Human Values

Unit-4
* Understanding Harmony in Nature and Existence

Whole existence as Co-existence Understanding the harmony in Nature,Inter

connectedness, and mutual fulfillment among the four orders of nature-
recyclability and self-regulation in nature, Understanding Existence as Co-
existence (Sah-astitva) of mutually interacting units in all pervasive space, Holistic
perception of harmony at all levels of existence.

 Existence -

 What is existence –

 Understanding the knowledge of Self and I...

 To know about astitva...

 knowledge of human conduct ...

 and to know all these with the right understanding is what we call existence.

 Co-existence in Nature – Co-existence in nature means there is a relationship

and complementary among all the entities in nature including human beings. Every

element needs other one.

 Co-existence is a state in which two or more groups are living together while

respecting their differences, giving value to one another, without disturbing one

another's existence and resolving their conflicts non-violently, in mutually

agreeable way.

 Co-existence has been defined in numerous ways:

1. To exist together (in time or space) and to exist in mutual tolerance.

2. To learn to recognize and live with difference.

3. To have a relationship between persons or groups in which none of the parties is

Trying to destroy the other.
 The world is full of Diversity – There are different nations, cultures, religions,

Communities, languages, and beliefs. The beauty of existence can only be

Maximized if everything in this world is in harmony.

Peaceful, symbiotic co-existence is the key to harmony in the world.

 What is Harmony in Nature –

 The self regulation of all the units - bigger or smaller, sentient or insentient

together, dynamic balance between all these units is called harmony.

 Hence we can say that natural harmony refers to maintaining harmony of the

natural order.

 Need of Natural Harmony –

 Natural harmony is necessary to solve the multiple problems of global warming

like - acid rain, depletion of the ozone layer, and reduction of non-renewable

natural resources.

 Harmony with trees and forests is the solution to many problems like energy

saving, reduction of building heat, conservation of soil, drought, and the like.

 Natural harmony is essential to maintain ecological balance.

 Natural harmony ensures the health and well-being of human beings and all
living species on the planet Earth.

 Natural harmony - how you will create it -

 To create harmony in nature, first of all, we have to work in the direction of the
development of mankind from animal consciousness to human consciousness.
And this would be possible only through working for the right understanding.

 To create awareness among people through the inculcation of human values,

conducting seminars, and workshops.

 Laws and punishment against those who disturb harmony as well as declaring
appreciation and awards for those who are eco-friendly.
 Being self-conscious and self-disciplined, self motivated every individual can
maintain harmony in nature.

 Fostering nature may be taken as a hobby. This actually is contagious and seeing

one to serve nature would definitely convince others.

Differentiate between Nature and Space –

(1) Nature is limited while space is unlimited.

(2) Nature is active whereas Space shows no activity.

(3) Nature entities can be energized, while energy in Space is always in

equilibrium.

(4) Example of nature - Four orders-Material, Pranic, Animal, Human order...

Examples of Space- stars, the sky, Milky Way and the like.

 Swatva (Innateness) - Innateness" is defined as originating in or derived from

the mind. It is present in an individual by birth. Innateness is the quality, that can
not be separated from it.

 When we identify our innateness, we realize the difference between - what we

are and what we really want to be.

 Each unit in existence has its Innateness. We refer to Innateness as "dharana".

 Gathansheel, Gathanpoorna, Kriyapurnata, Acharanpurnata –

 Gathansheel - It refers to material units that are transformable and changing.

 Gathanpurna - It refers to the units that are sentient and do not transform. They

are complete in composition. Hence they are ghatnapoorna

 Kriyapurnata - It is the completion of the right understanding of human beings.

 Acharanpurnata - It is the ability to live with complete understanding.

 Difference between Unit and Space -

(1) Unit entities are limited, whereas Space entities are unlimited.
(2) Units are materialistic in nature, whereas Space is conscious in nature.
 (3) Units are active. While Space shows no activity.
(4) Units undergo structural change. Whereas, Space does not undergo structural
change. They are continuous.
(5) Units can be energized, while in space energy is always in equilibrium.
(6) Each unit can recognize and therefore fulfill its relationship with other
members of the unit. Whereas ,in Space everything is transparent, thus they
reflect things.
(7) Examples of unit - four orders of nature.

* Examples of Space - Stars, sky, Milkyway...

*The four orders of Nature -

 All the physical objects that are in solid, liquid, or gas state either living or
nonliving, are collectively termed as nature. In other words, the aggregate of all the
mutually interacting units – big or small, sentient or insentient together can be called
nature. These units are infinite in number and we could easily observe that there exists a
dynamic balance, self-regulation among all these units. There are four orders of nature:

 Material order

 The big land mass of the continents, gigantic water bodies like oceans and seas, and
high mountains and deep rivers, the atmosphere above, the heaps of metals and minerals
below, the dense gases and fossil fuels deep below the surface of the earth – all fall into
the material order or padartha avastha.

 In fact, if we look around beyond the Earth, the material order is visible even in the
form of stars, planets, moons, and several astronomical bodies.

 Pranic order or Plant Order

 Our land mass is covered with grass and small shrubs and they form the lining of the
entire soil.Shrubs, plants, and trees form a huge forest along with the flora in the ocean.
All of this is the plant/bio order or prana avastha and it is the next big order on our
planet.

 Animal order

 Animals and birds, reptiles, all other creatures form the third largest order and we call
them the animal order or jiva avastha.

 Human Order
 Human are the smallest order and they are referred to as human order or gyana
avastha.

 Natural Characteristics (Svabhava of orders )

 Material order

 Material order is made up of small units or particles.

 When these units are collectively gathered into one place, these construct or
compose some creation, when these particles are broken, they decompose. So
material order has natural characteristics of composition and decomposition.

 Plant order

 Plant order has natural characteristics of nurture and worsen.

 If taken something in the limit it will nurture but if taken in excess it will worsen

your body.

 Animal Order:

 The svabhava of the self (‘I’) of the animal order is non-cruelty (akrurata) and
cruelty (krurata).

 For ex.,

 cows may largely be living with a feeling of non-cruelty (akrurata); while

animals like tigers and lions may exhibit cruelty.

 Human order

 svabhava/ value of the self (‘I’) in human beings is perseverance (dhirata),

bravery (virata) and generosity (udarata).

 1. Perseverance (dhirata): Being assured that the all encompassing solution is to

understand and live in harmony at all levels of existence.

 2. Bravery (virata): I am ready to help the other to have the right understanding.

 3. Generosity (udarata): I am ready to invest myself, my body and wealth to help

the other have the right understanding.
* Innateness-

 Innateness means qualities which are innate to the unit. Each unit in existence
exhibits an innateness, an intrinsic quality that cannot be separated from it. We
refer this principle as innateness also called dharna of that unit. This is intrinsic to
the unit

 Material order When we burn coal and it has finished burning and only some ash
is left and smokes have gone out, it is not that the basic material, the fundamental
particles in coal, have ‘cease to exist’ or ‘disappeared’ from existence.

 they may not be visible to the eye at that moment, but they continue to exist,
they still are in the form of other matter or in the form of gases, etc. This is there
with all material units. We cannot destroy matter, we can only convert it from one
form to the other. Thus, “to exist”, or ‘existence’ is intrinsic to all material, it is
innate to it. We cannot separate the ‘existence’ of a thing from the thing itself.

 Plant/bio order

 Pranic order is a development of the material order, it also has the innateness of
‘existence’. In addition, it also exhibits the ‘growth’.

 This principle of ‘growth’ cannot be separated from any units of this order.If it
is of panic order, it will grow. For example, if you have a plant, you cannot stop it
from growing. It will continue to respire and keep changing in this way. The only
way you can stop it from growing is by cutting it, but when you do that, it ceases to
belong to the pranic order, instead decays and then belongs to the material order.
So, as long as you have a plant, it will grow.

 Animal order

 The animal body is a development of the pranic order and therefore this order
inherits the innateness of the previous order namely ‘existence’ and ‘growth’. This
is at the level of the body, which is physico - chemical in nature. In addition, all
units in this order have the ‘will to live’ in ‘I’.

 Indeed no unit in this order can be separated from this ‘will to live’. It is
intrinsic to every unit in this order.
 Human (knowledge) order

 When we look at the human being, we find that ‘existence’ and ‘growth’are
fundamentally present in the body, just as in the animal body. At the level of ‘I’
however, in addition to the ‘will to live’, a human being’s innateness is the ‘will to
live with happiness’.

 What is conformance -

 Each unit conforms through the principle of conformance. it means how the
continuity of the fundamental nature of the unit is preserved.

Order Material order Pranic order Animal order Human order

Things Soil, water, metals, etc. Plants and trees Animals and bHumabeings

Conformance Constitution ConformancSeedconformanceBreedconformanceRight

values / SanskarConformanc

 Material order

 The continuity of the fundamental nature of the material unit is preserved

through the physical and chemical processes.

 Take iron for example.

 Each atom of iron conforms to the constitutional structure of ‘Iron’. There is no

atom of iron that will be unlike the other atom of iron, if it were, we would not call
it iron. We call this ‘constitution conformance’. The material order exhibits
constitution conformance. We can verify this for all things in the material order.
For example, oxygen, nitrogen, other gasses, gold, silver, aluminum ... all of them
conform to and are always according to the constitution of their kind. Hence, we
say that any matter conforms to its constitution or has ‘constitution conformance’.

 Plant/bio order

 A neem seed will always sprout a neem plant. All of us know this. Its fruits,its
leaves, the taste of the leaves, the colour of the leaves, all this information, this
basic information of every neem plant is stored in the seed. Thus, we say the plant
is always as the seed, or we can say, ‘as the seed, thus the plant’. Hence, we say
that a plant conforms to the seed, or has ‘seed conformance’.
 Animal order

 We see that a cow is always like a cow, and a dog is always like a dog. Animals
conform to their bold lineage. How animals are, their behavior, is according to the
lineage they belong to, the lineage they come from. Hence, we say that an animal
conforms to its breed, or has ‘breed conformance’.

 Human (knowledge) order

 We can see that we humans are not according to our lineage or race, as I
animals. We may pick up something from our parents as we grow up, but we are
usually very different in many ways from them. We humans are according to our
imagination; according to our desires, thoughts and selection in ‘I’. the desires,
thoughts and selections we have in ‘I’ can come from anywhere. It can come from
past memories, it can come from our parents, the environment, the media,
anywhere.

 In the case of humans, we can say ‘as the education, so the human’. We are
according to our desires, thoughts, and selections.

 Together, we call this ‘ sanskara’. Hence, we say that a human being conforms
to his or her sanskar or has ‘sanskaar conformance’.

 Interconnectedness and Mutual Fulfillment in Nature -

 What is Mutual Fulfillment Mutual fulfillment implies that each unit of the four
orders is related to each other and enriching to each other.

 There is mutual fulfillment among the first three orders in nature. The soil-plant
interaction is an example of mutual fulfillment between the material order and the
bio order. Animals and birds (units of the animal order) depend on plants (units of
the bio order) for their food. Unfortunately, Human order is not yet able to ensure
mutual fulfillment due to the lack of right understanding.

 How other three orders are mutually fulfilling each other

 Let us look at the first three orders namely the material, plant/bio (pranic),and
animal order. We can easily see that they are interconnected. And the relationship
between these orders is in such a way that they all fulfill each other and coexist
with each other.

 Mutual Fulfillment in Material Order and Pranic Order

 The material order provides the nutrients to the plant/bio order in the form of
soil, minerals, etc while the plant/ bio order decays and forms more nutrients, thus
enriching the soil.

Plants help move the nutrients through the various layers of the soil. The roots of
the plants hold the soil together and prevent the soil from erosion.

 Plants produce oxygen/ carbon dioxide and thus help in the movement of the
material order. There is a mutual interdependency and co-existence we can see
here.

 Mutual Fulfillment in Material Order, Pranic Order & Animal Order

 The material orders provide the basis for the movement of all animals, birds, and
fishes.Water, oxygen, and other gases are necessities for both plants and animals.
At the same time, the animal order helps enrich the soil with its excreta and this
excreta helps the plants with nutrients. The plant/bio order provides food for
animals, birds, and fishes.The animal Order helps in the pollination of the flowers
of the pranic order.

 Mutual Fulfillment in Material Order, Pranic Order, Animal Order, and human

Order.

 We humans also have a natural acceptance to be mutually fulfilling these three

orders. However, we are not able to ensure this mutual fulfillment.

 We are dependent on the material order for soil and minerals and metals but

only end up polluting the soil and depleting the fossil fuels...

 We are dependent on plants for our food and to hold together the larger
ecosystem, but we have destroyed forests and destroyed multiple species of plants
and herbs...

 We are dependent on animals to carry out our production and transportation

activities, but we have made many species of animals extinct, and are today known
for our cruelty towards animals.

 We thus see that the three orders besides the human order are in harmony and
are fulfilling the human order. Human order has not even understood its own needs
properly, nor have we understood harmonious ways to fulfill our needs.
Consequently, we have disturbed ourselves and also the balance among the other
three orders.

 The effect of this disharmony is now affecting our lives in the form of diseases
and other downfalls.

 The role of Human Being is to realize this mutual fulfillment – For this, all

that human beings need to do is:

 1. To develop the right understanding

 2. To understand that mutual fulfilment is inherent in nature – we do not have to

create it...

 3. To live accordingly – then the mutual fulfilment amongst the 4 orders

will be maintained.

 Recyclability and self-regulation in nature -

 What is Recyclability –

 If during a process, a material unit in Nature transforms and finally comes back
to the same form, it is called Recyclability.

 For example, the cycle of water, evaporating, condensing and precipitating back
to water giving the weather phenomena.

 Cycle of oxygen and nitrogen are other examples of Recyclability in nature.

 What is Self-regulation regulation - The breeds of animals and plants continue to

exist by themselves in a mutually fulfilling manner. This is self-regulation.

 Examples - Population of animals and plants, birds are regulated in such a way
that all the breeds continue to exist.

 Write a short note on the following- Space can be defined as an unlimited

entity. Space is not a unit. It can’t be touched, smelt, or seen. Space exists
everywhere. It maintains a certain regularity and obeys certain laws.

 Space can be explained in terms of its relation with another object.

 Holistic Technology
 Holistic in human values refers to an approach that considers the
interconnectedness of different aspects of human life and their impact on these
various entities.

 A Holistic approach, we suggest that the methods and technologies we use must
be eco-friendly.

 By holistic approach, we mean the processes and technology adopted by us must

be compatible with nature.

 Sentient Material

 The term sentient beings is translated from various Sanskrit terms (jantu,bahu
jana, jagat, sattva) and "conventionally refers to the mass of living things subject to
illusion, suffering, and rebirth .

 Hence we may say that Any material which has consciousness is called sentient
material.

 Sentient materials can detect their state, and change their behaviors according to
its surrounding, environments.

 Example - PRANIC ORDER

Insentient material.

 Any material, which does not have any kind of sensation, feeling or animation,
or we may say consciousness is called insentient material.

 Example - cosmic objects

 Active Coexistence

 Active Coexistence may be defined as a state in which there exists harmonious

relationships among different parts of nature.

 It is defined as a condition in which all groups exist peacefully with their

differences, accept other group as a legitimate and an equal partner with whom
disagreements have to be resolved in nonviolent ways.
 Passive Coexistence

 This is a kind of conflicted state, where relationships are characterized by

unequal power relationships, little inter-group contact, and little equity and more
biasness as well as bitterness .

 Recyclability

 If during a process, a material unit in Nature transforms and finally comes back
to the same form, it is called Recyclability.

 There are several cyclical processes that we can see in nature. For example, the
cycle of water evaporates, condenses, and precipitates back to water giving the
weather phenomena.