Baghwat Gita – An Introduction
The major contribution to the field of psychology both in
the form of knowledge about the thinking and behavioral patterns and methods of
challenging their maladaptive patterns came from the Bhagavad gita which has
eighteen chapters. The first six chapters are devoted to the explanation of “sat”
or the existence aspect of reality.
These chapters explain how feelings differentiate the function
aspect of a man from a machine. These chapters also describe how feelings are
concomitant with life and how these feelings undergo modifications from like to
dislike, friendship to enmity, fulfillment to frustration, admiration to
jealousy and support to the opposition, and vice versa. Positive expressions
such as liking, friendship, fulfillment, admiration of others, and support are
all the constructive aspects of feeling. Dislike enmity, frustration jealousy,
and opposition are all the negative expressions that is the destructive aspects
of feeling. According to gita the positive aspects of emotion promote growth
and evolution while the negative ones retard.
The next six chapters are
devoted to how man has the inclination to move towards attaining “anandham
brahmam” the supreme bliss where he reaches a status where nothing is important
to him. Even though Bhagavad gita explains it as a person’s attraction towards
god which happens through purification of emotions where human beings are not
driven by need satisfaction approach, there is a lot of explanation about
awareness, cognition and how the coexistence of emotions and cognition in a
balanced manner add luster and brightness to human life.
To a very great extent, these
explanations can be associated with various components of emotional
intelligence, self-awareness, self-management, social awareness, and social
management. According to the Bhagavad gita, every living being is aware of its
own existence and it is evident that this awareness is born out of cognition.
There may be variation in the intensity of cognition and the difference between
one life and other is the degree of cognition.
These six chapters try to
explain the link between emotion and cognition. Cognitions, as it is in its raw
form, are rigid like hard iron, and experience/expression of emotions is the
process of melting it to become soft and gain luster. Gita states that when
emotions get purified then cognition gets sharpened while impure emotions lead
to confusion and internal conflicts which becomes the source of stress fear and
anxiety. just like love and sympathy between two persons lead to a better
understanding of each other and creates a sense of affinity and strengthening
of relationship, the link between love and knowledge can strengthen the
relationship on an individual with his internal “ self” which in turn leads to
better knowledge and awareness about self and this awareness becomes the source
of solutions to most of the problem encountered by an individual. According to
gita intelligence, awareness, cognition, consciousness, and conscience are the
same in a way that the latter is the evolution of the immediately preceding.
The last six chapters
describe the path of knowledge. These chapters describe how with increasing
knowledge a person can proportionally increase identifying himself and his
surroundings in a better and clearer manner which can lead him in the direction
of achieving satisfaction and glory. The knowledge contributes to the
purification of the faculty of understanding which includes intelligence,
awareness, cognition, consciousness, and conscience until it reaches its
culmination with the innate knowledge as a result of which perfection of the
individual becomes perfect or in terms of Humanitarian psychology the humans
drive to attain his ideal life gets completed. When completion of this process
ends the need-based drive in person making him mentally controlled and balanced
in all types of environment. These chapters also explain how this process can
be overshadowed by lethargic attitude, disuse, negative emotions, and
experiences, hampering the goal-directed behavior. These chapters also explain
the need to overcome this shadowing and methods of doing it.
The best and most effective contribution which has been to
a very great extent relevant to modern psychology has been from the holy script
baghwat gita which talks about increasing objectivity, transcending change by
accepting it, and integrating it into the system for effective living.
Counseling and
Therapeutic approach of Bhagwat gita
For a long time,
baghvat gita has been projected more a directive counseling with its roots
being present in the guru-chela model. It was also accepted as a process of
directive counseling. But proper scrutiny of the way baghvat gita has been
documented it gets more closely to the CBT model rather than a counseling one.
The process is more on
an interactive dialogue related to various aspects of the situational behavior
attitude and emotions. The socratarian dialogue is clearly visible in the
process. These socratarian dialogues were aimed at challenging the belief
systems related to self, environment, and future that were present around.
The whole script is
divided into eighteen chapters with the first chapter explaining the setting in
which Arjuna (Client) became incapacitated and the next seventeen chapters dealing
with a specific issue related to the individual's perception, cognition, and
behavior. In other words, it is a systematic cognitive-behavioral intervention
with seventeen sessions elaborating on various ideas that aid cognitive
restructuring. The vital areas dealing which was directed at changing the
attitude, behavior, and personality are
1. The strong and virile alone are fit for a life of great
consequence
2. Strength natures life, weakness wears it away
3. Potency drives away diseases, incapacity aggravates it
4. Virtue and righteousness are the outcome of strength, vice
and wickedness have their origin in weakness
5. Cowardice creates crookedness, it is feeble who resort to
foul play
6. Action born in manliness leads to freedom and its opposite to
bondage
7. Strength and sense of achievement are identical
The whole
transformation was described to be brought about as a slow steady perceptible
mental evolution.
Bagawat gita has been
described as an event when Arjuna (Client) was confused and preoccupied with
self-defeating thoughts when the Kurukshetra war between Kauravas and Pandavas
was about to start. The activating event was the Arjuna (Client) (Client)
witnessing the army in an organized framework with most of his close relatives
in the opposite group. Immediately he starts feeling that he cannot fight these
people (the belief system). Arjuna (Client) also started dreading the
consequences of his actions and starts feeling sick and incapacitated. So he
drops his bow(c- consequences). The type of sudden, negative thought that
Arjuna (Client) had in this situation is the “Negative automatic thought” in
CBT. (An “automatic thought” is a sudden thought, often unrecognized by an
individual, which leads to a negative emotional or behavioral response.)
According to cognitive
theory, individuals develop cognitive schemas that affect how they evaluate and
make meaning of internal and external stimuli. Schemas are influenced by
experiences and can be thought of as filters through which a person perceives
situations. Problems arise when a person develop depressive or anxious schemas
that lead to overly negative, pessimistic, or fearful views about oneself, the
world, or the future. This was the real experience of Arjuna (Client) in the
battle filed
Arjuna (Client)'s a
distorted way of interpreting the situation primarily based on his immediate
situational emotions, lead to overly extreme interpretations, as well as a
tendency to focus on negative pieces of information. It was in these conditions
Arjuna (Client) failed to realize his goals and also the purpose of his
presence on the battlefield. Arjuna (Client)’s core belief that he was the
person responsible for the war and for winning the war typically lay dormant in
the background until activated by stressful and context-relevant events. These
activated the core belief made him interpret the events and gave rise to
automatic thoughts that are consistent with them.
Arjuna (Client)’s
harbored these negative core beliefs which were rigid leading to extreme
automatic thoughts in the situation which demanded action, with an internal
attributional style in which he excessively started attributed blame to
internal versus external factors. These made him react with strong intentions
to leave the place.
This avoidance behavior
was also an obstructing that prevented Arjuna from using his rational reasoning
abilities to disprove his belief, receive satisfaction from engaging in
activities in which he had the mastery, and enjoy the pleasure of doing it. It
was essential to break the vicious thought–belief cycle and make Arjuna
(Client) understand how to change extreme cognitions, so that he can do things
which he was supposed to do in that situation, thereby engaging in rewarding
activities by which the self-defeating thoughts are weakened and new
self-affirming thoughts and beliefs are strengthened.
It was when Krishna
felt that Arjuna had been emotionally carried away and succumbed to this
negative belief systems, he acted just like Cognitive-behavioral therapists to
work closely with Arjuna (Client) to develop more realistic and flexible
thinking styles and methods of information processing, including learning how
to identify, challenge, and modify maladaptive automatic thoughts and core
beliefs. The whole of Gita which proceeds as interactive dialogue shows how the
constellation of interacting components that contributed to Arjuna (Client)’s
current problems was conceptualized and created conditions for identifying key
situations, automatic thoughts, and their associated meanings, emotions, and
behaviors thus paving way for a change in perception cognition and attitude.
But just like any
individual when Arjuna (Client) still could not get over the inertia and
initiate actions just like the way in which severely anxious or depressed
patients respond. The initial focus of lord Krishna was on bringing about some
behavioral change in the form of activity that can provide immediate relief
from the incapacitating emotional distress, increase the energy levels, and
instill confidence in the therapeutic process, before extensively working on
changing deep-rooted thoughts and beliefs. The turn of events depicts how
Krishna (Therapist) made Arjuna (Client) act, by creating a strong thought that
he was destined to act and whatever he does is just his role for which he was
born, and Krishna as the Holy Spirit is the ultimate decision-maker of who does
what and how things should proceed thereby reliving Arjuna of his guilt. But
this step at the end makes baghwat gita look more like philosophical literature
rather than an effective intervention model which is very closely related to
the current model of CBT
If the situation had
been perceived just as a conflict within Arjuna (Client) whether to fight or
retreat, then Krishna (Therapist) could have given an immediate solution based
on his own decisions on how Arjuna (Client) should act at this juncture. But
instead, Krishna (Therapist) understanding the distress tried to enlighten
Arjuna (Client) with a systematic approach which involves education
(psychoeducation), cleared understanding of perceptual modalities and deeper
analysis of core belief system to bring about a comprehensive change in
personality has been adopted which clearly simulates a therapeutic intervention
which has the structure of cognitive behavior model. The profound ideas in
Bhagavad gita allow themselves to be approached, applied, and verified from
different angles of vision which makes it a universally applicable model.
Lord Krishna initially tries to motivate Arjuna, by describing
the glories of a warrior and dishonor associated with non-participation,
perhaps a motivational strategy used by the charioteer in those times. But when
he noticed that his approach of using general motivational strategies is not
yielding the intended change in arjuna’s behavior, Lord Krishna starts
delivering the Gita discourse. This helps Arjuna to identify his negative
thought process, challenge them by a deeper analysis of the situation,
happenings, and reactions of Arjuna, and prepares him for action; a process
similar to the sequential steps adopted while administering CBT.
In addition to the cognitive distortion of catastrophizing about
the future which was dominating the thought process in Arjuna, he experiences
guilt and exhibits several other cognitive distortions. To help Arjuna overcome
the conflicts within himself and dilemma on whether to act, Lord Krishna
explains that the distress he is in is transitory and emphasizes the importance
of having an undistorted view of the world similar to a view that is free of
cognitive distortions. This is also comparable to psychoeducation provided by a
therapist to an anxious person, where the therapist explains the transitory
nature of anxiety, followed by an explanation of the role of cognitive
distortions contributing to the symptoms. Lord Krishna also addresses the
cognitive distortion of personalization, as Arjuna unfairly holds himself responsible
for the destruction. He clarifies to Arjuna that hat all actions occur due to a
natural course of events and an individual who perceives himself to be cause
for such actions is deluded. Lord Krishna further addresses the conflicts and
guilt in the mind of Arjuna by explaining the concept of the Atman being
eternal, and that Arjuna will not terminate the enemies by destroying their
worldly bodies, thereby relieving him of the guilt of being responsible for the
earthly demise of his loved and respected ones who were the part of the
enemies’ army
Later, Lord Krishna addresses the avoidance behavior in Arjuna
by imparting the knowledge of Karma, perhaps the most important concept of the
Gita. The Karma yoga as stated in the gita is unique whereby it is explained as
actions being carried out without emotional attachment and without expectation
of fruits, rewards, or consequences. Gita encourages action but discourages any
attachment on the part of the individual with the result expected of the action
done. The core theme is that being detached from the consequence helps an
individual in alleviating the possible distress or guilt associated with his
action. This teaching of gita challenges the negative belief system that one
should not retaliate against family, however evil they might be, which helps in
removing a considerable dilemma that Arjuna was experiencing due to this false
belief. The focus on involving is actions that are believed to be useful in
addressing the ego defense mechanism of avoidance is emphasized in several
chapters of the Gita. The Gita states that a person attains perfection by his
actions and not by mere renunciation. It further adds that a man who withdraws
from action is not following the right path for renunciation. Lord Krishna discourages
dwelling on imaginary results which is on par with the cognitive distortion of
jumping to conclusions. The Gita also recommends the use of relaxation via
controlled breathing (pranayama) and meditation, as aids towards
alleviating anxiety and achieving harmony within oneself which can be taken as
being on par with principles of reciprocal inhibition and use of relaxation
which are usually adopted by cognitive behavior therapy as a part of their
therapeutic intervention. With several similarities between the process of CBT
and the Gita discourse, it can be clearly stated the approach of gita is very
similar to CBT practices and the content and methods explained in this
scripture can be used to promote insight into one's own distorted thinking and
motivate the person to bring about behavioral change.
Psychodynamic
Psychotherapy
The Psychoanalytical School and psychodynamic model of therapy
focus on the conflict within oneself between the Id and the superego and problems
arise when the ego is unable to maintain the balance between these two factors
of personality. The id is a requirement of sensory-based pleasures that is
associated with the individual self and the Super ego is the values that guide
a person which is the part of the universal self. The internal dissonance
related to acting out based on external requirements creates distress. By
striking the compromise between the requirements associated with ID and the
dissonance associated with Superego the Ego promotes adaptation. Whenever the
Ego is unable to settle the conflict then the use of ego defense mechanism is
used to avoid distress.
The teaching of the Gitas focuses on the successful resolution
of conflicts faced by Arjuna within himself between some of the features of the
three gunas i.e., tamasic, Rajas, Satwic states. These states can be broadly
taken on par with id, ego, and superego. Of the three gunas, Tamas also depicts
qualities of self-centeredness and lack of regard for consequences, which also has
similarities to the Id. Satwic qualities manifest as good thought, altruistic
action, and relationships, the qualities manifested by SuperEgo state and Rajas
depicts goal-directed action with an expectation of reward which has
similarities to ego state. Similar to Freudian psychodynamic psychotherapy, the
three gunas are involved in a continuous struggle for supremacy that results in
symptoms of anxiety. But the teachings of Gita is directed at achieving a
higher state associated with the universal self than just harnessing the Satwic
qualities. It directs human beings to rise above the influence of the three
gunas and attaining the superior state of being unperturbed by having a mind
that is steady, at peace, and in a state of bliss.
The Gita states that senses (indriyas) produce attractions,
which in turn lead to desire and a lust for possession which is the prime
qualities of the ID state of mind. The Drive within a person to satisfy these
desires leads to the development of traits such as lust (kaam), anger (krodh),
greed (lobh ), unquenchable attachment (moh), and Inflated Self-esteem leading
to self-glorification (ahankar) which are all a part of tamasic nature. The
Gita describes hate and lust to be a part individual's malicious nature, which
can be compared with the Freudian hierarchy of the id. But gita strongly
emphasizes that the mind is superior than the power of the senses which can be
compared to theories describing the interaction between the ego and the
superego. Gita states that the restless activities of the senses make the mind
unstable and the passions associated with sensory desires generate confusion of
the mind making the person lose his abilities for reasoning and also lose focus
on his duties and responsibilities, which may culminate in
self-destruction.
The goal of Psychoanalytical Psychotherapy is to gain insight
into the conflict and reduce the same. The Gita and the Upanishads highlight
this goal as well by stating that the achievement of “true knowledge of self is
the status of attaining salvation.”
What has been made popular as the comprehensive statement of
Bhagavad gita is “do your duties, without the expectation of its outcome”. But
people who have understood baghwat gita clearly can only comprehend that the
core message of Bhagavad gita is “ find pleasure in your actions rather than
its results which can only make you function consistently and sustain the
goal-directed behavior
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