Pandey, A. (2011). In M. Cornelissen, G. Misra, & S. Varma S. (Eds.). Foundations of Indian Psychology, Vol. II. New Delhi: Pearson

Psychotherapy and Indian thought

Alok Pandey

Introduction

Human thought has been pre-occupied with the problem of suffering and pain since it became conscious of itself as more than just another struggling animal upon this charming and dangerous earth. Of course this is not the whole of his evolutionary story. The greater part of his struggle has been to evolve a thinking creature out of the mud, to evolve a rational being out of the animal nature imprisoned by the sense-mind, even a spiritual person who ever lurks as a vague hint of light behind his more familiar and surface parts full of the tumult and din of turbulent emotions and the smoke and fury of desires and passions. Still, a part of his evolutionary journey can be written as an attempt to overcome various forms of possible suffering and pain.

This movement to conquer or contain suffering has itself taken two basic forms or approaches. One regards suffering as essentially an inevitable and even natural state of living beings, with life presenting the picture of a constant struggle for survival. Happiness is something that has to be acquired from outside and is not intrinsically ingrained in human nature, though the urge to seek it is part of his constitution. In this approach, relief from suffering and changing it into some form of joy has to be at least a double approach. First, the cutting off of the pain through physical and psychological means and second, the acquiring of happiness through largely external means. The other approach regards some form of joy or bliss as the natural endowment of humanity, nay, even as the very basis of creation, and pain as a temporary superimposition. This approach uses both inner and outer means to get rid of pain, but as for true happiness it insists that it can be found only in one’s own depths. The first approach has led to a multiplication of outer technology and methods to overcome physical and psychological suffering.

The other has led to man’s effort towards inner mastery, through yoga and such other inner means. While the first approach is generally associated with the Western outlook of life, the other is usually regarded as Eastern or, more specifically, Indian. But this is only a generalization. For if we have a dispassionate look, we may find both approaches across the globe existing simultaneously at every point of time, the relative stress on each notwithstanding. But for the modern mind the Western world is associated with advancement of material technology, while in the present era at least the greatest numbers of inner approaches are associated with the Indian subcontinent that still continues to shed an authoritative Light on inner means.

The two approaches

Let us take a closer look at these two approaches with special regard to their relevance to psychotherapeutic methods. If psychotherapy is the science and art of changing the psychological patterns that give rise to mental distress and disorder, then it must base itself on the most complete knowledge and understanding of what a human being is and can become. Much of psychotherapy is, however, based on what a human being was, either in his remote and hoary past as a race (a pack of animals that can speak and think, as some would say) or in his more recent yesteryears of infancy and childhood. Tracing the roots of our present problem in this way, it tries to put a corrective by setting things right there.

The principle sounds good in its own right but there are two fundamental difficulties with it. The first is about defining the past itself. In other words how far back goes our past. The second is about the future. In other words is the goal of psychotherapy to return the client to his past (when he was healthy) or present maximum possibility; or is it to utilise his crisis for an inner evolutionary journey towards a more meaningful future—that is to say, using the crisis as a learning experience for growth and progress. It is here that we come across divergent world-views of man and his goal, his destiny and his scope, views which even give a different understanding of his past and his future. Broadly these can be divided into two main categories, of course risking an oversimplification for the sake of easier comprehension.

·       Man is a creature of the mud formed by a process of chance evolution. He is essentially a physical, or, better perhaps, a chemical being. Psychologically, he is nothing more than an outgrown animal or worm that has somehow managed to form itself through a series of random and accidental mutations. There is no essential goal or purpose of his life except to struggle and survive as other creatures do, and this tussle between his individual instinct to save himself and the social or collective instinct to save others is the source of his inner conflict. The crude animal is his past, the refined animal his maximum scope.

·       Juxtaposed to this, and in somewhat of a contrast, the other view holds man as a creature of heaven fallen here upon earth though high and sublime in his origin and parentage. Psychologically, he is a soul, a miniature divinity shut in the prison-house of matter seeking for release and escape. His goal and purpose is to find his true and spiritual self. An animal in his nature but divine in his essence he is a cross between the two and that is the secret of his difficulty and conflict. The animal nature is the trap, freedom from this trap is his hope of salvation.

As we can see, so different are these two views, so disparate their understanding, that to think of a reconciling synthesis becomes nearly impossible. Therefore they have existed side by side in each civilisation and culture in one form or another, but without any reconciling station. There have been some compromises here and there such as the one attempted by Descartes himself, giving each idea its scope in its own domain. Sometimes their fortunes seesawed. The sophists of old, the later day positivists, and the modern materialist try to explain everything on the basis of our material sense-perception and the struggle of animal life, denying every other experience as a hallucination or poetic imagination. Equally strong has been the rejection of material life as a vanity of vanities, a delusion and nightmare of the soul, by the anchorites and the ascetics.

The evolutionary aim of life

Psychotherapeutic processes keep as their aim the relief of psychological distress in the individual. Of course, with the increasing emergence of the field of psychosomatics and the recognition of the role of the mind in physical illnesses, there are a variety of psychological methods (biofeedback for instance) being used as an adjunct in the management of physical illnesses as well, especially in chronic pain syndromes.  The processes involved in the Western model are essentially a strengthening of the ego, exchanging immature with mature defences, enhancing assertiveness and other survival strategies, increasing adaptation to change and coping with stress. All these means have evolved essentially from the view of man as an animal who is here for an adaptive survival.

The emphasis is on making the body fit, the life impulse healthy and the mind more “mature” in dealing with the problems of life. Of course, some of the later developed models like the humanistic and transpersonal, drawing heavily from the Eastern philosophies, include strengthening the social and spiritual aspects of health. Still, the stress is on making man the animal more equipped and fit for survival and coping with stress. In fact, the very reason for giving so much attention to stress is because it has been found, in terms of physical diseases, to be counterproductive to survival when it escalates beyond a point. Needless to say, this is a purely material standpoint and even though some of the strategies to cope with stress may benefit man’s surface parts and more animal aspects of existence, they may not necessarily be the right strategies from a deeper evolutionary perspective.

What is this deeper perspective? Interestingly, both the traditional Eastern and the modern Western perspective converge on one point. That point is that an evolution is going on behind and through all these processes of Nature. Yet there is an essential difference. It is this, that the material view of life regards nature as a mechanical inconscient process. There is no essential purpose or aim in it. Whatever evolution we observe (and that is an undoubted fact for material science) is an outer evolution of forms governed by pure chance and accidents. But the Indian perspective sees essentially an evolution of the soul that goes on through many cycles of life through which the individual soul changes one form after another, till it reaches its own perfection. In this view, nature is conscious in its depths, an Intelligent-Force that has a teleological basis. This purpose is not so much a material survival, as that has but only a secondary value.

The primary purpose is a growing perfection of the soul embodying the material case. Interestingly, a deeper observation of the living world clearly points towards the existence of a perfect Intelligence-Force behind even the smallest of cells and the simplest of living organisms. Even the most modern findings in physics point in this direction, which we yet fail to acknowledge even when it is self-evident! Is it because this would necessitate such a radical shift in our self-view and world-view, that it would generate a collective stress of re-adjustment? Nevertheless, the Indian perspective has always recognized this evolutionary imperative, and even that man can consciously participate in it by facilitating and accelerating it.

Thus the aim of counselling, the processes used and even the nature of what is considered as a malady, is different in the two approaches. In the materialistic system, psychological movements like anger, sexuality, attachment and greed are not regarded as abnormal, so long as they are within reasonable limits. Indeed quite a limit! Even anxiety and fear are regarded as adaptive so long as they are within limits short of becoming counterproductive. In the Indian perspective, however, these are to be conquered for the soul to evolve to its fullest perfection. The aim of psychotherapeutic counselling is, therefore, not merely to strengthen and assist survival and stress-buster strategies, but even more importantly, to assist in the soul’s evolutionary journey. It is against this background that we can consider some of the strategies and solutions offered to counteract psychological and other forms of human suffering.

The negative Māyāvādin solution to psychological suffering

There has been generally a tendency to attach the term ‘Indian thought’ to a form of Indian thought that has tried to solve the problem by a radical cutting of the knot of pain, rather than by untying it. This view of the māyāvādin and the illusionist rejects the problem in toto by labelling it as something non-existent, a fever and malady of the soul, which can be cured by abolishing the world along with the problem. The solution therefore becomes a greater problem for those who are left behind, the cure being so radical as to fell the body along with the disease. All life is summarily dismissed as a painful illusion, and escape from it, the sole remedy. In its radical extreme outlook, birth itself is seen as an illness, the grandsire of all illnesses, and human life is a supreme opportunity to escape from this cycle of birth and death and all that lies in between. According to this view the soul or whatever else (for some views do not admit the possibility of an individual soul though they do not deny it either) will continue to experience some form of psychological suffering as long as it chooses to be born upon earth. The reasons attributed to this suffering may be different in different doctrines. Some blame it again on the past, not on the individual past of this life alone, but other lives as well. Others have some mercy on the poor soul, a learner and therefore prone to stumbles and fall in its heroic journey, and blame the root cause of suffering on a larger than individual cosmic principle of Ignorance, avidyā. It is this child of māyā that clouds the soul and keeps it a slave and prisoner of Ignorance with its natural consequence of suffering. Still others speak of the cosmic principle of desire that is the source of all misery, and of cessation from desire, the state of blissful calm and freedom or nirvana. It may be noted that suffering, according to these conceptions, is not only the conscious suffering experienced by the mind but a deep unconscious and greater suffering experienced by the soul because of being trapped in this meaningless world of Ignorance. Yet so long as the soul chooses to be part of this avidyā, it will continue to suffer in some way.

The task of a counsellor of this type, if there is one, is to awaken the soul out of this earthly nightmare by reminding it of its essential nature. The only solution is to cease from birth. The experience of conscious suffering is only used as a strong point of support, a lever to develop vairāgya, a state of detached indifference towards life and world leading thereby to non-affliction. It is a kind of desensitisation or de-addiction programme for our world-addiction and craving for material happiness, that brings much suffering in its wake.

In actual practice, however, one does not take this extremist approach. The mind of the client is led through a cognitive framework, starting from his present crisis, to reveal the transient rather than illusory nature of this world and all its events. The mind is made to see the utter impermanence of things that are today and tomorrow will be not, the riches and wealth, the position and the fame, the women and children one has, the fortune no less than the misfortune, all are too little to grieve for. To this, the God-believer adds that the only thing worthy in life is that which is eternal and imperishable - the soul in man, and the Divine above; or, as some combine both these individual and universal aspects of the Divine into a single formula -  Brahman. Here, in passing, a common misconception needs to be clarified. Some modern writers tend to use the word Brahman as interchangeable with that later Paurāṇika deity Brahmā, the progenitor of our world. Brahman is not this or that god though all gods, even as all else, originates from It. Brahman is rather the stable, unchanging and eternal basis of all existence. Even if all creation is dissolved, including the trinity of the gods, Brahman would still remain, untouched as ever! One of the principle Upaniṣads, the Kena, describes in a very forceful way through sublime poetry characteristic of the period, as to how everything originates from Brahman and therefore That alone is the object of our pursuit, and not this that men seek hereafter - tadevabrahman tvamviddhi, nedamyadi damupasate, Know That to be the Brahman and not this that men seek hereafter. Another Upaniṣad, the Katha, describes through a beautiful verse the transient nature of worldly goods, attachment to which brings only grief and suffering and in the end death. Death, in these passages of exquisite beauty, lauds Naciketa, the young aspirant, for his choice of śreyas, the truly worthy good of the soul, over preyas, the momentarily pleasant and the transient worldly good. Thus, through examples and narrative, drawn both from the everyday life of the client, the dress he wears and the crisis he has faced and passed through, as well as from the cultural context, the person is led gradually away from psychological suffering and helped to focus his attention within, towards the true and ultimate goal. In its partial forms, even the first step is regarded as good enough, since, by impressing upon the mind the concept of transience and impermanence, the client is able to detach himself from his malady and feel lighter and freer.

But one may proceed a step further, depending upon the readiness of the client. One may, for example, help the person view the problem more objectively since he would now be detached from its emotional and other effects. A certain distancing is always known to help us see better and understand the situation more clearly. This impermanence, far from being a cause of grief, becomes a positive thing since it also means that grief and unhappiness, tragedy and fall, sorrow and suffering are not an eternal damnation or a permanent doom. They are only a temporary setback or rather an inevitable learning experience for the soul in its brief sojourn of one or a long career of many lives. Through pleasure and pain, through happiness and grief, through success and failure the adamantine march goes on. The journey of the soul does not stop at temporary stations but goes on and will go on till one has found the goal.

Common to all Vedāntic systems is that this world is not what it seems to be and that our values are misplaced and wrong due to the mind’s conditioning through centuries and millenniums of evolutionary process (series of births and rebirths). The psychotherapist corrects this cognitive error through a dialectic process involving thought and utilising the experiences of the person to demonstrate this. But there is a later divergence too. It is in the goal put forward before the soul after it has thus disengaged itself and is able to look at the problem and enigma of human life and its events dispassionately. Useful as this is for a certain class of problems, it has its own drawbacks. Firstly, it almost presumes a certain degree of intellectual development, though perhaps less than is required for understanding the complex dynamics of the classical Western models of psychotherapy. Compared to that it is much more direct and living to the person’s body of experiences. But it does require at least a very forceful mind on the part of the therapist who should be able to logically lead the person from the surface event to the deeper phenomenon, and from the apparent to the real. There is a second and even more serious difficulty. According to the system itself, most souls are trapped themselves in the snare of worldly māyā. So how can the blind lead the blind or the trapped rescue the trapped. The average graduate in medicine, opting for psychiatry as a field, is not interested in high philosophy of life or its ultimate goal. He like everyone else, the client included, is caught in his own nightmare and delusion. Even if he were to intellectually undergo some course in a school, it will not serve a purpose unless he is himself convinced, either through an innate sensitivity to deeper thing, or through life experiences awaking in him a deeper and calmer outlook. This imposes a serious limitation as to who is really qualified to administer this form of counselling. It is evident that outer degrees and qualifications, even a crash course in some Vedāntic school, is of little value here. Only that has a convincing value, which is deeply lived by oneself. The rest touches only the surface and the outer mind, and cannot bring about the inner and radical change. Thirdly, the solution if taken to its logical extreme, may induce a tendency for a total indifference towards the world. While this may be appreciated by certain extremist schools, the seers who propounded this thought were careful enough not to create confusion in the minds of the average person. An overemphasis on this other-worldliness may well lead to inertia justified under the holy name of vairāgya. One often enough finds such escapists who have joined the nirvana bandwagon to avoid responsibilities. A visit to any āśrama will reveal quite a few who, unable to bear the stresses and strains of life, have resorted to the jungle trail. Even those who have suffered disappointments, while admitting the philosophy superficially, nevertheless continue to nurture secret ambitions, but find themselves inadequate to fulfil them. This hypocrisy creates a serious dichotomy between thought and practice and may lead to its own complications as an aftermath. It may, for example, lead to an unfitness for life itself with its many problems and complex situations, while one waits for the nirvana boat to finally rescue one at the end of this life. Such an outcome is obviously a most undesirable one. Individually it may induce one to lead a double life, a sort of spiritual neuroticism if one may say so. But it is even more undesirable collectively, for it weakens the very fabric of the race, depressing its vitality and vigour with the further result of an inevitable decline. Even if there was a genuine individual victory, the doctrine is often misunderstood and used to justify many disparate things, leading to a collective defeat with its fallout of social and other forms of abnormal psychological problems, unique to such cultural traditions.

Therefore, there is an insistence by the wise ones not to delude the minds of the average man who is not ready for this by enrolling all and sundry into the list of candidates for such a counselling - na buddhibhedam janyedajnana karmasanginam, he who is established in the Knowledge (true Knowledge or jñāna) should not create confusion in the minds of the ignorant (who are still attached to their egos and not yet ready). In other words the doctrine requires a high degree of inner development on the part of the counsellor.

It is important to understand here that ancient Indian thought saw in this experience of impermanence only a passage towards a higher Permanence. The illusion was to be understood and torn only to find the Real and not to rest in a midway house built upon the sands of nowhere. But that other thing needs effort, a strong predisposition, a positive seeking which few can command. Yet if the psychotherapist of this type can take this final and crucial step of turning a negative experience into a positive seeking for the Eternal then it would mean a great and a true release of the client. An example of this type of counsel appears in the classical treatise of Yogavaśiṣtha wherein the sage Vaśiṣtha counsels Rāma, while the latter is experiencing a state of utter non-involvement towards life in the world.

This form of counselling, while useful for a select group of clients who mainly suffer from depressions arising due to life situations, is of little use in other forms of psychological disorders, though it may have side utility in counselling those who suffer because of the psychological suffering of their near and dear ones. To take just one example among many, the depressed and suicidal mother of a mentally handicapped child was asked how she would have reacted if this child were her sister’s and she had to bring him up for some reason or the other. The reply was evident. She would do all that she was doing now, perhaps a few things more, but without the touch of depression, perhaps even with a joy born of doing a selfless good for someone. As she replied this she could see the obvious, to live in this world without a sense of attachment or possessiveness. A single short session was enough to change her self-view and world-view. She actually recovered and remained so for years to come.

The positive Vedāntic solution

Indian thought is, however, not only about māyāvād and illusion. Despite the current emphasis on other-worldliness, there have been other equally powerful and positive streams of Indian thought. In fact mukti of the Vedāntin view and nirvāṇa of the Buddhist view, that propose discarding this world as a nightmare, are not the only ideal conceived by Indian thought. The Vedic ṛṣis were very much life-affirming. In fact, there have been other equally powerful tendencies in Indian thought. These views propose a more positive outlook and try to reconcile the material and the spiritual aspects of existence. Of course, the life affirmation suggested here is not the kind attempted in the material model which is essentially an affirmation of the ego. Here the emphasis is on affirmation of the soul upon nature through a growing inner perfection From a psychotherapeutic point of view, it is these that can be even more effective in dealing with human problems of the mind. Some of these major trends can be roughly classified into the following:

The ideal of inner purification

Indian thought sees Nature not only as a single continuous movement but also as a continuum of ascending degrees or potencies. This continuum presents itself as an evolutionary ladder for the soul to climb back to its own innate perfection. All phenomena, according to this vision, can be reduced to a threefold movement that are placed one on top of the other, as the steps of a ladder. In this view, the true value and significance of an action or of any phenomenon in general, lies not so much in its frontal appearance, as in the level or type of consciousness that motivated it. The inner and outer reactions and consequences that follow are the result of the type of consciousness involved, rather than the actual observed movement or action. Three major movements or modes are recognized: tamas, rajas and sattva.

The source of human misery, according to this view, comes at a certain middle stage of our psychological evolution that is called the rājasic. To put it in a nutshell, the human soul evolves through at least three levels in its several rounds of birth before it is ready for the highest spiritual good. The first level is the tāmasic or the darkened state of inertia and utter resistance to change. Here, the law of the masses, the rules of the herd like a subconscious beast or a half-conscious man, drive him. Next comes the rājasic or the state of kinesis and dynamic movement. This second stage can be further subdivided into two: one, the preliminary or the predominantly rajo-tāmasic wherein the being is engaged in self-flattering gross indulgences of every kind; two, the rajo-sāttvic wherein the individual begins to seek some ideal rule of inner law to govern his unruly nature which he begins to perceive as the source of internal disturbances. Finally, there is the third or sāttvic stage wherein the individual learns to subordinate his ego and take from life only what is rightfully his. He seeks intuitively for harmony and is balanced in his conduct and the distribution of life energies. In the primitive or the tāmasic stage there is not much conscious suffering to the individual, though he may be the cause of suffering to many others. The need for violent sensations to feel just a little alive drives some of these people towards alcoholism and violent acts and practices. Others simply sulk, as in depression, refusing to budge or outgrow their state. The second stage is one of fiery pleasures and equally swift swings to the blues. An inordinate self-seeking, an excess of ambition with its natural fallout of anger, fear, hope and expectations and frustrations, brings in its wake opposite reactions from their environment and this egoistic narrowness makes these individuals extremely susceptible to misery. This suffering is actually a corrective of Nature and helps them to push forth here and there to find a way out of their miserable existence. So lastly comes sattva, the great balancer, after the soul has experienced these lesser rungs of existence and grown through them.

It is this middle stage of rajo-tāmasic guṇa that predisposes human beings towards not only extreme forms of cruelty against others but also towards themselves. Many perversions including the sado-masochistic tendencies and drug dependence arise due to a preponderance of the tamo guṇa. Certain illnesses like depression and some forms of schizophrenia can clearly be seen as a gravitation towards the tāmasic state of nature with its attendant extreme inertia, inability to exercise the will, a tendency not to budge or change from one’s psychological condition, an inability to put effort, and to become progressively animal-like and stone-like, dubiously termed as regression in modern psychology, etc.

According to this thought, psychological pain and suffering is the twin of pleasure and thrill. They are two sides of the same coin. Further, thrill (sfurana or indriya-sukh) that is predominantly tāmasic and pleasure (vishaya-sukh) that is largely rājasic are clearly distinguished from happiness (sukham) that is sāttvic in nature. It is subtler and therefore closer to the fundamental joy (harsh) of existence while pleasure and thrill are its degradations. The highest and purest form is of course Bliss (ānanda) that belongs to the pure spiritual domain. To strive after thrill and the vehement, egoistic forms of pleasure is to invite suffering in return. We must grow out of thrill or momentary sense-bound joy, and also pleasure or an equally momentary joy arising through the sense of possession of outer objects, and move on to happiness that is more of an objectless joy which can be observed in those people whose mind is in a state of inner balance and satisfaction through moderation. What is necessary, therefore, is moderation and balance through an enlightened reason and discrimination, sattvaśudhi. This is the ideal of a sane moderation, something similar to Aristotle’s golden mean. It is a conscious and deliberate cultivation of positive qualities of the mind and heart which help one grow into sukham or gladness and prakāśam or light of wisdom.

One inevitable fallout of this system is that the nature of advice given to a client depends upon the stage at which the man stands in his inner evolution. A story attributed to Swami Vivekananda well illustrates this point. When approached by a man for sannyāsa (renouncing the world) who was moved by the will to escape his responsibilities rather than by a positive call for Truth and God, the great one’s reply was: “What is it that you possess and can renounce? First go and earn a lakh of rupees and then come for renunciation!” Unfortunately most people today associate the practice of renunciation with an escape from the struggle and labour of life. In actuality, true renunciation requires a far greater inner strength (and is therefore an evolutionary movement of self-mastery) than the struggle necessary in the world for the satisfaction of desires. It may be noted here that, even in modern psychoanalytic thought, certain sāttvic qualities like renunciation, non-possession and suppression (as opposed to repression) are regarded as mature defence mechanisms, the signs of a mature and healthy mind.

A counsellor who works along these lines will therefore, first assess the level at which the individual stands in his inner evolution. Elaborate descriptions abound in ancient Indian thought, especially in the Gītā and the Ayurveda, as to the type of inner personality and constitution according to the three guṇas, as these three evolutionary stages are better known. It may be mentioned that all of us are a mixture of the three but there is a predominance of one or the other guṇas which leads to physical and psychological afflictions. The kind of therapy and advice given is according to this scale. Thus, a sāttvic person who suffers, due to his attachment to idealism and sympathy with others, is advised and helped and encouraged to develop a still deeper and spiritual outlook; the rājasic man of a higher type is advised to do his work with trust in God and according to the right inner law of his nature, svabhāva and svadharma. The lower type of rājasic man is counselled and helped towards moderation in life habits and outlook, to tone down the excess onrush of desires that torment and trouble him feverishly. The unruly and excess uncontrolled energy that bursts in his nature is channelled into healthy activities like sports and vigorous games. One can learn from the army how well they use the rājasic type of man and channelise his energies for war. But to the tāmasic man very little works by way of counselling unless something shakes him up, some terrible misfortune which effects him personally and arouses the dormant energies in him. Anything, almost anything that can stimulate in this type of person a will to do work with concentration and perseverance is a good counsel. Fine crafts, manual work that requires physical concentration, help in this state as is seen in some psychotics and extreme forms of depression. Also helpful is anything that can stimulate in these people a sense of joy—like eating a dish they relish, or simple things that give pleasure. These people are rarely advised to pursue spirituality of the meditative ascetic type because they would immediately hold on to it and, as mentioned above, use it as an excuse to stay a recluse or to justify inertia and addictions to drugs that easily transport them to altered realms without any inner effort.

There are other subdivisions of these guṇas but all people can be classified along the lines of these three types. One can well see the utility of this typology in treating certain personality and behavioural/conduct disorders. It is also useful in understanding some of the conflicts which arise largely when an individual is transiting from one level to another with divergent pulls in his nature. The task of the therapist in such cases is to assist the full emergence of the higher type while working through the conflict. A detailed discussion of all the possible variations may well be beyond our present scope but, as is evident, this system has great practical utility. It also settles the previous difficulty of who is suitable for a deeper spiritual counselling. Besides, it does not require any deep philosophical capacity or outlook on the part of the client, though it needs a lot of inner tact and understanding on the part of the therapist. Finally, this understanding can be combined with other forms of systems of counselling as well, and hence, its immense usefulness. 

The harmony of body and mind

If Illusionism is most commonly (mis)understood as representative of Indian thought, then some kind of mind-body harmony through yoga exercises is the most commonly sought after therapeutic technique. Especially the forms of Haṭhayoga exercises (better termed as āsanas or yogāsanas), prāṇāyāma and meditation are among some of the most well researched imports from India that have already found a place in modern psychotherapeutic systems. Many researches done in the East as well as the West right from the sixties (perhaps even earlier), have demonstrated the efficacy of these simple stress- buster techniques. Theories may differ as to the exact mechanism of their action, but there is hardly anyone who would deny their efficacy in creating some sort of harmony between the body and the mind. While the West predominantly searches for material explanations it is interesting to know what the originators of these systems thought about the “mechanism” of their action. This may only help us to modify them according to our peculiar circumstances and unique needs.

First of all these “techniques” were not meant originally as just techniques. These exercises were part of a larger movement - that of coming in contact with our own Divine essence, hid in everything and at each plane of our existence. They were also meant to prolong life and stabilize the force of life and increase mental vigour, but these gains were not so much for an adaptive survival, as for creating the best possible conditions that would be favourable to our inner journey towards the perfection of the soul. Here it must be clearly understood that the ancient Indian mind saw the body and its preservation not as an end in itself but as a means for the right conduct and fulfilment of dharma, śariram khalu dharmsādhanam. Though these ancient practices are being now seen as the Indian counterpart of behavioural therapy, they are not so in their true essence, for the simple reason that very few things in Indian thought, perhaps none, have arisen in a state of divorce from spirituality, least of all the systems of yoga. Even the atheistic and agnostic conceptions have their spiritual element.

In Haṭhayoga and prāṇāyāma, the practitioner tries to first regulate, and then still, the otherwise restless physical and vital energies. But this is a preliminary first step. The next and more important one is that he tries to in-gather and concentrate these energies so as to reach their divine source and bring out their deeper divine possibilities. Once this divine possibility comes out, and even much before that, the energies of the body and life force become forceful, effective, balanced, harmonious and thereby curative. This is excellent for those who are not so psychologically minded, and for those less inclined towards an esoteric spirituality. It is besides quite effective and has been used with considerable success in treating psychosomatic disorders.  The principle here is that diseases of the body arise due to an imbalance in the flow of prāṇic currents (life force) that moves mainly along five different channels, two lower (apāna), two upper (udana) and a middle one (samana). The practices besides other things were meant to regulate the life force along its fivefold path in a balanced and harmonious way—an occult knowledge that we are only fragmentarily discovering again.  The disadvantage is a technique dependency. These methods, to be fully effective, have to be practiced regularly. They consume a lot of time and need often the supervision of a qualified expert. They are best used as an adjunct in treating a wide range of disorders including psychoses.

Meditation is however slightly different even though it comes under the broad category of “techniques” evolved by the Eastern paradigm, though nowhere with the wide range and variation as in India. It is a vast subject in its own right and one need not go into all the details of the different techniques and their relative efficacy. But suffice it to say that one of its well-known effects, recognised now world over, is in toning down the response of our sympathetic nervous system. This way it creates a sense of calm at the most physical level. There may be deeper reasons though, since the nervous system, more specifically the autonomic nervous system, is a sort of interface between the gross physical energies, and the energies of life and mind pouring upon matter and influencing it. Two techniques are specifically helpful. One is the Buddhist method of a witnessing self-reflection and introspective meditation. This technique is quite useful for undoing certain habitual nervous responses, anxiety states, obsessive patterns of thoughts and behaviour, anger management, even in studying oneself and thereby controlling oneself. The essential steps here are thought-observation, witnessing, control and mastery. But this is a little more difficult, usually demands some isolation on the part of the practitioner, and needs a somewhat developed mind to be able to separate one part of it from another. The other and more popular, easier-to-do yet very effective technique is that of dynamic meditation and its scientific child—guided imagery. This method relies on the faculty of imagination and can be considered a first cousin of autosuggestion. In fact the two are often combined together. The role here again is largely in the treatment of psychosomatic disorders, anxiety disorders, etc.

The integral thought of the Gītā

There remain now two more very powerful, widely used but often misunderstood, systems of ancient Indian thought. These two systems seem to move along very different lines though there is an unspoken occult and higher synthesis between them. First of these is the ideal of the Gītā, often misrepresented as the gospel of karma, further reduced to mean an incitement to duty regardless of its effect. One can only smile at such summary dealings of a great scripture that has endured through centuries of invasion and corruption, and yet continues to inspire and transform mankind. All that one can say is that if the Gītā were to teach nothing more than merely moral rectitude then it would not be worth the trouble. In fact there are not one or two but quite a few words and sūtras in the Gītā that one can utilise for counselling and therapeutic purposes. This is because the Gītā, unlike many other similar scriptures, is an attempt at the synthesis of various truths known till then. In addition, it adds something unique and profound and new, enriching the old with a fresh insight. What are these sūtras?

First and foremost is this truth that man is essentially an imperishable soul who uses the body as a charioteer uses the chariot. This reverses the heavy dependence of man’s psychological states on the physical events and happenings of life by constantly reminding us that we are first and foremost eternal and imperishable souls that assume a transient body as a person wears a dress. This doctrine has had so much impact through the ages that till date there is hardly any more effective counselling for the grief and pain of death. Millions of people have used the Gītā in times of crisis— especially loss events—and found solace and strength. This is the first thing to remember, that we are essentially souls that cannot be destroyed by the catastrophes of life and of nature.

The second doctrine is that man need not take this soul merely as an article of faith (though faith is a great power, the blind man’s indispensable staff till he has begun to see the higher truths). He can discover this soul and out of the many ways that the Gītā would outline for different categories of people, one such way is the enlightened use of his intelligent will. Instead of turning it constantly outward and downward to satisfy our desires or being simply caught up in the web of surface phenomenon, this intelligent will in man can be turned upward and inward to discover our own sublime realities which free us from bondage to grief and error and suffering and pain. The Gītā also briefly mentions one or two psycho-physical practices and forms of concentration to help us go within.

A third principle is that we are not abandoned helplessly upon earth without support and God Himself is concerned with the march of civilisation towards some ultimate Good. What that ultimate Good would be is left unsaid or only hinted at, but the Gītā incites us to take it as a word of God that He is concerned intimately with the earth and men. Each element of the universe has hidden within it a Divine superconscient (not the superego or the conscience, which are human things, aspects of our mind and ego’s constructs) and not just a subconscient animal principle (instincts as the base of everything) as much of Freudian psychology at one time asserted. The Gītā clearly hints that Divinity dwells within the human being and it is the task of each one to bring it out rather than stifle it. This is the great conflict going on at the macro and the micro levels.

The principle conflict therefore is between the cosmic principles and powers of Light and their opposites darkness and Ignorance. This is the fourth principle, that war and conflict are unavoidable evolutionary necessities so long as earth and mankind is imperfect. Our inner conflicts are essentially evolutionary conflicts, our inner and outer crises are essentially a cry for an evolutionary change. Man can choose to remain in his darkened state in which suffering pursues him till sense is knocked into his head and he once again takes the path to the eternal good which is also the collective good. The Gītā elaborately describes, towards the closing chapters and in great detail, the nature of the powers of light and of darkness. Thus man, if he wants to be free of error and grief, has to consciously cultivate the qualities of light and truth.

A fifth element of the Gītā, and the most widely known, is the concept of niṣkāma karma. The principle of karma and its consequences depends upon the level from which the action has been done. This has already been hinted. Suffice it to remind that, according to the Gītā, karma is an inner evolutionary mechanism and not a summary disposal by a Super Judge or a CEO through a system of outer rewards and punishments. If anything, the rewards and punishments are within, through the ensuing inner psychological states. Thus, acts done under a tāmasic state cloud and delude our consciousness, making it more and more dense and impervious to Light and Joy. Similarly, acts done under a rājasic state of “I” and “My”, even if they are generous and philanthropic acts (but done under the stress of the vital ego), bring in their wake transient happiness invariably mixed with or followed by suffering. Sāttvic acts lead to an increase in inner happiness and wisdom, sukham and prakāśam. We can, however, be free of karma and its consequences by arriving spontaneously to that high point of our soul’s long and chequered evolutionary career towards which the machinery of karma and Nature is driving us, that is, to discover the Godhead secret within us. The method suggested by the Gītā towards this end is to dedicate our everyday actions to the secret indwelling Godhead and Lord who resides within every heart of every living and thinking creature, Vasudevam (the indwelling Deity), and manuṣi tanu aśritam. Thus practiced, our everyday actions, even the most trivial, can lead us to a glad and happy state of being if we do them in a selfless spirit of dedication to the Divine Master and remain equal to the fruits that they may bring. This stress upon a tranquil mind, equal under every circumstance—in the seemingly pleasant and the seemingly unpleasant, in success and victory no less than in failure and defeat—is a great liberating principle of the Gītā that takes the wind out of much of our everyday psychological and even physical suffering. This equality is not indifference but a state of equal joy by dwelling constantly in The Lord’s remembrance and abiding solely by His Will.

The establishment of equanimity is therefore another very practical method prescribed by the Gītā to free us from the stress of everyday life. Would it not lead to a casual lackadaisical approach towards life, we may ask? The question naturally stems from an assumption that desire for a particular result is the sole motivator of human action. While that may be true of certain needs such as hunger and thirst etc. in our more animal parts, desire is very clearly a distortion that arises because need turns into greed. But even need is not an imperative. For, according to Yoga, needs are nothing but a habit of Nature, a conditioned response of the mind, so to say, to an object. We can recondition ourselves to such an extent that even needs of food and water can be done away with. Of course that is an extreme form of yoga stretching the possibilities of deconditioning to its utmost. Still, the question of motivation in works would remain. The Gītā commands us to take up all works as works of God, to do them for the good of the world through Him, since He alone knows the very best for each and the all. Our role, or rather the role of nature in us, is to be a faithful and perfect instrument. In other words, the Gītā enjoins us to pursue perfection and excellence in works as part of our instrumentality, but with the sole motive of service and love and with the sole inspiration from a higher knowledge and guidance arising in a mind tranquil and free of the turbulences of desires and passions. The wages, in return, though they are not to be sought after for their own sake, are an intrinsic delight and unconditional peace, wisdom and freedom and, above all, a Godward growth of our entire being. For this we have to cultivate equanimity as a basis. Equanimity is not only a strong foundation for a higher life but also a solid bedrock of safety against the world’s knocks and blows in our everyday ordinary life as well. We can arrive at it through several ways. One of these is to practice stepping back. That is to say, before rushing to speak or act in haste, we need to hold on for a while and look at the relative importance or unimportance of a thing from the widest and largest possible frame of reference. If practiced sincerely, we shall discover the triviality of many things to which we gave great importance. Another method is to look at events and circumstances for what they are in their essentiality and at their just place in the totality of life. For we often ascribe a place to things that is out of proportion to their real value when seen from a deeper and truer perspective. Setting things in their right place and right perspective helps us to avoid many troubles and misunderstandings in life. Another way is to develop a dispassionate and philosophical outlook or else to develop a resilience and fortitude that can endure the shocks. But most of all equanimity can be best developed by a conscious and willing and glad surrender to God’s Will in the cosmos.

That takes us to the greatest and crowning word of the Gītā that comes with the great assurance that God will deliver us from all fear and evil if we can learn to surrender ourselves into His hand. Modern psychology, born out of a sceptic temper suited to material pursuits, has little sympathy with the idea of God. Nay, it may even regard it as blasphemous to talk of God in matters of science. But we must remember that psychology is not a physical science. It does not deal with physical but with psychological phenomena and, whether we like it or not due to our own individual biases, the fact remains that God and seeking for Divinity and good, faith and surrender are very much psychological phenomena, as ancient or even more ancient than the roots of our hills, at the same time modern and as modern as the quantum theories of space and the universe. It will be a great loss to psychology if this great body of our psychological self-experience is left unutilised for it is not scientific scruples but our blind attachment to Ignorance that prevents us from seeing where there is Light and refusing the doors to a greater possibility for man. Whether accepted in scientific circles or not, the bare empirical fact is that faith in God has continued to relieve and cure people around the world, cutting across man-made and nature-made barriers. As they say, the proof of the pudding is in eating it. So let those who test the pudding do so and let those who taste and relish it continue. Till we find that grand reconciliation, to each his own god, be it the god of science and the gospel of matter or the god who is the core of our being and the gospel of the spirit, it hardly matters, for both are, in our present stage, perhaps two different ways of seeing the One Reality which exceeds and fulfils both

In actuality there is no real opposition between faith in God and reason. Reason, if we are sincere, leads us to the doors of agnosticism and even hints at some cosmic Intelligence at work in the cosmos. When we regard this vast and wonderful world of myriad phenomena we clearly see the working of a perfect Intelligence that is conscious, precedes its Works even when the thing worked upon is not conscious of It. It even wonderfully limits, or shall we say, adapts Itself to Its instruments. It becomes then merely a logical extension that one’s consummation and supreme fulfilment would be to develop oneself in a way that one is able to express and manifest that Intelligent-Will as perfectly as one can. If we can concede this simple observational and inferential truth, then we have to make only one more logical extension, that this perfectly conscious Intelligent Force is also at once a Being, and we can relate with It just as with anything else. Nay, it is our own highest Self, the greatest possibility hid within us as a script of the future unrolling with the waves of Time. That apart, the fact is that several eminent men and women have experienced this essential divinity, cutting across the boundaries of space and time and education. The difficulty is in reconciling the various notions of God created by religions. They do not seem to meet in their outer and emphasized details. Therefore the article of faith becomes relevant. But that need not concern us so much. Science seeks to go behind appearances so here too it can learn to look behind the religions and various practices and arrive at the essential truth about a Divine Perfection and Conscious Force behind this world and Nature. If Science could admit this it would be truly a great leap!      

A bold reconciliation: The path of Tantra or an inner technology

And yet reconciliation is possible. The first attempt to reconcile the two apparent opposites (the materialist and the spiritual) is that great and now lost tradition of the Tantra. The Gītā seeks to reconcile life in the world (the problem of the practical man) and spiritual realisation. The Tantra seeks to reconcile the energies moving this cosmos (the field of the scientist) and the Supreme Energy from which these lesser forms and forces and energies derive themselves. If that were so, then it is possible to master or conquer the lesser energies by the stronger and greater ones. This is the fundamental principle of Tantra— to understand, possess, control and master forces and powers of nature as well as of a greater supernature. Seen thus, it is closer to our conception of science though with a much wider application.

Thus, while science studies and tries to master physical forces and energies of matter, Tantra goes deeper to study and master other occult energies beyond and behind the play of our material universe. It sees physical phenomena as a by-product or final end result of still deeper and occult events happening at other levels of our consciousness. In the field of illness, for example, it sees entities and beings and forces of disruption and disintegration on which one can act directly if one has the occult knowledge, thus curing one of an illness without physical means of intervention. Unfortunately, modern insistence on physical causes alone has done much damage to this highly developed science which has its own rationale of working. Tantra itself fell into disrepute since few occultists and tantrics had the required inner purity to handle such intense forces. Many fell into the by-lanes of inner life, falling into the corridors of power. Those attracted by the power but unable to pay the inner price turned to lower and derivative stuff like black magic, witchcraft, etc. The worship of power, not backed by a solid footing in the highest knowledge, led to a further decline and admittance of all sorts of things which were more of occult quackery rather than occult wizardry. The presence of incompetent doctors or quacks in the field of medicine does not abrogate the fact of medical science as a genuine branch of science. So also the modern disrepute of Tantra does not in any way mean that Tantra in itself was something of a low order or that its practitioners were simply indulging in some mumbo-jumbo. Our opinions or the limits of our understanding about Tantra and its efficacy do not determine truth. It stands in its own right and might.

Indian thought and psychiatry

When we turn to psychiatry there is a lot that Tantra can offer, not by way of our modern misreading of its hieroglyphs through the lens of psychoanalysis, but in increasing our understanding of the subtler causes of illness. Thus, according to the Tantric knowledge, frank insanity is due to possession by certain entities from the dark and hostile worlds. These turbulent energies first enter into the atmosphere of a person who is susceptible to them (through affinity of some parts of nature). This is the prodrome stage when the first line of occult prevention can be done. Next they cast an influence which usually takes one or the other forms, viz:

·       Early influence leading to some personality changes (towards loss of faith and will, doubts, depression, confusion, perverted religiosity, excessive self-vanity, sexuality and other appetites, uncontrolled impulsiveness, among other things)

·       Epilepsy which is more characteristically due to resistance by the effected person’s being against the force.

·       Hysteria, especially possession states, dissociation, multiple personality, etc.

·       Active communication with these dark entities through voices and other means as in certain forms of psychotic states.

·       Finally frank possession / incarnation of one of these stronger dark entities leading to a total perversion of thought and feeling and will and action and speech creating the cruel tyrant, the psychopath and the outright pervert. 

These dark forces and beings have been elaborately classified in Tantric literature. Some of these are the asuras (or perverters / distorters of mind, specifically thought and speech), the rākṣasa (or perverters and distorters of feelings and will), piśācas (or perverters / distorters of sensations and physical instincts). There are other minor entities such as the elemental beings called bhūta, disembodied beings called preta who float in the vicinity of the dead, especially one who has died a traumatic death. These beings and entities have been known everywhere, and they are mentioned under different names in Western, Arabic and other spiritual literature.

Now the Tantric, the occultist, the shaman, the thaumaturgist—call him whatever—knew about these forces and ways to neutralise them just as a modern scientist would know about the forces of wind and rain and fire and know how to handle them. These can be further subdivided into two main types. The lower type have within their control some powerful entity of the same plane which would execute their will for good or for evil purposes. Others have mastered the higher energies through sufficient purity and self-control. These then can neutralise the lower beings with the power of Light. Naturally, this latter type is preferable and also his powers are more permanent, but this type of a Tantric is rare to find since it requires too much inner austerity on the part of the practitioner.

The lost knowledge of Tantra is now recovering itself, though in other forms more suited to the scientific temper of our times—Reiki, prāṇic healing, working with body energy and mind energy, a study of the effects of thoughts and other vibrations upon the body and mind, a systematic study etc. It is strange that for all the assault of our infant science this grandmother of sciences is not dead. It is rather seeking a rebirth through parapsychology and other such newer sciences. Physical science itself has entered the threshold of the occult and it would not be surprising that in times to come the old ghosts return in the garb of new names and the buried are raised in a different attire.

The two roads to the one solution

Before this paper discusses a grand synthesis of all these diverse systems of Indian thought, the author would like to recapitulate. The practical side of Indian thought can be broadly divided into two main categories. The more commonly known method is the way of knowledge—Vedanta and its child, yoga. The aim here is to rise above suffering by discovering some high station above and outside the sphere of our pain and suffering. By doing so we may not be able to annul suffering or change the ground realities but we are surely able to rise above and transcend them. It is like the big spot becoming insignificantly small because the frame enlarges beyond anything we can imagine. This itself is a big gain and, for many, this is enough. They would say, “Let the stain remain, the imperfection of our earth-nature and its resultant suffering continue; it is enough if I can escape its psychological consequences. If others too do it, we all can collectively ascend to a level where suffering is not felt or experienced even though all below is disarray and strife.” The other method is that of power or Śakti and its child, Tantra. Here there is an effort to understand the forces that create confusion and disorder, sickness and imperfection, suffering and pain. There is also some effort to conquer them and therefore it is also known as the vīr mārg or the hero’s path. But here too an inadequacy sets in since power without knowledge is an unsatisfactory thing. One cannot find the final cure if one does not know the ultimate origin. The perfect knowledge of the origin of suffering and evil and imperfection can alone lead to a perfect and most radical cure of these things. In other words, in their highest station Vedānta and Tāntra, the Highest Knowledge and the Supreme Power, are essentially one. But somehow that grand reconciliation has been missing. The Vedāntin who knows but one half of truth simply dismisses the whole issue of suffering as an illusion without caring to find why this illusion was superimposed upon the Supreme Truth. The Śakta Tantric, who has the power, also misses the truth since he does not know how this fall into error and confusion came about and the means to rescue the energies that have seemingly deviated from their true purpose.

The grand synthesis and more

In our own times a grand synthesis of Vedānta and Tantra, of Eastern and Western, of the spiritual and the materialist approach has been achieved and effectuated in the work and vision of Sri Aurobindo. Of course Sri Aurobindo’s yoga is not an eclectic combination of different ways and paths though it embraces the highest knowledge possible to the Vedāntin and the greatest power possible to the Tantric. And yet there is more, something much more not found elsewhere. What is that and how it can help us in our knowledge and practice of medicine and psychiatry is discussed in the following section. As was mentioned above, Sri Aurobindo has shed Light on practically every sphere of life, reconciling not only the two or many great streams of Indian thought but has also joined materialism and other prominent ideas with the mighty currents of Indian spirituality. It is therefore abundantly rewarding to study it as a prototype in some detail since it can well form the backbone to an integral synthesis of ancient Indian wisdom and currently prevalent modern thinking on the subject. For our present purposes, however, we shall confine the exposition only to the problem of psychological well-being and see it against the background of this grand vision of Indian thought carried to its logical extreme by way of summing up the main issues involved:

Firstly, as to man himself, Sri Aurobindo confirms the ancient knowledge that man is not just an aggregate of physical cells or chemical reactions. He is that only in his outer material basis. His true self-identity is that he is a soul. Sri Aurobindo does not use the word soul in a vague or general sense. There is a universal Self of all but there is too an individual soul that has been projected from the One Self into the drama of our earthly life. This individual soul, called the psychic being, is an important key to our psychological well-being. The psychic being is our true being, the secret divinity in us is. Its very essence is peace and harmony and joy; It has a natural attraction for the true, the good, the beautiful. However, it is veiled in human beings for a long time by the surface nature and its movements. But even in the crudest of human natures it exists behind as a ray of light and hope, a little spark of undying truth covered by a heap of darkness.

The one source of our psychological maladies springs from our inability to dwell in the psychic consciousness. We live mostly upon the surface of our nature where there is as of now nothing but confusion and disorder. Our surface nature, unable to have a sure light of guidance, depends heavily upon our outer mind and sense data. The fancy of our desires and the pull of our emotions and passions further corrupt this imperfect, partial and broken knowledge (called Ignorance). The result is a falsification of knowledge, a crass Ignorance about ourselves and others. This wrong identification with the ignorant movements of nature as if that were “me” is the origin of our subjective sense of the ego which appears so very real. With this sense of the surface “me” comes also the sense of what is “not me”. With that there begins the possibility of a conflict and clash of forces, since no real unity or harmony is possible with the ego, only at best some accommodation, tolerance and adjustment. This is one source of our conflict with all that is not perceived as myself, whether it be as seen in others or hid in our own subconscient depths, which in essence is the same thing. For we almost instinctively see in others a reflection of ourselves. We also wish to see in others the perfection that we secretly desire but have not yet arrived at. Much of our social and emotional conflict with others stems from this root trouble, the separative ego-sense and its attendant Ignorance, or vice versa if we like. This does not mean that there is no such thing as the individual. On the contrary, there is indeed a true divine individual within us that has been projected to manifest one or some aspect of the Integral Divine. It is our individual drive and need to arrive at that manifestation of the divinity in us. The more we do this, the more we feel fulfilled and thereby truly satisfied and happy, and the less we are in conflict with others since we begin to perceive others too as equally representative of yet other aspects of the One and Infinite Deity. The mutually contradictory parts within and outside us begin to appear as mutually complementary parts, thus resolving many conflicts and contradictions that arise in our everyday life from unresolved internal conflicts to discord in relationships. To put it more precisely, the outer conflicts of man are the reflection of his inner conflicts.

Another source of our conflict is a tussle between what we are and what we secretly aspire to be, between our animal past and our godlike future. There is no part of human nature that can truly resolve this conflict. Reason, even at its best, very often leaves us in a quandary as happened in the case of Arjuna. What is the thing to be done and what should not be done often leaves even the sages perplexed, says the Master of the Gītā. The standards of reason are the standards of the Ignorance since reason has not the sure light with which to act. Besides it is very often left at the mercy of our emotions and impulses and passions and desires. So crafty are these lower ministers that reason itself is unable to play the detective when it is being subtly used to serve them. And all of us are not fortunate to have the embodied avatāra or a guru by our side to guide and lead. But there is in each of us the inner avatāra, the Divine spark within, the psychic being, that which can guide us infallibly. This is the first line of psychological help available to us, the inner healer who can put things straight within our house, yampasyanti hrtayecheendosha.

Not content with theorising alone, Sri Aurobindo and The Mother have given abundant practical methods for the discovery of our psychic being. To discover and uncover the psychic consciousness is to break through the first rank and file of the army of Ignorance, into our own true nature, svabhāva, and unleash the knowledge and power of the soul. But this is only a first great step. There are other aspects of Ignorance that are important without which our freedom from suffering and imperfection cannot be complete. This next step is a step towards our spiritual evolution which is the real plot of the drama. Sri Aurobindo affirms once again the ancient truth of rebirth but gives it a totally new and unique significance. Rebirth, or rather birth itself, in Sri Aurobindo’s vision is neither a chemical nor spiritual accident. It is not an issueless creation where a stern judge sits over us watching and passing decrees of reward and punishment over souls stumbling helplessly through the dark forests of Ignorance. From birth to birth and through experience to experience the soul in us grows till it is ready to manifest its inherent divinity upon earth. Mukti, which essentially amounts to an essential freedom from our lower nature and its reactions, is only a preliminary step towards something higher to take place in matter. It is the manifestation of a higher Supernature upon earth. Though our soul is inherently divine and its discovery helps us immensely in recovering our true inner poise and outlook upon things, yet the nature that the soul wears as a robe around itself is not a perfect one. As long as the nature that we wear around us as a cloak remains fallen and obscure, life on earth shall remain a field of error and suffering and a hazardous experiment. Our individual soul realisation will no doubt save us from personal affliction of misery but the common universal problem will continue with its effects of disease and disorder on the body and mind. It will be like being a king in a kingdom of rogues or the owner of a decrepit estate!  

So the next thing is to ascend to higher and higher levels of spiritual consciousness beyond the mind and with each ascent to take up the lower levels and elevate these to a higher quality by the touch of the higher descending into the lower. This is the evolutionary aspect of life which can be best termed in modern parlance as ascent and integration leading towards a greater and greater degree of wholeness. This gives a new aim for Man and a new goal for psychotherapy. The outer evolution is paralleled by the evolution of consciousness. In animals it is an unconscious process but in human beings it begins to become more and more conscious. In other words, we are not just helpless and mute witnesses or unconscious automatons in nature’s hands, being shaped by struggles or whatever else, towards a higher development. We are and can be active participants, our choices can help or hinder the evolutionary pace, though it cannot stop the inevitable outcome. Our evolutionary journey stretches through many lives and it is here that we discover the real significance of rebirth. Our illnesses are not the result of some punishment for bad deeds, they, as indeed everything else, are simply a kind of learning process, an inner growth through learning the effects of different types of responses to different energies put forth by our nature.

Here we discover another source of conflict. The first conflict is a general one between our true being and our lower nature, or, to say it differently, between our true spiritual self and the false ego self. The other conflict is between the different parts of our nature which dwell on different levels of consciousness. This creates an inner disharmony. Thus the mind in us may be ready to evolve towards a greater light while the heart may refuse to move and remain shut in its narrow boundaries and fixed formulas. Or the heart too may be ready to widen but the life impulse may be stuck with lower motives and the body utterly refusing to move due to inertia. This creates an inner disharmony leading to psychological and physical imbalances. If the imbalance is too strong, and if the psychic development is weak, the cosmic forces of disruption and disorder may step in and create more serious imbalances like the ravaging psychotic and the perverted sociopath and criminal.

The concept of cosmic forces is again not new but is present in all ancient mystic thought. The modern mind, shut in the ivory tower of matter unable to see beyond the tip of the ego’s immediate field of observation, knows nothing about it. But the insight of the yogi and the mystic dives deeper and reaches farther to the outermost rim and the inmost layers of the infinite landscapes of our Consciousness. He sees the hidden forces that move life, the occult source of our action, the dark and bright side of our one reality, the luminous play of the gods leading us to harmony and truth and light, and the whisper of evil luring the human heart. From another point of view we may simply see them as inevitable evolutionary challenges to assist in our growth by throwing upon us an obstacle to be overcome. The evolutionary journey therefore seems to have always a double challenge, the outer challenge to matter for overcoming the stresses of our outer environment, and the inner challenge to the soul for overcoming the pressure of the cosmic forces. The first of these challenges when rightly mastered leads to a harmonious adaptation between our nature and outer environment. The successful meeting of the inner challenge through an inner growth leads to a harmony between the different parts of our inner nature and their equation with the cosmic forces.

Finally, Sri Aurobindo has given a widest possible map of consciousness that can be considered as a common matrix for a reconciling synthesis between Science and Spirituality. Both admit Consciousness but while one sees it as a by-product of our mental evolution, the other sees evolution itself as the natural outcome and an act of Consciousness that is the immaterial and subtlest of subtle Reality behind everything. It is a new way of seeing and mastering life and its anomalies, by a top-down view rather than the bottom-up one that we follow now, leading to much confusion. To take just one example out of many, in the traditional psycho-analytic model lust and anger would be seen as primary forces while love and strength would be seen as their sublimated and altered versions and therefore only a civilisational eyewash. But in the spiritual view, it is Love and Strength that are the original forces (among others) of which lust and anger are degraded forms. The difference is radical since while the former means that in effect man’s natural state is that of a fallen animal and therefore any humanness in him is merely a temporary and fragile cover for the beast, the other view holds that man is essentially a spiritual being and his animalness as well as his humanness are only temporary passage towards a yet to come godliness. This is a total reversal of view and goals of treatment indeed!   

A terrestrial divine perfection: The complete solution.

To grow in knowledge (the aim of the Vedāntic yoga) and to grow in power (the aim of Tantric yoga) and through this growth to discover the ānanda of becoming is the great human journey. The meeting point of these two seemingly different aspects of existence is Consciousness, which in the ancient Indian conception is at once knowledge and power, cit-śakti. A growth in Consciousness is the aim of human life and also the solution of our human misery and suffering. The more we grow in Consciousness (that is, towards higher and higher levels of knowledge and power), the more we become progressively free of Ignorance and limitation, the more we discover the peace and ānanda hidden as the base and support of everything. To discover these hidden springs of ānanda is to be free from suffering, to discover the hidden source of Light is to be free from error, to discover this hidden source of Love and Oneness is to be free from disharmony and disorder, to discover in this ascending scale the divinity of Life is to be free from death.

Illness, in this sense, is a barometer, if we like, to discover our hidden weaknesses or points that need to be developed and perfected, or to use the Darwinian language, are challenges thrown across the soul by nature to uncover its own inherent divine potential. Each illness represents as it were, the obverse side of some potential yet to be discovered. Each shadow of the body or mind taking the form of illness is a concealment of some possibility of light yet to be born. Our illnesses are therefore evolutionary challenges, our crisis and conflict a means for greater self-discovery. Nature utilises our pain and struggle so that a greater being of delight and strength may be born within us. And it is the task of the therapist to assist this evolutionary process.

How shall he do it? What will be his means and tools and instruments? The first and most important tool and instrument in this catalytic process is the therapist himself. It is the consciousness of the therapist interacting with the consciousness of the client that effects this change. According to the ancient Indian conception such an inner change in another individual can only be effectuated by someone who has worked out the change within himself. If not, then the second best alternative is that the person must at least have a strong conviction and living faith in the intended change. When neither is available then, and indeed to a greater advantage, this change can be effectuated by a living faith in some past Master or representative of God in whom the client can trust. In either case, the main task of the therapist is to induce this faith in a higher Grace or Power and awaken in him the will and the possibility of a change. Till that happens the therapist becomes a kind of spiritual midwife to assist the delivery of the client in his dark and painful passage through the womb of nature. The task is indeed a delicate one hanging between dependence to something outside him to his discovery of the only true and authentic freedom, independence or autonomy (call it whatever) possible, that of handing oneself into the hands of the divinity within. This was the original conception of “guru” provided for in Indian thought and on which so much stress is laid. The guru is not just a counsellor (though he is that as well) but much more. The guru, according to the ancient Indian conception, is a representative of the Divine who is now veiled to the eye of humanity. He reveals to humanity its own higher part, the spiritual self which is covered by our surface consciousness. The shock of contact with the guru becomes a force to bring forward our hidden deeper self, it inspires us to make the effort necessary to discover the inner guru, the Divine within. And since the guru is not just knowledge but also a power, the greatest of gurus aid the person in distress to discover his own inner potential divinity. It is only a modern and vulgar misconception that sees the guru’s power as a means of satisfying one’s frustrated desires so as to keep life’s problems far away. The guru may do that if necessary but, more importantly, he equips the disciple with his own inner power and light that can weather a million frustrations and storms without breakdown. The guru’s light also unmasks the hidden weaknesses in the disciple without his needing to undergo the more painful and difficult process of disease and crisis that is the method of nature. It is this growth in sincerity through the guru’s intervention, this stripping off of our subconscious defences (rather than strengthening them), so that we may see ourselves as we are and then, with the guru’s help, grow into our own divine nature that is forever free from afflictions and imperfections, full of harmony and peace and ānanda that is the crucial movement of inner growth. In the ancient Indian conception it is not the ego defences (mature or immature) that are strengthened but the strength of the soul that is cultivated. The ego, however necessary it was at a stage of our evolution, becomes a pain and a prison at another stage and must be replaced by the soul principle. This does not mean a defeatist attitude of inaction as those who know of no other identity but the surface ego identity perceive it to be, which is only a warped alter ego. This evolutionary character is an exchange of our surface orientation, superficial understanding and therefore limited responses with a deeper, truer and more powerful understanding and response to life and people and the world. Life assumes the appearance of a frightening struggle so long as we live in Ignorance and for the ego. It becomes a self-possessed delight when we live in and by the soul and for Truth and God.

The means, the instruments and the tools

The counsellor, in other words, leads the client through a progressive deepening, heightening and widening of his consciousness using every experience of life, past and present, as materials for the evolutionary process. Towards this end he may use any and every means, again depending upon the client’s readiness of acceptance, his natural bent and temperament, most of all his constitution and faith. All the methods mentioned above under different approaches can be used, provided of course that the counsellor knows something about them himself. In certain situations he may even refer the patient for a particular technique as a temporary aid to one who is an expert in that field, say for yogāsanas or prāṇāyāma if that were felt as necessary. But he must know that these techniques are merely temporary devices. One needs to outgrow them as one needs to outgrow all devices. The goal of the psychotherapeutic journey is not just a warding off of the present symptoms but the discovery of the inner healer who can heal not only this but all other anomalies of life in all times to come. It is this inner discovery of the true soul, this ascent to our own higher summits of consciousness that will progressively reduce the outer dependence on the outer form of the guru since one would have discovered the same guru within.

All this is no easy task. It requires a colossal inner development on the part of the counsellor himself. Outer degrees and outer knowledge matter little in this process and all are not even suited for it. It needs a certain predilection and temperament or perhaps, to use the ancient Indian language, some are destined for it for whatever reasons. It is not a question of inner spiritual achievement or merit alone but something else as well that is not easy to define. It needs, along with spiritual self-development, perhaps a certain wideness and suppleness, wisdom side by side with strength, a high degree of faith and conviction, an inner goodwill and generosity, but most of all a deep compassion and love for our struggling humanity. It is not a Ph D course in spiritual counselling or a theoretical intellectual mastery of the subject but a real living of the truths that one wants to communicate, that matters. If it is a tall claim then well it is so, since a high goal necessitates a difficult endeavour.

There are lesser alternatives. A client may have rapport and faith in a lesser mortal. And still he may be helped. His faith itself becomes the guide and the Divine uses it for leading the student through the lesser illumined teacher. One could also suggest the guided or direct reading of Śāstra, a book rich in spiritual knowledge and power. Millions of people all around the world have been helped by reading the Bible, the Gītā, the Dhammapada in the hours of their crisis rather than by going to a professional psychiatrist. The modern medical man with his rational tools is often a poor substitute for our loss of faith in our own soul’s strength and in the Divine Grace. According to the need and development he could be a teacher, a father figure, a loving and kind mother, a generous and understanding friend or even simply one human being leading another on the great journey. A counselling willing to accommodate all possible variations of human nature cannot work upon any rigidly fixed principles. A wide flexibility has to be allowed in the approach and not a uniform prescription of even, lets say, meditation for all and sundry. In fact, the counsellor is more of an influence whose presence and personal example inspires the client and instils him with faith. And even his counsel must proceed after due consideration to the client’s present level of evolution, his natural seeking, his hopes and expectations from life, his strengths and his weaknesses. This can be best learned through a long and close association with the teacher rather than through any formal mind made course. The ancient Indian thought had well understood this and therefore all such learning took place largely informally by living with the guru rather than by bookish knowledge and classroom method. The methods of our reductionist science cannot apply if we are to treat the prospective counsellor and the client as a living whole. Our problems are not isolated from our total being. Even when they arise in one part they effect the whole and are backed by the whole.     

The counsellor-client relationship in Indian thought

It must be however noted that the guru-śiṣya form that counselling often took place in the ancient Indian setting was not just a ritualistic formula or a method but simply a statement of fact. Not everyone could be a guru but only the realised man, one who had at least moved far on the path of Self-realisation or God-realisation as the case may be. The guru is not an erudite scholar trained in spiritual dialectics or a master in spiritual philosophy. He may or may not be these things. He may not be a trained psychologist or perhaps even a man of letters though if he were also these things it would be an immense advantage. He must at the least be a man who had found his true soul and was living consciously in it. If he can transmit this soul experience to another then so much the better. This is important to note because the modern mind often misreads in the guru-chela relationship either the dependence of a Freudian type or else a convenient device to facilitate the psychotherapeutic process through faith alone. Faith is no doubt important in the Indian setting, but the emphasis on faith is not by way of sanction to blind and irrational obscurantism, but as a necessary precondition to arrive at knowledge. It is an enlightened faith that is necessary, a faith that is consistent with reason; that if there is a Divine sense and purpose in this world then surely there must be a means to discover it; that if there is a soul that can help heal and succour then surely there must be a means to find it; that if one man has found it then, given the right means and method, others too can find it. Above all a faith that if there is at all a diviner guidance in this world behind the so called anomalies of life, then there must be a purpose in each trial and tribulation of life, behind each crisis and failure, behind every stumble and fall. The guru aids and assists in this process of discovering the real meaning and significance of the crisis and through it the meaning of our own life in this seemingly meaningless universe. Faith and surrender to the guru’s guidance is the starting point of this discovery; will and effort and aspiration the middle term; knowledge and union with the truth that is found are the third and last term of this process. According to the Indian tradition the counselling ideally does not stop with the immediate recovery of the perceived distress but is carried further till the person has gone beyond all possibility of distress. The distress is only an outer excuse that the soul in us uses to start the great journey. Its end is not a temporary relief from the transient stresses and satisfactions of life but the establishment of a permanent peace and an unfading joy in the being, a radical cure from all our present, past and future ills.

And since we are at it, a mention needs to be made that the spirit of counselling is not commercial at all. If we go back to the ancient Indian thought there was only one criterion that the guru used in taking his disciple. It was the readiness to evolve along the lines in which this master had gained his expertise, the adhikāra bheda. But once accepted, all commercial and other considerations were put apart. If the disciple offered something out of his own sweet will it was another matter. Indeed, the disciple was expected to offer something by way of guru dakṣiṇa at the end of the course and it may be something as small as a penny or as big as an empire or an object held dear to him. The disciple gave it in faith and gratitude trusting that the master knows best. This gift of love at the end of the course of instructions was good for the student since of all the lapses of life the worse was considered to be ingratitude to wards the master since his debt one can never repay. Instances are on record how some masters took upon themselves the entire outer and inner burden of the disciples, not only for one life but for all lives to come.

Questions may be raised about the relevance of all this in our modern scenario, and even if it is a wonderful thing whether it is practicable at all. Here we must understand that the whole drift of ancient Indian thought was to make the ideal pragmatic and practically possible and it can be so since, throughout the ages, the spirit of ancient India is not dead. No doubt it is reeling temporarily under the wave and storm of materialistic thought that has blinded our hearts and clouded our vision but this, the author believes and hopes, is a temporary phenomenon. Even now such teachers, instructors, counsellors and masters exist who continue to go about their task silently without any outer considerations of money or fame. The gift of knowledge and the help provided by it is the highest that one can envisage. By the very fact of it being a gift, it becomes one with love and the two are the most potent powers to effectuate a deeper change which is the goal of all authentic psychotherapy.

The goal of psychotherapy

We begin to come full circle. The goal of psychotherapy can be no different than the general goal of mankind in its great evolutionary journey. A crisis is only an incident pushing us further towards the goal through a dark and hasty tunnel. The psychotherapist, in the Indian conception, is only a catalyst in a vast upward labour of Nature towards this journey from darkness to light. He provides support through authentic love, compassion, wisdom and strength, but most of all through what he is in his inner being rather than through the outer techniques and processes that he may advise, suggest or prescribe. The end point is not just a temporary restoration of the original status quo but a growth through the process, a growth in consciousness towards a greater wisdom, a greater love, a greater freedom, a greater harmony that come by our ascent out of animality into divinity, by the discovery of our secret soul. This is beautifully summarised by Sri Aurobindo in the following words:

To know, possess and be the divine being in an animal and egoistic consciousness, to convert our twilit or obscure physical mentality into the plenary supramental illumination, to build peace and a self-existent bliss where there is only a stress of transitory satisfactions besieged by physical pain and emotional suffering, to establish an infinite freedom in a world which presents itself as a group of mechanical necessities, to discover and realise the immortal life in a body subjected to death and constant mutation,—this is offered to us as the manifestation of God in Matter and the goal of Nature in her terrestrial evolution.

…For all problems of existence are essentially problems of harmony. They arise from the perception of an unsolved discord and the instinct of an undiscovered agreement or unity. To rest content with an unsolved discord is possible for the practical and more animal part of man, but impossible for his fully awakened mind, and usually even his practical parts only escape from the general necessity either by shutting out the problem or by accepting a rough, utilitarian and unillumined compromise (Sri Aurobindo, The life divine, pp. 1-2).

In conclusion: A question of faith

What the author has attempted in this paper is to touch upon the theoretical framework along which Indian thought moves and its relevance to the psychotherapeutic process. The framework is necessarily vast and heterogeneous and, even though there are several points of agreement, there are important divergences as well. Besides, there are a number of techniques, processes and methods described in various ancient and modern treatises which are too exhaustive even for a summary discussion. These things obviously cannot be merely written down and read. Each one needs sometimes a sustained and persistent practice for practical utility. It only stands to reason that they cannot be merely picked up from a book or many books, however helpful they may be essentially. The repeated message that comes through the shining pages of the highest and noblest thoughts is that ultimately Truth is what is lived and experienced within one’s soul and it is nothing if it is simply philosophized or preached without an attempt to practice it.

Nevertheless, in conclusion one may say that Indian thought moves along many lines simultaneously, leading to an extraordinary complexity. While on the one hand it creates certain difficulties in comprehension, on the other hand this richness creates a variety that is practically useful in catering to the diverse strands and demands of human nature. Yet certain general principles can be culled out of its massive and complex structure for our practical utility in lending help to mankind in its pursuit for relief from suffering. These general principles are the elements common to most systems. And since psychotherapy is more concerned with relief of psychological suffering rather than philosophical dialectics for its own sake, the thing of best utility is also that which is closely held in the collective faith of the human race. The role of the psychotherapist is not to convert or convince the sick and suffering to any particular form of belief, using his sickness to proselytize for narrow sectarian and evangelical purposes, though that may well happen incidentally in the process since it is natural for a person to instinctively develop faith in something that has been helped him in his darkest moments of crisis. Faith, we may also say, is a common denominator between Eastern and Western thought, and between ancient as well as modern systems. A philosophical doctrine remains ineffective for life unless it can seize and hold not only the mind’s interest but also the heart and faith and will in man. Therefore, the first thing necessary in the practical application of ancient Indian thought is that the psychotherapist will live in a wide catholicity, utilising the intrinsic faith of the patient as an essential means of support to start his work. And if he finds the faith insufficient to support the change, then he will work towards instilling and widening it along the lines of the client’s natural bent and past evolution rather than trying to convert or win over an argument. Faith works best when it arises from within as a flower springs from a bud. It works poorly when it is superimposed from without as the scentless artifact of a flower. This blossoming of faith is a very important and crucial element in all psychotherapy without which everything else remains incomplete. So common is loss of faith in psychological problems, especially depression, that one may well say that most crises of life are actually deep within, a crisis of faith.

This is the first important common element in the Indian spiritual thought. It insists upon faith as a very important element in life even more than reason and one must say with good reasons. For, in spirituality it is necessary to suspend mental judgements and begin with faith as it exceeds and transcends the mind. It is said, and rightly so, that in the end this faith is fulfilled and justified with knowledge that comes by direct and authentic spiritual experience. In a sense this is true of everything else, including science. One begins with faith in a proposition or a method and works patiently till one discovers that towards which one’s inner intuition was indicating. Thus, we choose one out of so many possibilities to labour and strive for. To get hold of this intrinsic faith and enlarge and widen it, rather than constrict and stiffen it into a fixed system of belief held by the outer mind, is an important, perhaps the most important, task of the therapist. Here we must draw the distinction between faith and belief since the two are commonly confused and, though somewhat allied powers, they are very different in their power and potencies.

Belief is something outward. It is a system of thought held by our surface mind or a heart and will conditioned to respond to certain movements by man and society. It belongs largely to the outer man, at best only to a fringe of his inner being. Faith is more intrinsic, nay it is the very grain and mark of man, as the Gītā says. It is the spontaneous cry of the soul often buried within a heap and mass of dead rituals, mechanical beliefs and professed creeds. It is the task of the psychotherapist to patiently extract this intrinsic faith as a careful anatomist extracts the minutest nerve rather than by the way of the surgeon ready to excise and mutilate in order to relieve. Faith is in essence the inner scripture hid in every heart. It is this inner scripture that the psychotherapist has to open for the patient and help him to read it. This is the Indian version of cognitive therapy, approaching his mind not through the mind but through the soul of the client. To change from within outward, by using the client’s own faith, is therefore the method used by the therapist. Towards this end he naturally moves from the surface to the depths, from outer and professed beliefs and non-beliefs towards that which is yet hidden and concealed in the secret spaces of the soul. The therapist in this process uses the helpful materials offered by the client’s mind and heart and will. He works patiently, through timely suggestions and an intuitive guidance, upon the materials that resist this recovery of faith. And it is in this process that we find the role of cognitive and other aspects of the patient’s inner constitution.

Despite the enormous complexity and many-sidedness of Indian thought, the common cognitive and emotional structures supporting the belief are fairly simple. They can be chiefly summarised as a belief in an individual soul, in a personal Divine (whether outwardly professed or not in the corresponding philosophical school), a belief in rebirth as one of the means of nature for arriving at evolutionary fulfilment, a belief in the existence of cosmic forces that help or harm us, and finally a belief in mukti or liberation or a state of soul-perfection as the final goal to which all shall one day arrive. At the same time, the Indian mind has had one great advantage of this complexity—it has become very catholic in its approach since it accepts more readily than other faiths that there can be diverse approaches to Truth and Freedom and God. The Indian mind is more ready to accept the word of an enlightened man without much argument. It is not because of credulousness, as is commonly supposed, but because of the nature of its inner being. The inner being of most Indians is awake to subtler and deeper realities and knows that the mind must subordinate itself before the spirit. It knows instinctively that the way of arriving at Truth is not through reason and analysis but through faith and practice. Most of all he believes that God’s Grace or the intervention of a highly developed person can bail us out of difficulties, inner or outer. The therapist can use these cognitive structures and emotional bonds already deeply rooted in the human psyche of Indians.

Whether faith is scientific or not is not the issue to be discussed here, though our reason can easily lend itself to arguments for both propositions. But if what we have discovered is nothing compared to what remains to be discovered, then man must indeed perforce proceed by faith, a faith in matter or a faith in the spirit, a faith in reason or a faith in faith itself. Especially when it comes to something as subtle as psychology we must know that truth is not only an external objective reality but an intimate subjective reality, false perhaps to the one who does not experience it but deeply real to the one who is identified with it. And of all realities known to mankind since he began exploring the truths of his own life and of his earth there is none more insistent, attractive, and universal than the experience of the Divine within and around us, as the one single simultaneously objective and subjective experience. To deny it in the name of an artificial science is to deny the very roots of life itself, nay it is to deny man and his total existence. This is the great truth that Indian psychology can lend to us if we care to listen to its voice of deep wisdom and compassion. To drown it amidst the noise of our superficial material research may do temporary good to some vested interests but the price we will pay for it will be great and permanent harm to the further progression of the human race and its hope in conquering pain and evil for good. But let us hope that this denial is, as always, a temporary phenomenon, for beyond the vision of our material science there waits the spirit of a greater truth in man’s heart, ready to be born, ready to free us forever from all that yet assails us with grief and suffering. The limits of our sight are not the limits of light!