Spirituality and Indian Psychology: Lessons from ... - Mandhata Global

Discovering or Mining Models from Scriptures
without being irreverent because no idea is ever perfect and all ideas need to be
made sense of in the context of the contemporary knowledge base for people to
appreciate it. Thus, there should be no hesitation in attempting to polish such models.
In what follows an attempt is made to polish this basic model from the bhagavadgItA
in the light of current psychological knowledge.
It is not explicated in the verse that desires lead to setting goals, which can be
financial, academic, personal (health, how one looks, etc.), and so forth. Thus,
desire is translated into behaviors, which are directed toward goals. Anger results
when goals are not met. But when goals are met, desires are fulfilled; and in this
case desires are unlikely to lead to anger. This truism is not stated in the verse. It
seems reasonable that when goals are met, the person either moves on to some other
goals or continues to pursue the behavior to obtain more of the same outcome or
something higher or better. Therefore, greed 5 is the likely consequence of fulfillment
of goals (Bhawuk, 1999). Both anger and greed are causes of unhappiness,
and thus it could be argued that we have discovered a model of unhappiness.
A schematic presentation of this process is captured in Figure 10.2. The top part of
the diagram is raw wisdom as presented in the bhagavadgItA, and the lower part of
the diagram is an attempt to polish the model to synthesize current thinking in
psychology. One could stop here or take another step and reverse the process of
unhappiness, which could lead to a model of happiness (see Figure 7.1).
Another example will help demonstrate this approach further. In verses 3.14 and
3.15 of the bhagavadgItA, a model that shows causal connection between yajna and
human existence is presented. People are born of food, food is born of rain, rain is born
of yajna, and yajna is born of karma (verse 3.14 6 ). karma is born of the vedas, the vedas
are born of indestructible brahman (see Figure 10.3), and so the all pervading brahman
is always present in yajna (verse 3.15 7 ). In the Indian worldview, yajna, where offerings
5 A question can be raised if fulfillment of goals invariably leads to greed, which is negative. What
about ambition to excel in something or non-selfish goals like desire to help others? It is my
understanding that all desires invariably lead to greed, since enlightenment means flowing with
the universe and serving people without having any desire for oneself. The moment there is self,
there is desire and, therefore, greed. The selfless person has no desire. The enlightened person has
no desire, not even to fight for the freedom of nation. One would think that the pastors and ministers
of Christian churches are motivated by serving others, but research evidence shows that they
have one of the highest rates of burnout among all professions (Chun, 2006; Grosch & Olsen,
2000). Clearly, too much of social service can also lead to stress and burnout. Other examples can
be found in the scriptures. For example, arjuna’s desire to be the best archer led him to complain
to guru droNa, which culminated in ekalavya losing his thumb. The contest between karNa and
arjuna was a result of both trying to be the best archer of their time. So, excellence and ambition
inherently lead to competition and result in greed sooner or later.
6 Verse 3.14: annAdbhavanti bhUtAni parjanyAdannasambhavaH; yajnAdbhavati parjanyo yajnaH
karmasamudbhavaH.
7 Verse 3.15: karma brahmodbhavaM viddhi brahmAkSarsamudbhavam; tasmAtsarvagataM
brahma nityaM yajne pratiSThitam.
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