Pursuit of Human Excellence (Paperback - 2013)

This book is about life—yours and mine. In the complex world we live, there are so many different areas of our life: internal, external, and personal life; family life, work life, professional life, and societal life. Each area of life brings its own concerns and problems. Similarly, we are not a single homogenous group. We belong to so many different groups and have so many identities: economic, political, social, religious, cultural, national, racial, etc. Amongst all these diversities and differences, we also have many things common to all of us. Most importantly, we are all humans. We have similar human sensitivities and sensibilities. We all can feel, think, experience and reflect. We all want to be happy. We all aspire to a more comfortable and enjoyable life. And we all want to grow, become better and make our lives better. It is this human quest for better and better that we are calling 'Pursuit of Human Excellence'. We all have the basic endowments to pursue excellence. However, they largely remain dormant. We need to make conscious efforts to actualize our potentials. The book explores how and where these efforts need to be made for this actualization.

The book is the outcome of the author’s personal quest to be better and to live better. It is based on a wealth of ideas on this theme, evolved over centuries by the past cultures, both in the East and in the West. The ideas relevant to modern times have been selected and put together along with new observations and thoughts. It will immensely help the readers in their quest for excellence.

A.N. Tripathi is a distinguished Professor of the Banaras Hindu University. He has been contributing actively to the general area of ethics and human values for over two decades. He also helped establish the Malaviya Centre of Ethics and Human Values at BHU, and was its Coordinator from 1992 to 2004. The Centre organizes workshops and other academic activities for promoting ethics and human values amongst students, teachers and other interested professionals. Prof. Tripathy has published a book entitled, Human Values.