Psychology An Eastern Perspective

Psychology - An Eastern Perspective is a monograph born out of a lecture given in 1974, by Guru Nitya Chaitanya Yati, to a group of students in Portland, U.S.A. As the title indicates, it is an in depth study into the function of consciousness as conceived of by the great Indian seers.
India is renowned for a spiritual and philosophical tradition that extends and disappears into the mists of antiquity. Though embodying numerous schools of thought, no distinct science of psychology has apparently emerged from India as did in the West. But viewed alternately, we can see that the Indian seers possessed a comprehensive, uncanny vision, especially evident in the Yoga and Vedanta systems, of a psychology in the broadest sense of the term. Indeed, when carefully discerned, we can see that Vedanta is nothing but pure psychology. The Greek words 'psycho', meaning spirit, soul or mind, and 'logy' meaning science, compound to make 'psychology. The Greek 'psycho' is more or less equivalent to the Indian concept of 'cit' or consciousness. 'Psychology thus etymologically denotes a science of consciousness. This could have been the sense in which the word 'psychology" was coined in scientific nomenclature. According to Vedanta, the Reality ultimately to be realized by seekers is nothing other than pure, unconditioned Consciousness. Now how this is to be methodically sought after and attained is the proper subject of Vedanta and is known as Brahmavidya (science of the Absolute). The effort itself made by the seeker is but a functional mode within the individuated aspect of the Consciousness ultimately sought after. Thus both the means and the ends are contained and resolved within one Consciousness. When Consciousness is written with a capital 'C' we do not mean a state of mind in which one is conscious of something. Rather, we refer to the Consciousness-substance that unfolds itself as all the mental states, including those dealt with in modern Western psychology. So the quintessential subject of Vedanta is Consciousness. From this vantage we can understand why Indian thinkers felt no need to parcel psychology into a separate branch of knowledge.
Western psychology, as a separate science along with its pendant schools of thought, grew mainly out of the exigency to remedy certain persons of their mental disorders. This trend continues unto this day. In India such patients are known as rogis. From an Eastern perspective, psychology assists a person through developing in them a systematic understanding of the functional modes of Consciousness, allowing for the perfection of the mind. This perfection happens when it realizes its oneness with the whole or ultimate Reality. This attainment is what marks the state of a yogi. As mentioned before, this Consciousness is ultimately nothing but the essential content of what really exists. Upon attaining the goal (perfection or the yogic state), the seeker realizes that everything, including himself, his mind, and the endeavour to attain the goal, are but variegated facets of the specific functional expression of Consciousness. Such functional modes of Consciousness are known as bhanas in Indian psychology. A person who has realized such perfection is known as a yogi. In short. psychology in the West aims at correcting the mental pathologies of rogis, whereas Indian psychology aims at attaining the state of a yogi.
**Contents and Sample Pages**