Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Unit I, II, III Notes
Unit I, II, III Notes
Unit I, II, III Notes
This is essentially what everyone has been aspiring for, regardless of whether we have
succeeded in achieving it.
The course intends to visualize such a society and proposes a roadmap where one can
ensure a fulfilling life in continuity. Therefore, the harmonious society and its
structures for a fulfilling life are the focus throughout the course.
The course discusses the following five key topics keeping the fulfilling life at the
base:
(i) Human Goals: It is essential to have clarity about human and societal goals before
visualizing a harmonious society. Thus, the following two questions become
crucial to finding a path to move toward the fulfilling life:
• What are real human goals helpful to realizing the basic aspirations in
continuity?
• What are societal goals helpful in realizing human goals, or where do we want
to be as a society and societal system?
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Therefore, one of the course's objectives is to give us clarity about goals to ensure
human society and order.
(ii) The systems and dimensions: After finding the goals, it is crucial to visualize
social systems and dimensions which help achieve individual and societal goals.
Therefore, the course will discuss various systems and dimensions necessary for
realizing human goals.
(iii) Critical Analysis: The next step is to critically analyze the present state of society
in the light of the visualized goals and the system & dimensions. There is a need
to appreciate things already going toward the goals and find out those areas where
work has to be done to move towards the desired goals. Thus, the course will also
help you to critically analyze the present efforts in the light of desired goals.
(iv) Steps for transition: The next objective would be to find transitory steps to move
from the current state to the desired state of society. Therefore, the course will
discuss all the essential steps required to achieve the desired goals.
(v) Case studies: Many efforts in our tradition or past have been made to ensure a
harmonious society. Therefore, we will study some meaningful efforts made to
achieve a harmonious society for a fulfilling life.
As discussed above, society and the social system would be the course's focus.
Therefore, the course is primarily divided into two categories:
The first part of the course includes steps in which we discuss the ways to reach the
point where we want to be as a society. In the second part, we will discuss steps in the
context of the societal system and societal order to achieve a harmonious society.
When we mention the societal system and societal order, it refers to the human-human
relationship, our behavior, and conduct in human-human interaction with fulfilled
living in continuity. Living in complementarity makes the possibility and opportunity
of having an undivided society. In its contrast, we find that, knowingly or
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unknowingly, we have divided society into different segments- based on caste, creed,
race, language, opinions, and so on. There are several grounds on which we have
divided society into different segments. The entire course primarily discusses society
at length - what will be the structure of an undivided society? What will be the nature
of human conduct ensuring complementarity?
When we speak in the context of societal order and societal system, the main issue is
living with human beings harmoniously and living with Nature in an organized way.
Besides this, various issues like education- Sanskar, production, exchange, etc.- must
be addressed and implemented properly.
In other words, we can say that the whole course can be divided into two parts while
going into the details of society and relationships:
1. In the first part, we will discuss human-human relationships in detail. How will
we set the form of relationship while living as an individual? What will be the
basis of human conduct as an individual? What will be the way of fulfilling
relations with everyone in complementarity? In this process, we will also
discuss the conduct and behavior which are identified as human conduct and
human behavior. The absence of these will be identified as inhuman conduct
and inhuman behavior.
2. In the second part, we will elaborate structure of our culture and civilization
being lived collectively. Are our celebrations, rituals, and social customs rightly
embedded in our collective living? This is also an important question. Our
festivals, celebrations, and rituals all exhibit our collective conduct and
behavior in the form of culture and civilization. The kind of ecosystem we are
formulating to live collectively as a culture and societal setup will also be
discussed at length.
Summing up the above, the course talks about (i) What will be the nature of my conduct
and behavior as an individual? (ii) What will be the nature of our conduct and behavior
while living collectively?
A societal system can be observed and analyzed from an individual’s point of view
and from the point of the societal order too. From an individual’s point of view, we
investigate and analyze our participatory role as an individual. The present course
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also opens up the issues like policy, system, and constitution and tries to envisage its
structure and extension. We will elaborately discuss in the context of dimensions like
- education, health, production, exchange, etc. What will be our role as an individual
in this context? What to do? What not to do? Subsequently, as a part of the whole
system, what will be the structure of the constitution, policy, etc.?
Two things are essential to living together collectively in a society – (i) To ensure
happiness and fulfillment within us as an individual and (ii) ensuring it in
complementarity with others. If any of the two is devoid of this fulfillment, the same
will be aspiring for fulfillment.
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This chapter also puts forward a deep understanding of mutual fulfillment in detail.
If the absence of something leads to our unhappiness, we can conclude that it is our
real goal; otherwise, it is not. The brief discussions on the above goals are as follows;
As we studied in UHV-II, a human being is the coexistence of both ' self' and ' body’,
as shown in the below figure 2.
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The needs of the ‘self' and ‘body’ must be fulfilled at the level of the individual. Right
feeling, right thought, and right understanding of self are fundamental requirements
at the level of self. If we look at the body level, health is one of our needs. Thus,
ensuring health in the body is recognized as a personal need. Other than that, ensuring
more than the required physical facility is also the need of the self.
While living as a human, we do try to utilize our body, utilize the physical facilities in
the form of various resources, but we find that we are unknowingly not able to right
utilize our body, physical facilities, and resources. As a matter of continuous need, it
appears that we need to have the ability to properly utilize these facilities. Along with
the proper utilization of physical facilities, we can also make judicious use of our
bodies - this is also necessary. Let's look at it a little more closely, along with the right
utilization of the body, the activities of the self i.e, desire, thought, and expectations
are also necessary to be rightly utilized. Therefore, the ability to use body, mind, and
wealth can be ensured is also an essential goal.
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Subsequently, a human has a significant role and lifelong participation in the family
and society. In other words, genuine participation in family and society is required
from everyone to ensure a harmonious society. It is ultimately a human being who
carries out these responsibilities.
The following goals to ensure a fulfilling life, keeping the above discussion in mind,
are identified at the level of individual:
In other words, the above is the basic aspirations that need to be established within
us as individuals. With that, an individual will be fulfilling within oneself and can also
participate meaningfully in family and society.
In the same way, there is a need to ensure the nine established values within ourselves
at the level of family. Ensuring the right feelings is a fundamental requirement for
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Similarly, as a necessity in the family, we can identify our needs as per our
requirements and ensure eco-friendly and ethical production along with prosperity in
the family. At the family level, we can accurately identify our physical facilities' needs.
Subsequently, through everyone's participation according to one’s ability, production
becomes smooth, and everyone gets adequate physical facilities. Parents, children,
and elderly members meet the required needs in the form of physical facilities and
service (Seva) by living as an organized family,
There is also a need to ensure care and guidance to the next generation - at the family
level. A child is born in the family and spends most of his childhood there. He relies
on his parents and other family members for his care and guidance. This right
upbringing of a child is essential for his physical and mental development in the form
of care and guidance
The fourth need seems to be that all the families can jointly accept the responsibility
for the roles that are to be maintained at the level of society. For example, the system
of education at the village level, the system of justice, etc. is only possible with the
joint participation of the village families.
In the same context, the fifth important thing is to understand that to maintain the
tradition of significant achievements at the family or society level. We can pass on the
family traditions from generation to generation. For example, suppose our family has
earned merit in Ayurveda, in any method of production. In that case, we can accept
the responsibility of preserving it, generation after generation, which is also a
necessity at the family level.
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2. Ability to look after the next generation (in body and mind)
3. Acceptance of expected responsibilities required to fulfill in society, with the
collaboration with other families
4. Preservation of family traditions from generation to generation (related to
meaningful family, societal achievements)
When we look at the level of society, along with the people in a relationship, we also
come in contact with several human beings whom we do not necessarily know. So,
there is also a certain need for the right behavior from each other. Contact refers to
the interaction of many human beings in complementarity while living in society. We
should be able to maintain the right behavior in relationships as well as in day-to-day
contact. At least we can have mutual trust to ensure fearlessness in society.
The next important need at the level of society appears that the effective
implementation of activities required for a smooth running of system should be done.
We will discuss these various system activities later in this course. The development
of a humanistic constitution, policies, methods, and system would be required for
that.
The next need is to create a favorable environment where every family can live with
mutual fulfillment, carry out whatever activities are conducted collectively, and
continue with the inherited traditions in an organized manner.
• Fulfillment in relationships with relatives, friends, and all those who come in
contact (strangers). At least a feeling of trust and an environment of
fearlessness should be maintained at the level of society.
• Fulfillment of collective responsibilities – those responsibilities that are
required for the societal systems to work smoothly and effectively
• Development of a conducive social environment
- So the family can feel assured and be able to participate joyously
- So that the family can live in a self-organized manner while preserving the
family and societal culture
• Development of a humanistic constitution
• Relationship of mutual fulfillment between all (including various countries)
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Similarly, at the level of Nature, there seems to be a need to carry out the process of
mutual enrichment with all units of Nature. Mutual enrichment can not be ensure with
only individual efforts. A coordinated effort at various levels like individual, family,
village, state, nation, and national levels would be required. All these need to be
identified and maintained effectively. For example, if the air has to be conserved on
earth, this effort must be done at the international level itself. Even national-level
efforts cannot ensure this. Few efforts may be ensured at a national level. For
example, the cleaning of Ganga river may be ensured at a national level. If our farm's
soil quality is to be maintained, this effort can be made at the family and village levels.
We can identify all such scales.
At the same time, it needs to be kept in mind that we can ensure the needful
production through cyclic activities we do with the rest of Nature. By recognizing the
law of cyclic nature, it is necessary to ensure the balance of nature and make
production on this basis.
The problems we face today at various levels (individual, family, society, national, and
international) are due to the absence of fulfillment of the above goals. If we fulfill the
above goals at various levels, it will gradually help to reduce the prevalent problems.
It is important to note that the above goals can be achieved with the right conduct in
society and proper system functioning.
Before moving further, it is important to look at society's present state. In the lack of
fulfillment of the above goals, one can easily notice the following ever-increasing
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grievances at the level of individual, family, society, and Nature despite making a lot
of intentionally good efforts;
If we look at a family level, family feuds, hostility, and opposition have become the
common problem due to the lack of feeling of relationship. It can be easily seen that there are
a lot of land disputes, property disputes, and many more at family level. Several issues
obstruct us from living in harmony and happiness with other human-being.
Furthermore, when we look at society's level, theft, murder, and rape incidents are
increasingly seen in society. All these issues are related to the lack of relationships in
society. Wherever people are living in mutual relationships, it is rare to see such
incidents. To say in other words, the absence of a feeling of relationship creates such
incidences. Without a feeling of relationship, we lack a sense of belongingness and
cannot think of living together with mutual happiness and prosperity.
Similarly, if we look at the level of system, corruption has become a major problem
today. Misuse of power, arbitrariness in rules and regulations, favoritism, and
nepotism have become very common arising problems
If we take it forward in this way, the problems related to the relationship are also seen
at the nation's level. Conflicts occur between nations for many reasons, which are
related to relationships. Indulging in unnecessary conflict, we waste a large portion
of our resources. A large part of the resources is exhausted in problems like war.
Similarly, we see such an imbalance of rich and poor due to flaws in the system. Some
people are not able to meet their two meals a day despite working day and night. If a
man cannot live a life of dignity, then there is a flaw in the nation's system. A favorable
system is a system where a normal man has the favorable condition to live; everyone
can see two possibilities - the possibility of living with dignity and fulfilling their
needs.
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Finally, if we observe, in the context of Nature, we face many problems like water
pollution, air pollution, global warming, soil depletion, etc., which we certainly don't
want.
Each one of us can investigate and see if we want to let these problems remain in the
society and societal system. Do we feel happy and fulfilled while living with these
problems? Do we feel good when the other creates the same problem while living with
us?
Identifying the programs to find solutions at a societal level is important. For this, the
sequence of programs also needs to be identified systematically. It also needs to be
understood that for addressing any social issue, it is very important to recognize its
order for two reasons-
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Feelings exist at the root of any expressed behavior in our relationship. Expressing
the right feelings enables us to lead to mutual fulfillment in our relationships. In the
absence of right feelings, we are unable to establish definite conduct. Also, in the
absence of right feelings, we aren’t at peace within, however courteous we are. We are
in discomfort. Thus, we can see that if we aren’t living in a relationship according to
our feelings based on natural acceptance, we are in a problematic state, rather
unhappy. Thoughts and feelings contradictory to our natural acceptance lead to
troublesome situations, called unhappy situations.
1. Right feelings and right thoughts are essential for a mutually fulfilling
relationship.
2. Even if we may not be sure of expressing mutually fulfilling behavior, we first
need to establish the right feelings and thoughts to have synergy within. It leads
to continuous happiness and fulfillment.
Now the next question arises- what are the feelings which are naturally acceptable to
us based on which we can ensure synergy within ourselves? We have already discussed
those feelings in UHV-II. These feelings are trust, respect, affection, care, guidance,
reverence, glory, gratitude, and love. Here we shall revisit them in brief. These nine
feelings are the essential activities to be reaffirmed in the self. Let's have a brief
review of all of them.
TRUST
Trust means to be assured about the intention of the other human being in continuity.
It is normally noticed that I see myself based on intention (natural acceptance) to make
myself and others happy. Consequently, I conclude that I am perfect. On the other
hand, when I evaluate others, I evaluate them based on their competence. Whatever
flaw we observe in others’ behavior, we conclude that it is because of lacking in
intention, assuming other’s competence as intention. If we see ‘intention’ and
‘competence’ separately and evaluate them sincerely, we find we are also incompetent
based on competence exactly as others are. We never doubt ourselves seeing our flaws
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RESPECT
The feeling of respect means the right evaluation in a mutual relationship. Right
evaluation means we evaluate a human being based on ‘self’ and not on ‘body’. When
we evaluate based on self, we evaluate his potential and competence. Based on
potential, we find that the other is similar to us. As I want to be happy and prosperous,
others also want the same. As I want to understand the concept of co-existence and
live by it, others also want the same. The purpose, program, and potential of others
are the same as mine. The others have the same program to live with happiness and
prosperity as mine. The activities of desire, thoughts, and expectations are in
continuity in us and others too, and the potential to understand all of these is
ingrained in every human being.
Hence, we all are the same at the purpose, program, and potential level, as shown in
the figure below.
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With the clarity that the other person is like us in terms of purpose, program, and
potential, we find ourselves either more competent or less competent than others. In
both circumstances, we will be able to evaluate our competence accurately and see
complementarity in relationships. We aspire to learn from others in case of being less
competent. We make an effort to improve upon our competence. With the trust of the
intention of others, when we find others less competent, we try to improve upon the
competence of others too with a feeling of a relationship. Even if we find that the other
has difficulty in understanding because of a lack of competence, we feel responsible
towards him. When the others find that we are trying to help them, they also get
assured of our intention and get along to improve upon their competence. Thus, we
help each other in the process of learning and cooperating.
To conclude, when it comes to human beings, we all are the same at the level of
purpose, program, the potential, based on which I find the other human being similar
to me and accept the other as myself. When it comes to the matter of competence, we
become complementary to each other. It has also been noticed that if we are assured
of the intention of others, we establish trust within ourselves. When we are not
assured of the intention of each other, there is mistrust; knowingly or unknowingly,
we over-evaluate ourselves and under-evaluate others.
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AFFECTION
When I can see that the other has a natural acceptance to make me happy and
prosperous, regardless of my competence, I am assured of the other. With this feeling
of assurance (trust on intention), when I am able to rightly evaluate our competence
(respect), I am able to define my complementarity with the other. In this way, I am
able to accept the other as my relative. Affection is the feeling of acceptance for the
other as one’s relative. Parents generally have a feeling of affection for their children.
The parents are very naturally able to relate to their children, feel concerned for them.
Similarly, children feel related to their parents. This feeling can also be seen between
friends, siblings, between teacher and student, between husband and wife, or any
other relationship. It is a naturally acceptable feeling, and hence desired in every
relationship. The feeling of affection is essential for the fulfilment of any relationship.
Particularly, for children, it is a necessity for their development. The child feels secure
in the early stages of development when it enjoys the affection of its parents. The
parents, though having a hectic schedule, take care of the child, and feel happy and
fulfilled in the process. But one important thing to note is that the feeling of affection
can be there in continuity only if it is based on the feelings of trust and respect. If the
first two feelings are not present in the Self, then the feeling of affection cannot be
not continuous. Lack of affection is seen in the form of opposition or jealousy. Such
things too are observed in relationships. If the feeling of affection is missing or
lacking, then we feel opposed to the other and tend to have a feeling of jealousy. This
can be seen even in very young siblings. For example, if a brother is not able to accept
his younger sister, then he would not have a feeling of affection for her and he may
keep vying for the parents’ full attention. The very feeling of trust is missing, so
respect is also violated. Like this, the boy is jealous of his sister and considers her to
be his competitor. The understanding of trust, the feeling of trust as well as the feeling
of respect, based on understanding of respect, are essential to have the feeling of
affection. If we assume these feelings (rather than understand them), then these
feelings keep getting violated sometime or the other and the relationship keeps
shaking.
So, the feeling of affection comes naturally, out of the feeling of trust and respect. It
is followed by the responsibility and commitment for mutual fulfilment. Can you see
that?
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The acceptance of the relationship and the feelings in the relationship are based on
understanding. They are not based on expectations from the other. So, parents with
right understanding will have the feeling of affection for the child in continuity.
Similarly, affection between any two human beings (between a husband and wife,
between a father and son, a mother and daughter, a brother and sister, a teacher and
student and so on), will be continuous and unconditional; it will not be affected by
the lack of competence of the other only if it is based on right understanding. In
general, there is always the expectation that the other would reciprocate the feelings.
Now you can see that the other would be able to do that only if they have the feeling
in them, not otherwise; and they would have the feeling within only if they have the
right understanding, not otherwise.
s we go on, you will see that we are primarily talking about naturally acceptable
feelings and rarely talking about the feelings that are not naturally acceptable. So,
when you look at these negative emotions, they are the absence of these right
(naturally acceptable) feelings. Opposition and jealousy are indications of the absence
of affection. When we understand naturally acceptable feelings, we have the right
feelings within, so the negative emotions naturally subside. So, the feeling of
acceptance of the other as one as a relative is called affection. With the feeling of
affection, one naturally takes the responsibility for mutual development – both at the
level of Self as well as at the level of body.
In this way, identification of trust and respect ensures the feeling of affection within.
We can see that when we have a feeling of affection then the responsibility and
commitment comes naturally. This starts reflecting in terms of the feeling of care and
guidance. They are the natural outcomes of the feeling of affection. It can be seen in
terms of
If I have this feeling of responsibility, what will I do? I would think in terms of
nurturing the Body and protecting the Body. We already discussed what nurturing and
protection of body entails. Let us continue with the example of the parents having the
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feeling of affection for the child and therefore, the responsibility of taking care of the
child – both in terms of body as well as the Self. To care for the child, they nurture
and protect the Body of the child. This can be seen in most parents. Mothers are willing
to do it even if it may cause inconvenience to them. They are seen skipping their own
food for feeding the child on time, or change their complete routine of the day for the
sake of the child. When the child is small, it many a times wets the bed, or even wets
the clothes of the parents. However, the parents take such things as a part of their
responsibility to continue taking care without getting irritated or angry. They nurture
the child regardless of whether the child is able to reciprocate or not, that is to say
their feeling and fulfilment is, in some sense, unconditional. This is something which
is quite common. Mothers particularly can be seen taking care of the child in terms of
nurturing its body, protecting it and so on.
Care is not only expressed to the child. It is also important for elderly, infirm and sick
family members who need assistance to take care of their bodies, who need help to
eat, who need help to keep their body clean and so on.
You can see that in order to fulfil the feeling of care (commitment towards the Body),
physical facility is required. Food, water and other physio-chemical things are
required for nurturing the Body. Similarly, clothes and shelter are required for the
protection of the Body. It may be useful to recall that for the fulfilment of the other
feelings, physical facility has no significant role; at most, it plays a symbolic role.
The feeling of care also makes a difference during the production, protection and right
utilisation of physical facility. These actions are done with happiness, as a part of our
responsibility, when we have the feeling of care; otherwise, they are treated as
drudgery. When the mother is cooking food, with a feeling of care, the work is joyous.
However, when a hotel employee is cooking the food, perhaps with a focus of the pay
check, the work may not be joyous.
Care is the feeling of responsibility and commitment for nurturing and protection
of the Body of my relative.
Now, looking at the feeling of guidance, it has to do with the responsibility towards
the Self of someone we have accepted as a relative. What can be the responsibility
towards the Self? Naturally, to help ensure right understanding and right feeling in
the Self of the other. Once we can see that the other also is co-existence of Self and
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Body, we become responsible towards the Self too. This is also something that we
naturally accept. Are you able to see that:
Guidance is the feeling of responsibility and commitment for ensuring the right
understanding and right feeling in the Self of my relative.
In families, we do try to guide the children to the best of our ability. We can observe
how parents’ guide the child to walk, to speak, to take care of the Body, to do
household chores, etc. Similarly, as the child grows, the domain of guidance also
widens. Sending the child for education, providing advices for betterment of the life,
counselling for a successful life, etc. can be seen in most homes.
Parents and other family members pass on what they know or assume to the children.
If they have the understanding of harmony, and they are living in harmony, they are
able to provide guidance to the children in the true sense. Through it, the children
also understand harmony and live in harmony.
On the other hand, if the parents themselves are not very clear about harmony, about
the co-existence of Self and Body, about right understanding and right feeling, about
difference between physical facility and happiness, etc. Then in place of providing
guidance, the parents’ preconditioning gets passed on to the children. Through that,
the children may develop a mix of right and wrong pre-conditionings.
Guidance is the need of every human being, not just the children in the family.
Now if you can see this difference between the feeling of care and the feeling of
guidance, we can look back and ask ourselves that when we are taking care of the
child, are we taking care of both, care as well as guidance? Or we are largely focusing
on the Body alone?
REVERENCE
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We all aspire for continuous happiness. In that sense, we all aspire for excellence.
Since the revered person has achieved excellence, we would naturally like to take
inspiration from such a person and make effort to become like her/him. We are not
talking about imitating someone’s appearance, mannerisms, achievements and such.
We are pointing to their realisation of harmony within and harmony with the world
outside. Our effort for excellence is called worship. We keep using this word quite
often, but the sense of worship is essentially to make effort for excellence.
We all aspire for continuous happiness. In that sense, we all aspire for excellence.
Since the revered person has achieved excellence, we would naturally like to take
inspiration from such a person and make effort to become like her/him. We are not
talking about imitating someone’s appearance, mannerisms, achievements and such.
We are pointing to their realisation of harmony within and harmony with the world
outside. Our effort for excellence is called worship. We keep using this word quite
often, but the sense of worship is essentially to make effort for excellence.
We all aspire for continuous happiness. In that sense, we all aspire for excellence.
Since the revered person has achieved excellence, we would naturally like to take
inspiration from such a person and make effort to become like her/him. We are not
talking about imitating someone’s appearance, mannerisms, achievements and such.
We are pointing to their realisation of harmony within and harmony with the world
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outside. Our effort for excellence is called worship. We keep using this word quite
often, but the sense of worship is essentially to make effort for excellence.
You can find out if this definition of excellence and reverence is naturally acceptable
to you or not. Also find out if worship means making effort for excellence by taking
inspiration from the revered person, or it means just handing over your responsibility
to the revered!
GLORY
Glory is the feeling of acceptance for those who have made effort for
excellence.
We have a feeling of glory for people who have made effort or are making effort for
excellence. So, for all those people whom we call great people, we accept them as great
people because they invested themselves to achieve excellence. When we can accept
the effort made by them, to whatever extent they are able to achieve it, we naturally
have a feeling of glory for them. We want to have this feeling for our family elders and
teachers too. We have a natural expectation from them that they would make sincere
efforts for right understanding and right living.
GRATITUDE
Gratitude is the feeling of acceptance for those who have made the effort for
my excellence.
It is the feeling for all those who have helped me, in any way, in my own effort to
achieve excellence. In our life, there may be so many people who have been of help to
us in the process of understanding harmony and living in harmony. So, we have this
feeling of gratitude for them. Particularly in the family, we can see such people. We
can see that the parents and others have affectionately brought us up, provided us
with necessary physical facility to nurture and protect our body.
You may be remembering your parents and elders – they have cared for you and
arranged to send you to school and college, provided the necessary physical facility
and helped you to utilize it in your effort for excellence. We can also see what the
other has done in terms of fulfilling the need of the Self, i.e. to help us in developing
right understanding and right feeling. For that our feeling of gratitude continues for
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a very long time. You must be remembering the guidance received from your mother,
father and some of your teachers. Like that, there may be so many people outside the
family too who are involved in the process of your development. You may have a
feeling of gratitude for them too.
If you think in terms of continuity of the feeling of gratitude, it has to do more with
the efforts made by the other for your understanding and feeling. When you look at
the continuity, it is only possible at the level of Self. What the other can do for the Self
is to help in facilitating the development of right understanding and right feeling. This
has the continuity. Therefore, the possibility of continuity of the feeling of gratitude
is there for effort made at the level of the Self.
LOVE
Ultimately all of us want to reach here. It starts with a feeling of being related to the
other human being. It starts with accepting the other human being, with his complete
possibility (natural acceptance, intention) and present competence. It slowly expands
to the feeling of being related to all human beings and then to all, each and every unit
in nature – human being as well as all other units in nature. This is how it progresses.
That is the meaning of love: the feeling of being related to all – human being as well
as all other units in nature.
The feeling of love is expressed in the form of kindness, beneficence and compassion.
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• Kindness is to provide a resource that the other needs but for which he does
not have the competence – the other could be in need of some physical facility
or fulfilment in relationship or right understanding.
• Beneficence is to provide something that the other requires, but has not felt the
need for it. For example, he may require right understanding, but may not have
felt the need for it. With the base of the feeling of love and out of the feeling of
beneficience, one may help him to develop right understanding.
• Beneficence is to provide something that the other requires, but has not felt the
need for it. For example, he may require right understanding, but may not have
felt the need for it. With the base of the feeling of love and out of the feeling of
beneficience, one may help him to develop right understanding.
The feeling of love is for all but it is expressed for those who come in contact. This
is interesting. When you talk about the feeling of love, it is not just within the
family, within the friends’ circle, rather it is for all – those with whom you are in
immediate contact as well as those with whom you are not in contact. So that
feeling is there but the expression of the feeling will take place as and when you
come in contact with the other person. Ultimately, we all want to reach this state,
to have the feeling of love, to feel related to every human being and every unit in
nature. That is the complete value.
We can see that when we realize this feeling of love within us, we can express and
share it with others. It is the feeling of love which paves the way for an undivided
society.
Presently, we do not feel related to everyone due to the absence of the feeling of
love. Consequently, we are bound to live an undivided society.
“Established” means to ensure these values are in continuation through the right
understanding. These feelings are self-induced and are the basis of our
happiness/fulfillment, and are the sources of continuation of happiness.
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lack of expressed values. In this chapter, we shall discuss each of the expressed values
one by one.
COMPLEMENTARINESS
On the other hand, if we have doubt instead of trust, we waste our time and energy in
opposition. Being in a relationship is manifested in the feeling of cooperation during
work and behavior. When we live with feelings of cooperation, we proceed towards an
undivided society.
TRANSPARENCY
COMMITMENT
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On the contrary, when we don’t commit, even the small responsibilities we take, it
appears to be a burden. We keep track of and keep comparing what I have done for
the other and what the other has done for me. We keep reinforcing the feeling that I
am doing more than the other, I am better than the other.
GENEROSITY
Generosity is the expressed value of care. We feel responsible for taking care of the
relative. Thus, we are committed and make an effort to ensure the physical facilities
(physio-chemical things) or services required for nurturing and protection of the body
of the relative. This is generosity.
Making the physical facility and service available from my side, without expecting
anything in return, is generosity.
By way of this feeling, we can make required physical facilities and services available
as and when required for each other (for children, for elderly people). In this way, we
can fulfill our responsibilities towards the previous and next generation
SPONTANEITY
Spontaneity is the expressed value of guidance. In the process of sharing and ensuring
the right understanding in the other’s self, we can see that the others primarily see
our conduct, our behavior, our living first, and evaluate our words much later. So, if
we want to communicate something to the other, it is essential to have the right
understanding and live with the right feelings and right thoughts.
Living with the feeling of guidance, there is a natural outcome as expressed by the
value of spontaneity. We don’t harbor the egoist attitude, “I know this, you don’t know
this.” Rather we take it as our responsibility, to help the other to learn. To understand
this is a state of spontaneity.
We can express our guidance, and the other can accept it when we can speak from the
same level as that of the other.
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WORSHIP
Worship is the expressed value of reverence. When we can see excellence in the other
(i.e the other has the right understanding and lives with the right feeling, right
thought), and we can see that the other is fulfilled within, then we are inspired to work
for that excellence, to live with fulfillment within. To be proactive for learning -
understanding, to make effort for excellence is called worship.
Thus, worship is a readiness to take help to develop the right understanding; which
starts with imitating, following, and then progresses to obedience, discipline and
finally being self-disciplined and self-organized.
EASE
Ease is the expressed value of glory. We have seen that glory is the feeling of
acceptance for those who have made or are making an effort for excellence. The
feeling of comparison that “I am more/better than the other” gives rise to ego and
pride. This makes us uncomfortable within.
When we see excellence, to whatever extent, in the other, we tend to take inspiration
from the other, rather than trying to compare and compete with the other. In such a
case, our pride, our ego get annihilated- we feel more comfortable within.
SOFTNESS
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ONENESS (NON-DIFFERENTIATION)
Oneness is the expressed value of love. It has to do with the feeling of “no other”, we
are one. In other words, “all are our own, all are interconnected, interdependent”,
there is no differentiation. Oneness is the expression of the feeling of love. With the
feeling of oneness, there is no boundary of “mine -not mine’’. Presently, there are so
many boundaries and divisions based on race, language, skin, color, sect, etc. With
the feeling of oneness, these mental boundaries drop off naturally.
Love and oneness are the basis of undivided society. The feeling of love and thought
of oneness are essential for being able to see oneself connected to all (every human
being and every unit in existence). One significant observation is that our living is
with a limited set of people. When we have the feeling of love and oneness, we can
fulfill our duty and obligations with this set of people, while having the right feelings
for others.
The base for expressed value its established value. The expression of the nine
established values is in the form of these nine expressed values – living with these 18
values leads to continuity of fulfillment in the relationship. When these 9 established
values are expressed through the expressed values, the feelings reach the other in the
relationship. This is the meaning of expressed values.
Problems, complaints in relationships are due to the absence of any of these 18 values.
The expressed values connect the established values in one with the established
values in the other.
1 JUSTICE IN RELATIONSHIP
1.1 JUSTICE
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relationship. To continue with this is only human behavior. In this state, we can ensure
mutual fulfillment.
To expand it a bit:
One has to gain competence to live with justice in the relationships in continuity.
When the recognition, fulfillment and evaluation are right from my side, I feel happy.
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When the other is able to evaluate the expression of my feeling rightly, then (s)he also
feels happy. Developing this competence may take time.
Thus, mutual happiness may sometimes result instantly and sometimes may take
some time when one of the persons is yet to gain competence. But if neither of the
two is competent, justice will not occur. If one is preconditioned or trying to draw
happiness through sensation, neither will he be able to ensure happiness for himself
in continuity nor the other. If we do not recognize the right feelings or start with the
wrong ones, it leads to many relationship problems. Therefore, it is necessary to
evaluate the feelings in mutual interaction rightly.
Suppose I come to your home and start communicating. I, in myself, can see the
established values like the feelings of trust, respect, etc., and may think of expressing
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my feelings with definite thoughts. With definite thoughts, I select proper language,
facial expression, gestures and body posture to express myself. Now, I am happy
because of selecting definite feelings and thoughts. Now, you start interpreting my
facial expression, gestures or body posture. Some feelings get triggered in you based
on your interpretation. If you interpret the expressions as respect, you feel
comfortable. Otherwise, you feel uncomfortable. That is how the feelings happen in
us. Now, we will try to understand the process of mutual happiness in interaction with
the help of the diagram given below.
I start with the right understanding of the human-human relationship. With the right
understanding, I select feelings that are naturally acceptable to me. With the selected
feeling, I think of fulfilling it with the right expressions. While doing this, I evaluate
my behavior. If the right understanding governs my feelings, thoughts and behavior,
it gives me happiness. Now, you select my behavior based on your taste and start
evaluating your feelings. If you evaluate your feelings on the basis of Natural
Acceptance, it ensures happiness in you. In this manner, mutual happiness gets
ensured in interaction. If both of us are competent enough to evaluate our feelings,
the interaction leads to mutual happiness i.e. justice. Otherwise, it creates a lot of
problems in interaction.
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UNDIVIDED SOCIETY
Find out whether you have natural acceptance for justice within the family? Check in
how many relationships within your family you are able to ensure justice from your
side. Remember, the mark of justice is mutual happiness.
We need to see each human being with the feeling of being related to all to ensure an
undivided society. At the level of society, realizing an undivided society is a matter
of significance.
Looking back, we see that knowledge in the self is the basis of the right feelings and
right thoughts in the self. Being resolved and expressing these feelings and thoughts
in complementarity is a big achievement for the entire human race as a just and
equitable society.
Our language, body language, facial expressions, gestures, and postures are all very
important and play vital roles in the expression of our behavior. When we express
ourselves through words and statements - it is language. The style, tone, and pitch in
our language communicate our feelings. The expression of our eyes and face is known
as facial expression. Body postures have to do with the expression through our body
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in a certain manner for expressing something specific. For example - Folding hands
(Namaste), shaking hands, and hugging are body postures. Similarly, gestures also
have a significant role in communication. To express through the body in a certain
position is also called pose. For example, some feelings and thoughts are expressed
through dancing to convey a certain meaning. Language, pose, gesture, and posture
in certain ways are strongly used in dance and music to convey the theme effectively.
When we see the complete process, we find that the right understanding in each
human being, based on the right feelings and right thoughts ensures definite conduct
in each human being. It develops the capacity to gradually evaluate the behavior lived
in complementarity, leading to mutually fulfilling relationships.
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there is affection in its background. Again trust and respect are in the
background of the feeling of affection.
Trust, respect, and affection are constantly there as base values in these three
relationships. Expressing the values of affection, care, and guidance helps us live with
our children and students in relationships.
In other words, we can say that we have feelings of reverence, glory, and gratitude at
the base for excellent people. That means the cooperation received from others
ensures the prominence of these three values - reverence, glory, and gratitude. While
assisting others, we find the priority of the feeling of care and guidance along with
the feeling of trust, respect, and affection. At a minimum level, trust is the foundation
value required in every contact, relationship, and human being.
Relations like parents, grandparents, and uncle-aunt, from both paternal and
maternal sides, will come in parent-child relationships. As elders, they take it
as a responsibility to nurture and protect their children's bodies and develop
the right feelings and thoughts in the self. It can also be noticed that nurturing,
protection, and developing the right understanding in the children can be done
efficiently based on the feeling of care and guidance. With the feeling of care
established within, the nurturing-protection of the children goes well, whereas
developing the right understanding in the children becomes possible with the
feeling of guidance. Children have the feeling of gratitude towards their parents
for the cooperation availed through them. Feeling gratitude means recognizing
the cooperation from elders and the emergence of the same feeling based on
natural acceptance. Children always have a relationship with their elders with
the feeling of gratitude. The more they observe the elders working for their
excellence, the more they feel the glory towards them. They feel proud of them
and aspire to achieve excellence under their guidance. Based on this, the feeling
of reverence emerges. Thus, gratitude, glory, and reverence commonly exist in
the relation of son and daughter with their parents and parents like elders.
Living with these values, children can carry on the duties expected by their
parents.
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Relationship of Friends
In this relationship, we live like siblings and strive for mutual development.
The only difference is that siblings belong to the same family while friends
belong to different families. The peak of the relationship between friends is
being able to live like siblings. The indicator of a friend-friend relationship is
that we feel the friend's problems as our problems and make efforts to solve
them just as we would have done for our problems.
Husband-Wife Relationship
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The third responsibility is the body's production for the next generation if
required, nurturing and protection along with ensuring the right understanding
in the next generation. In this relationship, there are the base feelings like trust,
respect, and affection. We have enough scope to live in harmony at all levels
through the relationship of husband and wife.
The feeling of trust, respect, and affection in the guide is necessary towards
their colleagues. At the same time, feelings of reverence and glory are very
essential in the colleague. The guide is solely responsible for planning a
program for the colleague's development and chalking out the steps to execute
it. The colleague recognizes his responsibility as a part of the program and
helps to fulfill it. There are various roles to be fulfilled, which the colleague
recognizes and fulfills with commitment.
Societal Relationship
This relation can be seen between the service provider and the service recipient.
Generally, a person in any organization makes policies to ensure proper
functioning. Those policies are followed by the rest of the people in the
organization. As a service provider, it is of utmost desirable to shoulder that
responsibility sincerely and treat every member of the organization with justice
and equality while continuing this responsibility. Justice refers to seeing
everyone the same at the level of purpose, program, and potential. And If we
discriminate against people based on favor and opposition, we misuse our
position.
The main role of a service provider is to with the feeling of justice and help
others to live in organized ways by facilitating a conducive environment to live
in relationships and harmony. For this, the service provider must have clarity
of the existential order (particularly society).
It is necessary for the service recipient also to live according to the norms
established by the service provider. The feeling of affection plays an important
role between the service provider and the service recipient. In the absence of
the feeling of affection, there is the possibility of exploitation. Thus, it develops
the feeling of opposition to each other.
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We meet many people in society who come across in our life whom we happen
to meet on the bus, train, or on the road and are not from any of these seven
relationships. In these contacts, trust plays an important role. Along with this,
if we have the feeling of respect and affection, then to some extent, we can be
of help to others. For example, while crossing a road, if someone has met an
accident, it is a natural feeling to help that person in need. Many times we also
share food while traveling by train. In these contacts also, we carry on the
feelings of cooperation at the most amidst all kinds of circumstances. The
feeling of trust in any kind of relationship is very much essential because doubt
and mistrust will not help us to be happy for a moment. Having maintained the
feeling of trust, we can be of help to others in any kind of situation according
to their need and circumstances.
Here we have only given the list of established values to be expressed in various
kinds of relationships. Certainly, these established values are expressed with
courtesy.
In the previous chapters, we discussed various relations from the UHV perspective.
However, in our tradition, many visionaries have told the importance of various
relationships to living fulfilling lives. This chapter discusses the relationships from a
Buddha’s view. The view of Buddha is mentioned in Sigalovada Sutta1. It is a tradition
in which the role and responsibility of different relationships have been discussed in
detail. Following his ways would ensure kindness and mutual support in society.
SIGALOVADA SUTTA
Buddha, in the Singalovada Sutta, recommends very important moral virtues and
codes of discipline which are essential for a happy and trouble-free life. Basically, this
Sutta talks about 20 dhamma factors.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sig%C4%81lov%C4%81da_Sutta
1
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In the first three (1 – 3), he describes fourteen evil ways a householder should avoid.
The Buddha enumerates these evil ways to be avoided as:
In the last point (4), he taught how a noble one (Pali: ariya) should worship the Six
directions as mentioned in the below figure.
2
Note that these are the first four of the Five Precepts. The fifth precept (abstaining from the
use of liquor, spirits or intoxicants causing heedlessness) is mentioned later in the sutta.
3
Soon after the initial verse identifying the four defilements, the four defilements are reiterated
with "sexual misconduct" (kamesu micchacaro) being replaced by the more specific evil action
of "adultery" (paradaragamananceva ).
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A young man named Sigala used to worship the six cardinal points of the heavens —
east, south, west, north, nadir and zenith — in obeying and observing the last advice
given to him by his dying father. The Buddha told the young man that in the ariyassa
vinaye, noble discipline of his teaching, the six directions were different. According
to his ‘noble discipline,’ the six directions were: east: parents; south: teachers; west:
wife and children; north: friends, relatives and neighbors; nadir: servants, workers
and employees; zenith: religious men 4.
‘One should worship these six directions’, said the Buddha. Here the
word namasseyya, worship, is very significant, for one worships something sacred,
4
The Six Duties (speakingtree.in)
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something worthy of honour and respect. These six family and social groups
mentioned above are treated in Buddhism as sacred, worthy of respect and worship.
But how is one to ‘worship’ them? The Buddha says that one could ‘worship’ them
only by performing one’s duties towards them. These duties are explained in his
discourse to Sigala.
Parents are sacred to their children. The Buddha says: Brahmati matapitaro,
‘parents are called Brahma’. The term ‘Brahma’ denotes the highest and most sacred
conception in Indian thought, and in it the Buddha includes parents. So in good
Buddhist families at the present time, children literally ‘worship’ their parents every
day, morning and evening. They have to perform certain duties towards their parents
according to the ‘noble discipline’: they should look after their parents in their old
age; should do whatever they have to do on their behalf; should maintain the honour
of the family and continue the family tradition; should protect the wealth earned by
their parents; and perform their funeral rites after their death. Parents, in their turn,
have certain responsibilities towards their children: they should keep their children
away from evil courses; should engage them in good and profitable activities; should
give them a good education; should marry them into good families; and should hand
over the property to them in due course. ??
The relation between teacher and pupil: A pupil should respect and be obedient to
his teacher; should attend to his needs if any; should study earnestly. And the teacher,
in turn, should train and shape his pupil properly; should teach him well; should
introduce him to his friends; and try to procure him security or employment when his
education is over.
The relation between husband and wife: Love between husband and wife is
considered almost religious or sacred. It is called sadara-Brahmacariya, sacred
family life. Here, too, the significance of the term ‘Brahma’ should be noted: the
highest respect is given to this relationship. Wives and husbands should be faithful,
respectful and devoted to each other, and have certain duties towards each other. The
husband should always honour his wife and never be wanting in respect to her; he
should love her and be faithful to her; should secure her position and comfort, and
should please her by presenting her with clothing and jewellery.
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The fact that the Buddha did not forget to mention even such a thing as the gifts a
husband should make to his wife, shows how understanding and sympathetic were
his humane feelings towards ordinary human emotions. The wife, in her turn, should
supervise and look after household affairs; should entertain guests, visitors, friends,
relatives and employees; should love and be faithful to her husband; should protect
his earnings; should be clever and energetic in all activities.
The relation between friends, relatives and neighbours: They should be hospitable
and charitable to one another; should speak pleasantly and agreeably; should work
for each other’s welfare; should be on equal terms with one another; should not
quarrel among themselves;should help each other in need; should not forsake each
other in need; and should not forsake each other in difficulty.
The relation between master and servant: The master or the employer has several
obligations towards his servant or his employee: work should be assigned according
to ability and capacity; adequate wages should be paid; medical needs should be
provided; occasional donations or bonuses should be granted. The servant or
employee, in his turn, should be diligent and not lazy; honest and obedient and not
cheat his master; he should be earnest in his work. ??
The relation between the religious and the laity: Lay people should look after the
material needs of the religious with love and respect; the religious with a loving heart
should impart knowledge and learning to the laity and lead them along the good path
away from evil.
Following the above will lead us toward an undivided society where people would be
living with mutual happiness.
This chapter discusses the Eightfold Path (Ashtanga Marg) given by Buddha.
Traditionally, the ashtanga way is one of the prominent ways to live in an organized
way at an individual level. Out of many paths that lead us to the human goal is,
ultimately, the goals which we identified at an individual level - as of right
understanding in the self, right feeling and right thought in the self, right action, and
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right behavior. Ashtanga means - with eight limbs. These are the Noble Eightfold
paths, which we will discuss in this chapter.
EIGHTFOLD PATH
The first important step of the ashtanga marg is samyak Drishti. The word ‘Samyak’
means - right. ‘Drishti ‘refers to the point of view. It is explicit that before
objectifying/aiming at anything, we need to evaluate first. If we find anything useful
for ourselves, we accept it as a goal. Similarly, if we realize that ensuring the right
understanding and feelings is important for us, these become our goals. The more we
progress towards understanding, the more we can see the realities. As a result, the
ability to evaluate circumstances gets better. It is an iterative process till we reach up
to complete understanding.
In other words, our vision has to be at least clear enough to make the right evaluation
for recognizing our goal. We should be competent enough to recognize the things that
lead to happiness and remain a source of continuous happiness. It is also equally
important to know the sources of unhappiness. In the present situation, very often we
try to derive happiness from things that are a source of unhappiness. For example-
exploiting the others and assuming that it will lead to happiness, assuming to be
prosperous through corruption and thievery, and to be in the state of hatred and
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jealousy. We can see that for such desires/ expectations (which are not aligned with
reality)- we are unhappy when we are thinking about it; We are unhappy while doing
it and we are also unhappy with the result. This can be easily verified in one’s life.
Complete alignment of our view/ vision with reality is knowledge.
The right view is meant for seeing happiness as happiness and unhappiness as
unhappiness. This philosophy's most important aspect is understanding the sources
of happiness and unhappiness. Once it is identified, we try to tread on the path despite
all the pre-conditioned obstacles. At least, we strive to go ahead. For example- we even
take hard medicines because of their medicinal values. Right vision (Samyak Drishti)
is the first step to be ascertained because we can never be fulfilled in the absence of
the goal determined by the right vision. Thus, the sources of happiness and
unhappiness are the fundamental reality to be known as the stepping stone of the
Ashtanga Marg.
After correctly identifying our aspirations, we must have the right resolve to take up
essential activities responsibly. Right resolve means clarity in thoughts as per right
knowledge. Our external expression in living is first decided within. If we are unable
to take up a resolution to pursue our basic aspirations and make wrong decisions, we
deviate from the path for a longer period. For example, we set an alarm to get up early
in the morning, but whether we get up or not when the alarm goes off depends on our
resolve. In the absence of the right resolve, we are unable to wake up.
If we have made the right decision for harmony aligned to reality, our external
expression is right and mutually fulfilling. Our decisions govern our work, behavior,
and livelihood. Right resolution is the basis of the right decisions, leading to a
harmonious life. Right resolve refers to all those decisions which we intend to express
or execute in a mutually fulfilling relationship.
After this, the third step is the right speech, ‘Samyak Vachan’. Right Speech is the
most significant part of our behavior. Right speech means a speech based on the right
resolve based and right view (knowledge). Today, in the absence of right speech, many
unethical practices like being untruthful, using harsh language, criticism, gossip, and
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fruitless conversation create unhappy situations. Thus, it is necessary that our speech
is right and our expressions are appealing as a part of the right speech.
The fourth step, along with the Right View, Right Speech, and Right Resolve, is right
action (samyak karma). Right action means the actions should be based on right
resolution and right view. In other words, we can say that our actions should be
aligned with the reality. Actions may be at a mental or physical level. We can also say
that our behavior should ensure mutual happiness, work should ensure mutual
prosperity, and overall our actions should ensure participation in the larger order.
These actions are named as Karma. ‘Karmant’ means the final part of an action, which
determines the expression of behavior. But before the expression of behavior, we
make decisions in thoughts, known as mental action. Mental action is the root cause
of physical action. Karmant highlights that the rest of the action is over, and now
physical action will take place.
The fifth part of this Ashtanga Marg is the right livelihood (Samyak jeevika). Along
with the behavior, our production process also needs to be corrected for the right
livelihood (Samyak Aajeevika). The methods which we are identifying as the source of
income to fulfill the needs of the family must be with the right means in the right
direction. In other words, we can say that the right livelihood would ensure the
following:
(a) Justice with other human beings involved in the livelihood process and
(b) Cyclic and mutually enriching processes while interacting with the rest of Nature.
In a nutshell, we can say that the right livelihood would be human-friendly, i.e., there
will not be exploitation of other human beings, and eco-friendly, i.e., there will not be
exploitation of Nature.
When we decide to get our livelihood through the right means (samyak karmant), our
Sanskar may not be aligned initially. For that, we need to put efforts from both ends-
one is to learn the right skills and right livelihoods; the other is to correct or get rid
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of the Sanskars, which are opposite to right living. Therefore, there would be a need
to cleanse/purify one's Sanskars which aren't in harmony. This effort has been
identified as the right labor (samyak vyayam). Vyayam means to work, to toil, and it
is necessary to invest ourselves in this to reinforce the right Sanskars in the form of
right speech and right behavior.
The next step is to have continuous awareness of oneself. Here, awareness does not
mean remembering the things in memory. It means constantly observant of oneself
and conscious of the self's activities. In such a conscious state, we are always
observant to our goals and try to organize all our activities in an organized way.
Now the next question is - “Is this the result, or is there something more to achieve?”
Ultimately, we want to understand, to see everything as it is with clarity, without
distortion. The steps discussed so far are not the final achievement- they are just the
steps. The goal or final achievement is realization, knowledge/wisdom.
The achievement of the first seven steps of this Ashtanga Marg is to ensure the right
behavior, right speech, and right livelihood in one’s life. If we follow the steps, we
start participating in the social order. By and large, we become responsible, self-
restrained, and self-organized, and expected participation in society is also fulfilled.
With these achievements, working in the Self for knowledge and understanding is the
way to samadhi. The final stage of samadhi is realization.
While working on the eighth step, we see that the more we focus within, the more our
vision gets clarity and the level of wisdom increasingly manifests. With the clarity of
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the vision, we can ensure the first seven steps with more accuracy and preciseness.
This also helps us to identify our goals to the point and realize them in totality. Thus,
these eight steps are connected within a cyclic process and are complementary.
All these eight steps have been briefly identified as the Noble Eightfold path. They
are identified as wisdom/knowledge, (Jnana, Pragya), moral values(sheel), meditation
(samadhi). The first two steps are named knowledge/wisdom, the next three are
known as moral values, and the last three are known as meditation. Moral values refer
to mutual fulfillment through the right speech, right action, and right livelihood.
Knowledge refers to knowing the realities. Finally, meditation is constantly striving to
achieve the goal through complete awareness. In the light of wisdom, our vision gets
all clear and helps us to see the realities as it is.
FORMULATION 2:
2.1 YAM
The practice of non-violence means not to cause trouble/harm to any living being. In
general, it has been identified at three levels -
Among these, the level of speech is more subtle than the physical level, and the mental
level is more subtle than the verbal level. The minimum scale to live in non-violence
practice is that we should not give any kind of pain to others. If we place it positively,
the message goes to live affectionately with all. At the minimum scale, it is named as
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non-violence; The highest possibility is named affection/love. When we are not violent
at the level of speech and body, non-violent behavior is also ensured. Continuity of
affectionate behavior is the outcome of a non-violent mental state. Ensuring non-
violence at a mental level ensures a mutually fulfilling relationship with another
human being. On the other hand, it helps us to organize our thoughts and work for
society.
2.1.2 Truthfulness
Truthfulness (सत्य) - The second principle under Yama has been recognized as
truthfulness. Here, truth means to be able to express the reality or event as it is,
without giving any color to it. Different people express their understanding of reality
in varying ways, and their descriptions of events may also vary. The important point
is to understand their intention of understanding the truth rather than sticking on
their ways.
In a true sense, we can live by these five yamas (Ensuring harmony in the relationship)
only to the extent we have understood/seen the reality as it is. There can be continuity
of the conduct of Yama on this basis. During the study, we can live sincerely according
to the level of our understanding. We can follow the conduct of Yama accurately as
the level of our understanding increases.
2.1.3 Non-stealing
Non-stealing (Asteya) is the third principle after non-violence and truthfulness. Asteya
means not to steal. To say the same in another language, claiming ownership of things
belonging to others, and taking away things of others are stealing. The absence of
such tendencies within one’s Self is called non-stealing. In other words, we can say
that using only things one has produced or earned through kind behavior and work is
non-stealing.
2.1.4 Chastity
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2.1.5 Non-Possession
The tendency of possessiveness begins when we start assuming other’s things as our
own. Non-possession is about not accumulating unessential things. When we do not
accumulate unnecessary things, the things are available for use in society for
everyone. We can develop the mindset of non-possession only when we have
developed the tendency for right utilization and sharing, which remains after right
utilization.
These five principles are related to each other. If we follow any of these sincerely, the
need to follow the rest becomes a natural process. The principle of non-violence has
been recognized as the most prominent of these five. If the principle of non-violence
is established within us, the other principles are followed spontaneously. These five
(Non-violence, Truthfulness, Non-stealing, Chastity, Non-possessiveness) are also
called Anuvrats or vows of limited nature. ‘Anu’ means small and limited, ‘Vrat’ means
right choice; Making a choice for doing the right thing, and commitment and eagerness
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to do it. When we follow these vows in certain places, certain times, and with some
people, it is called anuvrat. Maha means big - When we follow these vows at all places,
at all times, and with all people, it is called mahavrat. When we are ready to follow it
in every country, with every person, in every age, it is recognized as Mahavrat or as a
universal oath/pledge. The ultimate goal is that we can live like this with every person
in every country, at every age with the universal pledge of mahavrata. This is the
ultimate place to reach. But, if it is not possible, we can live with these principles at
least with some people, in some countries, at some time.
The first five of these ten Yamas are the prominent ones. If we look at their expansion,
these ten principles have been identified as Yama in different places. Living by these
principles in complementarity, our whole interaction is organized.
2.2 NIYAM
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2.2.1 Purity
Purity - The first principle of the Niyama is purity. This purity is at the level of the
body and also at the level of the mind. Purity at the level of the body is associated
with cleanliness. Purity at the level of mind is being free from mental ailments or
ensuring the right mental qualities. We can observe that impurities at the level of the
body are the cause of health problems as well as unhappiness. Impurities at the mind's
level also have adverse effects on our body.
2.2.2 Contentment
2.2.3 Self-Discipline
Self-Discipline (tapa) - The third Niyama has been identified as self-discipline (tapa).
Self-discipline means practicing the realities and living in harmony in one's own right.
The environment does not influence one, living with self-discipline. We live the way
we want to live (in harmony, in a mutually fulfilling way), not in any arbitrary way. In
the absence of self-discipline, the environment influences us – and we get pulled and
pushed into it – at the level of mind, body, and speech. We get attracted toward
favorable sensations, knowingly or unknowingly, without self-discipline.
2.2.4 Self-Reflection
These are helpful for self-introspection and self-reflection of our feelings, thoughts,
and behavior to get an idea about how much is in harmony and how much is otherwise
within.
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Contemplation on the true self means contemplation of God (Ishwar). Ishwar means
a symbol of the most expanded humanity with humane qualities and humane conduct.
It is not important whether Ishvar exists or not; what is significant is whether we can
contemplate that feeling and thought or not.
Our feelings and thoughts become aligned with the realities when we contemplate
continuously. The continuous contemplation of humane qualities helps us establish
our feelings and thoughts. It slowly transforms our feelings and thoughts in tune with
that form, representing those qualities.
FOMULATION 3:
2.3 OVERVIEW
Wealth (Artha), Wishes (Kama), Clarity of natural law (Dharma), and Liberation
(Moksha) are identified as collective human goals. Artha refers to the means that are
helpful in achieving the goal. Personally, freedom from liberation/disillusionment is
the goal of human beings. Collectively, the undivided human society and the
universal order are our goals. All the things used to get them are means (Artha). Wealth
(Artha) generally means facilities, physico-chemical goods – which are available to us
from the rest of Nature.
Similarly, the human body is also wealth for the self. It is helpful in achieving the goal.
Apart from this, a human being also invests his Mana, i.e. his self-activities for
achieving the goal. In this form, self, body, and wealth (Physicochemical things) are
our wealth (Artha); We have recognized these as wealth (Artha). Living as a human
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being means self and body are available to us. Therefore, one of the goals of human
beings, living collectively, is to ensure the physico-chemical facilities (wealth) which
are necessary for meeting our needs. Human’s second goal is to fulfill his desires,
needs (which is in the sense of harmony). Wishes (Kaam) refer to one’s desires.
Utilizing facilities to meet our personal, family, and social needs means fulfilling
desires.
In the same way, ensuring Clarity of natural law (Dharma) is to understand the law of
Nature holistically and live according to the laws. Dharma has been identified as the
law/rule of Nature, whose observance ensures the happiness of all human being,
which is human innateness. That is, the essential laws of happiness of every human
being have been recognised as Dharma. For the self-organisation of society, it is
necessary to have a solution to fulfil the goal of happiness for all. Therefore, Dharma
is to ensure the laws in a society which are supportive in the sense of happiness of all
human being.
It is necessary to understand now that lawful living is to understand the laws of Nature
(natural laws) accurately to live with mutual fulfillment with nature, to understand
necessary laws (social laws) to fulfil social relationship and to understand laws
(intellectual laws) to ensure harmony in all activities of self and live accordingly. That
is, by living according to intellectual laws, our activities of the self are self-organised;
our living (behaviour) with other human beings gets selforganised by following social
laws and by the production through the natural process, through natural laws, we can
fulfil the need of our facilities. Therefore, when we try to ensure the wealth and
desires with Dharma, then we take care of Nature properly; we take care of other’s
need and help them while ensuring our needs. Therefore, when we produce wealth
with Dharma, humankind can fulfill their needs and enrich and preserve the rest of
Nature. In the same way, when we ensure wealth and desires with Dharma, our own
desire is fulfilled; at the same time, the desire of others is also fulfilled in mutuality.
Therefore, ensuring desires with Dharma is ‘Let live and live’; where we fulfil our
needs and also take care of other’s need. By living this way, we are able to achieve the
social goal of undivided human society and universal order.
On the other hand, when we ensure wealth and desires without Dharma; then the effort
to ensure wealth turns into profit-maximisation, accumulation/exploitation. When we
go to fulfil our desires without Dharma, the same desires turn into consumption /
intense-consumption / unlimited consumption for ourselves and the exploitation and
domination of others in society. This is madness for consumption and sensual
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pleasures. Also, to live like this, we also exploit Nature, which causes pollution. In this
way, to ensure wealth and desires with Dharma is necessary from the perspective of
self-organisation in family, society, orderliness and Nature.
Following Dharma, that is, by ensuring the wealth and desires with Dharma, it is also
important for all human beings to become illusion-free, to find the all-encompassing
solution. This goal has also been identified as salvation. Salvation means liberation;
that is, being free from all kinds of illusions. It is an effort of every human being and
to make a conducive environment for that, various social systems are active to provide
compatibility, opportunity, means, encouragement and protection. Therefore, wealth,
desires and Dharma are means for achieving the ultimate goal of liberation. The goal
of wealth, desires and Dharma has been identified in order to ensure the goal of
liberation (salvation) universally. Therefore, the Dharma that we have identified as
laws, whether correct or not, is decided on whether following those laws lead us to an
all-encompassing solution. In a nutshell, making efforts for salvation while ensuring
wealth and desires with Dharma is a path of excellence.
2.4 NON-ACCUMULATION
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and Animal Order. The more facilities we accumulate with us, the more our
natural resources are exploited. Therefore, by living with non-accumulation, we
do not become an unnecessary burden on natural assets/resources instead, the
rate at which they are produced, we use them in the same proportion.
(b) The other advantage of living with non-accumulation is that facilities are
available for the common people in the society because all the facilities we
collect are not available for use for others. In other words, society is deprived
of those resources and facilities. So even from today’s perspective, it is
necessary to have facilities in the society for the economy to run smoothly. If
we store or hold those facilities, then people do not get facilities for use, and
the lack of physical facilities is felt artificially.
2.5 AFFECTION(Sneh)
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day we start focusing on the fulfillment of our needs only, it becomes difficult to live
with others. Similarly, if we look for feelings from others only in a relationship, it
becomes difficult to live without complaint in the relationship. Hence, it is necessary
to have the feeling of affection to be established in any kind of relationship.
With such balanced thought and living, we can self-study and practice for
understanding reality correctly, ensuring knowledge in ourselves, develop ourselves,
sharpen our talent, and its achievement is knowledge (vidya). Knowledge refers to
seeing reality as it is. We get rid of all kinds of illusions based on this knowledge; We
can see realities in their natural form. Presently, we mix our incorrect perspective,
knowingly or unknowingly, while looking at the realities and evaluate the object on
that basis. On this matter, we had talked about how our perspective affects our
perception. Hence, knowledge means real knowledge of reality; by understanding /
seeing the reality as it is. We evaluate each object correctly when the activities of the
self runs on such understanding. In the absence of this, we keep under evaluating or
over evaluating the things. Over-valuation of things means evaluating more than its
importance and purpose. Otherwise-evaluation / under-evaluation refers to the
evaluation less or no use than its importance. We are able to see and understand the
realities correctly while living with non-accumulation and affection. That is
knowledge.
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2.7 SIMPLICITY
2.8 FEARLESSNESS
In combination of knowledge and simplicity, we can see the realities as it is; That is,
we can see Existence as coexistence and, on the basis of simplicity, our life can be
self-organized, that is, we express coexistence in our living also. On this basis, we do
not see any cause of fear or problems because Existence is visible to us as coexistence,
and the possibility of such co-existential living is visible to us every moment. Thus,
based on ensuring both knowledge and simplicity, we have a complete lack of fear,
and a continuous trust for coexistence remains in us. This is what fearlessness
implies. In the absence of fearlessness, we suffer from many kinds of fear. In general,
these fears are of four types – fear of (loss of) life, fear of (loss of) post, fear of (loss
of) fame & recognition, fear of (loss of) wealth. The fear of getting the body destroyed
or decomposed is called fear of (loss of) life (prana bhay). That is, the tendency to
sustain one’s body continuously is recognised in the form of fear of (loss of) life. The
fear of (loss of) post (pad bhay) refers to the wish that the rights that we have got with
some post to live orderly in society should continue with us. Similarly, the fear of
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losing our fame/reputation is termed as fear of (loss of) fame (maan bhay). Similarly,
the fear of losing accumulated wealth/resources is termed as fear of (loss of) wealth
(dhan bhay). Fear of (loss of) life, fear of (loss of) post, fear of (loss of) fame &
recognition, fear of (loss of) wealth – we are generally afflicted with these four types
of fear. Based on the understating reality as it is and living in a self-organised manner
accordingly, it is understood, that life (body), post, fame & recognition, wealth all are
temporary. To accept them as permanent is the cause of crisis; because the loss of
life, disassociation or fall of the post, dissolution of fame/position and wealth – this
is a natural process in Nature. That is, it happens naturally, in a natural manner. The
activity of decomposition of the body remains associated along with the activity of
the formation. Death is inevitable because every unit of Bio-Order is destined to die
and decompose after a certain time. Our body, which is made up of bio-cells like a
tree-plant, animal-body, has to be deformed one day. But the self does not die.
Understanding this, we get free from the fear of losing a life.
3.1 SANSKAR
Sanskar = ‘Acceptances derived out of ∑ [Desire (from all time) + Thought (from all
time) + Expectation (from all time)]’
It is being updated over time. We have some sanskar at one moment t. At the next
moment (t+1), our sanskar can be articulated as:
That is, our sanskar at the next moment (t+1) is a result of our sanskar at the present
moment (t), the environment we are in at the present moment as well as the self-
exploration, self-verification we do at the present moment.
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These acceptances (sanskar) may or may not be in line with our natural acceptance. If
we are doing the self-exploration based on our natural acceptance, sanskar generated
out of this will be harmonious and therefore, our sanskar at the next moment will be
more harmonious than our sanskar now.
Sanskar (mental-acceptance) refers to the acceptance that take place in the self. If we
observe and evaluate ourselves, we can see those acceptances we have accepted in us.
These Sanskars have two basic goals:
With that, various sects have different rituals to transfer their way of thinking or their
worldview to the next generation.
This ceremony reminds the parents (and the extended family) of their responsibility
to make a conducive environment available for the child, starting with the time it is
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in the womb. A family is where a child starts learning everything about feelings,
thoughts, behavior, and work. A conducive environment given by the parents helps
children to improve their Sanskaar. The following are the basic requirements for
parents to provide such an environment for their child:
a) The health of the parents: It is important that parents have healthy bodies to
participate in the child's growth.
b) The conduct of the parents: A child learns many things by imitating their
parents. Thus, the conduct of parents is an important issue. If parents live with
human conduct, the child unconsciously imitates the conduct and learns many
good habits aligned to the realities. Later, parents may help the child to explore
human conduct through the process of self-exploration.
This will prepare an environment for the development of the right Sanskars in the
child
The education ceremony is at the beginning of formal education, reminding one of the
student's roles–to make an effort for the right understanding. The initiation ceremony,
conducted at the end of formal education, draws attention toward the right living
based on the right understanding. The education ceremony draws attention to the
various activities required to develop the right understanding, and the initiation
ceremony towards living based on the right understanding. While in an education
institution, the main focus is on developing the right understanding (more than on
living with the right understanding), though it is a part of the discipline of the
educational institution. After leaving the educational institution, one has to live in
one's right. The understanding and commitment to live with the understanding one
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has developed during education becomes the basis of one’s living. Thus, at this stage,
the initiation ceremony to remind of this commitment to living with understanding
becomes primary.
In this ceremony, attention is drawn toward the various aspects to be kept in mind
while choosing a profession to ensure the family's prosperity. It is important to
remind students about comprehensive human goals so that they may choose the
correct profession in the context of participation in the larger order.
The purpose of this ceremony has three main motives as given below:
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4 CULTURE
Recap
Now we will talk about how the collective Sanskaar in the form of culture and
civilization works.
Sanskaar, Culture, and Civilization are interrelated as shown in the below figure:
Over the ages, various cultures and civilizations have taken shape. At the core of
civilization is its culture. Civilization is the expression of a culture in the form of
behavior. Various means of communication have been used to share our
understanding, feelings, and thoughts, such as language, literature, song, dance,
drama, painting, sculpture, etc. This chapter disucusses culture in detail.
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The key goal of culture is the development of the right Sanskars (mindset) of every
individual and developing the right feeling and thought. The aim of every culture, is
the development of the right Sanskar, the acceptance, the feeling and thought of
everyone.
As discussed in the next section, various types of communications are used to fill the
above goals.
The second part of the culture shows that we collectively do a lot of activities, which
affect our feelings and thoughts. They play a key role in forming our right and wrong
acceptances. For example, a concert, a dance program, a play, a skit, and even a speech
an eminent person gives affect society's thought process, resulting in acceptance.
Such programs have a deep impact on our values. Even If we are not experiencing
them consciously, they keep gathering in our subconscious mind, and later our
behavior starts to get affected on that basis. From the perspective of understanding,
this part of culture is divided into three types -
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Verbal and Audio-visual Communication today are both live as well as recorded. E.g.
Radio and TV programs are generally live and recorded/ replayed, whereas movies are
generally recorded/ replayed.
Live - This has to be synchronous, i.e. the performance and the audience must be
present simultaneously. With the ability to transmit in real-time, the performance and
audience need not be in the same place
Equipment and instruments required for this purpose are necessary to ensure this. Of
course, we need to develop the necessary science and technology for this purpose at
the background
• Newspapers, magazines
• Literature, books (printed)
• Internet
In communication and publication, the language, words have primacy.
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In audio-visual (multimedia) communication, the ears, as well as the eyes, are used –
to hear the words and to see the form. In multimedia communication, other senses
may also be involved. In all these, there are some overlaps.
These are the three platforms, which play a major role in the progress or deterioration
of our culture. If we could settle the spirit of humanity in the mindset of people, the
collective Sanskar gets finer, the sentiment can be upright. If instead, it promotes
inhumanity, then the collective Sanskar gets deteriorated.
In other words, it can be said that these three modes of sharing play a major role in
our Sanskar – for good or for worse.
The feeling and thought are dependent on the state of Sanskar. One important
observation is that for an impression to be made on the Sanskar, the communication,
and publication, to begin with, must be pleasing to the senses. So, if the content of
these is related to justice, harmony and co-existence and if is served pleasantly, in a
manner pleasing to the senses, then the impressions can be made for developing
human Sanskars.
In social media also, the portion of the written part is publication; Whatever the videos
are, they are performances, only where the audio is, it is publicity. If we look at the
video, it has both audio and video - it is a performance.
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Literature and library also have an important place in terms of publication. Literature
is also written in the form of prose, verse, or mixed form. There are many styles of
writing, even if seen in prose, such as essays, stories, drama, etc. The poems are
literature, which can be recited by singing with interest. Ramayana, Mahabharata,
Ramcharitmanas, Rashmi-Rathi, etc are compositions of the poetic style. These
different styles have their uniqueness.
Culture has an important place in terms of establishing the mindset of people through
right Sanskar. It ensures the feelings of relationship, the mindset of right utilization
of things. For this, the cultural presentation should be interesting and presentable so
that it appeals to the common people.
All types of festivals we celebrate in society - are part of the culture. They reflect our
food, clothes, mannerism, thinking, and ways of living. We will talk about this in some
detail under the discussion of civilization.
CIVILIZATION
All collective habits like lifestyle, food routine, clothing, architecture, etc., come
under civilization. In other words, by observing a commutative lifestyle, you may
sense the civilization whether it is close to reality. For example, if you see today’s
civilization , it is primarily based on a mateiral perspective. In this civilization, people
are isolated from each other due to their societal structure, house structure, job
structure, etc. If civilization is based on understanding realities, people will be close
to each other and feel inter-related. For example, if production is done in the family,
behavior and interactions become natural. However, suppose the production system
design is such that family members have to go to different places for work, then, the
separate time has to be found for behavior and interaction. Similarly, the design of
homes may be conducive to interactions or maybe otherwise, where the possibility of
opportunity is less. So, one civilization may be family-based – with families involved
together in production. Their homes may be designed to promote interaction and
common living. Another civilization may be individual-based – with individuals
involved in production in different places. Also, their homes may be designed for
individualistic or private living.
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A civilization is vibrant and dynamic rather than very rigid. There are multiple ways
of expressing all that we have discussed in culture, including all the festivals and
traditions. All outside inputs leave an impression on our thoughts and actions. For
example, when we watch a movie or documentary, it impacts our thoughts. Further, it
may also affect our behavior – we may start speaking like the protagonist, get a pair
of jeans like our favorite character was shown wearing, and so on. So, if the inputs are
predominantly about indulgence, it impacts us; if the inputs are about living
meaningfully, that also impacts us.
Of course, all that we discussed at the level of culture in the previous chapter affects
individual mannerism, culture, and civilization. Family is the foundation place where
the child learns all these in everyday living. Children have great learning exposures at
family functions and social functions. Family functions include small functions such
as a family gathering, wedding ceremony, and birthday ceremony, as much as a part
of the culture. Many of them can also be seen as festivals, done at the family level.
Social functions mostly take place in a large areas like Durga Puja, Deepawali, Eid, and
Christmas. In the context, customs should be placed in the way that continues from
generation to generation progressing towards civilization. Some customs provide
guidelines to the mannerism of the individual and civilization provides guidelines to
social mannerism.
At last, culture and civilization appear closely interconnected to each other. While the
people express themselves as they are (as per their Sanskar), their Sanskar is also
influenced by their behavior. With the changed mindset, the individual draws some
conclusions for his living model/behavioral part. We store something within us based
on the review and evaluation of all that we do, resulting in modifying our Sanskar. In
this way, both culture and civilization are very much related to each other.
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Sanskars and behavior become very important wherever there is individual freedom.
Culture and civilization become important where one has to live in collectivity.
Culture and civilization determine the collective thoughts and behaviors of a society.
The Collective thought process guides how each individual is to be, or not to be. It is
also felt that this should be left as a part of culture and civilization.
All of us want to get rid of our problems whether they exist at the level of individual,
family, society, or Nature. There may be two possible approaches : (i) Problem Centric
Approach (PCA) and (ii) Solution Centric Approach (SCA) while critically analyzing the
present state or finding possible solutions to the existing problems. In PCA, we focus
only on the problems and try to get rid of only its solution while ignoring its
interconnectedness with the rest. With this approach, we solve one problem but are
stuck in another problem. For example, air pollution has now become a prevalent
problem in metro cities. The problem is related to our worldview, lifestyles of the
civilization, and social structures. Thus, it can not be solved in isolation. Now if we
see this problem individually, we may try to stay away from the pollution by moving
to another city or we may start using an air purifier in our house or office. Now
creating and purchasing a purifier by a large number of people may create various
other problems such as purchasing a purifier may become a burden (financially) for
an individual and a burden on Nature in terms of physical resources and so on.
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However, in SCA we see the problems from a holistic perspective where we focus on
the solutions and try to evaluate the problems in the absence of solutions.
Generally, we try PCA to solve the problems. In this approach, we try to find the
solutions while keeping problems at the base. There are two major difficulties with
this approach-
a. We tend to focus on problems and get worried about them which has a
lot of implications at the individual (both psychological and material) and
social levels. Any amount of worry will not bring the solution. We must
look for possible solutions and work on them; only then, we can
overcome the problem.
b. We take individual problems and try to solve them in isolation; while
many problems may be caused by some single source, or these problems
may be interrelated.
In SCA, we generally try to understand how we can ensure a fulfilling life for ourselves
and all and then work for such a living (i.e. what is called a solution) in our day-to-day
life. This approach helps us to see our role as human beings to ensure a fulfilling life
with human beings and the rest of Nature. Then, we can try to live like this and verify
for ourselves that this does lead to a state of fulfillment for oneself and the other,
ultimately for everyone. This is the state of a complete solution where a holistic
perspective is required. In the light of the perspective, we do not try to solve the
problems in isolation and try to look in the light of overall solutions and solve them
accordingly. However, if urgent, we may give priority to working on an individual
solution to solve an individual problem
It is clear from the above discussion that the prevailing approach today is the first
one (Problem Centric Approach); however, we propose taking the second one (Solution
Centric Approach) as this seems to be working in the long run.
Keeping the SCA at the base, we have tried to develop a holistic perspective of human
existence in the previous chapters. We have been able to identify our goals at all four
levels of our living where we have focused on the human-human relationship
(Chapters 3-14). Identification of relationship, its acceptance, ensuring the natural
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feelings in oneself and its fulfillment with others leads to mutual fulfillment. This
provides the basis for a human society in which trust, respect, and affection are
ensured for every human being. In the absence of fulfillment in relationships, we have
all kinds of problems showing up in society. Now, in the light of this, we can make a
critical analysis of the present-day situation in terms of whether this mutual
fulfillment in relationships is ensured at different levels (individual, family, and
society) or not.
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We can critically review the current state of society in the context of fulfilling human
goals as discussed in chapter 2. Let’s review what's happening today in the
advertisement. The advertisement is presented in the form of a proposal, but how
many times a proposal must be made and what is the proposal to be given, is a matter
of concern? What do we want as an outcome?
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Advertisement mostly works to generate the need for the products to use in place of
showing their utility. Frequently shown advertisements in the sense of generating
need, many a time make us believe that we require those commodities, and we need
to go for these products. Looking at the same in terms of physical facilities we need
to check whether we are promoting a sense of indulgence or right utilization.
Similarly, looking at behavioral aspects we need to check whether we are promoting
justice or injustice, exploitation or suppression.
The mindset of indulgence and right utilization can be seen in the context of right
behavior. It should be further placed as the proper intake of food, and proper
regulation of the body in the sense of general health and well-being. Nowadays, we
have made the timings of our cultural celebrations in such a way that they are
hampering our physical and mental health.
If we want to transit from the current state to the desired state, ensuring fulfillment
in relationships is a must. Fulfilling relationships can only be ensured if a person has
the right understanding and the right feeling. Thus, to work for ensuring the right
understanding and right feeling in an individual is a fundamental step for this
transition.
War has become a big international problem today. A large fraction of world resources
(more than 50% in many countries) is spent in preparation for these wars. If we look
closely, this is the problem of lack of relationship. A country is not able to see its
relationship with the other country. Therefore, one or both are eager to exploit or
defeat each other to prove their superiority. It must be obvious to both parties that
war is a loss for both of them, but they are not able to stop it because they are not
able to see that there exists a better path of relationship and cooperation which will
be beneficial for both of them.
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The same holds for us also. We are busy fighting with our neighbors. We have created
a wall around our family and consider those within the family as our relatives and the
rest all as outsiders or rather as opponents. That’s why many times we are ready to
do anything for those family members, and we do not even hesitate to exploit others
for the benefit of our family members. All these are happening because we are not
able to see the relationship with others. The same is happening at all the levels i.e.,
between villages, districts, states, etc.
Terrorism also has the same root i.e., lack of relationships. We treat one particular
group of people like our own and the rest all as others. As soon as this differentiation
of “my own and the others” come in, Human-Human relationships get neglected. We
are ready to do anything for our people, at the cost of harming or even killing others.
Even if we see things from our perspective, today we all want to move forward leaving
others behind. We have made it an indicator of our progress. We do not think in terms
of combined progress because we are not able to see other people as our relatives.
Most of the time, we are doing so to get respect from society. We have not understood
that a feeling of respect is not a thing just to get from the outside rather it needs to
be established in oneself. If we understand the true meaning of relationships and
these feelings, we will get rid of this mindset of individual progress through cut-throat
competition. We will rather think of cooperation, of how we can participate in society
for the wellbeing of all, and how a harmonious society can be developed.
Analyzing the current problems, we can conclude that not being able to see two human
beings as relatives is the core problem. Today, we have defined the human-human
relationship in terms of sects, religion, sex, color, and so on. Constraining the
universal human-human relation within these boundaries is the root cause of most of
these major problems. We may keep trying to find out the solution to these problems
by imposing hard rules and regulations in society, but till the feeling of relationship
is not ensured, there can never be a permanent solution through this process of
imposition of rules and regulations. Keeping this in mind, we have devoted half of the
course to understanding the relationship, the feelings in these relationships, and
understanding how we can ensure these feelings in our behavior and conduct. If these
things are ensured, most of the problems we are seeing in human-human interactions
will be naturally solved. Now, there is a big question what can we do today?
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Even though there may be a very large number of problems in the current state, the
scope for improvement is always there. Amid all these huge problems, we can always
contribute to finding the solution at our level, at the level of family, and at the level
of society.
Civilization is all about the contemporary lifestyle and so, lifestyle is a part of
civilization. It is necessary to understand the point of view as to which points need to
be analyzed. Whatever aspects of life have been discussed in the previous chapters,
they all need to be reviewed in the present state. For example, we studied various
Sanskaar (mental impressions) in chapter 12, we need to review all Sanskaars and
observe their state today. We need to analyze what the purpose of life is and what do
we think about it? We also need to discuss what our purpose is behind every endeavor.
Each person should have maximum physical facilities or each person should have the
feeling of prosperity. What should be the focus of our culture and civilization? Is it
focused on the growth of some or all the people? Does it focus on the well-being of
every human being or some people? This question must be raised so that there would
be a specific design keeping in view the well-being of human beings collectively as a
whole, not in fractions. The course talks about collective well-being and not individual
well-being, and this is a big change in mindset which needs to be understood. If there
is any conflict between personal interest and collective interest, then which one will
be prioritized?
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Even if the family makes up its mind, a lot can be done at the level of the family. A
detailed discussion of the participation of family is done in chapter 2.
If the village makes up its mind, the transition can take place on a larger scale. At least
a village can provide a conducive environment for ensuring the right understanding
and right feeling in an individual which would be a fundamental step for this
transition.
Certain things that each one of us can do, to ensure this is-
●Everyone can devote some time (2-3 hours) for self-study and practice (of
relationship and harmony) as this is the prime requirement to ensure the right
understanding and right feeling in the self.
●Everyone has the scope to ensure justice while living with other human beings, at
least from their side, starting from family and going to a higher level.
Looking at the structure of an organized society, a family is the smallest unit; village,
district, and states are intermediate units; and country & the world are the largest
units. The minimum place to participate in the family and maximum expansion is up
to the world family is available to each one of us. If we can ensure organization and
harmony even at the level of family, a significant part of the problems can be resolved
up to the societal level.
Each individual has enough scope to participate, starting from family to world family
order. Somehow, each individual is interconnected with all the levels and participates
knowingly or unknowingly. For example, a person sitting on a higher post in any
organization can participate a lot keeping the human goals at the center. At least each
one of us can devote ourselves to self-study and practice which is important to ensure
the right understanding and feelings. Every one of us can practice ensuring justice
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within the family, with neighbors, etc. Each one of us can also devote a few hours in
a week, month, or year to societal development.
It is often reminded of major problems in our life that are associated with the family
and the workplace. Nowadays the problem of the neighbor is no longer bothered in
metro cities. The reason for the misery we see in ourselves is still seen outside, much
later, it is understood that our values and sanskaras are the reason for our sorrow. If
there is a harmonious base of family and society, then it is easier to understand this.
Harmonious relationships at least among all the members of a family can be ensured
in each family. Family celebrations and gatherings can be used as an opportunity to
increase the level of mutual understanding, which will help to improve the state of
relationships among members.
Different Sanskar ceremonies can be used to impart the right Sanskars to the
individual. We have taken many examples of such activities while dealing with
Sanskars in chapter 12. For example, the birthday can be celebrated so that the event
can be used to evaluate the current state of Sanskars of the individual; to see where
the person ultimately wants to reach, what can be the right path to follow to reach the
destination, and how other members can help that particular individual in this
journey.
We should think of the steps which can be taken during the transitional phase. All
sanskaras can be evaluated and guided at the level of the family. Designing of our
houses, food habits, lifestyle, everything can be corrected at the level of the family.
The nature of the festivities that are being celebrated at the family level can be also
redefined, which can be quite relaxing.
Existing culture and civilization give direction to the behavior and conduct of
individuals, people, and families. Most people follow what is established as a norm in
society at present. If competition is the established norm, they will go for competition
but, if cooperation will be the established norm, they will go for cooperation. The
issue of show-off should be replaced by simplicity and should be promoted in the
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right term. The people with simple living should be appreciated and some people
should set the example of simplicity. This brings confidence to society and then
people continue that.
In this, there is a matter of giving confidence to the man, this whole shift is like this.
At the surface level, most people do that way only. They still do a lot of things under
the pressure of society. If they are conditioned to do the right thing, the transition
will take place. Sati Pratha and child marriage stopped like this only.
We can talk so much about what we can do at the individual level and family level.
What we can do at the workplace, and what we can do at the societal level. A lot can
happen at the individual level as well, our mindset should be at least in the context of
human culture and human behavior. Our values and samskaras can be upright which
are in our hands, and others will be able to appreciate it and follow them.
There is still great respect for knowledge and right conduct in a section of families
but at times, its percentage is very low, in decimal. Simplicity should be glamorized
through advertisement, performance, and publication in place of indulgence.
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CONSTITUTION
EIGHT-DIMENSIONAL SYSTEM
In this section, we will talk about the eight-dimensional system to fulfill human goals.
The following eight dimensions are proposed to ensure human order for a harmonious
society:
1. Education
2. Health
3. Justice
4. Production, Service
5. Exchange, Distribution
6. Right Utilisation
7. Preservation
8. System Service
We shall now briefly discuss the above eight dimensions to get a comprehensive vision
of social order.
When we go to see education, the person's understanding is the focus point. The effort
to make that understanding is put into the dimension of education. Education plays
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an important role in ensuring human order. Education builds the ability, the
competence for the right understanding, right thought, and right behavior in every
person. It enables one to behave properly with another human being and work with
mutual fulfillment with the rest of nature and thereby contributing to the human order
or system. The role of Education- Sanskar can be well defined by each of us through
proper understanding.
Dimension of Health
Dimension of Health - The achievement of this dimension can be seen in terms of the
health of the human body. When this dimension is functioning well, people lead a life
that is conducive to good health. A human being is the coexistence of the Self and the
Body. The satisfaction in ‘Self’ is ensured by the dimension of education whereas the
health of the body is taken care of by the dimension of health. When these two
dimensions of education & health are ensured, every individual can live as a human
being and live with mutual fulfillment.
Dimension of Justice
When a human being with a healthy self and healthy body can ensure fulfillment in
relationships with other human beings, justice is ensured. Justice is ensuring
recognition of relationships among human beings, and their fulfillment through
values leading to mutual happiness. The practice of comprehensively abiding by this
is known as the system of Justice. When Justice is ensured, trust and fearlessness are
established within interpersonal relations and systems. Therefore, we talk about
education and health first, then talk about justice. If both the health of the mind and
the body are ensured, then we will be able to ensure justice.
Production ensures the physical facility required for the fulfillment of our physical
needs. What we obtain as an outcome of labor on the rest of nature is known as
Production. In addition, we notice that certain activities do not produce anything but
are concerned with protection/maintenance. (Washing of clothes is one such activity
where there is no production but preservation/maintenance of existing items). Repair-
Maintenance of such kind is not directly associated with the manufacture of any item
but with the protection/maintenance of existing items, because along with
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Neither we can produce every item that we use nor we can perform every kind of
service that we need. We can produce only some of the items. All other items are
produced by others. Through the exchange, all such items and services are made
available to us as per our needs.
The most important thing about the dimension of right utilization is that the need for
physical facilities cannot be identified without the right utilization because if we don’t
know the right utilization it cannot be decided how much physical facility is required.
We need to make the program how to make proper utilization of physical facilities in
the dimension of right utilization. We need to elaborate on how to utilize rightly, the
things that we have obtained by production or exchange. Physical facilities are
produced only from natural resources and the rest of Nature. Right utilization is the
first part of prosperity. It helps in identifying the needs, eventually helping in taking
care of the rest of Nature.
Dimension of Preservation
Dimension of Service
The service part, which is known as the system service, will be elaborated in this
dimension. Performing various functions i.e. organizing a festival in the community
where people come, meet, share, and enjoy are very important even though no
physical production is targeted.
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The above was a brief discussion on each dimension required for a harmonious social
structure to live a fulfilling life. Whereas, laws (basic guidelines) and their proper
implementation led to the achievement of the system.
Dimension of education
1. Education
2. Health
3. Justice
4. Production, Service
5. Exchange, Distribution
6. Right Utilisation
7. Preservation
8. System Service
GOAL OF EDUCATION
The goal of education is to facilitate the process of developing those abilities in the
individual which are essential for ensuring human society and order. Needless to
mention that education is the most important domain to initiate a transition in this
direction. The first and the most important aspect of education will be to inculcate
the holistic vision or the holistic worldview through the right understanding. Then, it
will be necessary to aim at developing among human beings, the competence to live
following such an understanding. The next important need from the education system
will be to provide the requisite knowledge and skills to evolve and adopt a holistic
way of living. Accordingly, the salient guidelines in this respect are given below:
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The purpose of education is to develop human beings who can realize all the above
goals. To impart such education the following points need to be considered:
• Contents of Education
• Significance of the current subjects
• Recognition of traditional efforts in education
• Role of Infrastructure
• Listening and learning mindset
• Indicators of understanding
CONTENTS OF EDUCATION
Before providing education, there is a need to recognize the right contents helpful to
everyone to achieve the human goals for living in a mutually fulfilling manner in
society. The followings are proposed to ensure such education:
• Education should provide the clarity of human goals and the right program to
achieve them in continuity. It should give clarity about the self with its
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If we investigate the contents of the current education system, many subjects are
taught to students. Let’s understand the placements of those subjects in the context
of human goals.
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• When we study humans, we aim at the B1 block (Refer to the figure given below)
which is the base for Philosophy and religion. B2 block relates to Psychology.
When the B1 block is merged with the B2 block, there will be an emergence of
policies in politics, economy, and religion. Every policy in an ideal situation will
be rightful according to natural laws, known as Dharma. Same natural laws form
the basis of right utilization depending on human psychology.
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• Based on the universal religion, philosophy, and psychology, we all will participate
in the larger order which will help in making the undivided society. This undivided
society further needs different special branches to deal with societal order. These
will include Political Science, Management, Sociology, Economics, Technology, etc.
These all will work in the sense of participation in societal order.
• If we look at what we call civic science in the true sense, it will be the code of
living in a mutually fulfilling relationship. At present, the existing education on
civics is not worth living with relationships, but it can be made worthwhile after
a critical review.
• Science can also be studied according to the order established in nature. When
Science is to be studied further, it is categorized as bio-order and physical order.
Bio-order is subsequently divided into Botany and Zoology.
• Physical order is studied under the categorization of Physics. Chemistry is also
part of the chemical reactions occurring in physical and bio-order. Thus, whatever
we study in science, it is also a part of the harmony in nature. We just have to be
aware of it and live accordingly.
• If we look at mathematics, it shows that wherever calculations are to be done,
mathematics is necessary. Whether measuring the smallest field or measuring the
biggest distance from the satellite. Wherever calculation is done, mathematics is
required.
• The need for the language is for expression, whether it is Hindi, English, or
Sanskrit. Whatever we want to convey to someone, a medium is needed to reach,
language is needed for that. Living together when human beings started
expressing themselves through language, there was an emergence of society. And
this society gave birth to social sciences. It further extended in the form of
History, civics, geography. Political Science became the sub-branch of civics and
its further extended form gave birth to law. It can be expanded to any extent but
at the root of all these expansions, a basic understanding to live in harmony at
levels is a must.
• If we look at the higher-level courses, it is the sub-branch of some subjects at the
lower level. For example, politics is a sub-branch of civics, but when it comes to
the higher level, it becomes an independent subject. In essence, what is being
pointed out is that when we are teaching a subject, we must ensure that it fulfills
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its purpose, its goal. If we look at the language, we will teach the language, it is
fine, but what we shall teach in it is important. Does it help us in improving our
expression? The same can be seen everywhere. If we can give meaningful content
in it, we can give content based on humanity, then there can be some discussion
about humanism.
With the recognition of the right contents and traditional efforts as discussed above,
there is a need to prepare a proper infrastructure to provide education easily and
effectively. If we look at it, there is a need for school and college buildings. Sufficient
resources for production are needed where the child can learn and can do some
production along with and under the guidance of the teachers. To make the education
system self-sufficient, production is also required. Such a production system would
facilitate a teacher and students both so that they may fulfill their daily needs. In this
way, the teacher and the students can be mutually fulfilling in their relationship. This
will also increase the scope for learning and understanding.
Education is not only about transforming information from one source to the students.
It should help students to see the reality and practice students live in a mutually
fulfilling manner. Therefore, students need to have a mindset of listening and
learning. Sometimes, it becomes very difficult for most of us to listen and learn. But
for a better educational environment in society, it is necessary to have the mindset of
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listening first and then learning. In the past, there was a tradition of transferring
knowledge through oral methods of delivery. In this method, a good listener could
realize his full potential through attentive listening putting all his assumptions aside.
A good listener can easily get rid of all his biases, conflicts, and confusion. It can be
sincerely practiced since one is open to learning. It can be easily observed that when
we listen without any mental barriers, we get transformed to a large extent. The
following barriers are observed in the listening and learning:
• In today’s scenario, we see that our mind is full of conflicting thoughts while
listening and is diverted in many directions. We are flooded with inner reactions
and pent-up feelings even in a single difference of opinion. And further, we lose
our receptivity to listen to someone for a long duration.
• Conflicting thoughts bring unstable thoughts and divert the mind with various
categorical thinking when things go against our assumptions. Thus, it creates a
disturbance in our mental horizon leading to mental unrest, resulting in poor
listening.
• Another difficulty arises when we find that in the process of listening our
attention gets diverted. We start repenting about the diverted state of mind
which becomes a hindrance in further listening and understanding. So, better
we listen and observe our diverted flow of thinking. It shows us two directions
of our thought process and helps us to make comparisons between the two, to
analyze them, and then do the desired action.
INDICATORS OF UNDERSTANDING
It is important to evaluate students coming out from the education. The evaluation
could be done on whether they are able to ensure a fulfilling life. There is a need to
identify how much understanding they have in the sense of proper food habits,
lifestyle, and most importantly, regarding right utilization. Similarly, there is a need
to check up on our pace of understanding through self-investigation and self-
evaluation and we must do this because as we get older, no one else can do it for us.
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