The schools of Indian
Psychological thoughts has its roots in the Indian philosophy. The various
philosophical thoughts which came in to existence at different periods few
complimenting the existing ones, few improvisations and few other which
questioned the core belief of these thoughts have all contributed in
understanding human beings, the cause of distress, the solutions and also the
path of development which can lead to everlasting contentment and happiness.
Indian schools of
psychological thoughts can be distinguished into two major classes. The astika
and nastika. The astika systems include the Vedas, the Upanishads, Sankhya,
Yoga, Vedanta, Mimamsa, Nyaya, and Vaisheshika. The nastika systems reject
Vedic thought. They are Jainism, Buddhism, and Lokayata.
The Vedas held
that the universe has evolved out of One. This first principle of "that
One‟ (tad ekam) cannot be characterized. It is without qualities or attributes,
neither positive nor negative. It holds that continuity (Avyaya Bhava) and
complementarity in various forms or manifestations of reality. It leads one to
perceive unity in diversity and seeing no contradiction between the opposites.
In the Upanishads
the interest shifted from objective to the subjective, from the outside world
to self. It believed that only in the infinite depths of self the universe is
reflected in its entirety. The Upanishads described the path of the inner
development, the focused on the inward journey towards ultimate reality. The
Upanishads stretched the principles of spirituality to the utmost bounds of
human existence. The diversity of ideas, concepts, and visions summarized in
the verses of the Upanishads has been a great source of knowledge for
generations of thinkers and has laid the foundations of Indian psychology.
Of the astika
Schools, Sankhya appears to be the oldest. It was a dualist view based on two
fundamentally different modes of being: the purusha (unconditioned universal
self ) and prakriti (nature, physical and environmental which comprises of
matter, energy, and agency). Prakriti was the cause of the material world, but
purusha had no cause and does not change, till it starts interacting with the
prakriti, but remains observer and enjoyer the ever-changing objects of
prakriti
One important
addition to Sankhya was the practice of yoga: the cessation of all mental
functions. The correct practice of yoga included eight things:
1. Yama: Social
Discipline restraint from violence, lying, theft, or avarice.
2. Niyama:
Self-discipline building good habits like contentment, purity, Vedic study, and
meditation on God.
3. Asana: Balanced
posture involving the mind-body coordination
4. Pranayama: breath
control.
5. Pratyahara:
withdrawal from sensory stimulations the pleasure and pain
6. Dharana: focused
attention on an object.
7. Dhyana:
meditation.
8. Samadhi: Deep
Concentration by which self-awareness is lost.
Yoga when
practiced successfully can lead to a full realization by bridging of the gulf
between purusha and prakriti, and therefore liberating an individual from
suffering.
Mimamsa describes
two kinds of knowledge: direct and indirect. Direct knowledge is acquired when
one of the senses perceives something, and the sense organ is functioning
correctly. But this tells us only that the object is present, not what it is.
To know what the object is, we must interpret this using direct knowledge. For
this, one has to take into consideration their past experience and make a
logical inference to determine the class to which the object belongs, the
qualities it has, and so on. Other than perception, Mimamsa describes five
other sources of knowledge
1. Inference- a
conclusion reached based on evidence and reasoning
2. Comparison -
noticing that two things have similarities
3. Testimony -formal
written or spoken statement by eminent scholars
4. Postulation -a
suggestion or assumption of the existence or fact, or truth of something which
becomes the basis for reasoning, discussion, or belief.
5. Non-perception
Mismasa propagated
that we gain knowledge when some phenomenon can be explained by postulating a
certain explanatory hypothesis (arthapatti).."
Nyaya school's
chief concern was epistemology or evidence-based knowledge. Nyaya school
advocated the thought that only when we know the answers to the questions What
is correct thinking? how can we come to know reality? we can achieve
liberation. Nyaya describes four valid sources of knowledge — perception,
inference, comparison, and testimony. It also proposes four sources of invalid
knowledge: memory, doubt (when there are no clear indicators that would
distinguish the truth from illusion), error (false certainty), and hypothetical
argument.
Vaisheshika agreed
with most of the theories propagated by Nyaya school related to the
evidence-based approach. But it recognized only two sources of knowledge,
perception, and inference. Vaishegika emphasizes on six dimensions or padartha
of knowledge, which is substance, quality, activity, generality, particularity,
and inherence. Vaisheshika describes that a substance is a material in which a
quality or action can exist. The nine primary substances according to
Vaisheshika thought are earth, water, light, air, ether, time, space, soul, and
mind.
The most
well-known schools of Vedanta are
Advaita Vedanta, Vishishtadvaita, and Dvaita. These schools arose during the Medieval
period. The central doctrine of ancient Vedanta was Brahman or the ideal self:
the eternal, uncaused, transcendent, Ultimate Reality which is the base of all
being. God (Ishvara) was also an important component in Vedanta, though the
different Vedanta schools disagreed on whether God was Brahman, or God was
related to Brahman in some way or other. They also disagreed as to whether the
self was identical to or part of Brahman, or separate from Brahman, or —
somehow — both identical and separate from Brahman. The goal of Vedanta was to
discover the Real Self (unity, in some way, with Brahman) by controlling the
"lower self" and its impulses through study and meditation. According
to vedantha, only this realization could stop the cycle of rebirth and all its
misery.
Suffering was the
core focus of Buddhism school. According to Buddhism, everything has a cause,
and the cause of suffering is the desire for worldly things. This desire is the
cause of rebirth by which we are born again and again and also experience
suffering again and again in each birth. If we realize that worldly desires
cause suffering, we would not hold on to these desires. But we are ignorant.
Buddha's teaching focused on liberation from suffering. He postulated that it can
be achieved through an awareness of these truths and abstinence from worldly
desire. The Buddhism propagated an "eight-fold noble path", for
liberation and consisted of right view, right intention, right speech, right
action, right livelihood, right effort, right mindfulness, and right
concentration.
Jainism emphasized
that it was through the perception, we know of the material world. According to
Jainism, we can also know the soul through inner perception, just as we
perceive pain and pleasure by inner perception. We understand that
consciousness cannot be material through inference, because without
consciousness matter alone could exist like living bodies. According to Jainism
sensual desires can be overcome by right conduct. Right conduct consisted of
abstinence from injury to life, from lying, from stealing, from sensual
indulgence, and attachment to earthly objects. The soul may attain infinite
knowledge, power, and bliss only when it is liberated from its desires
Lokayata held that
perception is the only valid source of knowledge, and all other sources like
testimony and inference are unreliable. Perception reveals that the material
world is made of only the four elements: air, fire, water, and earth. Minds and
consciousness were also products of matter. Souls, gods, and the afterlife
could not be perceived, and thus could not be said to exist. Thus according to
lokayata, the only purpose of life was to enjoy pleasure and avoid pain. Some
Lokayata scholars believed in accidentalism. They thought the world was ruled
by chance and there was no fixed cause-effect relationship. The source and
cause of the same happenings may be different during different times and in
different situations. But most Lokayata believers were naturalists. Their
fundamental principle was nature (svabhava).They believed things moved and
transformed because of their inherent nature and according to lawful necessity.
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