Values : Their Significance - Dr. Anil Baran Ray*

What are Values?

The term ‘values’ is used in modern times as the acceptable alternative for old-fashioned expressions like ‘virtue’, or such variants of the latter as ‘ideal’ or ‘goal’. Whatever name we give to it, what ‘value’ essentially implies is a positive approach to life. If we take the harmony between life and living as the essence of value approach, it follows that values are not merely ideas concerned with the oughtness of life, not merely with what ought to be, but also what needs to be actualized in life in the interest of harmonious living. Values therefore involve not merely ‘ought to be’ but also ‘to be’.

Each individual wants to enjoy life. It is the natural urge to satisfy the basic needs in the form of food, clothing, shelter, security, and love. But this satisfying alone cannot fully bring optimum happiness to him. There is an inborn desire for self-improvement, and so he consciously or uncons-ciously strives for the satisfaction of his higher needs like self-actualization or self-realization. This transcends the ephemeral in him. It is here that values play a key role in helping the human being build a bridge between his lower needs and the higher ones.

In order to build a bridge between our lower and higher needs, or in order to achieve a harmony between life and living, Indian sages enjoined us to use a holistic approach towards our desire for enjoyment and social obligations. It is all right for us to live our life in our own way so long as we fulfill some social obligations, for society has made it possible for us to live and enjoy life. Man is not an atom; his existence is inseparable from that of the society. Thus, the basic message of the holistic view of life is that human life is neither partial nor isolated; it is interrelated and total.

© "Prabuddha Bharata" (August 2000) published by Advaita Ashrama, Mayavati, Champawat, Himalayas from its Publication Department, 5 Dehi Entally Road, Kolkata 700 014.Website: www.advaitaonline.com. Reprinted with permission.
* The author, a professor of political science at the Burdwan University, makes a passionate plea to the modern consumer to remember and nurture higher values in life.

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