UHV Course Material for 2024-2025-6-19.pdf

UNIT–I VALUE EDUCATION Value: The value of an entity is its participation in the larger order of which it is a part. For example, the value of a pen is that it can write. Here writing is the participation of the pen in the bigger order in which it is pre...

UNIT–I VALUE EDUCATION Value: The value of an entity is its participation in the larger order of which it is a part. For example, the value of a pen is that it can write. Here writing is the participation of the pen in the bigger order in which it is present along with a paper and human being. Similarly, the value of a human being is his/her participation in the larger order. The value of a unit is also termed as its role. Skill: It is ability or a technique by which one can perform an action to get the intended result or materialize the things. For example, learning and being able to execute a computer program. Education: Education is expected to address the following two questions: 1) What to do? and 2) How to do? Value education: The domain of education which addresses the issues related to ‘What to do?’ is called value education. It gives us the clarity of our goal, our basic aspiration and the programme to fulfil the basic aspiration. Skill education: The domain of education which addresses the issues related to ‘How to do?’ is called skill education. It helps us learn skills, methods and techniques to implement the programme. Complementarity of value education and skill education Values and skills have to go hand in hand. There is an essential complementarity between the two for the success of any human endeavour towards the goal of living a fulfilling life. For instance, the technology for harnessing nuclear energy was developed. But, now, how much of it has been used for welfare purpose and how much of it has been used for destructive purposes? Take another example – suppose we get convinced that health of the body is essential. Then, we learn skills to keep the body healthy. It falls under the domain of skills. But, along with it, it is crucial to understand for what purpose, we shall be using our body, and it comes under the value domain. Values are required to decide “what to do”, while skills are required for “how to do”. When we want to put them in priority order, it is easy to see that “what to do” has to be decided first and then only we can think of “how to do”. However, the current priority in education has become development of skill. We are developing new technologies, but we are unable to decide on ethical use of them. Need and important implications of value education Following are the significant implications of value education. a) Correct identification of our Goals: At present there is a lot of dilemma and confusion in deciding our goals. As a result, deciding our goals with definiteness becomes difficult task. As we go on focusing on various components of value education, we go on understanding our participation, purpose and goal of human life. b) Development of holistic perspective: The outcome of value education is a holistic perspective with the clarity about human being, about the Nature of which we are integral part, and our participation in this nature/existence. Through value education, we come to know that we are interconnected, interrelated in this existence – from the smallest level to the whole cosmos. c) Clarity of programme to live with holistic perspective: Value education provides us the vision which will help us to get answers to the questions like: what thoughts are naturally acceptable to me, what food will keep my body healthy, what behaviour with my friends will sustain our relationship, how can I contribute to my family, society and the entire nature, etc. We can see that this clarity of programme is necessary for our own state of happiness. d) Evaluation of our beliefs: Our conduct depends on what we understand or believe about ourselves, our family, the society and the nature around. Much of our behaviour and working is based on our beliefs. Our beliefs somehow become the guiding factors of the decisions of our life. Value education also helps us become aware of our own beliefs and their correctness. e) Solution for existing problems: When we have a holistic perspective and the clarity of the programme to live by it, we are able to realize that most of the existing problems are actually the consequences of our wrong beliefs. With right understanding of things, we are able to define our role in different phases of life and work accordingly. Then, we do  not create problems for ourselves or others. We will also be able to resolve the existing problems. f) Development of ethical competence: The core purpose of value education is to develop ethical competence among human beings. The problem of unethical conduct in various professions present now almost everywhere, can be tackled effectively by focussing on developing ethical competence through human value education. Basic guidelines for value education Following are the basic guidelines that will enable the introduction of value education in the present academic system. a) Universal: Whatever we study as value education, it has to be universally applicable to all human beings and be true at all times and all places. That means, it should not change based on sect, nationality, gender, etc. For example, the feeling of respect in relationship is something universal, so it can be a part of value education. b) Rational: It has to be amenable to reasoning and not based on blind beliefs. It should be open to address the related questions. It cannot be a set of do’s and don’ts. c) Natural and Verifiable: Being natural means, it has to be acceptable in a natural manner. When we live with such values, it leads to mutual fulfilment, and is enriching for other units in Nature. We also have to verify these values ourselves, and find whether they are true and valid for us. We should not assume something just because it is being stated. d) All Encompassing: The content of our education has to cover all dimensions of our being (thought, behaviour, work and understanding) as well as all levels of our living (individual, family, society and nature/existence). e) Leading to Harmony: Value education has to enable us be in harmony within and in harmony with others. Hence, when we live on the basis of these values, we start observing that it leads to harmony in us and harmony in our interactions with other humans and the rest of the nature. Content of value education The value of a human being is the participation of human being in the larger existential order. Hence, to understand human values, we need to study human being along with all that is there in the existence. So, the scope of study has to be all encompassing, i.e, a) It covers all dimensions of human being – thought, behaviour, work and realization. b) It covers all levels of human being – individual, family, society, nature and existence.  Accordingly, the content of value education has to be to understand human being, human aspirations, happiness; understand the goal of human life comprehensively; understand the other entities in nature, the innate interconnectedness, the harmony in the nature/existence and finally the role of human being in this nature/existence, and learning to live in accordance with this understanding by being aware of one’s thought, behaviour and work. Process of value education The process of value education is the process of self-discovery, because the values are there inherently in every human being. Through value education, we are just exploring, recognizing them, getting aware of them. There is already a natural acceptance for values in a human being. Value education is never a set of do’s and don’ts. For example, if you are asked, what is naturally acceptable to you: the feeling of relationship or feeling of opposition with your family members? When we observe within for answer, the natural response is feeling of relationship. This feeling is a value for us. In this discussion, this feeling was not created in you. You already had the acceptance for it. It was only uncovered by drawing your attention through the question for exploration. Hence, to study human values, the process has to be such that it develops a process of self-exploration in you. SELF-EXPLORATION Self-exploration is the process of value education. It is a process of seeing the reality on our own right, by our own investigation, observation and analysis. Whatever is proposed, it is to be taken as a proposal and we have to decide on our own right whether it is naturally acceptable to us or not. If it is naturally acceptable, we have a feeling of relationship and if it is not naturally acceptable, we have a feeling of opposition. a) It is a process of dialogue between “what you are” and “what you really want to be”. b) It is a process of knowing oneself, and through that, knowing the entire existence. c) It is a process of recognizing one’s relationship with every unit in existence and fulfilling it. d) It is a process of self-evolution through self-investigation. Content of self-exploration The content of self-exploration basically has the following two parts: a) Desire: What is our basic aspiration? b) Programme: What is the way to fulfil this basic aspiration? The desire is the basic aspiration, the aim, the objective, the purpose, what we want to achieve – what is our goal. The programme is the process of achieving the desire, the action to achieve our goal. If we can get the answers to these two questions, practically all our questions are answered. In fact, most of the questions that we have, are because of lack of clarity of these two. If we get the answers to these two questions, we only have to act. Process of self-exploration Self-exploration involves the process of verification of the proposals by two ways, as depicted in the following figure. 1. The first part of self-exploration is to verify the proposal on the basis of our natural acceptance. Once we have verified that a proposal is naturally acceptable to us, we are sure that it is something which we would like to live with. 2. The second part is experiential validation. It implies to try to live according to the proposal. In living, there are two parts. a) The behaviour with other human beings. If behaving with other human beings as per the proposal leads to mutual happiness, the proposal is right. b) Working with rest of the Nature. If working with rest of the nature, on the basis of the proposal leads to mutual prosperity, the proposal is right. When we are able to verify a proposal, both through natural acceptance and through experiential validation, the outcome is “right understanding’. If we are sure that any proposal is not naturally acceptable, then there is no need of going for the experiential validation. (Example: Let us explore the proposal, “the feeling respect is natural in relationship”. We can explore whether feeling of respect is naturally acceptable to you or feeling of disrespect is naturally acceptable to you. The second part is living according to the proposal. That is you have the feeling of respect in you, and now, you are expressing this feeling in your behaviour with the other human being. Let us find out, whether it leads to mutual happiness or not. If it does, the proposal is a right proposal, otherwise it is not.) Natural Acceptance – The basis for Right Understanding Natural acceptance is the innate capacity of every human being to see the intrinsic purpose, to see what is natural, what is right and thereby conclude what is not right. a) Natural acceptance does not change with place and time. b) It does not change with individual and, it is universal. c) It is uncorrupted by likes and dislikes or assumptions or beliefs. d) It is definite and invariant. e) It is part and parcel of every human being. There is a lot of difference between our acceptance and natural acceptance. Acceptance is something we assume to hold good in a given situation. Sometimes, we accept things forcefully in a given situation, even though we do not want to accept. Acceptance comes from our likes and dislikes, assumptions, preconditionings and beliefs. But, natural acceptance comes from within, not affected by our likes and dislikes, etc. For example, if I want to have a sweet, it may look acceptable to have it based on my acceptance (likes and dislikes), but it is not naturally acceptable, if that sweet does not nurture my body. BASIC HUMAN ASPIRATIONS As human beings, we have many aspirations and goals. We go on aspiring for one or the other, once we achieve any goal / aspiration. But, basic aspiration is one which upon fulfilling we do not aspire or desire anything else. There are two basic aspirations as per the natural acceptance for any human being. a) Continuous happiness b) Continuous prosperity Every human being wants to be happy continuously and no one wants to be unhappy even for a moment. Similarly, everyone wants to be prosperous continuously. Happiness: It is the state of being in harmony at all the four levels – individual, family, society and nature/existence. When we are in the state of harmony, we experience no struggle, no contradiction or conflict. We enjoy such a state of being and we wish to have its continuity. On the other hand, when we experience feelings such as failure, disrespect, lack of confidence, being doubtful in ourselves and about others, we cannot feel happy as they are the states of conflict and disharmony. We never want to be in such states and try to change them. Prosperity: It is related to materials things called as ‘physical facility’. Prosperity is the feeling of having more than required physical facility. In order to ascertain prosperity, the most important thing is to quantify the physical facility we require. We can be prosperous only if there is a limit to the need for physical facility. In order to feel prosperous, we need to first decide how much wealth/physical things is needed. Otherwise, it is like trying to fill water in a glass that has no bottom; the glass will never be filled, howsoever, one may try. PART-2 REQUIREMENTS TO FULFIL BASIC ASPIRATIONS The basic aspirations of any human being are being happy and prosperous continuously. Prosperity is related to physical facility. Animals require physical facility like food, water, etc. Once they get the required physical facility, they become comfortable. Similarly, human being also requires physical facility which makes human being comfortable.  For an animal, the comfort through physical facility is necessary and sufficient.  But, for a human being, physical facility is necessary, but relationship is also necessary. Ensuring required physical facility does not make a human being happy and prosperous. Human beings have a natural acceptance to live in relationship with other human beings. We do not want to live in opposition with others. In spite of our willingness to be in relationship with others, we do have conflicts and contradictions in relationship. In order to live in relationship with others, it is essential to have right understanding about relationship. Further, right understanding about oneself and rest of nature is also necessary in order to correctly assess our need for physical facility and the correct method for making it available. Based on the above, it may be concluded that, for fulfilment of human being – physical facility, relationship and right understanding – all the three are necessary. Priority order of the requirements It is clear that all the three things, i.e., right understanding in the self, relationship with human beings and physical facility, are required for the fulfilment of basic aspirations. One cannot be substituted for the other. However, in the present days, the first priority became the physical facility.  When there is no right understanding, we are not able to identify our need for physical facility. As a result, we go on accumulating and we never feel that we have enough. This feeling of not having enough is the feeling of deprivation. When we feel deprived, we do not try to nurture others, but we exploit others to get more and more physical facility. Hence, right understanding about physical facility is more important than physical facility itself.  If we do not have right understanding about the feelings in us, or if we do not ensure right feelings in us, we cannot ensure those feelings in the relationship with others. We cannot share right feelings with others. For example, if we are not happy or harmonious within, we cannot share it in the relationship with others. Hence, right understanding in the self is essential to fulfil relationship with others. Hence, the right priority order of the requirements for basic human aspirations is: 1) Right understanding in the self, 2) Relationship with human beings and 3) Physical facility with rest of nature. Right understanding + Relationship = Mutual happiness and Right understanding + Physical facility = Mutual prosperity  Through right feelings in relationship, based on right understanding, we can ensure mutual happiness – happiness for ourselves and happiness for others.   With right understanding, we can identify the need for physical facility. We can also learn how to produce using a mutually enriching production processes. Once we are able to ensure the availability of more than required physical facility, we have a feeling of prosperity. Human consciousness vs. Animal consciousness The basic aspirations of a human being are being happy and prosperous continuously. They are fulfilled by right understanding, relationship and physical facility in the correct priority order. Any human being working for all the three can be fulfilled. Hence, a human being working for all the three requirements will be in harmony and is said to be living with ‘human consciousness’. Animals lead their life with required physical facility like food, water, shelter, etc. They are in harmony with rest of nature. They are said to be living with ‘animal consciousness’. However, when human beings try to fulfil themselves on the basis of physical facility alone, they tend to be in disharmony within and in disharmony with others. It results in opposition, struggle, war, etc. This is because physical facility is enough for animals, but for human beings, it is not enough. In such cases, human being is said to be living with animal consciousness. 1. Animals living with animal They are in harmony This is fine consciousness 2. Human beings living with They are in harmony This is fine human consciousness 3. Human beings living with They are in disharmony This is the problem animal consciousness HOLISTIC DEVELOPMENT – ROLE OF EDUCATION (Transformation from Animal consciousness to human consciousness) The world at present is largely focused on physical facility as the sole of primary measure of progress and development. Nations measure GDP (Gross Domestic Product) and its growth rate as the key indicators for development. Families and individuals also have a similar notion of their own well-being. They use job position, net-worth, bank balance, house, cars and other physical facility as the indicators of progress, development and success. However, with right understanding, we can clearly indicate holistic development as the transformation of consciousness – from animal consciousness to human consciousness. For this transformation, it is essential to work on all the three – right understanding, fulfilment in relationship and physical facility; in that order of priority. Education-sanskar enables transformation to human consciousness. Education is developing the right understanding (holistic perspective). Sanskar is the commitment, preparation and practice of living with right understanding. This preparation includes learning appropriate skills and technology. Education provides thought leadership and direction to the society through the preparation of individuals. The long-term potential of human education-sanskar is: a) Right understanding in every child – by facilitating the development of right understanding, that leads to human consciousness. b) The capacity to live in relationship – by facilitating the capacity to live with mutual happiness or justice in relationship with other human being. It will ensure harmony in the family; and that harmony will extend to the larger family, and ultimately go up to the world family, leading to an undivided society. c) The capacity to identify the need for physical facility, developing the skills and practice for sustainable production of more than what is required leading to the feeling of prosperity; it will ensure harmonious family order, extending up to universal human order. Thus, the role of education is essentially to facilitate holistic development. i.e., individual transformation to human consciousness, and society transformation to universal human order. Prevailing notions of happiness & prosperity In the current scenario, we are trying to achieve happiness and prosperity by maximizing accumulation and consumption of physical facilities. This is an attempt to achieve happiness through pleasant sensory interactions. The physical facilities are not seen in terms of bodily needs, but as a means of maximizing happiness. We are mistaken our wants for physical facilities. Neither can we hope to achieve continuous happiness through sensory interactions nor can we have prosperity, as it is just trying to fulfil unlimited wants through limited resources. Some of other confusions/notions are listed: a) I will be bored of happiness if I am always happy. b) Happiness and unhappiness go together, they cannot be separated. c) My happiness depends on others. What can I do about it? d) I need to be unhappy to recognize that I am happy. Etc. Most of such notions are true, if we believe excitement is happiness. Similarly, confusions arise when we try to get happiness from i) bodily sensations and ii) favourable feelings from others. The most prevailing notion about the prosperity is that: a wealthy person is prosperous. It is assumed that the richer you are, the more prosperous you are; the more you have accumulated, the more prosperous you are. The major focus in the society today is on accumulation of physical facility, particularly accumulation of money. Due to the wrong notions about the happiness and prosperity we have, our efforts to attain them are causing dangerous consequences at all levels: a) At the level of individual: Rising problems of depression, psychological disorders, suicides, stress, insecurity, psychosomatic diseases, loneliness, etc. b) At the level of family: Breaking of joint families, mistrust, conflict between older and younger generations, insecurity in relationships, divorce, dowry tortures, etc. c) At the level of society: Growing incidences of terrorism, naxalism, communalism, spreading casteism, racial struggle, wars between nations, etc. d) At the level of Nature: Global warming, pollution of air, water, soil, noise, depletion of resources of minerals, deforestations, loss of soil fertility, etc. Need for right understanding (of happiness and prosperity) As long as we live with wrong assumptions, we shall continue to have problems in ourselves, prolems in relationship, will exploit nature, and do not feel happy and prosperous. We can never fulfil our basic aspirations. Hence, it is necessary to explore for the right understanding of happiness and prosperity.  In order to be happy we need to understand about the relationships and see that there are right feelings in them.  Similarly, in order to be prosperous we need to understand the requirements of physical facilities and also harmony in nature.  Basically, we need to have right understanding about ourselves. Today, we can see two kinds of people in the world: 1. Those that do not have physical facility/wealth and feel unhappy and deprived: They can be said materially deficient, unhappy and deprived. 2. Those that have physical facility/wealth and feel unhappy and deprived: They can be said materially affluent, but unhappy and deprived. Both these are the states we don’t want to be in. We all want to move to the category of: 3. Having physical facility and feeling happy and prosperous: They can be said to be materially affluent, happy and prosperous. To ensure that we are of the 3rd category, we need the right understanding. Program to understand and live in Harmony at all levels of living There are many aspects or levels of living for human beings. It is an increasing expanse that starts with ourselves and expands to include things around us: namely, the people we live with on a daily basis i.e., our family, the larger society we live in, the nature we are dependent on, and then everything else, which we can call as existence (existence means all that exists). We are aware of some of these levels and not aware of some others. But, regardless of our awareness, we are in this ‘totality’ and live with this ‘totality’. Hence, we can be happy only when we understand and live in harmony at all the levels of our living. There are four levels of living and neither can we ignore any of them nor should we think of anything else other than these levels. a) Living in myself: We all have desires, thoughts, imaginations, beliefs and choices. This is the first level of our living. Before expressing ourselves in relations, we think, and whatever we receive from others, it again passes through our internal processes. We refer to this as ‘Self’. This inner world co-exists with the body and together we refer to this as a human being. So far, we have ended up assuming things without really investigating into ourselves. We were busy to know about ‘how to live!’. We have to begin ‘knowing’ ourselves and test our beliefs by passing them through our own natural acceptance. b) Living in family: Our family is the first web of relationships for us, and subsequently we live in more relationships that include our siblings, our friends and classmates, teachers and others. These are the people we live with on a daily basis, and we call this ‘family’. How I see myself, decides how I see the other in my relationships. If I can understand myself better and clearer, I am able to see the other clearer and better. This understanding becomes the basis of my relationship with others. In addition, for ensuring harmony in family and society, we need to understand the expectations in human relationships and the process for their fulfilment. c) Living in society: Family is the building block of society. Our family is part of a large group of people we live with, where there are interdependencies about food, clothing,  services, health, education, justice, etc. This is ours society. As we understand ourselves and our relationship with our family members, we also understand the other in society, and are able to fulfil our relationship with them. d) Living in nature/existence: We are on this Earth, with the plants, trees, birds, animals and other humans surrounding us and we live in this large eco-system that we call nature. Regardless of where we are, our village, town or city, is within this eco-system or natural habitat. Our planet is surrounded by a larger system of planetary bodies including moon, sun and the infinite stars and planetary systems that surround us. Our earth co-exists with all that there in the entire existence. When we understand nature, we are able to engage with it in a relationship that leads to mutual fulfilment. ***** Model Questions from Unit-I 1. Define value. How does it differ from skill? Explain with suitable examples. 2. Differentiate between value education and skill education with suitable examples. How are the values and skills complementary? 3. Describe the content and process of value education. 4. Explain the basic guidelines for value education. Also, discuss the important implications of value education. 5. What is self-exploration? Explain process of self-exploration with a neat diagram. Describe content of self-exploration. 6. What do you mean by natural acceptance? Differentiate between acceptance and natural acceptance. 7. What are the basic human aspirations and what are the requirements to fulfill them? Indicate their correct priority. 8. Distinguish between ‘animal consciousness’ and ‘human consciousness’. 9. “Right understanding in relations and in physical facility leads to mutual happiness and prosperity respectively” – Justify with explanation. 10. When do you say that the development is holistic? What is the role of education in it? Explain. 11. What are the basic requirements to fulfill human aspirations? Explain. 12. “Physical facilities are necessary and complete for animals, while they are necessary but not complete for humans.” Comment. 13. Critically examine the prevailing notions of happiness and prosperity in the society. What are the consequences of these notions? 14. Explore the need for right understanding of happiness and prosperity. 15. What is the program to understand and live in harmony at all levels of living. Explain.