Unit -3
Understanding Harmony in the Family and Society – Harmony in
Human-Human Relationship
Q1.Explain what do you mean by “Harmony in the family”?
Ans:-Before understanding what is harmony in the family, we must have a clear idea
of what family means. Family is the basic unit of human interaction as we interact
with every member regularly. Family is not restricted to our blood relations, it does
not only mean all the members who are related by blood to us can only form the
family, family members are the closest member to us from among all the society
members with whom we interact on daily basis. The family generally includes our
mother, father, brother, cousins, aunts, uncles, etc. It also includes extended family
members like good friends, colleagues, teachers, mentors, etc. Family is our first
social teacher and inculcates values such as patience, honesty, integrity, etc.
To maintain harmony in the family we must follow certain proposals, to understand
the harmony between family, we must first understand the relationship that exists
between oneself and another self(“I”). The body is just a means to express or
receive a relationship with another self. A relationship exists between the “selves”
and not between “bodies”. For example, a person feels trust towards another person
and this understanding is through the “self” and not the “body” as the “body”
cannot feel this feeling of trust.Thus, to maintain harmony in the family it is first
necessary that we main harmony between two persons.
Secondly, we need to understand that the “self” has feelings in the relationship
between two people. There are feelings in a relationship and they occur naturally,
these feelings can’t be forced on us. For example, in our relationship with our
mother, the feeling of love and care comes naturally, no one can force that feeling
into us. The feeling in a relationship is like pure energy, neither we can create them
nor we can destroy them. At most, we may decide to show our feelings or hide them
but we are unable to change their basic nature. And all these feelings are developed
by the “self” and is limited to the “self”. If we can properly understand the feelings
of our “self” it will help us in maintaining harmony in the family.
Thirdly, we must understand that recognizing and fulfilling these feelings leads to
mutual happiness in a relationship. Some of our feelings are very definite like the
feeling of love, affection, trust, respect, etc. When we recognize our feelings towards
someone, we must try to develop them, properly cultivate them, this will promote