Q.11. What do you mean by skill and in which way you can analyze it.
Ans. Skill: -
Skills are learned abilities—things we do well. Discover what your skills are by looking at the experiences that have given you the most satisfaction and greatest feeling of accomplishment. These successes may have occurred through a variety of experiences. Do not restrict yourself to job or school-related accomplishments. The exercises listed below will help you to identify the skills you are good at and enjoy using.
Three Stories Exercise: -
The Three Stories Exercise will help you identify your strengths and weaknesses when it comes to your skills and interests. For this exercise, you will write three short stories about experiences in your life that were enjoyable and fulfilling, but also presented an obstacle which you had to overcome or resolve. Each story should contain the following information:
* A description of the experience,problem(s) that had to be overcome, the subject matter, other people who were involved and how you interacted with them (did you work as part of a team, alone, did you facilitate or lead the group, did your responsibilities evolve over time?).
* A detailed, step-by-step account of what occurred from beginning to end and your role in it (did you gather or analyze information, did you sell or persuade, did you organize, did you balance the books, etc.)
* A description of the end result, including qualitative (it was a successful event) and quantitative (raised $500, wrote a 10 page report, etc.) result. Make sure you include both positive and negative results.
Once you are finished with your three stories, ask yourself the following questions:
1. What skills were involved in each of these activities?
2. Did you capture all of the skills you used (analytical, technical, interpersonal, communication, etc.).
3. Of the skills used in those experiences, which skills did you enjoy using the most, the least?
4. Do you use similar or different skills in each story?
5. Identify the transferable skills you used (skills that can be transferred or used in different situations) in each story?
After writing your stories and answering the questions above, list the skills you most enjoyed using:
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
Q.12. Write short note on strength and weakness.
Ans. Strength: -
Strengths are your internal positive attributes. You have some control over these.
Weakness: -
Weaknesses are your internal negative attributes. You have some control over these as well.
Examples for each of these are listed below -
Strengths
* Education
* Relevant Work Experience
* Enthusiasm, passion for your field
* Positive Personal Traits
* Interaction with organizations/clubs
* Wide network of contacts
* Solid understanding of chosen career field and types of opportunities available
* Completed Job Search Plan
* Specific Transferable Skills
* Strong technical knowledge within your field
Weaknesses
* Lack of relevant work experience
* A small or no network
* Low GPA
* Wrong Major
* Lack of direction or focus
* Negative personal traits
* Lack of knowledge in chosen field or opportunities that exist.
Q.13. What do you mean by human aspiration.
Ans. Human Aspirations: -
a. Each human being is composed of three basic aspects: physical, mental and spiritual. The physical aspect is the realm of the physical body, the mental aspect is the realm of the mind, of thoughts, and feelings, and the spiritual aspect is the realm of the soul and Infinite Consciousness.
b. Human beings have longings associated with each of the basic aspects in their nature, and these longings in turn give rise to desires. The most fundamental of all these longings, however, is the longing for the Infinite. The longing for the infinite can only be satisfied fully in the spiritual realm which is by nature infinite.
c. The purpose of human life is to awaken the longing for the Infinite and merge one’s individual, entitative existence into Infinite Consciousness. Thus spiritual development is the primary aim of human life.
d. Spiritual development, however, also requires proper physical and mental development. In order to develop spiritually, people also have to learn how to develop themselves properly in the physical and mental realms.
Q.14 Explain the basic requirements of fulfillment of human aspirations. Give the correct priority among them. (2009-10)
Ans. The basic requirements for fulfillment of human aspirations are -
(1) Right understanding (2) Relationship and (3) Physical facilities in the right order.
(1) Right Understanding: -
In order to resolve the issues in human relationships, we need to understand them first, and this would come from ‘right understanding’ of relationship.
Similarly, in order to be prosperous and to enrich nature, we need to have the ‘right understanding’. The ‘right understanding’ will enable us to work out our requirements for physical facilities and hence correctly distinguish the difference between wealth and prosperity. With nature as well, we need to understand the harmony in nature, and how we can complement this harmony.
There is need for us to have the ‘right understanding’ so we can be sure of our own selves, our relationships and our need for physical facilities.
(2) Relationship: -
“Besides physical facilities, we want relationship”. By relationship, we mean the relationship we have with other people, or human beings, we desire good relationships with all of them. We want to have mutually fulfilling relationships. If there is a problem in relationship, we feel uneasy, it bothers us.
“Sometimes I have good relationships, some times I don’t”. Fulfilment of relationships based on right understanding leads to mutual happiness.
(3) Physical Facilities: -
“Physical facilities are necessary and complete for animals, while they are necessary but not complete for humans”.
Prosperity means the feeling of having or being able to have more physical facilities than needed. For ensuring feeling of prosperity, identification of need for physical facilities is also essential with wealth. Fulfilment of need for physical facilities through nature fulfilling production activities leads to mutual prosperity.
Thus working with this order, we are able to ensure mutual fulfilment with human beings and mutual prosperity with the rest of nature.
Right understanding + Relationship = Mutual fulfilment
Right understanding + Physical facilities = Mutual prosperity.
To live with all three : right understanding, relationship and physical facilities leading to mutual happiness and mutual prosperity is called ‘human conciousness’.
Q.15. Write an essay on the topic Where do we stand today?
Ans. With the limited one dimensional approach taken by us, we have arrived at the following situation:
At the level of the individual: -
We see today that human beings on the one hand suffer from unhappiness, dissatisfaction, a sense of purposelessness or futility, tension, frustration, depression & even suicide and on the other hand show signs of domination, violence, crime, terrorism etc. The health of the body is steadily declining in spite of improved levels of material and medical facilities. A majority of people find themselves engulfed in problems of one type or the other, and some people have even come to believe that no solution is even ever possible!
At the level of family: -
One finds that in family, there are complaints, lack of understanding, inter-personal tensions and even hatred in some cases. Numerous attempts are made to solve these, but to little long term success. The reason for all of this is ultimately assigned to lack of sufficient material facilities, without ever deciding how much is going to be sufficient in terms of physical facilities. One can see numerous self-help books promising solutions and talk shows talking about ways to better ones relationships. However, there seems to be no clear way out.
At the level of society: -
Problems are visible in the form of poverty and unemployment on the one hand and division, discrimination, exploitation, opposition, struggle & war on the other. There are talks of cooperation with each other, but they usually end up in one form of exploitation or the other. The possibilities of war between nations, terrorism, fear of fights and violence within nation states and corruption tiring out the daily lives of human beings has increased, while one sees that ‘blood relations’ living under the same roof have problems in their relationships, and unknown expectations in these relationships are making man weaker. An absence of harmony between humans both in families and at the workplace is leading to an underutilization of human potential and available facilities and opportunities. People are bearing with the frustrations of dealing with constant trickery. Children’s futures are steadily becoming uncertain.
At the level of nature/environment: -
Problems manifest in the form of ecological disturbances (seasonal imbalance, pollution) and depletion of natural resources. Air, water, soil and food are increasingly getting poisoned. The fertility of the soil is reducing. The problem of water shortage is deepening. The nutritional value of food is decreasing. Global warming and Ecological imbalances are heralding larger problems and disasters soon to come. Earth may become unlivable for man and other species in the near future, and there is already talk of going to other planets!!
On the one hand, many breakthroughs and wonders are being unleashed by modern, science and technology; while on the other, the human being is not able to understand what he is, and what human conduct is. Mans biggest problem today is man himself.
i.e. Failures seem to be hidden behind our successes. The ultimate result of all this is that suffocation in individuals, disintegration in society and damage to the environment are on the rise. Man is thus getting isolated and lonely. Getting isolated is a more fearsome state than any other scarcity.
If one looks at these conditions a little deeply, it seems that man has not even been able to rightly recognize his needs so far. Today’s prevailing materialism has made us believe that unlimited acquisition of physical/material facilities is the ultimate aim of the human being. Our entire culture, science, technology, education and nation states are being applied to ensure this. As a result, every human being is being engaged in this. Material acquisition has become the aim of man’s thought, behavior and work without even bothering to find out how much material facility is required for an individual, family and society.
While mans need to live/survive has been recognized as a primary need, the need to live in perennial happiness, in a state of no-conflict, to live with knowledge, has not yet been recognized as a basic human need.
The reality is that to live with knowledge is an innate and basic need of the human. It is only on the basis of knowledge that man is able to live in harmony within himself and in harmony with the larger organization (other humans and rest of nature). Otherwise, he lives in a way purely based on what he has ended up assuming (which may or may not be so in reality, i.e. may be right or wrong).
In the absence of knowledge, absence of a resolution (hindi:samadhaan) man is unable to even correctly recognize the need for material/physical facilities. As a result, he is unable to feel prosperous in spite of having physical facilities/wealth. He keeps getting stuck in a vicious circle of trying to accumulate unlimited facilities/wealth; getting dissatisfied with the same, and then trying for more. When one evaluates the attempts to get around these problems so far, one concludes that these attempts are either insufficient, or not implement-able. When we see the attempts at various levels so far, we find that:
Result of Today’s Efforts
Today: At the level of individuals: -
Education is based on competition, ultimately aimed at acquiring unlimited material facilities from jobs or business, getting fame and position, and when these are not available to all (i.e. not ‘everyone can come first’); man takes to opposition & protest as a solution/ way out.
Today: At the level of family: -
There is no Justice – Nyaya in the Supreme Courts of the world where would the gram panchayats get it from? The SC decides
Courts and gram panchayats (village level organizations) are being created in spite of not having the ability provide justice, wherein instead of advancing the understanding of justice, what is practiced is better ways to mete out punishment & pass judgments (arbitration), wherein instead of having ways of forging stronger human relationships, one ends up separating people from being in relationship.
Today: At the level of society: -
While on the one hand solutions speak of governments functioning properly, and having stricter rules and regulations, on the other, it is declared that nothing will come out of the government, and only multi national companies and businesses can do something about these problems. Arresting population growth, make and break in the markets, and promises for employment seem to be the order of the day. Ultra modern weapons for getting rid of the conflict between nations and societies are also being touted as a panacea for the ills/problems we face today.
Today: At the level of nature: -
Further research for cleaner and greener technologies, alternative sources for energy, and/or establishing tolerable levels for pollution, establishing forest departments, restricted use of natural resources, etc are some of the attempts at taking care of the environment. The inspiration to protect the environment has stemmed from fear, but the constant rush for profit (driven by the economic system) is getting ahead of fear. Hence, agreements around the environment are not seeing much fruition.
On paying attention to the current attempts, it becomes evident that as we try and solve a problem at one level, numerous problems are created as a byproduct at other levels, leading to an increase in the number of problems we deal with. In this situation, while some people have a feeling of despair, some are saying that we should learn to live with problems, while others are busy selling dreams. Even big movements are unable to move beyond small scale issues, unable to think of human organization in its entirety.
A new ray of hope
On studying existence and mans place in it, it becomes evident that these problems are not innate to existence or nature. These are due to absence of ‘right understanding’ (knowledge) in man and fulfillment in relationships between human beings; i.e. problems are manifested by man. If man is the cause/source of the problems or if man is the carrier of problems, then the cause/source and carrier of solutions would also have to be man.
Attempts so far to free ourselves of these problems, have not placed right human understanding and responsibility of human beings at the center, and we have not been able to live in harmony (within oneself and with entire existence) and form a human tradition. Jeevan Vidya is a proposition for human understanding, organization and tradition which has to be evaluated in our own right, studied, realized and understood within the self and lived as an expression of this understanding, in terms of behavior, work and participation in the larger order * (* Detailed literature on Jeevan Vidya-Madyasth Darshan is provided on this website. A concise background and content of Jeevan Vidya is given in “The Laternative” (Vikalp)’ by Shri A. Nagraj Sharma)
On the basis of attempts & successes made by a few of us during the past 15 years in understanding this knowledge; and living it in the form of work, behavior and participation in our society, we have now begun to feel that it is necessary and possible to have harmonious inter-relationships in the
· four dimensions of the self (thought, behavior, work and realization),
· four levels/expanse of human living (self, family, society and nature) and
· 10 steps (family, village, towns…. to world family) of human organization;
that such a possibility comes naturally since harmony (self-organization) is inherently there in existence, one does not have to create it. Existence is in harmony (self-organization) itself, is organized in itself. The harmony (self-organization) is in the form of co-existence, and every human being can understand this harmony, and after having understood it so, can live in harmony within himself and in harmony with the larger organization around him.
Q.16 What are the implications of value-based living at the four levels of living? Explain. Related Questions -
Q. Our program is to understand and to live in harmony at all level of our living. Explain. (2011 - 12)
Ans. On the basis of living in this self-organization:
At the level of individual: -
Right understanding/resolution (hindi: samadhaan) is ensured in every human being via knowledge (hindi:gyaan) …..knowledge of self, existence and human conduct (hindi: jeevan gyaan, astitva darshan gyaan, manaviyata poorna acharan gyaan), wisdom/discrimination/rationale (hindi:vivek) (identification of human goals) and science (hindi:vigyan) (process of achieving human goal: setting the direction) and in human expression as- behavior, work and participation in the larger order. The possibility of an undivided society, holistic natural order and human tradition becomes clear as one lives according to the right understanding.
At the level of family: -
Resolution in each member of the family, mutually fulfilling relationships and prosperity in family are ensured. It becomes possible to identify the physical needs of the family on the basis of the right understanding and members of the family are able to produce (in a recyclable manner) more than the family’s requirements for physical facilities and experience the feeling of prosperity.
There is enough scope in nature for this kind of effort, and enough capacity and scope in the human being for putting in these efforts. A prosperous family is able to fulfill its physical needs and also help out other families; hence, one establishes a relationship of mutual fulfillment, instead of exploitation of other.
At the level of society: -
Self-organization in society, emerging out of such families, has five dimensions-
* education-right values (hindi:shiksha-sanskaar);
* health-restraint (hindi:sawasthya-sanyam);
* production-work (hindi:utpadan-karya);
* exchange-storage (hindi:vinimay-kosh); &
* justice-security (hindi: nyaya-suraksha).
Such self-organization ensures the fulfillment of human goals of:
* complete resolution (hindi:samadhaan),
* prosperity (hindi: samriddhi),
* fearlessness/trust (hindi: abhay) and
* co-existence (hindi: sah-astitva).
The possibility of realization of this holistic, all encompassing self-organization from an individual to family to world family seems very natural.
At the level of nature: The human being, living with complete resolution, relationships and prosperity lives in a mutually fulfilling manner with the remaining three orders
* Material order (hindi:padarth avastha) = Soil, water, air, etc;
* Plant Order (hindi:pran avastha) = plants and shrubs, etc;
* Animal order (hindi:jeev avastha) = animals
thus ensuring his prosperity and the enrichment, protection and right utilization of the remaining three orders.
Man living in complete resolution, prosperity, fearlessness and co-existence at all these four levels, is able to be satisfied in all his four dimensions-
* In Thought (hindi: vichaar): satisfaction in thought by way of complete resolution,
* In Behavior (hindi: vyawhaar): satisfaction in behavior by way of mutually fulfilling relationships,
* In Work (hindi: karya): prosperity in work by way of enrichment and protection of the larger natural order, and
* In Realization (hindi: anubhav): bliss (continuity of happiness) by way of realization (knowing – hindi:anubhav) of the reality of existence as co-existence.
It thus becomes possible that this satisfaction is expressed and established in individual, family and all ten steps (family, .. village,… nation, world family) of human order.
On the basis of the success that we have been able to get in the past ten years through this understanding, behavior and work; and the enthusiasm that stems from it, we thought it appropriate to share and start a dialogue with you on the necessity, possibility and natural-ity of this human order.
# Hindi (sanskritized) equivalents for some English terms used:
* Thought: (Vichar) · Behavior: (Vyawhaar)
* Work: (Karya) · Realization: (Anubhav)
* Resolution: (Samadhaan) · Knowledge: (Gyan)
* Wisdom: (Vivek) · Science: (Vigyan)
* Reality: (Vastavikta) · Truth: (Satya)
* Existence: (Sah-Astitva) · Understanding: (Samaj)
* Human Consciousness: (Manav-Chetana)
* Animal Consciousness: (Jeev-Chetana).
Q.17. What do you understand by happiness and unhappiness. (2009 - 10)
Ans. “The state/situation in which I live, if there is harmony/synergy in it, then I like to be in that state or situation.”
i.e. “To be in a state of liking is happiness.”
When we are in such a state of happiness — we experience no struggle, no contradiction or conflict within and we enjoy such a state of being. And we wish to have its continuity.
On the other hand, when we experience feelings such as failure, disrespect, lack of confidence, being doubtful in ourselves or about others, we feel unhappy as they are states of conflict. These are the states when there is lack of harmony, either within us or between us and others. We do not wish for a continuation of these feelings within and want to try and change them — we can call this unhappiness. We can thus state unhappiness as:
“The state/situation in which I live, if there is conffict/contradiction in it, then I do not like to be in that state or situation.”
i.e. “To be in a state of disliking is unhappiness”
Thus, we can define happiness and unhappiness as
“To be in a state of harmony is happiness.”
“To be in a state of disharmony or contradiction is unhappines”.
Q.18 What is meant by continuity of happiness? How is it related to harmony at every level of our living? (2010 - 11)
Ans. We feel that each of us wants emerges from the basic aspiration to be happy. This can be verified by each one of us. This also implies that every human being is continuously trying to do things to make him/her happy, and every human being is capable of feeling his happiness in himself/herself spontaneously. It is intrinsic to all of us. We are all working for it continuously in different ways as per the level of our understanding. Sometimes, we succeed, many times we don’t. But we still keep trying throughout our life for happiness. We want the continuity of this feeling of happiness as well. We do not want happiness in spurts, in intervals, but we want it continuously. But one thing is clear, that happiness is a basic aspiration of all human beings, and therefore, it becomes our prime purpose to gain the correct understanding about it. We can also appreciate that being happy implies being free from contradictions, being in consonance with our natural acceptance, being in harmony.
When we observe such feelings, we find that these are the situations when we are in harmony and these feelings are a reflection of that harmony. Take for example: respect. Respect is a state of harmony between two human beings. When I respect the other and the other respects me, I like to be in that situation. It gives me happiness. Similarly, looking within me, when I have harmony in my thoughts, my feelings, I feel relaxed, happy.
When we are in such a state of happiness - we experience no struggle, no contradiction or conflict within and we enjoy such a state of being. And we wish to have its continuity.
Q.19. Define the quality of happy people.
Ans. Qualities of Happy people: -
The following are the qualities of happy people:
Optimism: -
Optimism is the tendency to expect the best possible outcome or dwell on the most hopeful aspects of a situation. This optimistic attitude helps even in the most painful situation.
Love: -
Love causes happiness. To love and to be loved is the best feeling in the world. When we show love and compassion to other human beings, we experience happiness.
Courage: -
Fear can only be overcome with courage. One needs to have the moral courage and mental courage to overcome any hardships in life.
Satisfaction: -
It is hard to be happy when you are not satisfied with yourself. When a person constantly tries to criticize his current physical, mental state and tries to achieve perfection, he grieves as reaching perfection is an impossible goal to attain. This constant state of restlessness is a great enemy of happiness. When we overcome this and get satisfied with our life, we feel happiness is inside us and around us in everything.
Altruism: -
Ego and selfishness destroy happiness. When we look beyond ourselves and help others, it gets us connected to others, giving us a purpose in life.
Spirituality: -
Happy people are spiritual and that brings them calmness and peace.
Q.20 Write note on prosperity. Differentiate it with wealth. (2009 - 10)
Related Questions -
Q. What is meaning of prosperity? How does it differ from possession of wealth? Explain with examples. (2009 - 10)
Ans. 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).
We can be prosperous, only if there is a limit to the need for physical facilities. If there is no limit, whatsoever be the availability with us, the feeling of prosperity cannot be assured. Thus we can identify a limit to these needs and evaluate whether we have enough.
Secondly, just assessing the need is not enough. We need to be able to produce or make available more than the perceived need.
Thus, prosperity can be clearly understood and evaluated. Evaluate it for ourself. See if there is a limit to the need for physical facilities that we have listed for ourself. See whether we feel prosperous at the moment. This is an important thing to understand!
While understanding prosperity, let us also look at another point - the difference between wealth and prosperity. For example, let’s assume I have a lot of wealth, a lot of money. You come to my house, but I get worried that you may stay back longer than expected and I might have to feed you, tea, snacks or even a meal. It is a funny situation, but it may happen. What would we call this state? A person has a lot of money but does not want to share even a bit of it. The person has wealth, but feels “deprived’ in other words the person does not have a feeling of being prosperous. If one felt prosperous he/she would have shared what one has, since there is more than enough wealth anyway. On the other hand someone who does not have a lot of wealth may welcome you into his! her house and ask you to stay back for a few days and help you out. This is an indication of feeling prosperous. Thus, we can see that:
Wealth is a physical thing. It means having money, or having a lot of physical facilities or both.
Prosperity is a feeling of having more than required. Prosperity is a feeling of having more than required physical facilities; it is not just physical facilities.
Q.21 Which type of feeling can destroy the happiness.
Ans. When we live with harmony or synergy, we feel ourself happy but some time this happiness has lost in a moment and we feel unhappy.
The following are the destroyers of happiness:
1. Fear 2. Insecurity 3. Worries 4. Constant complaints
5. Ego 6. Jealousy 7. Blaming others 8. Blaming self
9. Feeling shame
Q.22. Describe briefly the different levels of living in human.
Ans. The different levels of living are given as follows:
1. Living in Myself: -
We all have desires, thoughts, beliefs, imaginations and choices. This is the first level of our living. Before expressing ourselves in relations, we think, and whatever we receive from the other, it again passes through our internal processes. We refer to this as (our) Self. This inner world (or ‘myself’) co-exists with the body and together we refer to this as a ‘human being’.
Most of the time, we see that we are busy in ourselves — making some plans, thinking about doing something, etc. We have to start with ourselves and put effort to understand our own desires, our wants, and our behaviour. So far, we have ended up assuming things without really investigating into ourselves. We think about who we are, what we want and how we should behave, what work we should do, in short, ‘how to live!’ We have to begin ‘knowing’ ourselves and test our beliefs by passing them through our own natural acceptance.
2. Living in Family: -
All of us are born to our parents and this is the family we are born to. This is the first web of relationships for each one of us and subsequently we live in more relationships that include our siblings, our friends and classmates, teachers and others. These are the people we live with on a daily basis, and we call this ‘family’.
How I see myself, decides how I see the other and my relationship with another human, another person. If I can understand myself better and clearer, I am able to see the other clearer and better. And this understanding becomes the basis of my relationship with the other. When we understand ourselves, we can understand the other and this forms the basis of the relationship, harmony with the other. In order to ensure harmony in family and society, we need to understand the expectations in human relationships and whether they can be fulfilled.
3. Living in Society: -
Our family is part of a larger group of people we live with where there are interdependencies around food, clothing, housing, services, health, education, justice etc. We live as a part of this human system. This is our society.
4. Living in Nature/Existence: -
We are on this earth: with the grass, plants and trees, birds, animals and other humans surrounding us and we live in this large eco-system that we call nature. Regardless of where we are, our village, town or city, is within this eco-system or natural habitat. Our planet is surrounded by a larger system of planetary bodies and that includes the moon, the sun and the infinite stars and planetary systems that surround us. Our earth is a part of the solar system that co-exists with all that there is in this entire ‘existence’. And then there is space between planets, even between you and the book right now! All these things present in space are together called as existence. ‘Existence’ means all that exists.