1

Prologue

Introducing Indian Psychology

K. RAMAKRISHNA R A O

The Handbook of Indian Psychology is a collection of thirty one articles specially written for
this volume by scholars scattered around the globe on a subject little known among the students
of psychology. Psychology in the Indian tradition has a wider and more inclusive perspective
than in the West. It draws from a variety of sources and permits multiple interpretations. It
contains meta-theoretic postulates as well as simple practical recipes for good behaviour. In
between there is a wealth of psychological wisdom, at once provocative and challenging to the
students of human nature. Indian psychology is holistic and inclusive, glossing over dichotomies
such as subject and object, natural and supernatural, secular and sacred. One can find in it
innovative ideas, interesting in some ways and controversial in some other respects, as well as
perplexing methodological manoeuvers to overcome paradoxes by a method of magical synthesis
that provides for the coexistence of contraries like science and spirituality. Consequently, Indian
psychology may be seen as profound or plain irrelevant to current psychological concerns,
depending on how one looks at it. This volume is a modest attempt intended to focus on the
profound, calling attention to some of the significant psychological insights contained in the
classical Indian wisdom.
The authors contributing to this volume are from multiple disciplines that include
academic psychology, classical Indian philosophy, religious studies, management science,
psychotherapeutic practice and pedagogic disciplines. They all have interest in Indian psychology
as an up-and-coming discipline that has important implications for their own subjects and
occupations. A majority of them are Hindus, but several authors belong to other religious and
cultural traditions. So we have a good mix of multi-disciplinary minds with significantly different
backgrounds. Again, this may be seen as a strength or weakness - strength because of the
richness it brings, and weakness because of the inherent difficulty in bringing about uniformity
and coherence in style and substance of the contents.

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 Handbook of Indian Psychology

What is Indian Psychology?

Except for those who are already doing Indian psychology, it is not obvious what the precise
connotation of "Indian psychology" is. It may be conceived to mean a number of things. First
of all, it is perfectly natural and legitimate to think that Indian psychology is what psychologists
in India do. It is often said that science is what scientists do. However, this is not the sense the
title of this book carries. By and large psychology taught, studied and practised in India is
Western; it is the psychology developed in North America and Europe. Many of the senior
psychologists in the country were trained in the West. The textbooks studied were largely
written by Western psychologists and published abroad. The key concepts, the main categories
and research themes are unmistakably Western derivatives. Even the psychological tools
employed are in large part developed and standardized in the West.
It is, therefore, not surprising that psychological research in India, with few exceptions, has
received little attention in scholarly circles and is by and large blissfully ignored by policy
makers as well as public in the country. Much of Indian research in psychology is simply
imitative of what goes on in the West (Pandey, 1988). H. S. Asthana (1988) wrote some 20
years ago with an understandable sense of grief and disgust that the "concerns of Western
psychology of yester years are the current interests of the Indian psychologists" (pp. 155-156).
The situation has not changed significantly since. A decade later Henry Kao and Durganand
Sinha (1997) wrote that psychological researches in Asia in general and India in particular
"were largely imitative and replicative of foreign studies. Psychologists in these countries became
recipients rather than exchange agents of knowledge. The culture of imitation and replication
in research reached a peak when local problems were conceptualized in Western frameworks"
(p. 10).
This unflattering state of affairs relating to psychology in India may not be the sufficient
reason for abandoning the above meaning of Indian psychology. However, the inappropriateness
of this definition of Indian psychology may be seen when we note that Indian philosophy is not
what philosophers in India study and teach. It has a distinctive niche of its own. Indian philosophy
connotes something different from and independent of what currently goes on in the Indian
academia. As it happened, because of centuries of colonial rule and dominance, Indian
universities taught and continue to teach overwhelmingly Western philosophy, with only a
modicum of classical Indian thought confined to no more than two or three courses. Students
of Indian universities are required to read Plato and Pythagoras, Descartes and Kant, Rousseau
and Russell, Wittgenstein and Whitehead, and so on, but not Prabhakara and Patanjali, Vatsayana
and Vasubandhu, and Nagarjuna and 6aftkara. Yet, Indian philosophy does not connote the
Western philosophy widely studied by Indian scholars, but refers to distinctive systems of
thought that were developed from the very beginning of Indian civilization to the present time,
even though the latter are less prominent than the former as taught in Indian universities.
Fortunately, things are beginning to change.
There is another sense of Indian psychology that it is the psychology of Indian people,
which also appears inappropriate in some ways. Psychology is not like history. Indian history
is the history of India. But Indian psychology is not the study of psychology of Indians, even if
it were the case that Indians have some unique psychological characteristics. Indeed, some
attempts are made to study the Indian psyche, the prominent among them being the work of
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 Introducing Indian Psychology 3

Sudhir Kakar (1981; 2007). I also wrote something along similar lines (Rao, 1996; 2007).
While Kakar attempted to photograph, as it were, the fingerprints of Indianness first by
psychoanalytic lens and later by a wider angle lens, I was content to identify the gross foot
marks rather than the finer fingerprints. Such an exercise could be considered to constitute an
area of interest in Indian psychology inasmuch as what is described as the Indian psyche, such
as the purusarthas in the case of Kakar, is something that is distilled from classical Indian
thought systems. It would be, however, misleading to think that it constitutes all of Indian
psychology.
Sometimes Indian psychology is confused with indigenous psychology, meaning psychology
applied to native problems and pursued in the Indian context. Indian psychology in this sense
refers to those aspects of psychological inquiry and study that are primarily directed toward
understanding the behavioural perspectives and psychologically relevant existential problems
of Indians. Again, this is only partially relevant.
Indian psychology is indigenous psychology in that it is a psychology derived from
indigenous thought systems and therefore is clearly best suited to address India specific
psychological issues and problems. It is, however, more than indigenous psychology for the
reason that it offers fruitful psychological models and theories, though derived from classical
Indian thought, that hold pan human interest.
The importance of Indian psychology in its broader sense may be seen from the assumptions
it makes about human nature, which are in stark contrast from the currently fashionable ones.
These postulates are not an ad hoc and hotchpotch mix of disparate thoughts, but constitute a
coherent and consistent system with universal human relevance. In other words, Indian
psychology, like psychoanalysis and unlike cross-cultural psychology, is a psychological thought
system with significant implications for future psychological research in India and elsewhere.
It should be pointed out that in the phrase "Indian psychology" the emphasis is not on
geography. It may be readily seen that while the roots of Indian psychology are decidedly
Indian, its growth is not confined to Indian soil. For instance, Buddhist psychology, which is an
integral part of Indian psychology, was developed in Sri Lanka, Tibet and Japan among other
countries. There is no chauvinist intent in using the phrase Indian psychology; it is merely a
matter of conceptual convenience.
One could perhaps use a different expression like "psychology in the Indian tradition" in
place of Indian psychology to avoid the conflation between the various meanings as seen above.
However, we prefer to use the name Indian psychology, if for no other reason, because this
usage is consistent with the universally accepted sense of the analogous subject, Indian
philosophy. Also, "Indian psychology" is the name used by those who pioneered in the area of
applying classical Indian thought to contemporary psychology. We refer here to the erudite
writings of Jadunath Sinha in his three volumes entitled Indian Psychology (1958). The first
two volumes were published in 1933. Three years later Rhys Davids published her book The
Birth of Indian Psychology and Its Development in Buddhism (1936). These volumes were
followed by Raghunath Safaya's one volume Indian Psychology (1976) and B. Kuppuswamy's
book Elements of Ancient Indian Psychology (1985). We believe the term Indian psychology
has come to stay and with its expected wider popularity in the coming years the sense of Indian
psychology used here is likely to be universally shared.
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 Handbook of Indian Psychology

Why Indian Psychology?

The relevance of Indian psychology to contemporary psychological study and research is
twofold - one is specific to India and the other applicable to psychology in general. India-
specific relevance of Indian psychology may be seen in the light of the observations made at
the very beginning of this chapter. The current unflattering state of psychology in India is
largely due to the fact that the borrowed concepts and categories and the prevailing tools,
methods and practises of psychology are simply alien to native Indian ethos. It is difficult to
see the relevance of psychology as studied and practised in India to its national life. Consequently,
unlike in the US, for example, psychology is not a very popular subject in Indian universities.
Psychological studies, unlike economics, play little role in national development. Psychological
services are simply nonexistent in much of the country. Where they are available, they are little
appreciated and patronized. However, things are beginning to change if the recent developments
under the leadership of Dr Manas Mandal at the Institute of Psychological Research of the
Defence Research and Development Organization of Government of India are any indication.
There is now a greater openness to look at native concepts and ideas. Introduction of Indian
psychology as a subject for study at graduate and post-graduate levels and encouragement of
related research programs, we believe, would give the desired new perspective and the indigenous
orientation to psychological study and research in India and thus help in significant ways to
change its state and status for the better.
Further, a subject like psychology cannot grow in a vacuum inasmuch as it has cultural
relevance. A psychology to be relevant should blend with its national ethos. That psychology is
thought of as a science does not make this requirement any less demanding. Psychology is not
a science in the sense physics is, because it is not a physical science. On the other hand, it is
more than a biological science. It is primarily a human science. Contemporary psychology
often tends to ignore and overlook this human side.
Psychology as it developed in the West did not begin in Germany with W. Wundt or in the
US with William James and the publication of his Principles of Psychology. As R. S. Peters
(1962) shows, it has been built on the inheritance of a tradition of a long line of European
writers on religion, philosophy and medicine. They provided the assumptive base of Western
psychology, which grew over a long period of time incorporating the advances in Western
thought and civilization.
There is no inquiry that is not based on certain assumptions. There are no assumptions that
are inviolable and infallible. As Peters (1962) writes: "We are never without interests in and
attitudes towards our environment just as we are never without expectations of it and assumptions
about it. Patient, passive, presuppositionless enquiry is a methodological myth" (p. 26).
Therefore, it is the questions we ask and not the answers we give that are important for the
development of a discipline, whether it is physics or psychology. What is known as psychology
today, according to Peters, is "just an amalgam of a variety of traditions of enquiry" (p. 27).
The transplanted psychology in India has conveniently covered its cultural roots and
consequently suffered stunted growth in the unfavourable soil conditions. Psychology we have
been doing since the establishment of the first department of psychology at the University of
Calcutta in 1916 bears little relationship to the hoary Indian tradition of a long line of
philosophers and medical researchers whose writings are pregnant with profound psychological
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 Introducing Indian Psychology 5

insights. Notwithstanding the inclusive architecture of a monumental psychological edifice

conceived and embedded in Patanjali's Yoga-Sutras, Indian psychology in its systematic
contemporary sense is yet to be born and grounded. This appears to be so despite the heuristic
blue prints drawn by people like Sri Aurobindo (Dalai, 2001).
What may be of historical interest in this context is that the initiative for introducing
psychology teaching in Indian universities came from none other than that great Indian historian
of science, Brajendra Nath Seal, who drafted the syllabus for the first experimental psychology
course at Calcutta University (S. Sinha, 1963). Also, Dr Seal was the inspiration for Jadunath
Sinha to undertake his monumental Indian psychology book project. In other words, the founders
and promoters of psychology in India were not unaware of the existence of a rich native
psychological tradition and its relevance to scientific psychology. Perhaps, the deceptive
simplicity and apparent objectivity of Western psychology might have lured many into thinking
that it is the only kind of psychology that could be scientifically pursued. This was a historic
blunder that put Indian psychology behind by about a century.
Now, the global relevance of Indian psychology may be seen in the context of the failure of
psychology in the West to deal with some important aspects of human nature that appear to be
simply beyond its scope because of its restrictive assumptions. Contemporary psychology is
severely constrained by its bio-centric bias, which began with the behaviourist manifesto of
J. B. Watson (1913) who waged a war to remove consciousness from the psychological dictionary
and fought tooth and nail to drive out subjectivity from the precincts of science in general and
psychology in particular. We find the culmination of bio-centrism in cognitive psychology's
claims to capture subjectivity within the computational framework and some form of disguised
reductionist paradigm. There are good reasons to think that this claim may be in principle
unrealizable.
The widely shared assumption among contemporary psychologists is that the person is a
brain-driven machine and that one's achievements and actions, beliefs and behaviour, cognition
and conduct can be studied objectively and understood in their entirety following the machine
model within the mechanistic framework or in computational terms. Indeed, during the past
several decades, psychology has made rapid strides on different fronts giving credibility to the
claim that human thought, passion and action are ultimately reducible to and mapped in terms
of what goes on in one's brain. This success has resulted in some kind of unwarranted
complacency and on occasion avoidable arrogance. There is a grievous failure to take note of
the manifest limitations and glaring gaps in our knowledge of the way humans think, feel and
act that appear to be uncomfortably difficult to overcome and in principle unbridgeable without
significantly altering the current models.
Let me briefly refer to these gaps. First, consciousness in the sense of subjectivity is largely
left out by the mainstream psychology. As mentioned, behaviourism during its heydays attempted
to banish consciousness from the precincts of psychology. Cognitive psychology, though a bit
more hospitable to admit consciousness as a legitimate area of inquiry than the more rigourously
reductionist psychologies, has not gone beyond studying some functional aspects leaving the
phenomenological aspects of consciousness little touched. This is so because, it would seem,
consciousness remains the "hard problem" (Chalmers, 1996); it is simply not accessible for
third-person observation (Nagel, 1974), and there is an intrinsic "explanatory gap" in the attempts
to explain conscious subjectivity in computational terms (Levine, 1983). Notwithstanding the
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 6 Handbook of Indian Psychology

many heroic efforts to generate artificial subjectivity in the so-called machine consciousness
(see the special issues of the Journal of Consciousness Studies, Vol.10 (4-5), 2003 and Vol.14
(7), 2007, for a general review) I see little hope of realizing consciousness in any computational
machine, even with conceivable advances in nanotechnology. The axiomatic rejection of inner
experience and the persistent insistence of diehard "eliminatists" like Dennett (1991) and
Blackmore (2003) that the notion of subjectivity is conceptually confused and scientifically
incoherent suggest to me that the crucial aspects of subjectivity may not be captured within the
reductionist paradigm. Equally unconvincing are the attempts to account for subjectivity within
the computational framework and in terms of hypothetical cognitive processes such as the
global workspace model of Bernard Baars (1988). I have dealt with these issues elsewhere at
some length (Rao, 2002).
Secondly, there is significant scientific evidence (Rao and Palmer, 1987; Radin, 1997,2006)
to suggest that awareness may occur without being mediated by sensory processes, as is believed
to be the case with extrasensory perception. The defining characteristic of an ESP experience
or a psychic event is that there is no identifiable causal connection between such an experience
and its presumed source i.e., the object of awareness. Also, the evidence for precognition, the
ability to have noninferential awareness of a future event, and the success of long distance ESP
experiments suggest that time and space are not limiting conditions for the occurrence of ESP.
If such is indeed the case, as the evidence strongly suggests, then ESP is utterly different from
other cortically mediated cognitive processes. The alleged cases of reincarnation and presumptive
memories from a previous birth, which stand on a less solid foundation than ESP, if genuine
and turn out to be what they are claimed to be (Stevenson, 1974), extra-cerebral memory, like
extrasensory perception, strikes at the very root of neuro-centric reductionism and calls for a
qualitatively different explanatory framework.
Thirdly, the claimed experiences of mystics around the world during the long history of
humankind that they had experienced essentially ineffable, cognitively inaccessible and
indescribable states of awareness suggest the possibility of the existence of pure consciousness,
consciousness without any cognitive content (Forman, 1990). Again, the existence of states of
pure consciousness is a priori inadmissible from the bio-centric psychological models.
Finally, the ethical assertion of freedom and responsibility as inalienable aspects of the
human condition is based on the widely acknowledged notion of free-will and self-determination
that humans are inherently autonomous centres of thought and action. Freedom of will as
personal and private is greatly compromised in all the reductionist psychological models.

Assumptive Base of Indian Psychology

In contrast to the bio-centric bias of Western psychology, Indian psychology has
consciousness as its core concept. Centrality of consciousness is its defining characteristic.
Consciousness is considered to be a primary principle irreducible to brain states. The brain
does not generate consciousness; it simply reflects consciousness and often byfiltering,limiting
and embellishing it.
Mind and consciousness are considered to be qualitatively different. Unlike consciousness,
mind is assumed to be material but subtle. It is the interfacing instrumentality that is connected
with consciousness at one end and with the body at the other end. Mind seen as the gateway
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 Introducing Indian Psychology 1

and one's reality connection is the tool of awareness, but not awareness-as-such. When the
mind connects us with the world outside through the sensory system, we have phenomenal
awareness. When the connection is to consciousness, there is transcendental realization. In
virtue of the dual function of the mind, humans, as conceived in the Indian tradition, have
access to two different sources of knowing and being - one is transactional involving the
mind's interface with the brain and sensory system and the other is its transcendental connection
with consciousness-as-such.
Inasmuch as the mind-body complex functions as an adjunct limiting consciousness and
often tainting it, it follows that we are prevented from coming face-to-face with consciousness
and knowing what reality is in and of itself. This is the existential human predicament and the
very seed of anxiety and consequential suffering. We perceive on the one hand change and
impermanence in us and around us and crave and long on the other hand for permanence,
stability and continuity. This is the existential dilemma that leads us to identify the ego sense
with the unchanging self-sameness of consciousness. Such a substitution of the ego for the self
is a common but ineffective strategy to deal with change and impermanence. Craving for
permanence causes the search for identity and self-sameness. Then attachment follows. Desires
and disappointments, stress and distress do not lag far behind. Existential anxiety is the result;
and the person is thus situated, it would seem, in a sea of suffering.
Therefore, it is believed, the existential quest is to overcome suffering and in the process to
raise the person to higher levels of awareness and achievement. Indian psychology attempts
not only to provide an understanding of the nature of person, the causes and consequences of
her conduct but also to explore the methods and means of transforming the person in pursuit of
perfection in being, certainty in knowing and happiness in feeling. Deconstruction of the ego
and deconditioning the person are considered as the necessary prerequisites for one's
transformation. The ultimate quest is self-realization in which consciousness-as-such is accessed,
the ego is transcended and the person is transformed to experience truth in its pristine state.
Truth is not considered to be simple cognitive understanding, but it is regarded as value-loaded
and filled with positive feelings of happiness.

Scope and Substance

Even though consciousness is the key concept crucial for understanding human nature,
psychology cannot study consciousness-as-such because humans are cognitively "closed" from
understanding it. Consciousness-as-such is not an object; it is considered undifferentiated
subjectivity without any content. However, it can be studied indirectly as it manifests in the
human condition.
The subject matter of psychology is the study of the person. The "person" is consciousness
embodied. The person functions as a composite of consciousness, mind and body. Mind and
body have the effect of limiting, obscuring, veiling, and distorting consciousness. Consequently,
the being of the person becomes conditioned, truth clouded, knowing fallible, behaviour morally
imperfect, and feelings biased, strained and painful. It is contended therefore that the business
of psychology is to understand how the mind-body complex limits human potentials, corrupts
one's understanding of truth and causes suffering so that remedies may be found and humans
elevated to higher levels of awareness, achievement and happiness. Thus, despite the fact that
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 8 Handbook of Indian Psychology

the human situation is one of persistent imperfection and pervasive suffering, Indian psychology
is essentially positive. It endeavours to seek ways to promote purposive striving for unadulterated
bliss and enduring happiness.
Indian psychology is not focused on and obsessed with other-worldly matters as it is
sometimes misunderstood. It deals with existential issues here and now even though it sees the
relevance of the past experience for the present condition and the consequences of the present
situation for the future, keeping open all possibilities without foreclosing any in haste. Indian
psychology recognizes that physical processes influence mental functions, but it also stresses
that mental functions influence bodily processes. It emphasizes the integral connection between,
consciousness, mind and body. Therefore, neurophysiological studies are not considered
irrelevant to Indian psychology, but are regarded as insufficient to give us a complete
understanding of human nature.
Indian psychology is not merely theory and armchair speculation. Rather it is intensely
practical and applied. For example, a number of hurdles and obstructions on the way of removing
suffering and reaching happiness are identified and means for overcoming them are suggested.
The role of knowledge (jfiana), celestial love (bhakti), and altruist action (karma) in the
deconstruction of the ego are studied. Similarly a variety of techniques to enhance human
potentials, such as a multitude of meditative practices, were developed. These are some of the
fertile areas of research stemming from Indian psychology.
Indian psychology does not exclude anything that is currently studied in psychology, but
includes a great deal more. Consciousness becomes a legitimate subject of study. By making
no sharp dichotomy between natural and supernatural, Indian psychology makes it possible for
scientists to study in a naturalistic way extraordinary human abilities, which are considered
anomalies in Western psychological tradition. Similarly, by including the transcendental aspects
of our experience in its coverage, Indian psychology blunts the distinction between science
and spirituality and renders a meaningful dialogue between science and religion possible.
The rich phenomenology of consciousness contained in classical Indian thought, Hindu as
well as Buddhist, is useful in a variety of ways and is immensely helpful in promoting cognitive
science and for psycho-diagnostic purposes. The epistemological dualism implied in Indian
psychology has profound implications for learning. It provides not only for transactional learning
but also for transcendental experience and personal transformation. The recognition of
nididhyasana (meditative learning) as the culmination of the learning process adds a new
dimension for pedagogic practises. It also fills the current value vacuum in education. Indian
psychology has thus theories, technologies and techniques for personal growth and well being
as well as for enhancing the human potential. All these and more open up new frontiers for
serious psychological study and research anchored in Indian conceptual systems.

Methods of Study
Indian psychology is a science, science in its less restricted sense. It employs observational
methods, recognizing that observation can be direct or indirect. Indian psychology studies the
person at three different levels, from the perspectives of first-person, second-person and third-
person, acknowledging that the person as a composite of body, mind and consciousness functions
at all the three distinct levels. Humans are capable of (1) sense-driven learning, (2) intellect-
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 Introducing Indian Psychology 9

guided understanding, and (3) intuitively obtained realization. In the Indian tradition these are
identified as sravana, manana and nididhyasana.
Sravana literally means hearing, which during the post-Vedic period meant hearing the
truth from the teachers trusted for their Vedic knowledge. It may be interpreted as sensory
processed information such as perceptual knowing or learning by reading or other sources of
communication. It involves the brain-driven processes accessible to third-person observation.
Manana (reasoning) gives mind-constructed cognitions, which are first-person experiences
that can be shared with others and therefore permit second-person mediation. Subjective
experience is not pseudo experience. It is real, valid and relevant for the psychological
understanding of the person. Nididhyasana (meditative knowing) results in an entirely
experiential, transcognitive state. It gives intuitive insights, which are utterly subjective and
ineffable. They can be neither introspectively observed nor shared with others through second-
person mediation. Nididhyasana involves more than knowing; it effects being itself.
Nididhyasana is the first-order knowing; its truth is self-certifying. Its validity may be seen
by its effects on the person. Those engaged in nididhyasana, it is assumed, tend to move
progressively closer to perfection in thought, passion and action. Manana is knowledge of the
second-order. Its truth is rationally apprehended and logically attested. Sravana is knowledge
of the third-order. It can be objectively recorded and verified.
Psychological knowledge at the level of sravana may be obtained through observation,
experiment and physical measurement. At the level of manana introspective observation and
second-person techniques can be employed as psychological methods. With nididhyasana
knowing becomes being. Therefore, by observing the effects, the transformational consequences
on the person who is presumed to be in that state, non-ordinary states of transcendence can be
studied. This is the indirect method of observation as distinguished from the other two, which
permit direct observation. Thus all of Indian psychology is observational; and some of it permits
experimental exploration.
There is, however, a crucial difference between Western and Indian notions of observation.
In the Indian tradition, to experience is also to observe whereas in the West to observe is to be
publicly objective and to experience is to be privately subjective. The latter is excluded in
science. The traditional Indian outlook, consumed by the concern with the individual and her
transformation, does not consider true knowledge as abstract and impersonal, but individually
experienced and subjectively realized. With the focus on the person, the goal of knowledge is
not simple understanding of truth but its realization in one's being. Consequently, the most
appropriate starting as well as the end points of inquiry are from the first-person perspective.
In the Western psychological tradition, even when a first-person methodology is employed,
such as in studies using introspective techniques, the concern is to observe and not experience.
The attempt is to obtain an impersonal and objective account of what goes on within oneself,
to reduce oneself to the level of an instrument and record the events in the manner of a non-
volitional instrument. The opponents of introspection like Auguste Compte harped on the
impossibility of reducing oneself to the level of a machine and report accurately without bias
or prejudice what goes on within. The attempts to refine introspection for use as a dependable
psychological method are essentially measures to minimize and overcome subjectivity and
variability and render introspective accounts more objective and reliable across subjects. The
exercise is essentially one of converting subjective experience into objective observation.
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 10 Handbook of Indian Psychology

Can experience per se be observed? Is it possible to reduce first-person experience to third-

person observation? Indian psychology circumvents this question by suggesting that the
distinction between experience and observation is untenable. The significance of experience
consists in its transformational consequences, which are indeed observable. The person
experiencing a pure conscious state is not the same as one who has no such experience. Sri
Ramakrishna Paramahamsa and Ramaha Maharshi are different from most of us simply because
they had experienced things that we did not. We do not need to experience the same in order to
accept the claim of their experience. That they are different from us in crucially relevant ways
is sufficient for the purpose of believing in their experience.
There is more to consciousness than being subjectively aware; it is more than being a light
source for illuminating images and apprehending processed sensations. In the Indian tradition,
consciousness is considered the ground condition without which no awareness is possible. It is
the knowledge side of the universe. When the mind withdraws itself from participating in
sensory processes by deliberate intent and empties itself of all content, it would be in a position
to access consciousness-as-such. When this happens there arises unmediated direct knowledge;
then knowing and being blend harmoniously. As the Upanisadic saying goes, to know Brahman
is to be Brahman. To the mind filled with sensory data and consumed by their effects,
consciousness is a reflecting source. When the mind is emptied of sensory content it partakes
in consciousness-as-such and has access to an altogether different source of knowing that is
not divorced from being. What is asserted here is not a sacred speculation, but a hypothesis
that can be elaborated and subjected to verification by observation. All that is needed is an
open mind and imaginative development of appropriate strategies. Indian psychology has many
similar challenging possibilities awaiting the interested student to pursue.

The Handbook
The Handbook is a modest but an earnest attempt to open up the pages of Indian psychology
to a wider audience of psychology students and fellow professionals and expose them to the
challenges and opportunities contained therein. Appropriately, the Handbook begins with a
major chapter on Indian thought and tradition by Professor Kiran Kumar, a psychologist from
Mysore University. He comes from a long lineage of distinguished psychologists at Mysore,
beginning with Professor M. V. Gopalaswamy and moving through Dr B. Kuppuswamy and
Professor B. Krishnan all of whom evinced keen interest in Indian psychology. In this chapter,
Dr Kumar examines the different senses of "Indian psychology". He also discusses the basic
concepts and constructs and presents a well-rounded historical introduction. Thus he provides
the backdrop of Indian psychology to be discussed in the following chapters.
With this backdrop the Handbook unfolds in three closely knit parts. The first part presents
systems and schools of Indian psychological thought beginning with heterodox systems of
Jainism and Buddhism and ending with Ayurveda. In between we have Nyaya-Vaisesika,
Samkhya-Yoga and Vedanta schools covered. The second part is focused on specific topics
that include consciousness, perception, motivation and personality. The third part discusses
the applications and implications of Indian psychology. Applications covered include therapeutic
aspects, organizational psychology and a case study of personal transformation.
The systems and schools section begins with a chapter on Jaina psychology by Dr Jagdish
Prasad Jain, a Jain by religion and author of several books on Jainism, including Fundamentals
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 Introducing Indian Psychology 11

ofJainism. The chapter provides a systematic statement of Jaina psychology. Explaining the
concepts of jiva, mind with its dual aspects, and the evolving nature of reality, Dr Jain argues
that Jaina psychology offers a fruitful approach to deal with the problems of mind-body
interaction, while preserving their mental-physical distinction. He further suggests that the
Jaina approach is biological and not functional or computational and that the mental phenomena
are seen as both subjective from inside and objective from outside.
There are six chapters on Buddhist psychology, including chapter 29 on the Buddha by
Dr Hiroshi Motoyama. Reflecting the worldwide interest in Buddhist psychology, the authors
of these chapters come from different parts of the world - USA (3), Sri Lanka (2), Japan (1),
and India (1). The first of these chapters is on early Buddhist psychology by Professor David
Kalupahana, a scholar from Sri Lanka, now settled in Hawaii. Dr Kalupahana is known around
the world for his writings on Buddhism as a philosophy, religion and psychology. Twenty years
ago, he published his book The Principles of Buddhist Psychology. In this chapter, Professor
Kalupahana focuses on three basic concepts in early Buddhism - "thought", "mind" and
"consciousness", which in his view "explain the fundamental aspects of the psychological
speculations of the Buddha".
In the next chapter by Professor Premasiri, a distinguished philosopher and Pali scholar
from Peradeniya University in Sri Lanka, we have a more comprehensive discussion on the
varieties of cognition in early Buddhism. Pointing out that, according to Buddhism, "there are
different modes of knowing relative to the purpose for which each mode is perceived," Professor
Premasiri discusses five varieties of knowing. They are (1) sensory knowing, (2) extra-sensory
knowing, (3) holistic knowing, (4) insight knowing, and (5) axiological knowing. Drawing out
the implications of the varieties of knowing discussed in Buddhism, Professor Premasiri points
out that Buddhist psychology differs from Western psychology on two grounds. First, unlike
the so-called scientific psychology, in Buddhism there is no separation of facts and values.
They go together. Secondly, Buddhism by its five-fold classification of valid cognition extends
the restrictive methodological base of contemporary psychology and provides a more inclusive
paradigm of cognitive activity beyond the objective criteria of empirical science to include
transformational knowing, which is private but objective.
Professor Premasiri's chapter is followed by one on alaya-vijndna, the unconscious in
Buddhism, by Dr William Waldron. Dr Waldron who teaches in the US is currently Fulbright
Professor in Nepal. He is the author of a monograph on Buddhist Unconscious. In this chapter,
Dr Waldron not only reviews the original Yogacara literature and discusses it in the context of
what he calls Abhidharma problematic, but he also relates it to contemporary developments in
evolutionary psychology.
Dr James Duerlinger, another professor from USA, follows with a chapter on the Buddhist
theories of persons developed in India. Professor Duerlinger published an important book a
few years ago with the same title focusing on Vasubandhu's refutation of the theory of self in
Abhidharmakosa. The current chapter contains an incisive analysis of the concept of person as
discussed by the Abhidharma theorists, Pudgalavadins as well as Chandrakirti.
The final chapter on Buddhism is contributed by Professor William Mikulas, a psychologist
from the US who shares his thoughts and interpretation of what he calls "essential Buddhism".
Taking suffering, clinging and the four noble truths as the basic constructs of essential Buddhism
and incorporating the Buddhist meditational techniques of concentration and mindfulness,
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 12 Handbook of Indian Psychology

Dr Mikulas weaves a psychological theory which he calls "conjunctive psychology". He then

goes on to discuss how the essential Buddhism relates to cognitive science, behaviour
modification, psychoanalysis, and transpersonal psychology as pursued in the West. The chapter
concludes with the assertion that "Buddhist psychology has much to offer to Western psychology,
including new conceptualizations, theories, and practises." At the same time, he points out that
"Western psychology has much to offer to Buddhist psychology and practises," and, therefore,
pleads for their confluence.
Next are several chapters on Hindu systems beginning with a background chapter on the
Bhagavad-Gtta by Dr Sangeetha Menon of the National Institute of Advanced Study in
Bangalore. With expertise in consciousness studies, Dr Menon has keenly studied the Gita;
and in this chapter she reflects on the transpersonal psychology of the Gita and its implications
for understanding consciousness, meditation, work and love. She concludes that karma yoga
as enunciated in the Gita "will help the cultivation of positive emotions by reducing negative
emotions. The negative tendencies of the mind such as frustration, anxiety, etc., are annulled
by the positive mode of acceptance. The Gita theory of meditation helps to strengthen the
mental faculty by the therapy of watching thoughts."
The following three chapters are on Samkhya-Yoga. The first by Rao and Paranjpe begins
with a brief account of Samkhya-Yoga metaphysics and goes on to state the psychological
assumptions contained therein. Rao and Paranjpe proceed to explain the basic concepts of
"consciousness", "mind", "cognition", and "samadhi" in an attempt to construct a coherent
psychological system for future study and research. They move on to describe the practise
aspect of yoga and reflect on the applications of yoga not only for health and adjustment but
more importantly for personal transformation.
Chapter 11 is on yoga and psychic powers (siddhis) by Dr William Braud. Dr Braud is a
psychologist and a highly regarded researcher in the area of exceptional human abilities. He is
currently with the Institute of Transpersonal Psychology in USA. The chapter which is in four
parts begins with a discussion of the principles and practises contained in Patanjali's Yoga-
Sutras. The second section is an introduction to psi research, more popularly known as
parapsychology, which is none other than the empirical and scientific study of siddhis. The
third section discusses the interrelationship between Yoga-Sutras, siddhis and psi research;
and Dr Braud comes to the conclusion that yoga practise "can be associated with certain
extraordinary accomplishments and with more effective ordinary accomplishments." In the
final section Dr Braud calls attention to alternative interpretations and possible implications,
applications and extensions of yoga theory and practice.
Chapter 12 on Yoga and Samkhya is written by Dr Eugene Taylor and Ms Judith Sugg.
Dr Taylor is a Jamesian scholar with deep interest in Indian thought. In this chapter Dr Taylor
and Ms Sugg argue that the philosophy accompanying the popular yoga practices in the West
"appears to be derived more from the Vedantic interpretation of the original Yoga texts, rather
than that of Samkhya metaphysics". In attempting to establish this thesis they give a panoramic
view of Western scholars, especially in the US, influenced by Indian thought systems in general
and Vedanta in particular.
In chapter 13, Dr Anand Paranjpe and K. R. Rao discuss psychology in the Advaita Vedanta
tradition. Pointing out that the two topics at the core of Advaita system are consciousness and
self, Paranjpe and Rao attempt to interpret them as psychological concepts that are significantly
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 Introducing Indian Psychology 13

related to current psychological issues of concern. The chapter discusses in some detail the
psychological processes, sensation, perception, the concepts of mind and ego, and person and
personality. One of the distinctive marks of Advaita, they point out, is the recognition of the
fourth state of consciousness (turiya), cultivation of which enables the person to achieve self-
realization.
Chapter 14 on Nyaya-Vaisesika system is by Professor V. N. Jha, a Nyaya thinker and
Sanskrit scholar from the University of Pune. Professor Jha confines his discussion largely to
the topic of perception and the world of experience in the Nyaya-Vaisesika system. After
providing a brief background on the metaphysics of the Nyaya-Vaisesika system, Professor Jha
discusses issues relating to the relation between language and cognition, the process of cognition,
the nature of the cognizer, and the different elements involved in the process of cognition.
The last chapter in the section on systems and schools is by Professor Malavika Kapur, a
senior psychologist from Bangalore well known for her studies in developmental psychology.
In this chapter on Ayurveda she provides a systematic account of Ayurveda and the psychological
ideas in it. Among the topics discussed are the scientific methodology and theories and constructs
in Ayurveda that include discussion of the nature of mind and consciousness. While giving a
broad outline of Ayurveda the chapter provides a special focus on its developmental perspective
and the child rearing practices based on them.
The next section on topics and themes, starts with a chapter on perception by Professor
S. R. Bhatt of Delhi University, an Indian philosopher and eminent scholar, with extensive
familiarity with Buddhism in the far East. Though focused primarily on Buddhism the chapter
by Professor Bhatt gives a detailed account of perception with a review of views of other
classical Indian philosophical systems and their limitations as seen from the Buddhist
perspective. The chapter concludes with a description of Dharmakirti's classification of
perception into sensory perception (indriya pratyaksa), mental perception (mano pratyaksa),
self-perception (svasamvedana) and extrasensory perception (yogijnana).
In his chapter on motivation, Dr A. S. Dash, a professor of psychology at Utkal University,
Bhubaneswar, discusses how the Indian thinkers saw that actions give the clues for one's motives
and how the knowledge of one's motives enables us to predict the behaviour of the person.
Dr Dash refers to a large number of concepts that refer to motives in Indian literature and their
origin in prakrti, the physical nature. He points out that it is believed by the Indian thinkers that
actions guided by moha (delusions) lead to maladjustments, whereas those voluntary actions
based on due deliberation and devoid of preoccupation with excessive cravings result in
happiness and ultimately to self-realization.
In the chapter on "Personality in Indian psychology" Dr Arbind Kumar Jha, Central Institute
of Education of Delhi University reviews the theories of personality as may be seen from
Nyaya-Vaisiesika, Samkhya-Yoga, Mimarhsa and Vedanta systems. He discusses not only the
concept of "personality", but also development of personality based on these systems. He
concludes: "Close scrutiny and critical evaluation of the concept of personality as figured in
various Indian thought systems can give us a very sound alternative paradigm..."
The chapter on Indian psychology of values with special reference to the concept danam
(giving) by Professor Lilavati Krishnan and Dr V. R. Manoj, both from the Indian Institute of
Technology, Kanpur, is among other things a good example of research possibilities latent in
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 14 Handbook of Indian Psychology

classical Indian concepts and practises. Taking danam (giving) as a perennial value in Indian
thought and tradition Drs Krishnan and Manoj analyse it from different perspectives, elaborate
different classifications spread around in different philosophical and literary texts, and compare
the concept of danam with the Western notion of prosocial behaviour. While noting their
similarities and differences the authors suggest possible convergences that may be seen as
applicable in wider cultural contexts.
Professor Panduranga Bhatta, a professor of management at the Indian Institute of
Management, Calcutta, writes on creativity with special reference to poetry. Quoting extensively
from classical original sources, Professor Bhatta points out that in the Indian tradition one's
creative accomplishments depend basically on three factors: creativity (pratibha), scholarship
(vyutpatti) and practice (abhyasa). He also suggests that encyclopaedic knowledge (bahujmnata)
is a big added asset as may be illustrated from the writings of Vyasa (Mahabharata), Valmiki
(Ramayana), Kalidasa and several others.
In the following chapter Professor Dharm Bhawuk, a professor of management and culture
and community psychology from the University of Hawaii develops a model of psychological
processes drawn in large part from the Bhagavad-Gita. The central thesis is that "cognition,
emotion and behaviour derive significance when examined in the context of human desires...
Desires lead to behaviours, and the achievement or non-achievement of a desire causes positive
or negative emotions. Through self-reflection, contemplation, and practise of karma yoga desires
can be better managed..." With an extensive discussion of related psychological literature,
Dr Bhawuk hopes that this model would open up new avenues of research and that the indigenous
psychologies thus contribute to universal psychology.
In chapter 22, Dr Matthijs Cornelissen takes up the topic of consciousness and discusses it
in terms of its three conceptual vectors - materiality, spirituality and integrality. Dr Cornelissen,
a European with deep roots in India, is a psychiatrist and a Sri Aurobindo scholar. Reflecting
on the ubiquity of consciousness and its relative neglect in the main stream science, he pleads
for its legitimate place in science because a correct understanding of it "may be crucial for our
collective development if not survival..." Dr Cornelissen likens the materialist view of
consciousness to the flat earth theory and contrasts it with the integral view of consciousness
as expounded by Sri Aurobindo in a revealing tabular form.
The topic of the last chapter of the second part is J. Krishnamurti, an eminent philosopher
and spiritual teacher, whose writings have a bearing on Indian psychology. The author,
Dr Aruna Mohan, who teaches psychology in a college of education in Southern India, is a
devout scholar and disciple of Krishnamurti. In this comprehensive essay with extensive quotes
from Krishnamurti's writings, Dr Mohan explains Krishnamurti's emphasis on self-knowing
for experiencing transcendence in one's person, which consists in the transformation of person's
conditioned existence into a transpersonal state of total unconditional freedom.
The first chapter in the applications and implications part is by Dr Michael Miovic on
Indian psychology and psychotherapy. Dr Miovic is a psychiatrist and a Sri Aurobindo scholar.
In the present chapter, he provides a review of the history, methods and aims of psychotherapy
as practised in the West and attempts to integrate them into the worldview of Indian psychology.
He believes that Indian psychology can help expand the conceptual framework of psychotherapy
by providing an inclusive consciousness perspective. It can also help bring about needed
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 Introducing Indian Psychology 15

requirements for a more wholesome field of psychotherapy. He concludes: "If the history of
Indian civilization is any precedent, these requirements to existing psychotherapeutic theory
and practise shall be subtle, profound and spirited."
In chapter 25, Professor Dharm Bhawuk calls for reorienting Indian research in organizational
psychology with Indian concepts and models. He argues that indigenous models can be
developed by starting from cultural insights. Also there are a large number of classical texts
like the Bhagavad-Gita that contain relevant psychological insights. Further therichfolk wisdom
resource of India can be tapped for planting organisational models in the native, cultural soil.
In concluding the chapter, Dr Bhawuk expresses the hope that "researchers will put a moratorium
on pseudo-etic research that leads to the mindless copying of Western ideas, and start paying
attention to indigenous ideas in psychology in India."
Expanding the applicability of native concepts and models beyond organizational psychology,
in the following chapter on Indian concepts of psychology, Dr Sam Manickam, a practising
psychologist from Kerala, draws out their challenging implications for future action. Depicting
a somewhat pessimistic picture of the current scene, Dr Manickam suggests his own remedies
for numerous limitations in doing Indian psychology.
In a major chapter on meditation, Professor Jean Kristeller and Dr Kobita Rikhye review
the extensive literature on meditative traditions and empirical research on them. Dr Kristeller,
a professor of psychology at Indiana State University in USA, is well known for her researches
on meditation, especially for her studies of the beneficial effect of meditation practise for those
suffering from eating disorders. In this chapter, Dr Kristeller and her former student Dr Rikhye,
describe the major Indian classical meditative traditions, their entry into the West and their
contemporary forms. They discuss the meditative process and provide an extensive review of
empirical research within the framework of what they call "the multi-domain developmental
model of meditation effects." They further draw out the implications of the model for clinical
application and conclude with a description of the contemporary scene.
In chapter 28 on the Buddha and his attainment of satori, Dr Hiroshi Motoyama of the
Institute of Religious Psychology in Tokyo, Japan, deals with the personal transformation of
the Buddha. Motoyama is not only a psychologist-philosopher, but also a practising priest in
the Shinto tradition. He is also known as someone who himself has spiritual experiences and
undergone personal transformation. Therefore, he is well qualified to decipher first-person
experiences of meditation. In this chapter, Dr Motoyama describes the four states of meditation
in the riipa-loka (world of form) and the four states in the ariipa (no form) realm. Drawing
from Hajime Nakamura's Gotama Buddha, Motoyama analyses Buddha's satori experience
and points out that the fundamental teachings of the Buddha arising from his experience relate
to the nature of karma and reincarnation, emancipation from and transcendence of the world of
karma, and becoming a Buddha.
In the following chapter Dr Eugene Taylor examines the concept of "pure experience" in
William James and relates it to samadhi. With his sophisticated Jamesian scholarship and intimate
knowledge of Indian philosophical systems, Dr Taylor makes a case that James's knowledge of
Samkhya metaphysics appears to play a role in his clear articulation of "the three legs of his
tripartite metaphysics of pragmatism, pluralism and radical empiricism." James's radical
empiricism with its emphasis on pure experience, covering all spectrums of experience, is
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 16 Handbook of Indian Psychology

often ignored by Western philosophers and psychologists. Dr Taylor concludes that James, like
the Samkhya thinkers, asserts the primacy of personal experience and the "emotional dimension
of the intuitive insights that come from mystical awakening."
The chapter on Sri Ramana Maharshi by Dr Anand Paranjpe, emeritus professor of
psychology at Simon Fraser University in Canada, is an exploration of the Advaita concept of
self-realization in the life of a person reputed to have achieved a state of self-realization.
Dr Paranjpe, a student of Erik Erikson, combines his scholarship in Advaita with the case study
method made popular by Erikson's psycho-historical studies of Mahatma Gandhi and Martin
Luther King. The result is a form of applied Indian psychology - a pioneering essay leading,
one would hope, to more in-depth studies of personalities like Mahatma Gandhi, Mother Teresa
and Ramakrishna Paramahamsa who appear to have achieved self-realization personally and
at the same time helped to transform numerous others.
The concluding chapter of the Handbook is by Professor Charles Tart, a pioneer in
popularizing studies of altered states of consciousness through his widely read and referred
book Altered State of Consciousness. Dr Tart has a long standing, deep interest in Hindu and
Buddhist thoughts. A psychologist who grew up in a rigourous empirical tradition of the West,
Dr Tart tells us that one of the major sources of inspiration to him is his readings on Yoga and
specially the writings of Swami Vivekananda. His essay on altered states of consciousness and
the spiritual traditions of India in this volume is an appropriate closure to the Handbook. Dr
Tart expresses the hope, which we fully share, "that (1) essential scientific method can be used
to winnow and refine spirituality, to make it both more authentic and effective, and (2) essential
spirituality can refine and guide scientific endeavour in a similar way." Indian psychology is
one of the possible venues for that kind of science-spirituality symbiosis. The concluding
sentences of Dr Tart's chapter are fitting concluding words for the Handbook as well. "Will
Indian psychology, drawing on its unique heritage as well as Western methods, expand our
whole field? Or become just a clone of Western psychology? Or stay in a narrow fascination
with old ways without investigating them more deeply? These are very interesting challenges
for our world!"
Even though the book is addressed primarily to those interested in psychology, a number of
chapters are essentially philosophical in their presentation. This may have some chilling effect
on those with little or no philosophy background. We believe that at this stage this situation is
unavoidable. Indian psychology is going through a formative stage. It is not a finished product.
It is evolving; and the evolution is necessarily from its philosophical ancestors in classical
writings. We believe that these essays would serve to stimulate psychologists to translate them
into understandable psychological idiom. This will also draw out their implications to
psychological research. The growth of Indian psychology depends on future developments in
this respect.
To conclude, there is much in the Indian tradition that is of great relevance to important
concerns of psychology in general and psychology as practised in India in particular. Indian
psychology as described above has the necessary conceptual ingredients and theoretical recipes
for baking a wholesome psychology that we can all enjoy. It has the potential to emerge as a
full-fledged system for a more inclusive understanding of human nature, for promoting human
potentials much farther, and for the transformation of the person to function more altruistically
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 Introducing Indian Psychology 17

than is the case within the current guiding paradigm of psychological study and research. For
example, Yoga-Sutras is one of the foundational texts of Indian psychology. Patanjali's aphorisms
contain the architectonic for the inclusive edifice of Indian psychology that embraces in one
fold the secular and the sacred, the transactional and the transcendental. This magical synthesis
of science and spirituality is something the world needs. One can make an equally strong case
for some of the Buddhist writings and insights as the ground for a new psychology. Appropriately
studied and judiciously pursued, with deep scholarship and due methodological rigour and
discipline, Indian psychology has the potential to be the forerunner of future psychology. The
Handbook may be seen as a modest step in that direction.

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