Foundations of Indian Psychology Volume 2 : Practical Applications PDF
Preview Foundations of Indian Psychology Volume 2 : Practical Applications
FOUNDATIONS OF INDIAN PSYCHOLOGY Volume 2 PRACTICAL APPLICATIONS This page is intentionally left blank. R. M. Matthijs Cornelissen Girishwar Misra Suneet Varma Copyright © 2011 Dorling Kindersley (India) Pvt. Ltd. Licensees of Pearson Education in South Asia No part of this eBook may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without the publisher’s prior written consent. This eBook may or may not include all assets that were part of the print version. The publisher reserves the right to remove any material present in this eBook at any time. ISBN 9788131730850 eISBN 9789332506480 Head Office: A-8(A), Sector 62, Knowledge Boulevard, 7th Floor, NOIDA 201 309, India Registered Office: 11 Local Shopping Centre, Panchsheel Park, New Delhi 110 017, India Contents Preface vii Karan Singh Acknowledgements viii Introduction ix R. M. Matthijs Cornelissen, Girishwar Misra, Suneet Varma The psychological perspectives of our times... xxiii Three shifts of a rhythm Aster Patel I. Health and healing Introduction 3 1. The philosophy of healing in Indian medicine 9 Kapil Kapoor 2. Integral psychology: More than a tool for health and happiness 15 R. L. Bijlani 3. Folk wisdom and traditional healing practices: 21 Some lessons for modern psychotherapies Ajit K. Dalal 4. Psychotherapy and Indian thought 36 Alok Pandey 5. Psychotherapy and Integral Yoga Psychology 64 Michael Miovic 6. Concept and scope of pratyāhāra in management of 84 mental health K. M. Tripathi II. Education Introduction 101 7. Integral education: An application of Indian psychology 105 Neeltje Huppes 8. The blending of healing and pedagogy in Āyurveda 118 P. Ram Manohar 9. Situating teacher education in the Indian context: 132 A paradigm shift Bharati Baveja 10. Krishnamurti and value education 147 Vinita Kaushik Kapur 11. Education for life: The Mirambika experience 156 Anjum Sibia III. Social issues Introduction 183 12. Exploring the images used for the individual–organization 187 interface: Experiences and reflections Anand Prakash 13. Broadening of consciousness: A healing process among the 209 survivors of the Kachchh earthquake Kumar Ravi Priya 14. Resolution of social conflicts: An Indian model 225 Raghubir Singh Pirta 15. Lālan-pālan: A psycho-spiritual experience for the Indian mother 239 Anjali Singh 16. Being human the Sikh way: Some psychological reflections 251 Preeti Kapur & Girishwar Misra 17. Organizational transformation through consciousness-centred 269 training: A case study from the Indian Army Kittu Reddy Glossary of words of Sanskrit or Pali origin 279 The contributors 289 Index 295 Preface Karan Singh Apart from its other achievements, the ancient Indian civilization undertook the most profound examination of the human mind that has ever been attempted anywhere. The entire process of yoga, particularly the system based on Patanjali’s Yogasutras, developed a methodology for ‘stilling the modifications of the mind’. The Bhagavad Gita also contains specific instructions for stilling the mind, and thereby accessing the deeper reaches of our psyche. Indian psychology therefore has a firm base and a profound underlying philosophy. Due largely to centuries of Western domination, we have tended to be unduly influenced by the West, even in the area of psychology. This is not in any way to denigrate the great breakthroughs of Western psychology, particularly those of Sigmund Freud and C. G. Jung. Indeed, post-Jungian psychology, especially Transpersonal Psychology, which has developed in recent years in California and around the world, are welcome efforts to delve deeper into the mysteries of the mind. What is really needed is a creative fusion between the Indian psychological traditions and the newer Western methodologies. As they do in so many other areas, Sri Aurobindo’s writings throw a flood of light upon various elements connected with the quest for the inner light. He has used Vedic symbolism to postulate a highly original interpretation, which places Indian psychology at the heart of the entire study. It is important that Indian insights become part of mainstream psychology around the world, and not be treated merely as an esoteric phenomenon. The editors of Foundations of Indian Psychology deserve warm commendations for having brought together a broad and rich spectrum of articles dealing with various aspects of psychology, including social, psychological, educational, health and emotional dimensions. This book represents a valuable contribution to world psychological studies and will be of great value to students of psychology around the world. Recent research on the brain and the mind-brain relationship has thrown fascinating light upon how the human mind functions. Indian psychol- ogy, of course, goes beyond the mind into what we would call the spiritual centre of our being. The co-relation of these various elements and dimensions represent a fascinating field for study. Living as we are in an age of great stress and tension, the psychological as- pects of human welfare and individual happiness can no longer be neglected. I take great pleasure in recommending this book not only to professional psycholo- gists, but also to the general reader interested in delving deeper into the marvels and mysteries of the human mind. Acknowledgements The list of people to whom we owe an immense gratitude begins early. In fact, it begins with the ancient ṛṣis who composed the beautiful verses of the Ṛg Veda, and it continues right into our present times through a long, uninterrupted lineage of yogis, poets, sages, philosophers and common men and women, who together developed the theory and practice on which Indian psychology is based. Amongst our contemporaries, there are again too many great individuals to name all, but we would like to mention at least a few. The first who come to mind are no doubt the authors of the chapters in this book. They have not only borne with us during the long period of gestation Foundations took to come out, but they have also contributed in many other ways to the development of Indian psychol- ogy as a science. Then there are many others who have not contributed directly to the text of Foundations, but who have worked for Indian psychology in other ways, whether by writing, research or the organization of seminars, workshops and conferences. We would like to mention, for example, George Mathews, Janak Pandey, S. Narayanan, Usha Ram, Indrani Sanyal, P. Krishna Rao, Krishna Mohan, Sonali Bhatt Marwaha, Ramana Kumar Kanuri, H. R. Nagendra and his colleagues at SVYASA, and in Puducherry A. S. Dalal, Panch Ramalingam, Soumitra Basu, Larry Seidlitz and Ananda Reddy, but there are so many others. Special mention need be made of Kireet Joshi, who in the early years of this century gave his unstinting moral and financial support to the development of Indian psychology as the then Chairman of the Indian Council of Philosophical Research. Similarly, we are grateful to K. Ramakrishna Rao, who personally and in his many official capacities has made a unique contribution to the develop- ment of Indian psychology. During the last ten years, the ICPR and ICSSR have enabled almost every seminar related to Indian psychology in India. In this con- nection we also want to express our gratitude to Rajiv Malhotra and the Infinity Foundation. Finally there are those at the Sri Aurobindo Ashram and the Indian Psychol- ogy Institute who have helped with the production of the two volumes: Neeltje Huppes, without whose continuous support the book might not have come out at all, Vladimir Iatsenko who provided us with the Glossary, and Lynn Crawford, Divya Parasher and Jyoti Dalal who proofread and typeset the texts. We owe a similar gratitude to the staff of Pearson Education and to the many others who by their interest, silent support or hard work have helped with the development of Indian psychology and the production of Foundations of Indian Psychology. We are grateful to the Sri Aurobindo Ashram Trust for giving us permission to use quotations from Sri Aurobindo’s writings in Foundations of Indian Psychology. Introduction R. M. Matthijs Cornelissen Girishwar Misra Suneet Varma What do we mean by Indian psychology? By Indian psychology we mean an approach to psychology that is based on ideas and practices that developed over thousands of years within the Indian sub- continent. In other words, we use the word ‘Indian’ to indicate and honour the origin of this approach to psychology—the origin of the underlying philosophy, the conceptual framework, the methods of enquiry, and the technology of con- sciousness that it uses to bring about psychological change and transformation. It may be useful to make explicit that we do not use the word ‘Indian’ to localize or limit the scope of this approach to psychology; we do not mean, for example, ‘the psychology of the Indian people’, or ‘psychology as taught at Indian universities’. We hold that Indian psychology as a meta-theory and as an extensive body of related theories and practices has something essential and unique to contribute to the global civilization as a whole. It may also be useful to make explicit that this volume is not about the past, but about the present and the future. You will look in vain for chapters about the history of Indian philosophy or religion as they developed over the ages. Many such texts are already available, but this is not one of them. This volume has con- tributions that demonstrate how ideas and practices from the Indian tradition can be used to tackle issues in contemporary psychology and constructively inform its disciplinary practice by helping theory building and application. Psychology as taught at present, all over the world, is still amazingly unicul- tural. This is rather remarkable if we consider the intensity and ease of internation- al communications, and the fact that it is almost half a century since the political decolonization of Asia and Africa was completed. Though the large component of European and American thought in psychology is understandable historically, it is not any longer excusable. For it is not that the rest of the world has not thought about human nature, and it is definitely not that contemporary psychol- ogy has found the one and only correct way of doing so. In this context, one could argue that Indian psychology will be relevant particularly to Asian, African, or Latin-American countries which share alternative non-Western world views about mind, psyche and various psychological phenomena such as healing, health, self, or personality; but we strongly believe that in spite of all cultural differences, there is a large common core to human nature, and that, to the extent that Indian
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