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Consciousness: Identity and Self

In this paper we will try to understand Indian psychological thought based upon dyadic schools of
philosophy Saṁkhya and Yoga which is significantly different from what is developed in western
sphere of thoughts.

As what we understand from western psychological perspective it is more focused upon

understanding and predicting why people do what they do when they do it. It is more focused upon
the therapeutic attitude limited to the diagnosis and treatment of psychopathology. The conception
of human beings is quite reductive that, behaviour and thinking is controlled by the brain alone and
whatever is happening inside the brain makes our understanding of the world around. All the cognitive
processes are outcome of the functioning of the brain. More precisely mental states to be identical to
brain states (PM Churchland 1985). These western philosophical theories have various version of the
mind-body problem.

On the other hand, Indian psychology studies consciousness as a central character of human existence.
Now in Indian philosophical perspective consciousness is something more than just subjective
interpretations of the world or reportable awareness. Indian psychology goes beyond just theorizing
various principles, but defines various practices that can allow individual to transform and move
towards perfection. There is misunderstanding about the Indian way of looking at individuals to be
just speculative and other worldly. It basically allows individual to transcend the existential limitations
by transforming conditioned being to unconditioned state of freedom (KR Rao 2012). The perfection
where one will able to know satyam (truth), śivam (to practice virtue), sundaram (to have platonic
values). Indian psychology has the potential where it can bring about a paradigmatic shift in the way
we understand human beings and study them.

Yoga

Western psychology considers objects to be known by the subject. Subjects and objects are considered
distinct not having any connection between them. Essentially these are dualist in nature standing one
against the another. Whereas according to Yoga which is the basis of Indian psychology, essential
ingredients are puruṣa and prakṛti. Now these two can remain distinct forever but except for the fact
that prakṛti has a special affinity with puruṣa. Prakṛti consists of three guṇas called sattva (essence),
rajas (energy) and tamas (Inertia). Amongst this sattva is that special elements of prakṛti which can
actually absorb the consciousness and gets subjective in nature, which evolves meaning into its object
(G Misra 2011). This very evolution of meaning into the object is called as buddhi in Yoga. So prakṛti is
not some passive physical state of object which doesn’t have any sense of consciousness as it is
considered in western philosophy, but it actually goes through evolutionary changes and manifests
into various forms of physicality. So this physicality can transform into psychic being and the object
becomes a subject by reflecting consciousness in its being in various degrees. There is capacity in the
object to become subject as sattva becomes significantly reinforced. The same process takes place in
mind as well by becoming capable of reflecting consciousness. In the case of human being sattva is
significantly evolved reflecting consciousness to coexist with its physical being with distinctive identity
and form. Then in this case person becomes a knowing subject, in addition to being an object to be
known.

Since the object and subject of the self becomes internally localized, the self-understanding and self-
exploration becomes the basis of liberation. The highest state of mind is to reflect consciousness
completely without any limitation, that puruṣa attains the state of kaivalya. This is the state of
consciousness where purity of sattva and puruṣa are equal. In this state the person functions as a pure

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psychic being, transcending all the constraints of physical being. I consider this to be complete
emotional drive towards doing something and experiencing those aspects of self, without actually
thinking about all the worldly limitations of transactions. The consequences of act or expressions
seems to be insignificant compared to the value of the moment. Psychologically complete freedom of
thoughts and intellect leads to the absolute involvement into the activity for the sake of experiencing
bliss than expecting any reward or return. There is no role of guilt, regret, burden, pressure,
uncertainty when sattva takes its supreme form of being. It can be just understanding art or looking
at a picture without any judgements or biases. It’s the process of becoming the object and achieving
tādātmya with it. It goes beyond understanding of individualism or idea of self to the extent that one
becomes whole.

Yogic spiritual activity is inward-directed willing (nivrtti) which arrests the activity of the will towards
enjoyment and ultimately results in the isolation (kaivalyam) of the Self from ignorance and modified
consciousness (WM Indich 1995). Nivrtti becomes significantly important when one starts thinking
that her supreme role is to experience and enjoy the world. If one is irrationally (aviveka) engaged
into worldly activities thinking of material wellbeing, then that is nothing but vicious cycle of unending
desires due to avidyā. The only way to come out of moha(delusion) is then letting go of all the desires
to achieve or possess something and realizing that true wealth lies within self. This way of focusing on
self helps psychologically not just to facilitate sense of contentment but actually understand the
essence of being into existence. Knowing that I am not what is there outside me but how effectively
one identifies within self as the consciousness is evolutionary outcome through sattva element of
object.

Saṁkhya

While taking into consideration of saṁkhya philosophy it even talks about sattva (essence), rajas
(energy) and tamas (Inertia) which produce pleasure, pain and delusion (moha) respectively
(J Sinha 1986). From psychological understanding of the process of consciousness is starts from mind
(manas) which doubts the content of the information that is received through senses. As there is
dependency of past and future expectations of the events. Thus ahaṁkāra (self-sense) comes into
picture which perceives things voluntarily and not in objective manner. Once there are some filters
use to grasp the information and collect data from the surround buddhi (intellect) determine the
knowledge and makes some decision to act accordingly. These three are essentially one internally
which act upon past, present and future objects which results into some knowledge that is dependent
on the essence of the self. Whereas feeling, volition, action belong to buddhi which are actually
qualities referred to the self. So what saṁkhya say is that transcendental knowledge of is intrinsic
nature of the self. Pleasure and pain are nothing but the self-reflection of these mental tools. Basically
discrimination between puruṣa and prakṛti gives rise to the understanding of the true knowledge
otherwise, false knowledge and feelings gives rise to the attachment and aversion which miss leads
power of using one’s will towards specific course of actions. Psychologically considering this to be an
identity crisis, it becomes difficult to make sense out of worldly activities achieving too much of
proximity with the object falsifies the nature of being. So there is some distinction to be made between
self and object to understand that empirical knowledge of the objects is nothing but the mental mode
of the self. But ultimate reality lies within person which is essentially pure, free, enlightened and free
from guṇas.

Even though these schools of Indian philosophy are dyadic in nature who identifies subject and object
to be distinct from each other, it is much more interactive than completely free from each other that
object becomes the central character of the perception as in western sense of knowing objects from
dualists perspective. Whereas there is shift in understanding of the self as the human being which has

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some intrinsic quality which gets manifested into some errors due to false knowledge of the world. So
there is huge lot of motivation internally designed in conception of human beings to really explore the
idea of self than thinking of error as pathological problem. Understanding of humans is not done in
parts of being but considered to be whole in its structural essence by Saṁkhya and Yoga. The
combination of sattva, rajas, tamas forms unique combination of existence which affects many of the
biological factors which are further transformed into Vāta, Pitta, and Kapha composition of the body
which is further studied in Ayurveda. This idea of unification and balance of various elements in the
body ensures the well-being of the individual which affects not only the biological aspects of the body
but mind and consciousness. To particularly identify role of these schools of philosophy in
psychological sense, to actually make sense out of the world one cannot be particular about one factor
of the self, making some changes in the body either physically, mentally or just a behaviour. To be
able to live happy and healthy there is sense of collective efforts one has to follow pathya which
consist of good diet food, lifestyle, meditation, exercise. These factors help in building up healthy
metabolic system and maintaining good digestion and excretion.

This understanding of human beings as a whole than the reductionist idea of body where problems
are considered to be pathological effects caused by some external factors allows one to focus upon
internal constitutes of being and focus attention inward to make sense out of non-sense in most
effective manner. This approach is more humanistic in generating more awareness among fellow
members of the society than completely depending upon the medications and diagnosis of modern
medicines. These philosophical standpoints then become a way of life to be able to comprehend world
outside in most efficient way and remain in sync with the nature.

Bibliography:
Churchland, Paul M. "Reduction, qualia, and the direct introspection of brain states." The Journal of
Philosophy 82, no. 1 (1985): 8-28.

Rao, K. Ramakrishna. "Psychology in Indian tradition." Psychological Studies 57, no. 4 (2012): 323-330.

Sinha, Jadunath. Indian psychology. Vol. 2. Motilal Banarsidass Publ., (1986).

Indich, William M. Consciousness in advaita vedanta. Motilal Banarsidass Publ., (1995):63-67.

Misra, Girishwar. "Handbook of psychology in India." (2011).

Word Count: 1592

Abhijeet Kulkarni| Roll no. 163603001|TTIP |Date:1 September 2016|Assignment-2