Journey to becoming better human being – 22
Placing the Human being as central value
By now we had
started observing ourselves during the week and bring the insights for
discussions in the next weekly meeting.
Rajesh shared a
small incidence. Two days ago, he was told by his wife, that they will have to
clean the dishes that day. The first reaction inside him was of mental
agitation. The wife continued that as the maid servant was running high
temperature, she had advised her to take rest till she recovers. Something
happened and his agitation vanished. What was it?
“Whenever you get
an opportunity to connect with any other person at human level, the best of
your feelings come out. It is a sensibility. Human sensibility.”
What is the
meaning of ‘at human level’? I started thinking. Perhaps it is irrespective of
the other person’s name or fame, religion or nationality, being poor of rich of
even being known to me or not. Feeling the person just as a human being.
“It is called
placing human being as the central value”.
I had never heard
such perspective about human being before. What does ‘placing as central value’
mean?
“When you do
business, you place profit as the central value.”
“When you are
playing a tournament, you place winning as the central value.”
“When you are
arguing, proving your point is the central value”.
I begin to
realise that we tend to prioritise our concerns. The most important concern can
be termed as central value. We are likely to be ready to compromise less
important values but will not like to compromise on the most important value.
Thus, in business
I will not like to compromise on profit. In tournament on winning and in
argument on proving my point. But is it wrong? I could not find anything wrong
with it.
As we went
debating further, a common thread emerged in all these examples. It is ‘me’ and
‘mine’. It is ‘my profit’, ‘my winning’, ‘my proving’. That being the case
other ‘human beings’ are certainly not my central value. It begins that way and
it is possible that gradually it turns into ‘using’ others. ‘defeating’ others
etc. which would mean treating other human being as ‘objects’ for my purpose.
I do not intend
to harm others. But ‘me’ and ‘mine’ are central value. In the process if
someone is harmed; it is secondary to me. How can I help it?
“Perhaps you can’t
help it or perhaps you can. But the impact on your feeling is distinct.”
“When for your
purpose, you end up harming others, you get a deep feeling of uneasiness. It is
painful and so frequent that to manage the recurring pain, you develop a
ruthless ability to suppress such feelings. Eventually that tends to become
your normal state of feelings.”
Now I begin to
get clarity. When ‘me’ and ‘mine’ are the central value, I may end up
compromising on my recognition of feelings of the other persons. In the process
unknowingly, I may end up harming other persons. Internally I sense it and that
manifests in some unpleasant feeling. Such occurrence is so frequent that I end
up taking such feelings as normal.
Now the
importance of the first sentence started dawning on me.
“Whenever you get
an opportunity to connect with any other person at human level, the best of
your feelings come out. It is a sensibility. Human sensibility.”
Wow!
In business can I
place ‘human being’ as the central value? Then I will care for the people
around. That does not mean I will not make profit, but it will not be at the
cost of damaging others. In tournament I will like to win but not at the cost
of harming the other. In argument I will like to prove my point but not at the
cost of wounding the other.
“Placing human
being as the central value, a Humanist Attitude, is the fragrance of life. The
more we can incorporate it in our life, more we enjoy the beauty of it.”
Overwhelmed with
such a simple yet deep understanding of life, I realised how lucky I was to
have got an opportunity to learn about it, as I move ahead in my journey of
becoming better human being.
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