Chapter 1  

UNDERSTANDING VALUE EDUCATION  

Value Education: Value education deals with what is universally valuable to all of us, what is conducive to our individual and collective happiness and prosperity in a sustainable way.  

It enables us to be in harmony within ourselves, with other human beings and with rest of nature at large.

What is Need for Value Education: Value education is needed for –  
  • Correct identification of our aspirations  
  • Understanding universal human values to fulfil our aspirations in continuity.
  • Understanding Complementarily of Values and Skills
  • Evaluation of our Beliefs
  • Understanding Relation between Technology and Human Values  

Basic Guidelines for Value Education  

  • Universal  
  • Rational  
  • Natural and Verifiable
  • All-Encompassing – all dimension of our living (thought, behaviour, work & realization) and all levels of our living (individual, family, society and nature/existence)
  • Leading to Harmony

 

The scope of study of Value Education  

  • all dimension of our living – thought, behaviour, work & realization and  
  • all levels of our living – Individual, Family, Society and Nature/Existence.

 

The process of Value Education  

  • Presentation of proposal  
  • Verify proposal through self-exploration  
  • Verifying proposal through experiential validation i.e. by living according to them.  
  • The process of self-exploration in the form of dialogue. A dialogue between presenter and receiver. Later it translates into a dialogue within the receiver.
  • Leading to initiate a transformation in our understanding in our conscious and our living.
Process of Self Exploration  
It is a proposal  

 

Chapter 2  

SELF-EXPLORATION AS THE PROCESS FOR VALUE EDUCATION  

What is self-exploration?  

Self-exploration is the process of:  
  • Dialogue between “what I am” and “what I really want to be”  
  • Self-evolution through self-investigation
  • Knowing oneself and through that knowing the entire existence.
  • Recognizing one’s relationship with every unit in existence and fulfilling it.  
  • Knowing human conduct, human character and livingaccordingly.
  • Being in harmony in oneself and in harmony with entire existence.
  • Identifying our innateness (Svatva) and moving towards Self-organization (Swatantrata) and Self-expression (Swarajya).

What is the purpose of self-exploration?  

To know what is naturally acceptable and live accordingly and moving towards Self-  
Organization (Swatantrata) and Self -Expression (Swarajaya).  

What is Natural Acceptance  

Natural Acceptance is innate, invariant and universal. It does not:  
  • Change with time 
  • Vary from person/individual to person/individual
  • Depend on the place
  • Depend on our beliefs or past conditioning
Natural Acceptance is same for all of us. It is part and parcel of every human being on  
this earth. 

 

Chapter 3  

THE BASIC HUMAN ASPIRATIONS – CONTINUOUS HAPPINESS AND PROSPERITY  

Basic Human Aspiration: Happiness and Prosperity in continuity.  
Happiness:
“The state/situation in which I live, it there is harmony/synergy in it, then I  
like to be in that state or situation. To be in a state of liking is happiness”. “To be in a  
state of harmony is happiness”.
 
Unhappiness:  

“The state/situation in which I live, it there is conflict/contradiction in it, then I do not like to be in that state or situation. To be in a state of disliking is unhappiness”. “To be in a state of disharmony or contradiction is unhappiness” 

Prosperity: Prosperity is the feeling of having or making available more than required physical facilities.  

To ascertain prosperity, two things are essential:  
(a) Correct assessment of need for physical facilities, and  
(b) The competence of making available more than required physical facilities (through production).  

Wealth: Wealth is a physical thing. It means having the money or having a lot of physical facilities.

Prevailing Notions of Happiness and Prosperity  
In the prevailing notion, we generally are trying to achieve happiness and prosperity by maximizing accumulation and consumption of physical facilities. An attempt to achieve happiness through pleasant sensory interactions. The physical facilities are not seen in terms of fulfilling bodily needs but as a means of maximizing happiness. This has resulted in the wrong assessment of wants for physical facilities as being unlimited. We are trying to fulfill unlimited wants through limited resources. This effort is engendering problems at all the levels.  
Some of the consequences of prevailing notions of happiness and prosperity are:  
  • At the Individual Level: rising problem of depression, psychological disorders, suicides, stress, insecurity, psychosomatic diseases, etc.  
  • At the Family Level: breaking of joint families, mistrust, the conflict between older and younger generations, insecurity in relationships, divorce, dowry tortures, family feuds, wasteful expenditure in family functions, etc.  
  • At the Society Level: growing incidence of terrorism and Naxalism, rising communalism, spreading casteism, racial and ethnic struggle, wars between nations, attempts of genocide, fear of nuclear and genetic warfare, etc.  
  • At the Level of Nature: global warming, water, air, soil, noise, etc. pollution, resource depletion of mineral and mineral oils, sizeable deforestations, loss of fertility of soil, etc.