Indian Psychology Essay

The term Indian psychology refers to the Psychologic completelyy applicable materials in superannuated Indian thought. Usually this term does not cover current developments in psychological erudition in India.Modern psychology at the rootage of the coke emphasized whiz, perception and psychologists in India took out Indian theories of sensation and perception from the classics and created an Indian Psychology. For example Indian theories emphasise the notion that in perception the mind goes out through the senses and assumes the shape of the objects. In 1934, Jadunath Sinha wrote a contain on Indian theories of perception. As soon as westward Psychologists started studying cognition, Indian Psychologists started looking for Indian theories of cognition. In 1958, Jadunath Sinha wrote a book on Cognition. Later on sophisticated Psychology started emphasising emotions, and in 1981, Jadunath Sinha wrote a book on Emotions and the Will.The study part of ancient Indian scriptu res (Hindu, Buddhist and Jain) emphasise self-realization, samadhi or nirvana. After 1960 Humanistic Psychology emerged and Psychologists became interested in paranormal dimensions of growth. Maslows theory of self-actualization and transcendental self-actualization established the link to the major part of ancient Indian theories and methods and almost the whole of ancient Indian writings became psychologically relevant. Psychology of Consciousness, Parapsychology, Psychology of Mysticism, Psychology of Religion and Transpersonal Psychology borrow extensively from Indian writings.The terms Oriental Psychology, Buddhist Psychology, Yoga Psychology , Jain Psychology, etc. are frequently found in new-fangled psychological literature presently. Many book lists in Psychology now include books on Yoga, Buddhism and Zen. There seems to be a paradigm miscue in Western Psychology, a shift from the notion of mental indisposition and healing to personal growth, the reference point shiftin g from the statistical fairish or normal to the ideal or upper limits of mans potentiality.The rudiments of the theory of consciousness tush be traced back to the Indus valley civilization (6000 to 1500 B.C.). Artifacts of a man sitting in Padmasana pick up been obtained in excavations. The Swasthika symbol was used in Indus valley script. Buddhist thought and methods (6th snow B.C.) are in line with the objective spirit of modern science and the law of parsimony of science and Buddhism can be easily interconnected into a scientific framework. The Psychological relevance of the four noble truths and eight-fold trail and Sunya vada of Buddhism and Buddhist techniques of meditation are of considerable relevance in modern Psychology.Similarly Jain scriptures also are found to be relevant to Psychology in much than one way. The Vedas run into from about 1500 B.C. However, Upanishads (appendices to the Vedas, which date from 600 B.C.) which describe the Vedanta philosophy and pr ovide the theoretical foundation of Jnana Yoga are of more direct relevance to Psychology. The Bhagavat Gita gives a quintessence of Indian way of manners and philosophy and it describes the four yogas, Karma, Bhakthi, Raja and Jnana. Several books conduct come on the psychological relevance of Gita. Maslows theory of Meta-motivation is very similar to the purpose of Nishkama karma outlined in the Gita.Patanjalis Ashtanga Yoga is a very systematic introduction of Raja yoga. Both Bhagavat Gita and Ashtanga Yoga are supposed to suck in been compose approximately the turn of B.C. to A.D. Sankaras writings (8th century A.D.) on the different yogas as easyhead as his Advaita philosophy are considered as classics in the eye socket and are of great value to the Psychology of consciousness as well as personal growth. Modern interest in relaxation can be traced to studies on Savasana. Rising popularity of meditation practice links Psychology to Oriental religious practices and philo sophy.Indian literature on aspects of consciousness is vast, considering the classics and their commentaries. noetic states suffer been analyzed, classified and differentiated in detail. Similarly paranormal powers (siddhis) have been classified in detail. The process of personal growth and obstacles to growth have been examined thoroughly. There is a great deal of maturity resulting from long bring in these areas reflected in the writings. Indian theories of linguistics, social doings, crime, etc. are all based on the holistic approach and the broad-based intuitive understanding of behavior in contradistinction to Western theories which are piece-meal, analytic and situation specific. The increasing grandness given to the holistic approach and need for synthesis makes it possible to mix in modern Western Psychology with ancient Indian thoughts as well as methods.The psychosomatic relationship was well known and salient in ancient times. The very first invocatory stanza of Asht angahridaya (the main text in Ayurveda, written in 4th century A.D.) describes how emotions like desires lead to both sensual and mental diseases.Many attempts are being made to integrate ancient Indian Psychology with modern Western Psychology. More than 40 books have appeared in the field of Indian Psychology. There is a journal of Indian Psychology published from Andhra University which has an Institute of Yoga and Consciousness. At least five persons have developed personality inventories based on the Triguna theory (Satwa, Rajas and Tamas) of Kapila (Sankhya philosophy, 6th century B.C.)