SC Musings for Nitya Gurukula

Values-Principles-Ego??

December 20, 2024

Dear Readers, Welcome to SC Musings, Blog 26,

The theme for this Blog emerged from an NG trainee’s question on the connection between Values, Principles and Ego. Initially it struck me as an abstract theme, which it is. However, we did make quite a few discoveries which I will be sharing. In Blog 26 values will be introduced from a deeper and wider perspective to lay the foundation for a practical application of values in our daily lives.

As I key in, realisation surfaces that after zooming in and crystallising core values for Nitya Gurukula, like

- The Guru Within

- Non-Violence

- East West synthesis,

I have not gone deeper in declaring the connections between personal, professional and universal values. The initial hesitation, I think was about going from the known to the unknow depths and heights.

The risk of sounding unprofessional when describing values, which could be seen as lack of objectivity held me back. In pursuit of the empirical, the existential core went to the background. After 4 decades of people work I am convinced that existence precedes experience, that is, values determine and decide the quality of our existence, which in turn impact our experiences.

Let’s begin with exploring values using NG Holistic model (NG, 2024), and the starting point is at the very top, Infinity as shown in Figure 26.3. The Cartesian coordinates superimposed on the Holistic Model are an adaptation of Nataraja Guru’s model of consciousness, explained in Blog 10.

Infinity, also referred to as Universal values has been crystallised in Nitya Gurukula as ERG- Existence- Relationship-Growth (Alderfer). ERG is the foundation and essence of us humans because, being social beings we need to relate and keep adapting ourselves to survive. It is a continuous cycle, which keeps us floating and flowing in the sea of life. However, tsunamis and hurricanes in the forms of epidemics, wars and the like, toss us around. Thus, existence is threatened despite the advancements in technology and knowledge- the value of life takes the back seat, overpowered by social values of ownership, power etc..

We now move on to the bio-physiological layer and dimension. Homeostasis and gravity continue to keep us in balance, inside and outside. Temperature and other parameters are maintained and our upright posture is a given (in majority of people) as we carry on with our busy, daily routines, living on an auto pilot mode mostly. Physio-emotional, cognitive and behavioral layers further contribute to our survival and growth, through our internal connections, which in turn connect with the external world through relationships; energy moves all the layers and dimensions.

Nature richly equips us with external systems like parents and care-givers to live.

Thus existential value of survival is ingrained and inbuilt.

With ingenuity, we humans have tried to use the environment to our advantage- However excesses have caused havoc in ourselves, in relationships and in the environment. And, I believe, we need to go to our roots, to our values to our existential core to balance and harmonise self-others-environment.

Turning our attention to values generically, I am herewith presenting a few interesting descriptions of them:

‘Values are individual beliefs that motivate people to act .. a guide for human behavior…Some values have intrinsic worth, such as love, truth, and freedom. Other values, such as ambition, responsibility, and courage, describe traits or behaviors that are instrumental as means to an end.. values are universally recognized as a driving force in ethical decision-making.’ (University of Texas at Austin, 2024).

‘In ethics and social sciences, value denotes the degree of importance of some thing or action, with the aim of determining which actions are best to do or what way is best to live (normative ethics), or to describe the significance of different actions. Value systems are proscriptive and prescriptive beliefs; they affect the ethical behavior of a person or are the basis of their intentional activities. (Wikipedia, 2024).

From the above descriptions, we get an idea that values have much depth and dimensions- they are:

- Beliefs,

- Urges,

- Instilled by culture and society

- Motivate and inspire

- Hidden and

- Assessment tools.

Yesterday, as I was driving to Nitya Gurukula through Puliakulam, I saw a man stretched out on the road face down, his clothes barely covering him. Due to the heavy traffic behind I drove down and stopped the car further down and called a youngster on the opposite side. When I requested the youngster to inform the police about the man on the road, pat came his reply- he’s always there. I pleaded with him to get help and moved on, feeling a heaviness around my chest.

Coming to Nitya Gurukula, I began teaching Taichi to our team and interns from 2 colleges. Narrating my experience of the guy on the road, I invited participants reactions.

Most responses were cognitive, analysing why and how he got there. It told me that our psychology and social work education prepares us to think about people-work while valuing self-other-environment is the foundation of counselling, training and supervision. My question to myself and to all you readers is how do we help people workers anchor in values, live them, bring them to life, and then work from them??

Blog 26 provides just a glimpse into values- it is the beginning of a value clarification journey. In our next Blog we will delve deeper into anchoring in and living values.

Dear Readers, See you in 2025- and I will be sending you Blog 27 from Australia

References

NG Holistic Model: https://www.nityagurukula.org/

Values:https://ethicsunwrapped.utexas.edu/glossary/values#:~:text=Values%20are%20individual%20beliefs%20that,values%20of%20their%20particular%20culture.

Values: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Value_(ethics)