Sri Aurobindo - some aspects of His Vision

PART V

Psychology

" While Tagore awakened the latent music in me, another Indian, Sri Aurobindo, brought me to religion. He opened the way to my religious consecration. Indeed, my debt to India is very great, and is due in part to Tagore and in part to Sri Aurobindo.'"

Gabrid Mistme

" Psychology is necessarily a subjective science and one must proceed in it from the knowledge of oneself to the knowledge of others."²

Sri Aurobindo

MODERN PSYCHOLOGY

Plea for a new approach

Man's awakening to the need of self-knowledge must have been due to various causes external as well as internal. It is possible that the round of animal desires proved insufficient to yield any real or lasting joy to man. The feeling and realization of his own imperfection and ignorance of the outer and inner world may have made him aspire for more and more knowledge of himself and the world. The want of harmony felt within himself and an intuitive need of it may have also contributed to man's spiritual awakening. To "these negative motives must be added as an incentive to self-knowledge, the eternal and irrepressible aspiration for

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1 Aryan Path, February 1947. Mr. Gabrial Mistral

2 Sri Aurobindo

a state of perfection, whatever that perfection might be, enshrined in the heart of man from the beginning of history. Even the very fact of death might have goaded man to inquire into the meaning of life and being. Perhaps, while trying to make an inquiry into the nature of the world, man might have discovered that the first problem is himself. Thus he became the problem of problems. Human inquiry becomes a subjective problem, a problem of human psychology par excellence. This seems to have taken place both in the East as well as the West. " Know thyself" was the command formulated by one of the oldest Greek philosophers. "Tameva atmanam Janatha amritasya setum" "know verily, that self, the bridge to immortality " was uttered by the Upanishads of hoary antiquity. The attempt to ac- quire knowledge of the self was found to lead to psycho- logical experiences, processes such as introspection, self-analysis and knowledge of various states of being, and of nature. For the self of man is first revealed to him in his ordinary natural, i, e. his psychological make up. In Europe as time went on, philosophical inquiry drifted away from this practical search for the self, i. e. from the field of direct psycho- logical experiences and inquiry. It gradually came to con- fine itself to mere intellectual speculation and inquiry into the nature of truth and the formulation of that truth in terms of mind. Later on, it moved on to the study of Matter and Life wherein it felt the Reality could be objectively studied. In India the tendency was to formulate a philosophical system on the basis of spiritual or psychological experience. As a result, a great mass of psychological experience was gathered and came to. be formulated in the various systems of Indian yogas. Yoga, in fact, can be defined as the science of inner culture. Yoga is, of course, not an automatic process; it requires the conscious participation by the individual in the, process of his self- evolution. In other words. Yoga is nothing else but

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consciously practised practical psychology. It is true that there are various systems of Yoga in India but it is quite possible to arrive at a synthesis of their aims and methods if the outward forms of practices are laid aside and their psychological implications clearly understood. Such a synthesis of the principles, practices and results of the systems of Indian Yogas is a great need of the present times and is indispensable for the understanding of the Indian psychology. Sri Aurobindo's great work "On Yoga" achieves the purpose mentioned above and is an outstanding contribution to the proper study of the subject.

But the modern mind-which means European mind-is not prepared to accept the scientific nature of Indian psychology. To it all the Indian systems are empirical at their best. Modern psychology on the contrary claims to be scientific, it is supposed to be not empirical. It has got rid of the " soul " which it characterises to be a meta-physical entity in the field of psychology introduced by the old school of unscientific psychologists. Psychology has now become, or at least is trying hard to become, a natural science like physics or chemistry. This effort at becoming an " objective" science capable of yielding experimental results, verifiable by anybody by means of outer and physical evidence, seems to inflict on modern psychology a double disadvantage. With all its efforts and in spite of the great contribution made by modern psychology to the knowledge of man we must frankly confess that it is far from the exactitude of objective sciences like physics and chemistry. So far as these sciences are concerned their basis is Matter and there is universal agreement with regard to the methods of investigation and the aim. But the same cannot be said of modern psychology. Even today, after fifty years of progress, it is divided into rival schools with diametrically opposite standpoints such as " behaviourism" and " introspection " or " gastalism " and " Horism " which

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shows that modern psychology is as yet far from being a" natural science. One cannot say that these differences correspond to various ' theories' current is physics or chemistry because the differences are with regard to the very basic principles.

The question we have first to consider is whether methods of research applicable to physical sciences could be at all applied to the study of psychology. One,, who accepts the strictly materialistic basis of human psychology shall have to wait, perhaps, till he is able to determine the weight of a "thought" and calculate the potential energy of an "Impulse." In fact the study of psychology can hardly be taken up seriously unless one decides the question of fundamental importance, namely: "Is matter or spirit its basis ?" What is the origin of man's inner being, of his psychology ? The question might be put differently : "Who is it that experiences all the multifarious phenomena in man?" Where, i, e. in what medium do these take place? Do they occur in inert Matter only-or in the spirit, in consciousness ? Do they form the field of experience of a soul, a spirit?

It is true, modern psychology fought shy of and deported "the soul" out of its domain but then it is finding it hard to do without what it calls, a "subject", an individual", " a personality". Here is what a great scholar of psychology and philosophy, the late Prof. R. D. Ranade, Dean of the Faculty of Philosophy, Allahabad University, has to say on the subject: " Modern writers on psychology give no attention to Rational Psychology; they consider it either useless or metaphysical. " As Prof. James Ward points out, modern psychologists vie with each other in writing a psychology "Ohne Selle". The ancient conception of 'Soul' has evaporated and in its place we find a "Self which is-regarded as a "Centre of Interest", and' which is supposed to be generated when a new interest

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springs up and destroyed as soon as the interest terminates The impasse into which such a view brings the psychologists may be realised at a glance when we consider that some of them have been forced to recognise the continuance of such a bloodless self even after the death of the body and in place of the old world view of an immortal soul we find the idea of a " centre of interest " which survives (!) after the death of the body when the interest is not fulfilled in the person's life-time. The old-world view, as in Plate so in the Upanishads, planted itself squarely on the recognition of the Soul as an entity which was free to take on £L body as it was also free to go away and transmigrate. Whatever the limitations of such a view, it was a view which one could at least understand; but the modern conception of an anemic " centre of interest" which could continue to exist after the death of the body, passes beyond the comprehension of anybody except a metaphysician who makes such concessions to naturalism as to make an entire ferrago of his philosophical ideas."³

Thought is explained as the result of brain discharge of the nerves, but it is still a standing question in modern psychology whether thought is a finer and subtler state of Matter or of Life or of Mind. George Russel (A. E.) in his book " The Candle of Vision " reports certain dream experiences of his own and asks the question about the process of their preservation in memory. There seem to be insuperable difficulties in accepting only the materialistic basis of this faculty.

Another difficulty in adopting a strictly scientific method. in psychology is that an " impersonal " and " purely objective " observation of psychological phenomena is not possible. These phenomena occur to " some one ", they are " somebody's". It would be too much to claim objectivity

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³A constructive survey of Upanishadic philosophy, P. 129

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for these experiences when even physical science is now finding that its observations are no longer strictly objective. It is argued that one can study psychological phenomena by observing the outer behaviour or by the method of personal narrative as in psycho-analysis. But these devices, even. at their best, can hardly claim certainty and finality with regard to the knowledge so acquired; for the outer behaviour hardly gives the real or the whole clue to the inner psychological states and movements; and personal narrative cannot give a complete picture of all the inner movement because men are not conscious of all their inner movements.

A formidable difficulty in applying any outer method to this field is that the whole field of investigation is complex and is constantly changing, and the instruments of investigation themselves are elastic and varying. In experiments or investigations in physical science the changes in the field are brought about by the observing subject and the physical elements change only in response to outer action and even then the changes occuring within its own structure are not conscious. But in psychology the very field of investigation can participate in the investigation and in the changes that occur in its own self. Not only the "observed " but the " observer " also is constantly changing.

The latest development in physical sciences tends to show that mind, and therefore subjectivity, cannot be altogether kept out from the field of physical sciences. In fact, after all the scientific observations have been made and the- proofs given, it is the mind that is at last called in to make the final choice of the conclusions. The same holds good for psychological research in a much more pronounced manner. One more difficulty in using methods of physical science in psychology is that the conditions for conducting the experiment are not known. It is high time that some methods were evolved in psychology that could be universally

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applied. There are many who believe in the current methods and even call them " scientific " but all the knowledge that we possess is due to an act of imaginative identification or to a sort of analogy. By. a sort of consensus of opinion we decide upon certain " conditions " which the scientists would perhaps strongly object to and dub " unscientific ".

A still more fundamental objection to the employment pf scientific methods of psychology is that these methods are merely an extension of the .functioning of the human senses; therefore the generalisation arrived at would also be dependent upon the same basis.

Methods pursued by physical science have not proved adequate in explaining the structure and nature of the material world, so that its application to a field of inner research becomes far more questionable. We can legitimately even ask whether there are no other methods of studying this field of knowledge.

It is claimed that though the methods pursued in psychological investigations are not strictly physical still they aimed at systematic study. If that is the case, and if testing a so-called empirical process by practical experiments and checking up the results constitutes a "systematic study", then the Indian system of Hatha Yoga, at least, can claim to be scientific. As a matter of fact, each system of Yoga, such as Gyana, Karma, Bhakti, Tantra etc. has its own "'system" which prescribes practical methods, indicates the results and supplies tests to check up the achievement.

The Indian standpoint in psychology assumes the spirit as the basis of the cosmos. It admits the waking condition of consciousness and a sub-conscious state of being even as modern psychology does. But it admits in addition, what modern psychology knows nothing about, a "super-conscient ", above the mental consciousness. Modern psychology would perhaps like to relegate the super-conscient to the

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realm of the abnormal. From the super-conscient to the realm of the abnormal. From the standpoint of view what appears abnormal is only a sign of what is to, evolve in the future. A little reflection will show that this "super- conscient " is not an" isolated state but is inclusive of all it exceeds. It acts in the everyday life of individuals even in and through their waking state of consciousness. Besides this "super-conscient" finds expression in various cultural activities and attainments of the human being. The attempt here is not to make a detailed classification of the states of consciousness actual and possible to man. The intention is merely to show that what is considered " abnormal " "magical" "wonderful" " super-sensual" is not something quite remote from the field of everyday experience of men. These experiences pertain to various fields. On the physical level, we see the phenomena of faith-cure, of poison-eating and fire-walking without any undesirable consequences, and we also know of several kinds of materializations. On the plane of life we find hypnotism, telepathy, clairvoyance and other similar phenomena which have been scientifically tested and proved genuine. These faculties are an indication of the presence of the supra-physical and the possibility of its attainment. There are powers and faculties in man which give him an insight into the knowledge of the future. There are visions, premonitions and prophesies.

Over and above these faculties which are relegated generally to the supra-physical there are regular branches of human culture which require the use of and depend upon the exercise of faculties that indicate the existence of the supra-rational. Religion, astrology, poetry and plastic arts very often depend upon the action of some supra-rational faculty in man for their highest creations. The undying aspiration of the whole human race for a divine Perfection or fulfilment bears witness to the pull of the super-conscient. Intuition, inspiration and revelation

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are some of the faculties connected with the super-conscient which have found expression in various fields of human activity.

Indian psychology bases its acceptances of the " super- conscient "on concrete experiences and modem psychology would remain poorer for the rejection of a field of experience which is open to man. To limit the field of conscious. ness, that is, the field of psychological experience which has been an ever enlarging field from the inconscient to the conscient throughout the course of evolution would, in fact, be an arbitrary act. The western view of psych logy is empirical. It also suffers from an additional grave defect : all its explanations are directed to explaining consciousness, its movements and functions in the light of the past. That is to say, it tries to explain the pre consciousness of man by its past. But it holds out no I vision for the future. In the case of Indian psychology,! on the contrary, the whole vision is directed to the future, to¦ either a state of liberation, or perfection or to an identity with and growth into the super-conscient.

Some of the explanations of visions and dreams given by modern psychology sound quite untenable. It is more likely that visions and dreams have an independent existence of their own on subtle planes. A. E., the Irish mystic poet, after describing a vision in which he saw everything illumined says: "people pass them (visions) by too easily saying, ' it is imagination,' as if imagination were easily explained as a problem in Euclid and was not a mystery. He further says that if he was to construct the figures which he saw " it would be a work of infinite labour. " But these faces of vision are not still, they move, they have life and expression. " To say we refashion memories is to surmise in the subconscious nature a marvellous artist to whom all we have seen with the physical eye is present at once; and as clay in the hands of a divine potter, and it is such

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swift creation too that it rivals the works of the Lord. " He further adds, " The common psychological explanation is not acceptable, because we know that forms can appear in the brain which were transferred by will from one person to another."

The explanation generally given about the vision full of light is that it is due to " Light, being a vibration and vibration affecting the eye and passing along the nerves until it is stored up in the brain-cells. The vibration is- stayed or fixed there. " A. E. argues against this explanation and says, " This effect must remain unaffected in the brain because one can after years summon it again and find the image clear as at first. " Thus the explanations of memory and of imagination both break down. A. E. says perhaps it is "the perception of the images already existing". He continues, "In the architecture of dream and vision there is mystery which is not explained by speaking of suppressed desire or sex or any of those springs which modern psychologists surmise are released in dream. We must suppose that memory is as fixed in its way as a sun picture is fixed or as the attitude of a statue is fixed. If it fades it should be by loss of precision and not into another equally precise but different forms and gestures." From the quotations given it is clear that dreams, visions and figures of imagination etc. all require much closer study and consideration than has been given to them until now. It roust also be admitted that explanations given up until now have been most inadequate. It is possible that Indian Psychology and its mode of approach to these problems "light pave the way for a more correct understanding of these phenomena.

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II

THE MODERN SCHOOLS OF PSYCHOLOGY

A Brief Survey

We will take a brief survey of the present-day psychology. It must be admitted that in spite of its shortcomings modern psychology is inspired by a genuine spirit of search for the truth of human consciousness. A vast literature has been created during a relatively short period of about 50 years. Since the rise of natural sciences European mind has been principally occupied in investigating the nature of the physical world and later on in the 18th century it took up the field of biology. In these investigations the attitude of the inquiring mind was objective. So, when man's eyes turned upon himself and wanted to study psychology involving mental processes he had perforce to adopt, in the beginning at least, a subjective attitude. This change to the subjective field of inquiry may be indicative of important cultural development of Europe.

Etymologically " psychology" means "the science of the soul." This soul was regarded as a subjective reality by the ancients and was admitted as a metaphysical reality by the pioneers of modern psychology. The various activities of consciousness in man were regarded as the manifestations of the soul. Now a natural science confined itself to the investigation of the phenomena cannot admit a soul or any other metaphysical reality. Therefore those investigators of the field of psychology who were anxious to enroll it as a natural science had to adopt its assumptions, premises and methods of inquiry. So was no longer a permissible reality in a scientific psychology. The new science of psychology began by positing a mind and its activities without considering whether an ultimate

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substratum of some kind was necessary for mind or not. The answer to such a question was that it was no concern of psychology as a natural science to inquire into, or even consider the question. The methods of physical science were rigorously applied to psychology. Since then psychologists have been empirically investigating mental phenomena, collecting facts and trying to arrive at generalisations with regard to various activities of consciousness. They have been studying perception, memory, imagination, thought, reasoning, will, impulses, reflexes, complexes etc; they also tried to include the study of human personality in these fields. Though the generalisations arrived at uptil now have not amounted to anything more than mere beginnings the deeper significance of the search seems to lie in the fact that the outward-turned western mind has turned its eye upon himself and is trying to know the constitution of man.

Perhaps some will dispute the statement that psychology today is nothing more than a mere beginning of a science.. But one can even go further and assert that today it is" not a single science with a definite subject matter. The standpoint of natural science adopted by chemistry, physics- and other sciences is considered inappropriate for the study of psychology by writers like Dilthy, Spranger; they are against the " natural science " ideal for psychology.

But the modernists like Tichner insist that mental phenomena should be taken as co-ordinate to the phenomena of external nature. According to Tichner the ' subject ' is a group of phenomena. All values and judgments of human utility and purpose must be eschewed and all mental activity should be investigated structurally with a view to discover the qualities possessed by them and the laws regulating their functions, just as physics or chemistry or other sciences, study various kinds of material phenomena and seek to determine the laws of their behaviour, irrespective

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of the practical utility. Dilthy add Spranger belonging to the Cultural Science school of psychology consider this standpoint altogether inapplicable to psyche logy. The psychological phenomena, they urge, is not at all co-ordinate with the material. Facts of psychologjcal life are fundamentally of a different order from those of natural Science. A mental activity has always without exception a personal reference. It is somebody's. How can one understand a mental process divested from value ? Value is created by the "subject." A physical object such as a table, a chair or a plant does not possess such a persona point of reference. Mind and mental phenomena belong to the cultural development of society to which mutual mental inter-action of human personality is essential, Psychology thus, is a cultural or social science. Therefore, the method of investigation in psychology must be different from that of physical science. According to Dilthy, Mind is meaning-creating, meaning-experiencing principle of existence. For example, take a child at play. The natural scientist can describe the activity, observe it, but does he "understand" it ? We can only understand it when we know the " meaning " of the activity.

This is not all. Even among people who agree in regarding psychology as a mental science, there are sharp differences about the nature of the subject-matter, the aim and the method. There are some who, for example, take , consciousness as a subject-matter and introspection as the , method of investigation. They represent what is called the Introspection-school in psychology. Directly opposed to it stands Watson, the leaders of Behaviourism, who asserts that there is no such thing as " consciousness" and that therefore introspection is futile and superfluous. According to him psychology is really concerned with the behaviour of the human individual. He regards physics as the ideal science which psychology must follow and aims

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at making psychology an experimental and objective science. Behaviour " is not merely what " is ", but has in it often or always, the sense of " aught". Man feels the movement from the actual to the possible. It may be suggested here that though these two standpoints appear diametrically opposed to each other, they may be harmonised into a science of psychology aiming at the study of human individual in his dual aspect of activities, mental and physical. In the light of the cumulative evidence it seems reasonable to hold that contemporary, mutually exclusive schools of psychology would find their synthesis most probably by adopting a radical change both in their standpoints and in their methods.

Gestaltism is a school of psychology which has attracted a great deal of attention lately. Its basic idea is that the whole is not merely a sum of its parts and that there exists what is called the Gestalt-quality, the quality of the whole, as distinct from that of the parts. The organism as a whole is to it a concrete reality. As regards the method Gestaltism finds the much honoured empirical method of analysis utterly defective of its purpose, because it tends to make the parts substantial realities even more important than the whole. Gestaltism advocates that a mental process must be taken as a whole, though it may allow analysis to be used as a supplementary method. To this school psychology is a study of psycho-physical organism of the human individual. According to it mind and body form one whole and are not disparate entities. As an illustration of its application we find a new explanation of perception of motion. Movement, it affirms, is not constructed by putting together fixed positions in successive moments of time but that it is the result of direct perception of sense. In other words, movement is not inferred but directly perceived. Melody in music, it would say, is grasped as a whole for no component notes possess it.

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These three schools, Introspectionism, Behaviourism and Gestaltism fall within the fold or empirical science of psychology. Hormism of McDugall making purposiveness of the mind its pivot belongs to the same class. Hormism believes that the difference between the mechanical operations of physical nature and those of mental nature is that all mental operations work towards some purpose, en conscious or unconscious. This " purposiveness " explains the manifold activities of human mind and its behaviour.

CONTRIBUTION BY FREUD

In a way, the most important school of psychology is the school of psycho-analysis founded by Freud. He was a neurologist by profession and used to treat nervous and mental disorders by hypnotism. In course of his practice he made the happy discovery that if a patient were allowed to relate his story and thus mentally relive his past experience, he was greatly relieved of his trouble. This was formulated by him into a principle or hypothesis. He started using the talking-out method in place of hypnotism. This method revealed to him that the experiences of past conflicts and frustrations continue to persist in man. He therefore posited the sub-conscious as a fact in order to explain this persistence of past experiences. He was soon led to think that the subconscious is relatively the larger part of man's personality, in fact, as he later chose to put it, the nine-tenths of human personality. But in the employment of the talking-out method he discovered that the past experiences did not always easily come up; more often parts of the experience were held back. This observation made him formulate the theory of repression. How does repression take place and what is the mode of its operation ? The investigation of repression constitutes the main line of work of psycho-analysis. The symptoms of

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the mental disease are significant. They are willed by the- patient in the sense that they afford a partial satisfaction to- the repressed impulses. The normal behaviour is influenced by these repressions in the individual. Even small slips and errors of behaviour are subconsciously determined by the repressed impulses. These repressed impulses Freud traced to the sexual impulse. The repression here consists in the forcible suppression of the sexual impulse by the social and normal pressure upon the individual. According to Freud sex-impulse is co-existensive with the whole of pleasure-seeking propensity in man. He has shown the working of this sex-impulse in the child from birth to adolescence.

The working of sex-instinct which to Freud is the most fundamental is the characteristic of psycho-analysis. Every human activity, even religious, moral and artistic, is simply manifestation of the original sex-impulse.

Interpretation of dreams is another contribution made by psycho-analysis to modern psychology. Dreams according to it betray the subconscious as probably nothing?. else does. Dreams are not fantastic and meaningless. play of imagination. In his attempt at scientific formulation of explanation of dreams, Freud maintains that all dreams. are wish-fulfilment; overt or covert repression in man seeks gratification in dreams.

CONTRIBUTION BY JUNG

Jung has contributed to the study of the nature of personality and to the understanding of the action of human groups by positing the " Collective Unconscious." By an extensive study and analysis of myths, legends, customs. and early cultural history of many races he arrives the Collective Unconscious" as the psychological substratum which explains the behaviour of the individual and of the

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.groups of men. The late Dr. Ananda Coomaraswamy also has made very extensive study of comparative myths.

The positing of the " Collective Unconscious " means that Jung abandons, by implication, at least, the naturalistic stand in psychology; for, one could ask, where does the " Collective Unconscious " abide ? Is it in the material or non-material medium? Is it of the vital or mental stuff ?

So far as the study of human personality is concerned Jung admits that the roots of personality are veiled in mystery.

The term "Collective Unconscious" reminds the Indian Student of the terms "Collective Consciousness", and " Cosmic Consciousness" already used in our Ancient Sacred "books. This Cosmic Consciousness and even a supra cosmic-transcendent-Consciousness mentioned in Indian books, are Superconscient to the ordinary man, but they are regarded as capable of being experienced by men if certain psychological conditions are fulfilled.¹

Dr. Harish Chowdhari finds this 'Collective Unconscious a. " blanket term " and says, "It is too inadequate to carry any exact senses." To Jung the collective unconscious is not a state of Consciousness, because, according to him " relatedness to an ego is an essential condition of consciousness. " This is a limited view of consciousness, as it takes for granted the mental as the only possible consciousness. All spiritual experience, including that of Sri Aurobindo, always speaks of the ultimate Reality not as

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¹ Sri Aurobindo in his two books - The idea! of human unity and Human Cycle - points out that a slow growth of the dynamic collective consciousness is taking place in humanity. It began with the family, developed through the clan and the tribe and has now reached the nation. This impulse has its roots deep down into the insect and the animal world and even below in the Inconscient. There is, thus, a gradual unfolding of the Soul of human Collectivity of which humanity would be the highest vehicle.

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" unconscious" but as Supreme and infinite conscious- ness. It does not depend upon nor does it require an ' ego ' for its support. It is spoken of as the golden Purusha and the golden Light and the unconscious is described as the " dark". Sri Aurobindo speaks of it as " luminous uttermost super-conscience" as against the " dark inconscience. " Jung's failure to realise the distinction between the two, the Super-conscient Infinite and the Inconscient Infinite is responsible for his description of the ultimate reality as "Collective Unconscious."²

This is the brief survey of the present day schools of psychology. All of them deliberately leave out the soul. But certain psychologists while rejecting the soul seem to admit interesting substitutes. They affirm " a subject" who is the knower of all our mental activities. They say that they find such an admission essential. To say that psychology as a natural science has to reject all-meta- physical concepts and yet to maintain " a subject" as necessary is to equivocate. This entire field of differing and conflicting schools of contemporary psychology raises the fundamental question: how to arrive at a firm basis for a science of psychology.

We have already said before that modern psychology is not a science like physics or chemistry and if at all it is regarded as one, it is in its infancy, busy collecting data of facts and studying merely primary processes. All explanations, therefore, attempted by it under the present imperfect state of knowledge should be regarded as tentative. It is to be hoped that, integral and all-comprehensive psychology will emerge from this imperfect state and the different schools of today may find their reconciliation in the more comprehensive science of the future. It can be safely affirmed that a true basis of our mental life does not

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² Commemorative Symposium

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seem to have been grasped by these groping contemporary schools of psychology. It reminds one of the blind men trying to describe the elephant.

Even though many years have passed since William James wrote the conclusion of his book on psychology we think that the ideas he expressed therein hold good even today for the present field of psychology.

When we talk of " psychology as natural science",. we must not assume that that means a sort of psychology that stands at least on solid ground. It means a psychology particularly fragile and into which the waters of metaphysical criticism leak at every joint, a psychology all of whose elementary assumptions and data must be reconsidered in wider connections and translated into other terms. It is, in short, a phrase of diffidence, and not of arrogance; and it is indeed strange to hear people talk triumphantly of ' the New Psychology ' when into the real elements and forces which the word covers not the first glimpse of clear insight exists. A string of raw facts; a little classification; generalisation on the mere descriptive level; a strong prejudice that we have states of mind and that our brain conditions them; but not a single law in the sense in which physics shows us laws, not a single propositon from which any consequence can casually be deduced. We don't even know the terms between which the elementary laws would obtain if we had them.³

" This is no science, it is only the hope of a science. The matter of science is with us. Something definite happens when to a certain brain state a certain "consciousness' corresponds. A genuine glimpse into what it is would be the scientific achievement, before which all part achievements would pale. But at present psychology is in the condition of physics before Galileo and the laws of motion,

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³ Psychology, a brief course by Prof. Wm, James, P. 467

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of chemistry before Lavoisier and the notion that mass is preserved in all reactions. The Galileo, the Lavoisier of psychology will be famous men indeed when they come, as come they some day surely will, for past successes are no index to the future. When they do come however, the necessities of the case will make them metaphysical. Meanwhile the best way in which we can facilitate their advent is to understand how great is the darkness in which we grope, and never to forget that natural science assumptions with which we started are provisional and revisable things."4

III

INDIAN BACKGROUND

(1)

VEDA

Psychology in India as elsewhere in ancient times was not a separate science; it was connected with life, and life in those days was centred round religion and philosophy and so psychology was intimately connected with them. But it did not mean that the psychology so evolved was unscientific; for, if generalisation based on practical experiments is the criterion of a science then the psychological systems current in India are scientific.

Indian psychology bases itself on consciousness as the fundamental fact of the cosmos and of life.

Rigveda, the oldest book of humanity, and the fountain-

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4 Ibid P. 464

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head of Indian culture, already contains enough psychological material to warrant a separate treatment. Only a rough outline can be attempted here. Veda speaks of "knowledge", "consciousness", " unconsciousness ", "will "thought", "understanding", "truth", "right" etc. It expresses its vision in symbolic language which is a puzzle to the modern mind. The use of terms bearing psychological significance shows that the Vedic age was far from primitive. For example, words such as Dhi, Manas, Buddha. Chetana, Ritam, Satyam, Kavi, Manishi, Medhavi, Vipra, Vipaschit, Daksha, Chitti, Mati, Achitti etc., cannot be used by people who were not advanced in culture.

Rig Veda speaks of several planes of consciousness in terms of symbols, but its language is a sealed book to the modern mind. It mentions the three steps5 of Vishnu, the all-pervading Divine. Each step of Vishnu creates a world and Vishnu maintains it by His dynamic presence.

Rig Veda speaks of " Dyawa Prithivi" Heaven and Earth symbolising the Mental and the Physical planes of consciousness. It mentions ' Antariksha '—-the intermediate vital plane between Earth and Heaven—the physical and. mental.

Veda mentions three shining summits of the Mind " Trini Rochana". Surya, the sun, is the symbol of the Truth-Consciousness of illumination of knowledge.

The Vedic seers speak of the ascent of the human soul from plane to plane, from Darkness to Light.6

In IV 2-12 the Rishi says : " The knower must distinguish between consciousness and unconsciousness"— Chittimachittim Chinavad VI Vidwan.

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5. Trini Pada Vichakrame Vishnurgopa Atabhyah"

6 I. 50. 10'' Beholding on high the Light beyond the Darkness,

higher still we saw the God among the Gods, we reached the

Sun, the highest Light."

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In V 19-7 the seer speaks of various states of consciousness : " State upon state is born, covering after covering opens to Consciousness, in the lap of the Mother he wholly sees."

In V 62-1 we find a passage which bears resemblance to the verse in the Ishopanishad : "a Truth is concealed by the Truth "- Ritena ritam apihitam.

These few quotations must suffice to indicate the rich contribution of the Rig Veda to the field of psychology. But the Veda being the creation of an age which was not intellectual, it is difficult to carry its full significance to the modern mind.

(2)

THE UPANISHADS

Like the Veda, the Upanishads are a rich treasure of vast psychological knowledge; but" they too, like the Veda,. are not intellectual in their method and approach. They contain many spiritual experiences couched in intuitive, inspired and revelatory language. There is a ring of concrete experience in many of the utterances. For example, " I have known this great Purusha of the colour of the Sun, whose light shines from beyond the Darkness". Swet. Ad. 3- Verse 8 or to take another outburst of supreme delight :, " I am Matter, I am Matter, I am the enjoyer of Matter. " '' I have become the golden Light, I have attained immortality. " Taitti-valli 3 Anuvasik 10.

The aspiration for Truth, for Immortality was the driving force behind all psychological strivings. Maitreyi refuses to accept her share of wealth, because she says : What shall I do with that which does not make me immortal ?" Briti Ad. 2 Br. 4.

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The Upanishads speak of various states of human consciousness. l. Jagrat—waking; 2. Swapna—Dream state 3. Sushupti—deep-sleep; 4. Turiya, the fourth one, above the mental state.

Various levels of consciousness in man are also mentioned. 1. Annamaya, the physical; 2. Pranamaya, the vital; 3. Manomaya, the mental. 4. Vijnanamaya, the supramental; 5. Anandamaya, the level of bliss.

There is mention of the plane of Truth as full of golden Light and also of the Supreme whose omnipotence rules the universe. There is an insistence on the dynamic aspect of the Divine.

There are speculations, based on personal experience about the states of Consciousness after death. The main aim was the attainment of Truth which is one with the Infinite and of Immortality. The liberation of the individual from the ignorance of egoistic nature was the first step towards attaining perfection. The Upanishads believed in the divine potentiality of man.

(3)

GITA

The Gita contains very rich psychological material. Its main trend is to integrate the three systems of Yoga- the Jnana, the Karma and the Bhakti. That would bring about the integration of the working of three principal faculties of man, the intellect, the will and the emotions. It trains these faculties to concentrate and then to purify them and ends by enlarging their scope from the finite to the infinite.

Gita utilizes the great psychological discovery of the Samkhya, the actual division between the Purusha, the witness self and Prakriti, the nature in man. This division

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as a fact of psychological experience is of fundamental importance. It is the beginning of the experience in which man realises that his entire being is not involved in the movement of Nature which is ignorant. He finds within himself a point where perfection in the sense of freedom from imperfect nature is already present. Step by step the witness (Sakshi) becomes the Anumanta, the giver of sanction, then he becomes the Bharta, the supporter of nature, then Bhokta, the one who enjoys the nature, and ultimately he is the Ishwar, the Lord of nature.

(4)

BUDDHISM

Buddhism developed psychological systems of self- discipline whose chief aim is to free man from " suffering ". It has not the positive aim of the Upanishads and the Vedanta. It may be called a pragmatic approach as it does not try to address itself to the fundamental problem; it comes nearest to the current empirical schools of psychology and is almost existential in its metaphysical stand.

Abandonment of Trishna, the impulse, or the longing to have, is its main remedy for banishing suffering from life. The mind is trained to concentrate on the eight-fold path, right will, right thought etc. which gradually leads one to Nirvana, the highest state which is often described in negative terms.

On the metaphysical side the stress is on the doctrine of Karma which broadly interpreted, would mean that the energy released in an action, inner or outer, has a tendency to return to its source. Karma explains the differences in tendencies, aptitudes, capacities of individuals in' life. Another idea which is basic to Buddhism is that there is no substratum for the individual being; in fact,

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there is no real individual, it is only a flux—a constant flow. of consciousness which gives the illusion of the persistent individual.

Psychologically it worked out a system of self-control and of mental concentration which is a great contribution of Buddhism. It got entangled, as other systems of psychological disciplines also did, into the regions of the vital being and often neglected the eightfold path for the grace of the various powers of the Buddhistic pantheon. Buddhism accepts rebirth as a necessary corollary to the doctrine of Karma which renders the temporary subject to re- actions of Karma and consequently to rebirth.

In the Nirvana the ego, perhaps the entire being, ceases and according to some schools this may lead to universal compassion and a dynamic flow of help and sympathy for the world which would bring the ultimate release of Nirvana to all and eliminate suffering from the world.

APPENDIX

"Indian Yoga is experimental psychology. Patanjali's Yoga-Sutras, the Upanishads—these and the Saiva Siddhanta treatises—furnish pioneering examples of experimental psychology."¹

"In Europe and America psychology is almost ceasing to be the analysis of mind. It is now concentrating on behaviour of organism in relation to their environment."²

"Activities ascribed to mental forces have been sought to be interpreted in terms of nervous mechanism and nervous integration. "³

_____________________

¹ Presidential address by Dr. C. P. Ramaswamy Aiyar, Madras in the Psychology Conference.

² Ibid

³ Ibid

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" Nature is ceasing to be regarded as a system of purely physical forces and in spite of the still widespread scepticism regarding spiritualists and even dowsers, there has been recently an unprecedented growth of belief in the possibility of telepathic transfer of thought from one individual to another. It is in fact becoming difficult to explain the whole human personality solely by the dynamics of the nervous system."4

" In Indian psychology they proceed from the basis of the supremacy of mind over master and postulate Atman as the ultimate Reality of the universe. "

"Cartesian dualism never obtained a firm foothold in this Country. "5

Patanjali's Raja Yoga begins with the suppression of the undulations of Chitta, the basic stuff of consciousness. It prescribes Yama and Niyama in order to establish firm control of the vital nature which enables the mind to concentrate.

Meditation, Japa etc., are means to achieve Samadhi— complete absorption of the being into a state which may be Savikalpa or Nirvikalpa—that is to say, absorption with only one idea or vibration of consciousness or with no idea or vibration at all.

The processes prescribed are intended to change the ordinary consciousness into another state and also to make available extraordinary powers of nature.

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4 Ibid

5 Ibid

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