This paper was presented at
Psychology: The Indian Contribution
National Conference on
Indian Psychology, Yoga and Consciousness
organised by the Indian Council of Philosophical Research
at the Sri Aurobindo International Centre of Education
Pondicherry, India, 10-13 December 2004
(click to enlarge)
Indigenous approaches to self and consciousness
Prof. G.N. Prakash Srivastava
Psychology as science of psyche has been narrowly conceived by occidental psychologists. The greatness and sovereignty of India over world-civilization lie in its depth in the field of spiritual realization, which is the summum-bonum of human life. All the physical and biological sciences of the West have been busy with the study of unconscious monads (inanimate objects) and conscious monads (animate objects), whereas India concentrated on the study and unfoldment of the mystery of the self-conscious monad (man). This process of unfoldment or manifestation is self-realization. This self realization became the ultimate goal of life by realizing the Spirit, Soul or Atman for dissolving the riddle of miserable cycle of birth and death by getting salvation or Moksha the dissolution of individual self in the Universal Being, the Virat. With this objective in mind Indian Rishis, saints, philosophers and Metaphysicians concentrated on the study of Self or Atman through the methods of Yoga and Meditation which is yet a mystery to the western materialistic world.
Email the author: "Prof. G.N. Prakash Srivastava" <riebbs@ori.nic.net>