4 April 2018 The Speaking Tree
Are values and morals outdated concepts?
What role do values play today, ask many who are faced with corruption all around. A person would not even survive-( जीवित बचाना/ बना रहना ) today with these so-called values. Is it really possible to do business without bribery in this country? Can a politician be honest, and still manage his election spending? Get real! Insider trading, lobbying-( lobby - प्रचार करना / अपने पक्ष में जनमत तैयार करना ) are the order of the day. But there are those who say that nevertheless, we cannot give up on values. Both perspectives-( perspective - दृष्टिकोण ) seem to hold some water. So should we have values or discard-( अलग करना ) them as old fashioned?
Perhaps the confusion can be removed by understanding ‘values’. Values are usually understood to be some behaviour patterns – telling the truth, being punctual and clean, not indulging-( लिप्त ) in bribery and corruption, and vegetarianism, for example.
Having values means giving value to something. Finding something important. How we know what is important is by understanding the facts of life. Hence having values is being established in the facts of life. So, to have values is to understand life. When our understanding of life is appropriate-( उपयुक्त / अपनाना ), we value the right things. These correct values are known as higher values.
To have wrong values is to put the accent-( विशेष महत्त्व ) on the wrong syllable-( शब्दांश ), to consider non-essentials as essential-(अनिवार्य ). Here are some examples. At the physical level: to consider looks more important than health; to consider money more important than work. At the mental level: to consider being loved more important than being loving. At the intellectual level: to consider gathering of information more important than wisdom-( विवेक / विद्या ) and clarity. At the moral level: to consider what I get to be more important than what I become. At the spiritual level: to consider the robes, rituals, and paraphernalia-( आभूषण / गहना ) as more important than the goal of enlightenment-( जानकारी ), moksha.
Adi Shankara says in Bhaja Govindam: ‘Nitya anitya viveka vichara’ – reflection on discrimination-( अंतर ) of what is eternal and non-eternal; what is permanent and what is passing. Values are simply the knowledge of what lasts and what passes away. When we value impermanent-( नश्वर / अनस्थिर ) things the result is wrong, or more precisely-( निश्चित रूप से ), those are lower values. The more permanent things we value, the higher are said to be our values.
Money is no doubt a very useful thing. But its use is restricted to sense-objects. You can use money to transact-( कारोबार करना ) in sense-objects. You can buy food not appetite-( इच्छा / प्रवृति ); bed, not sleep. That does not mean we discard money. It simply means that we understand its worth. Giving it the right value means neither exaggerating-(बढ़कर कहना ) nor underestimating its worth.
Similarly, emotions – if we are reliant-( निर्भर ) on the emotions of others, we subjugate-( जीतना / पराजित करना ) our lives to the whims of others. But if we can shower love, we stay independent of the vagaries-( अनिश्चितताएं ) of people. And so, too, knowledge. Information gathering never gave anybody knowledge. It is clarity that gives knowledge.
When you are able to map your current circumstances-( परिश्थितियां / हालात ) on the facts of life, you can make better decisions and reach your goal faster. Values or facts of life are like maps that tell us ground realities. Yet many people take them as suppositions-( अनुमान / कल्पना ). And therein lies the fallacy.
Hence values are the value we give something based on our understanding of life. When we value more lasting things, it is called higher values. When we value impermanent things, it is called lower values.
इस पोस्ट या साइट सम्बन्धित किसी भी प्रकार की सुझाव या शिकायत के लिए हमारे कमेंट बॉक्स में कमेंट जरूर करें धन्यवाद
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