Human Values & Professional Ethics

UNIT 4
 Unit 4 - Syllabus

Understanding Harmony in the Nature and Existence – Whole

existence as Co-existence, Understanding the harmony in the
Nature, Interconnectedness 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.
 Understanding Harmony in Nature

• Nature as Collection of Units

•Nature is the collection of all the units – the air,

soil, water, plants, trees, animals, birds, other
human beings and even things that are at a distant
from us like the sun, the moon, the other planets,
etc.
 Classification of Units into Four Orders

•1. Physical order – this includes units like air, water, metal
and so on.

•2. Pranic/Bio order – this includes grass, plants, trees, etc.

•3. Animal order – this includes animals and birds.

•4. Human order – this has human being only. Human are
the smallest order
Harmony among the Nature (Four Orders)
•There is mutual fulfilment among the first three orders in
nature.
•The soil-plant interaction is an example of mutual fulfilment
between the physical order and the bio order.
• Animals and birds (units of the animal order) depend on
plants (units of the bio order) for their food. At the same time,
animals and birds help to spread the seeds of plants from
one place to the other. They protect plants from harmful
insects and pests.
• Similarly, the units of physical order, like air and water, are
essential for animals to survive. In turn, animals enrich the soil
– their dung and their dead bodies act as very good manure
which makes the soil fertile. This is amply visible in the forests.
These three orders are enriching for the human being too. This
we can see from our day to day life.
• Now, is the human being fulfilling for the other three orders?
This is a big question. Human being is not only unfulfilling for
the other three orders, rather it is dominating and exploiting
them, to the extent of global warming and climate change.
• However, when we refer to our natural acceptance, we
want to fulfil all the four orders. Ask yourself this question,
“what is naturally acceptable to you – to enrich these four
orders or to exploit them”? The answer is obvious – to
enrich all the four orders. Once human beings understand
the mutual fulfilment among the four orders, they can be
fulfilling for all the orders.
 Interconnectedness, Self-regulation and Mutual Fulfilment
among the Four Orders of Nature

• With the above discussion, we can conclude that there is

interconnectedness and mutual fulfilment among the four
orders in nature.
• One can also see that there is self-regulation in nature. In
a forest, the proportion of soil, plants and animals of
various species is self-regulated.
• It never happens that the lions eat up all the deer or the
deer eat up all the grasses or that the plants grow to the
extent that there is no space for deer or that there is lack
 Interconnectedness, Self-regulation and Mutual Fulfilment
among the Four Orders of Nature

of soil for new plants and so on.

•The forest does not need to be regulated by human being to
be in harmony. With right understanding only, human being
will also be self-organised, in harmony within and participate
in the harmony in the larger order.
•By its very being, nature is organised in a manner where quantity
of all four orders is in a sequence:
•Physical order >> Bio order >> Animal order >> Human
order.
 Existence as Co-existence at All Levels

Co-existence in nature means there is a relationship and

complementarity among all the entities in nature including
human beings.
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.
4. To exist together (in time or place) and to exist in mutual tolerance.
 Existence as Co-existence at All Levels

• Existence as Units in Space

Existence is whatever exists.
There are two types of basic realities in existence – one is
space and the other is units. The units are in space.
• Understanding Units and Space
There are innumerable units in existence. There is air, water,
soil, earth, sun, moon, plants, trees, animals, birds, human
beings etc. These units are in space. The co-existence of
the two is in the form of units submerged in space.
 Existence as Co-existence at All Levels

Units are Limited in Size; Space is Unlimited

We can observe units all around – they are limited in size.
Coming to space, it is unlimited. It is spread all around. It is
all-pervading. There is no limited size of space. It does not
have any boundary.
Units are Activity, they are Active; Space is “No-Activity”
Every unit is an activity and it is active with other units. In itself,
one or the other kind of activity is always taking place in the unit.
Further, the unit is interacting with other units, i.e. it is active in
 Existence as Co-existence at All Levels

relation to other units. When it comes to space, it is no-activity.

There is activity only in the units.
•Understanding Submergence
Units are in space – they are submerged in space. It means units
are in space, they are inseparable from space. Where ever a unit
is there, space is also there.
1. Units are Energised in Space
Being in co-existence with space, every unit is energised, right
from the smallest atom to the largest planet.
 Existence as Co-existence at All Levels

2. Units are Self-organised in Space

Being in co-existence with space, every unit is self-

organised. It is in a definite order. By being in a definite
order, it exhibits a definite conduct – that is how one can
identify or recognise and study that unit.
3. Units Recognise their Relationship and Fulfil it with Every Other
Unit in Space

Being in co-existence with space, every unit recognises its

relationship with every other unit in space and fulfils that
relationship.
 Existence as Co-existence at All Levels

Existence as Co-existence – Units Submerged in Space

Existence is co-existence. It is in the form of units
submerged in space. In the light of above discussion on
existence as co-existence, we can now visualise the overall
picture of the whole existence.
Existence as Co-existence at All Levels
 Innateness

Innateness (dharana): 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.
Innateness in the four orders

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: Because the pranic order is a development of
the material order, it also has the innateness of ‘existence’. In
addition, it also exhibits the ‘growth’. This principle of
‘growth’ cannot be separated from any units of this order. If it
is of pranic order, it will grow.
For example, if you have a plant, you cannot stop it from
growing. It will continue to respire and keep changing in
this way. The only way you can stop it from growing is by
cutting it, but when you do that, it ceases to belong to
the pranic order, instead decays and then belongs to the
material order. So, as long as you have a plant, it will
grow.
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’.
Activities of Four Orders
 Recyclability and self-regulation in nature

Recyclability: in this process, a material unit in nature

transforms and finally comes back to the same form.
Examples: cycle of water, Carbon cycle, etc
Self-Regulation: The breed of animals and plants
continue to exist by themselves in a mutually fulfilling
manner. Example: Population of animals and plants are
regulated in such a way that all the breeds continue to
exist.
 Recyclability and self-regulation in nature

There are several cyclical processes that we can see in nature.

For example the cycle of water, evaporating, condensing and
precipitating back to water giving the weather phenomena.
The cycles keep these materials self-regulated on the earth.
Breeds of plants and animals are similarly self-regulated in
their environment. In a forest, the growth of trees takes place
in a way so that the amount of soil, plants and animals remains
conserved.
 Recyclability and self-regulation in nature

It never happens that the number of trees shoots up and

there is a lack of soil for the trees. The appropriateness
of the conditions for growth of both plants and animals
are self-regulated in nature keeping the population
proportions naturally maintained. This phenomenon is
termed as self-regulation. In a single breed of animals,
the number of males and females generated through
procreation is such that the continuity of species is
ensured by itself.
 Recyclability and self-regulation in nature

This happens with humans too, but inhuman practices

have led to disproportionate numbers of men and
women. These two characteristics namely, cyclical
nature and self-regulation provide us with some clues of
the harmony that is in nature.
The Holistic Perception of Harmony in Existence
THANK YOU