“Value Education for

Consciousness Transformation”

- Jeevan Vidya, ‘Coexistence’

Workshop

Faclitator: Shriram Narasimhan

zshriram@gmail.com

Based on the Coexistential Philosophy (Madhyasth Darshan) by A.Nagraj -

www.jvidya.com
 Module 2:
Understanding the Human Being

Chapter 5:
Human Being = Self + Body

Lecture 14: Needs of Human Being

Conclusion from previous lecture
Needs of Self Needs of Body
a) Purpose of the Resolution/Happiness Health of the Body – To be
Need (,peace, contentment) & able to use the body
prosperity according to the
requirement of the Self.
b) Type of Need [Not Material] [Material]
c) How is the need Understanding Food, Shelter, Clothing and
fulfilled [by Knowledge] Resources (equipment) for
their production and
maintenance.
[by Material Things]
Conclusion from previous lecture
Needs of Self
d) Role of Cannot be ‘bought’. Little to
Wealth/Money no role
of wealth/money
e) Requirement in Continuously.
time & enjoyment We do not want to be
from fulfilling the without Happiness for even
need an instant.
Enjoyment is long-lasting
f) Nature of Need Qualitative, Not
Quantifiable
Needs of the self are
weightless
Needs of Body
Wealth/money needed as a
medium to source material
things.
Temporary, Periodic
Need is not continuous. It is
Intermittent Enjoyment is
momentary
Limited & Quantifiable
These needs have weight
A. Purpose of the need
• Our body is a physical chemical phenomena. It is made up of cells
which coexist to form organs with specific functions.
• Each organ coexists with other organs to form the complete body.
• The body is formed in the womb and it follows the rules of growth
of organic matter – it multiplies, as do human cells.
• We can easily see - all of us feel hungry! This happens because
the body has a need for nourishment that is obtained from food and
water.
• The body needs food for its functioning and each cell uses the
energy from the digested food for its sustenance. This forms the
basic need of the Body.
A. Purpose of the need
• Besides food, the body also needs protection from changing
weather conditions.
• The body can be damaged by continuous exposure to cold, or rain
or the sun. Hence, there is a need for some basic material things
to protect the body.
• Clothes and shelter are thus needed to keep our body protected
and sheltered from the extremities of weather.
A. Purpose of the need
• We may also need ‘resources’ or ‘equipment’ like a car to travel, or
a mike to speak to a large audience.
• Else, we would have to walk distances, or perhaps shout at the top
of our voice to a large audience, and that would only strain the
body!
• Equipment such as the above help ‘extend’ the capabilities of the
body and allow for its ‘proper utilization’.
• Equipment, or machines are also an indispensable requirement to
produce, process or preserve food as without it – we would
struggle to produce food with reasonable effort.
A. Purpose of the need
• The same is true for clothes and building shelter and one can see
that these are the areas where we have covered the most ground
in recent human history.
• Hence, resources are needed for the proper utilization of the body.
• This may seem like very obvious facts and all of us seem to know
them, but you will very soon see the significance of these points
we are discussing!
• Now ask yourself this question:
• ‘Who takes care of the body?’
• The answer is: ‘I do’ or, ‘I take care of the Body’
A. Purpose of the need
• Given that these are the needs of the Body, we can now ask: ‘what
do ‘I’ want’ or ‘what is my need’? We have already identified a few
such needs so far affection, respect, happiness, etc.
• Now ask yourself a couple of more questions to be sure of where
these needs belong - In You, or in the Body:
• Who needs affection? Do ‘I’ need trust, or is it the need of the
Body?
• Who needs respect? Do ‘I’ need respect, or is it the need of the
Body?
• Who needs happiness? Do ‘I’ need happiness, or is it a need of the
Body?
A. Purpose of the need
• The answers are: ‘I need affection, respect, happiness, etc’.
• Similarly, we can see that the earlier set of needs: like food, water,
clothing, etc are clearly the needs of the Body and not of the ‘Self’.
• ‘I’ ensure these for the body - but I can clearly identify that these
needs of nourishment, clothing, etc are of the Body and not of me
or Self.
A. Purpose of the need
• If we club them together, we see that the needs of the Body like
food, clothes and resources can be categorized as being ‘material’
in nature
• whereas the need of the Self is essentially to live in a state of
happiness, peace, contentment (sukh, shanti, santosh) that are
‘mental’ in nature, in other words these are to do with the ‘mind’.
B. Type of the Need
• Thus, this is one fundamental difference between the needs of
Self and the needs of the Body.
• The needs of the body are material in nature, whereas the needs of
the Self are not material in nature.
• This is one primary distinction we can make, between the Self and
the Body: the needs are fundamentally different.
B. Type of the Need
• We may make an additional observation here. Both these sets of
needs are required.
• We cannot do away with any one of them. I.e. we can’t do away
with the non-material needs of the Self and say we will only make
do with the material needs to do with the body.
• Conversely, we can’t say material things are not important and we
ignore them and only focus on the mental-aspect needs of the
Self.
• This is an example of ‘Coexistence’ in the needs of the human
being.
C. How is the need fulfilled
• The needs of the Body being material in nature, can in turn be
fulfilled by material things, such as Food, Shelter Clothing, etc.
These are sourced or produced by working with nature.
• On the other hand – the fundamental needs of the mental-aspect
or Self are non-material; such as resolution, happiness, affection,
etc. which obviously cannot be fulfilled by food, drinks & clothing!
• They can be fulfilled by having Understanding Coexistence in all
aspects and living in Relationship in all aspects.
C. How is the need fulfilled
• We can thus see that needs of the Self, are fulfilled by
Understanding/Knowledge and Humane feelings, while the need
of the Body, is ensured by appropriate physico-chemical or
material things.
• We can thus see that these 2 types of needs need totally different
types of effort.
1. intellectual efforts
2. physical efforts
C. How is the need fulfilled
• It is evident that both these types of needs to be fulfilled. We may
have proper understanding, but if we lack material things, we will
be deprived, we will not feel prosperous.
• Similarly, we may be living with plenty of wealth, but if we do not
have understanding or humane feelings for each other, the
contentment in the Self cannot be ensured.
C. How is the need fulfilled
• Example:
• Say you are traveling in a nice airplane, to a holiday that you have
been looking forward to. But you do not like the person sitting next
to you. The Body is very comfortable and well taken care of, but
how do you feel?
• There are enough material things here, but not the humane feeling
in Self. Hence affection & happiness is not ensured.
C. How is the need fulfilled
• Now imagine that there is no one sitting next to you in the
airplane, but you remember this person you don’t like.
• The Body again, is very comfortable, but you are having
contradictory thoughts or you are confused. You can test this out
yourself.
• You may have the best of food available, but if you are not in a
good mood, you have some internal discord, or fears, you are still
unhappy.
• You can validate this quite easily in your daily living.
C. How is the need fulfilled
• The need of the Self for resolution, (happiness, trust, respect,
affection etc) is fulfilled by understanding (knowledge), while the
need of the Body is fulfilled by material things.
• The former needs mental efforts and the latter needs physical
effort.