Swatantratã : Being self-organised : Being in harmony in oneself Swarãjya : Self-expression, Self-extension : Living in harmony with others, and thus participation towards harmony in the whole existence Ask yourself this question: Are you self-organized right now? Are you able to be in harmony with others? If you are living in contradiction, then it means you are not self-organized. If you are living with pre-conditionings, wherein you have assumed certain things, have accumulated desires without having first evaluated them, then it means you are partantra (enslaved). If you ask this question: whether we are swatantra or partantra, what is the answer? Till there is a difference between what we are and what we really want to be, we are not swatantra, because we will always be in conflict. Hence, since we ourselves are not in self-organization, our expression in living: be it in behaviour with other humans or in our interaction in the form of work - the outcome is going to be one of conflict. So, through this process of Self-exploration I begin by identifying my innateness (Swatva), what I really want to be. Then, living accordingly enables me to being in harmony within myself (Swatantratã) and finally being in harmony with the whole existence (Swarãjya) Content of Self-exploration In the light of what we have discussed so far, the content of Self-exploration can be visualized in terms of finding answers to the following fundamental questions of all human beings: 1. Desire: What is my basic aspiration?  18 A Foundation Course in Human Values and Professional Ethics 2. Program: What is the process to fulfil this basic aspiration? Do you find these two questions relevant? We will try to find answers to these questions by exploring within. These are very important questions since everything we do is related to some desire or the other we are trying to fulfil. This is what any human being would like to know and work towards its actualization in life. And if you have the answers to these two questions, is there any other question that remains to be answered? We are going to observe and explore ourselves, our lives, what we do, why we do and how we do. We will study what human beings want, we will study what we really want. We also want to know how to fulfil what we want. We want to explore into what is valuable for us. Each one of us can explore this within ourselves. Process of Self-exploration In the sections above, we saw the need and content of Self-exploration. We will now move on, and find out how we will carry this out. Following points are to be kept in mind regarding this process of Self-exploration. “Whatever is stated is a proposal”. Don’t start by assuming it to be true or false. Whatever we state here, is a proposal. Don’t accept it as it is, or assume it to be true. We seem to have assumed many things to be true till now. If we assume what we are discussing here to be true as well, it would only add to our set of assumptions and beliefs and instead of being an aid for us, instead of helping us, it will only end being a burden for us! Alright! If we don’t assume it, how will we verify it? “Verify it on your own right” You need to rigorously verify all the statements and proposals being made here in your own right. No one else can do this for you; you have to do it yourself. It has to be self investigated by you. Verifying in your own right implies the following; “Don’t just accept or reject it-  Self-exploration as the Process for Value Education 19 – on the basis of scriptures – on the basis of instruments – on the basis of others” Note: By the above proposal, we are not trying to undermine the importance of scriptures, instruments or the guidance obtainable from wise persons. Not at all! We are only suggesting that one should take all these as valuable proposals worthy of your own serious exploration and then acceptance. Let us understand these in more detail: “Don’t try to verify on the basis of scriptures/ what is written”: By this we mean, let’s not compare what is being proposed here with what is written in some book, something that you have read or are reading i.e. we think we know certain things, because we have read about it somewhere, and remember it now. However, we are not talking about a comparative study between what we have read and what is being proposed here. Rather, we are talking about verification of these proposals directly within yourself. “Not on the basis of instruments”: Don’t assume these proposals as being true or false based on the conclusions somebody might have given after conducting experiments with physical instruments. The instruments only give information about some physical phenomena, but the conclusions we make are based on our own perception about the phenomena. Such perceptions also need to be subjected to self-verification. “Not on the basis of others”: Again, you may have heard something that some great person has said. You may believe what this person says to be true, and hence end up comparing what is being proposed here with what you remember as being stated by that personality. This would not mean verifying in your own right; it would mean accepting on those great personalities’ right! “Firstly, verify the proposal on the basis of your natural acceptance” Natural acceptance is a faculty that is present in each one of us. It is intact and invariant. We only have to start paying attention to it, to start “seeing” it. For example, ask yourself this question: ‘Is trust naturally acceptable to me in relationship, or is mistrust naturally acceptable?’ What is the answer? It turns out that trust is naturally acceptable to you in relationship. Similarly, ask yourself another question: “Do I want to live in relationship with others or do I want to live in opposition with others?” The answer is - live in relationship with others.  20 A Foundation Course in Human Values and Professional Ethics We find that we get the answers from within ourselves and it is spontaneous. The answers are there in us, naturally. We only need to trace them. We call this faculty the natural acceptance. For every proposal being put forth here, we shall pass it through our own natural acceptance. If it passes through our own natural acceptance, i.e. if it is naturally acceptable to us, it is true for us. If it does not, then it is not true for us and we can drop the proposal. Let’s not assume what is being stated here to be true! You need to ensure that you pass every proposal through your own natural acceptance! Let’s ask ourselves another very basic question: Do I want to be happy? The answer is a very quick yes! How did you get this answer? Of course, through your natural acceptance. This may seem very simple to begin with, but we shall see that this becomes a very powerful way for us to know what is ultimately right! Once you start asking the question deep within yourself, you will be able to start accessing these answers yourself. This natural acceptance is there in each one of us, it is what we most spontaneously, most naturally desire. You don’t have to import this natural acceptance from outside; you don’t have to learn it from somewhere! For example, when you asked the question “whether trust is most acceptable to me in relationship”, did you ask anyone else for the answer? Did you read or learn the answer from somewhere? Did you have to refer to some instrument? The answer is NO. This answer came from within you. Similarly, about the answer to- “Is living in relationship with others is naturally acceptable to me”. Did you have to learn this from others? Again NO! Thus, as first part of the self-verification, every proposal being put forth here, is passed through our own natural acceptance. “Secondly, live according to the proposal to validate it experientially.” To verify the proposals, I need to live accordingly in my interactions with the world around. This involves two things: behaviour and work. If the proposal is true, (a) In behaviour with other humans, (i) it will lead to mutual fulfilment (b) In work with the rest of nature, (ii) it will lead to mutual prosperity. I desire mutual fulfilment in my relations with other humans and mutual prosperity with the rest of nature. This way, I validate the truthfulness of the proposal.  Self-exploration as the Process for Value Education 21 The whole process of self-exploration can be represented as follows: – It is a pro p osal D on 't a ss um e it to be true P roc e s s o f S e lf Verify it in you r o w n rig ht E x p lo ra tio n – N ot o n the bas is of s criptures – N ot o n the bas is of read ing s from ins trum e nt – N ot o n the bas is of others – S e lf ve rification P roposal L ive a cco rd in g to b eh avio ur W ork w ith w ith hu m a n re st of th e Ve rify on th e ba sis le a ds to n atu re le ad s o f you r n atura l m utua l to m utua l a ccep ta nce h ap pine ss p rospe rity Natural Acceptance At this point, we can make the following observations about natural acceptance: (a) Natural acceptance does not change with time: The natural acceptance does not change with time. It remains invariant with time. This can be easily verified. For example, our acceptance for trust or respect does not change with age. People hundred years ago also had the same natural acceptance. We can try to verify this within our span of observation. (b) It does not depend on the place: Whether we are in New Delhi, New York or Abu Dhabi, if we address our natural acceptance, the answer would still be the same! (c) It does not depend on our beliefs or past conditionings: We may be told frequently not to trust people of other religions or castes, but is it naturally acceptable to us? No matter how deep our belief or past conditioning, as long as we ask ourselves the question sincerely, as long as we refer deep within ourselves, the answer will always be the same. (d) This natural acceptance is ‘constantly there’, something we can refer to: Try this yourself: think of cheating or exploiting someone. The moment you think of this, you sense a contradiction within and feel unhappy that very instant! It happens very quickly, and we may not notice it, but it does happen! Similarly, the moment we think of  22 A Foundation Course in Human Values and Professional Ethics disrespecting someone, we become unhappy. The very thought is enough to cause a conflict, a strain within us. Thus, this natural acceptance is always there, and if we start paying attention to it, if we ask ourselves every time, for every thought and every desire we have, “Is this naturally acceptable to me?”, we will get an answer. Whatever we do, this natural acceptance is within us, it is telling us what is right. Every time we do something not readily acceptable to us. i.e. every time we think or do something not acceptable to us, there is a contradiction in us, because the thought/ deed conflicts with our own natural acceptance! The moment we think of cheating, we become unhappy. We don’t even have to carry out the action. It will become clear to us that while we want something else at the level of our natural acceptance, we think or do something else, based on our beliefs and preconditioning, which is contrary, it creates a disharmony in us; this is the cause for our unhappiness. Take for example, one may proceed with the act of cheating under the influence of say, an extraneous pressure but one keeps feeling unhappy about it and may even repent over this act in the course of time. If somebody asks, ‘why do you cheat?’, one starts offering explanations, inventing justifications. This is because it is naturally unacceptable. (e) Natural acceptance is the same for all of us: it is part and parcel of every human being, it is part of human-ness: Let’s start exploring into this. We will find that no human being finds disrespect acceptable in relationship. No matter who the person, however bad or good, one always expects respect in relationship. For example, let us say a person ‘A’ disrespects ‘B’. This man ‘B’ may bear a grudge against ‘A’ and set out to “teach him a lesson”. This is because ‘B’ does not find disrespect acceptable and when he does not get respect, it offends him. This may actually end up leading to a large scale conflict! We can start checking and verifying this for ourselves. All of us have acceptance which are same, at a very deep and basic level. Our assumptions and choices, our likes and dislikes may be different, but on some very basic and common issues like need for happiness, trust, respect, prosperity, we are all the same, all of us have the same basic acceptance. Thus, Natural acceptance is there in all of us. It is within us, all the time and we can refer to it, access it to know what is right for us. We only have to start referring to it. Each proposal in this book needs to be evaluated on the basis of your natural acceptance. What is the State Today? Today, we are not oriented enough to evaluate our beliefs or assumptions and we treat them as our personal domain. We generally keep them secure in the name of personal life and  Self-exploration as the Process for Value Education 23 freedom. We usually become very sticky about them without really varifying them. When these come in conflict, we try hard to search out justifications and make all efforts to defend our own assumptions. In the process, we cheat ourselves as well as others. But are our assumptions not taxing for us? Are these not costing us our own happiness, the stability and cordiality in our relations? These definitely are, and we need to focus attention on these. Since we don’t verify within ourselves, we continue to live with a set of assumptions and beliefs which may or may not be true. Hence, we are usually not sure of what we ‘believe’ since we have largely assumed these things and have not verified them for ourselves. Since we do not verify it in our living with people and with nature, we are not sure of what the results are. In fact, this is quite obvious, since we find today that while sometimes we may have fulfilling relationships with people, may a time we don’t; sometimes we contribute to enriching nature but, mostly we end up exploiting it. It shows that today: l Neither are we verifying our assumptions/ proposals put to us on the basis of our natural acceptance, l Nor are we verifying what we think we know, in our living! What is the Way Out? What do we Need to Do? We have to start verifying our assumptions, beliefs on the basis of our natural acceptance and experiential validation. Living on the basis of natural acceptance makes us more authentic. As long as we are living on the basis of assumptions, there is no authenticity in what we are thinking, no authenticity in what we are doing. Since we have not verified for ourselves, in our own right, we don’t have the confidence about things. Ultimately, we are the judge of what is right for us, we have to verify and understand it. Realization and Understanding We saw earlier that the process of Self-exploration involves two steps: 1. Verification of the proposals on the basis of our natural acceptance 2. Experiential validation by living according to it. As we do this, as we continue with this process of verification of the proposals stated here on the basis of our natural acceptance and test it out in our living, it ultimately results in “realization” and “understanding” in us. This means, knowing something to be “true”, for sure, within ourselves. We will discuss this in more detail in the Chapter 6.  24 A Foundation Course in Human Values and Professional Ethics The realization and understanding is denoted below: Accordingly, the complete process of self-exploration can be depicted as below. – It is a pro po sal Don't just assume it to be true Verify it in your ow n right P rocess of – Not on the basis of scriptures S elf-exploration – Not on the basis of readings from instruments – Not on the basis of others – S elf-verific