The Bhagavad Gita as the Epitome of Indian Psychology vis-à-vis Modern psychology

Abstract

The Indian tradition has always revered the Bhagavad Gita as a text of marvellous universality with the ability to throw light on many aspects of an individual’s life journey. Further, its importance is underscored by its preeminence as a source book of Indian Psychology. Indian Psychology is a modern appellation given to the extraction, compilation and consolidation, from Indian sources, of the principles of psychology based on the framework of concepts and categorisation of the western tradition of psychology. This article examines the deep insights into the human psyche as presented and intuited from the Bhagavad Gita and consolidates them into maxims. The examination of Indian Psychology is guided by Advaita Vedanta - which is one of the windows of interpreting the Bhagavad Gita. The generic and particular principles of Indian Psychology as seen through the lens of the Bhagavad Gita are then studied in apposition with the principles of modern psychology. This study yields an interesting set of observations about the common ground between the two disciplines: indicating what Indian Psychology could learn from Modern Psychology; and the unique insights that Indian Psychology offers which could contribute to a better understanding and handling of human existential crisis and its resolution through better informed existential quests. In an attempt to give a practical orientation, the article examines briefly the principles of Indian psychology that influenced the life of three national leaders who have publicly acknowledged their debt to the Bhagavad Gita, having been life-long students of the text viz. Lokamanya Tilak, Sri Aurobindo and Mahatma Gandhi. The uniqueness of their personality/leadership will be correlated to the Bhagavad Gita’s repository of the Principles of Indian Psychology.