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 of 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.

Continue reading more about Journey to becoming better human being part- 23