Manifestation of Inherent Human Elements in Creating Values for Sustainable Peace
IN FOCUS, 15 Dec 2025
Surya Nath Prasad - TRANSCEND Media Service
Today every part of the world is in the grip of valuelessness with the expression of mindless killing of innocent people not only by the terrorists, extremists and naxals but by their own people, own relations, kin and clans, and by killing themselves also. In my opinion, we are all crippled. Some are crippled physically, some vitally, some mentally, some intellectually and some spiritually, and many are crippled in all parts of their being. We are handicapped because we have created wrong values of exploitation for ourselves and others. We commit violence against ourselves by ending our lives or becoming mentally ill or mad. Madness over power, money, fame, beauty and other passions, is common. Indeed, the world has become like a lunatic asylum. I attribute this to past and present educational systems, which have led to widespread mis-education for a few privileged and non-education for many people. This type of education has compelled both to create wrong-values and practice them as values in their lives. This is inhuman, anti-human and non-human.
Wrong values leading to violence are inherent in the systems of non-democratic counties where a handful people have the power to declare which persons or group should die, and in less number of democratic or quasi-democratic countries, the economic and political elite have developed wrong values to commit violence by manipulating power, money and resources.
Today, the number of democracies vs. non-democracies varies by source, but recent data shows roughly half of the world’s ~195 countries lean democratic (around 90-115), while the other half are hybrid or autocratic, with authoritarian states making up a significant portion (around 60), though global trends show strengthening authoritarianism and a decline in liberal democracies, affecting billions.
Wrong values have taken lives of 20 million in World War I and 40 million in World War II. Since the United Nations was founded in 1945, 20 million people more were victims of death due to wrong values. 110 deaths were estimated for reasons of wrong values in 20th century. Wrong values have been leading to ‘genocide’, ‘ethnic cleansing’ and ‘global terrorism’. Wrong values have created the violence of hunger, disease and ignorance.
The fact is that in the world maximum people have no resources to fulfill the needs of their five elements while the world has the enough resources to meet the needs of 10 billion people, while in the world there are 8 billion people estimated in 2025. The reason of this disparity is that the richest 20% of the world’s population uses approximately 80% of the world’s resources.
However, those who have the resources, and those who have no resources are not aware about their own selves or five elements or five elements of man, which are universally common in all. This was why persons with resources also fail to unfold these elements integrally. Certainly, ignorantly they evolved some of five elements, but they were crippled for the rest of the elements, which made them terror and violent for the rest partially developed elements leading them to create wrong values for violence. P. A. Sorokin, a great Sociologist of 20th Century found in his study, and said, “… that even the intellectual elites of the past four centuries, distinguished for their genius have hardly been ethically superior to the rank and file.”
The state of valuelessness has given birth to value education. Value education is a remedial education. When there is crisis of values and valuelessness in any society, its poor guardians try to inculcate the pre-determined or prevalent values in the minds of students in the classrooms through the teachers and in the homes through their parents, and through the people in the larger society religious preachers. But these are not real values for them to practice and to live with them. They may give temporary relief, but fail to cure disease from which they suffer.
The authors of Vedas, Buddha, Krishna, Mahavir, Christ, Muhammad, and other true Saints and Sages, and real Scientists were the creators of values and lived with them, and also men and women without any discrimination of caste, creed, race, colour gender, nation region, language are able to create values and practice them. Sometimes, creators of values had to suffer great humiliation, torture and death at the hands of followers of prevalent or pre-determined values. For example, for creation of values Christ was crucified, Socrates was poisoned to death, John Huss was burned at stake, Bruno was burnt, and Plato was thrown to prison, Galileo was forced to recant. Though they were insulted for their creation of values while they were living, but they were praised and worshiped for creation of values after their execution.
I would like to say to the elders the society, viz. parents, teachers, religious preachers and political leaders to change their mind-set concerning teaching of pre-determined values which certainly led them to create and follow wrong values, which are pre-determined to the individuals and the society too. Truly, values cannot be taught, if it is done so, its effects will not be stable, and it will lead to create wrong values. Values are the products of man-making education.
Man-making education is education of the self, manifestation of the self. There is a story of Saint Narda in Chhandogya Upanishad. Narda approached his teacher Sage Sanat Kumar for knowledge about the Self and said, “Venerable Sir, I know the Rig-Veda, the Yajurveda, the Samveda and the Atharvaveda as the fourth Veda, the epics (puranas), and ancient lore (itihasa) as the fifth, the Veda of Vedas (i.e. grammar), the propitiation of the fathers, the science of numbers, the science of portents, the science of times (chronology), logic, ethics and politics, the science of gods, the science of sacred knowledge, the science of elemental spirit, the science of weapons, astronomy, the science of serpents and the fine arts. All this I know venerable sir. But venerable sir, with all this I know words only. I do not know the self.”
Narda knew everything except himself. Certainly all are not fortunate to know even everything. However, like Narda some know everything but themselves. And many neither know everything nor themselves. Thus today everywhere some of us know much, some more, some most about everything, however, all of us do not know ourselves. The greatest misery is in the world is ignorance about ourselves. Knowledge of the self should be the highest aim in man-making education.
Values like democracy, justice, peace, tolerance, non-violence, altruism, and other values are the integral manifestation of elements, viz. body, vitality, mind, intellect and spirit, which constitute every man and woman, and non-unfoldment of these elements lead every man and woman to create wrong values like non-democracy, injustice, war, intolerance, violence, selfishness, and other wrong values to follow and practice them. Therefore, let all people have awareness, opportunities and facilities to unfold integrally all the five basic elements as stated above to be creators of values to follow and to live with them for sustainable peace everywhere. No person (man or woman) is privileged to any one the five elements – either physical, or vital or mental or intellectual or spiritual – or a few or all. All men and women are equally endowed with these five elements to be manifested integrally for creating values.
In this regard, there should be joint responsibility of teachers, parents, religious preachers, political leaders and persons in the governments, now leaders of non-governmental organizations should also facilitate for awareness, opportunities and facilities for all people to unfold these elements integrally. However, the respective governments’ role should be above all in the sense of providing opportunities and facilities to all for integral manifestation of the elements in men and women. All the elders (parents, teachers, religious preachers and political leaders) should also be very much aware of these five elements in human beings because they also have the same elements to be unfolded leading to creating values, and facilitating opportunities to youngers to unfold their elements integrally to create values to live with them for sustainable peace and non-violence.
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This article is based on the author’s paper: Manifestation of Inherent Human Elements in Creating Values for Sustainable Peace published in Peace and Conflict Monitor – A Journal of UN Mandated University for Peace on 17 January 2012
Dr. Surya Nath Prasad, Former President of the International Association of Educators for World Peace (IAEWP), Retired Professor of Education (India), Former Visiting Professor at Graduate Institute of Peace Studies, Kyung Hee University, Republic of Korea, Founder and Editor-in-Chief of Peace Education: An International Journal. dr_suryanathprasad@yahoo.co.in
Tags: Peace, Values System
This article originally appeared on Transcend Media Service (TMS) on 15 Dec 2025.
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