Basic concepts of Indian psychology and positive psychology

What makes a human life go well? A branch of modern psychology, positive psychology, studies exactly this question. Indian traditions asked it for more than two thousand years, in their own words and for their own reasons. This course teaches the basic concepts of Indian psychology as eleven Indian ideas, each set beside an idea from positive psychology.

Rao and Paranjpe (2016, sec. 7.3.3), the authors of the course textbook, write that the two fields "are different; yet, as we suggest, they may learn from each other and benefit by close association." So this page asks three questions about each pair. What does the Indian word mean? Which Western idea is it set beside? Where does the match hold, and where does it break? The match helps you understand an unfamiliar idea; the break stops you from mistaking one idea for the other.

The page builds on the worldview page and the page on perspectives on reality. Words taught there, such as dharmadharmaधर्मsay: dhuhr-muhLiterally: that which holds or supports; from dhṛ-, to holdDharma is the right way of living: duty, ethics, and the order that holds society and the world together. It depends partly on one's role and stage of life.Western link Close to 'ethics', 'duty' or 'moral order'. The difference: dharma joins personal ethics, social roles and cosmic law, and it depends on context.Full entry in the glossaryClose, karmakarmaकर्मsay: kuhr-muhLiterally: action, deed; from kṛ-, to doKarma means action, and also the result that every action brings back to the person who did it, in this life or a later one.Western link Close to moral causation, or 'you reap what you sow'. The difference: in most schools karma is an impersonal law that works across lives; theistic schools say God oversees it, but even there it is not a judge's verdict on a single life.Full entry in the glossaryClose and BrahmanBrahmanब्रह्मन्brahmansay: bruh-hmuhnLiterally: the vast; from bṛh-, to grow, expandBrahman is the ultimate reality in Vedanta: the one source and ground of everything. It is often described as being, consciousness and bliss.Western link Close to 'the Absolute' in Western philosophy, or to God in mystical theology. The difference: in Advaita, Brahman is not separate from the self that seeks it.Full entry in the glossaryClose, are only recalled here.

What positive psychology is

Key concept

positive psychology

For a long time, modern psychology studied mainly what goes wrong in people: illness, damage and distress. Positive psychology began as a protest against that narrow focus (Rao and Paranjpe, 2016, sec. 2.10). In the words of Martin Seligman, one of its founders, its aim is "to catalyze a change in psychology from a preoccupation only with repairing the worst things in life to also building the best qualities in life" (Seligman, 2005, p. 3, quoted by Rao and Paranjpe, 2016, sec. 7.3.3).

Here is an everyday example. A school counsellor can ask a student, "What is wrong, and how can we fix it?" Positive psychology adds a second question: "What is going well for you, and how can we build on it?" It does not replace the first question.

The phrase first appeared in Abraham Maslow's book Motivation and Personality (1954). The movement began when Martin SeligmanMartin SeligmanAmerican psychologist who launched positive psychology in 1998 as president of the American Psychological Association. His book Flourish (2011) set out the PERMA model of wellbeing.Full entry in the glossaryClose called for it as president of the American Psychological Association in 1998, and when Seligman and Mihaly CsikszentmihalyiMihaly Csikszentmihalyisay: cheek-sent-mee-highHungarian-American psychologist (1934 to 2021) who described flow, the state of full absorption in an activity. With Martin Seligman he introduced positive psychology in 2000.Full entry in the glossaryClose published an introduction to it in 2000. Researchers in the field separate two kinds of wellbeing (Ryan and Deci, 2001). Hedonic wellbeing means feeling good. Eudaimonic wellbeing means living well: meaning, growth and virtue.

Closest Indian idea ananda (bliss), santosha (contentment) and anasakti. The difference: Indian traditions see lasting happiness as the nature of the self, not a mix of good conditions.

positive psychology in the glossary

PERMA: five parts of wellbeing

Seligman's best-known model is PERMAPERMAPERMA is Martin Seligman's (2011) model of wellbeing. It has five elements: Positive emotion, Engagement, Relationships, Meaning and Accomplishment.Indian link no single one. The class pairs sukha and ananda with positive emotion, karma yoga with engagement, bhakti and ahimsa with relationships, and dharma with meaning.Full entry in the glossaryClose, from his book Flourish (2011). It names five elements of a good life:

• P, positive emotion: feeling good, such as joy, hope and gratitude.
• E, engagement: being fully absorbed in what you do.
• R, relationships: warm and trusting ties with other people.
• M, meaning: belonging to and serving something larger than yourself.
• A, accomplishment: achieving things, pursued for their own sake.

Each element must add to wellbeing, be pursued for its own sake, and be measured separately from the others.

Getting the date right

The course textbook cites the five elements to "Seligman 1990" (Rao and Paranjpe, 2016, sec. 7.3.3). PERMA comes from Flourish (2011); use that date.

Flow and character strengths

Flow. FlowflowFlow is the state of being fully absorbed in a challenging activity, when skill matches the challenge and self-consciousness fades. Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi (1990) named and studied it.Indian link karma yoga, and the steady flow of attention in dhyana. The difference: flow is a passing state, while karma yoga is a lifelong attitude toward all duty.Full entry in the glossaryClose is the state of being fully absorbed in a challenging activity, described by Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi in Flow: The psychology of optimal experience (1990). It comes when the challenge of a task matches the person's skill and the task has a goal and gives feedback. Self-consciousness fades, and people enjoy the state for its own sake. In PERMA, flow is the E.

Character strengths. Peterson and Seligman (2004) listed 24 character strengthscharacter strengthsCharacter strengths are positive traits such as honesty, gratitude and hope. Peterson and Seligman (2004) listed 24 of them under six virtues.Indian link the yamas and niyamas of Yoga. The difference: the yamas are vows everyone must keep in full, not strengths a person has in different amounts.Full entry in the glossaryClose, such as honesty, gratitude and hope, under six virtues: wisdom, courage, humanity, justice, temperance and transcendence. Each person has each strength in some amount, and the advice is to use your top, or "signature", strengths. Dahlsgaard, Peterson and Seligman (2005) read classic texts from China, South Asia (Buddhism and Hinduism) and the West, and found that the same six virtues kept recurring. Here positive psychology itself drew on Indian texts.

Reading an Indian concept in context

The course stresses that Indian concepts have "multiple connotations" and "multiple resources": one Sanskrit word can carry several meanings, and the ideas come from many different texts. So each concept needs "contextual consideration" and a "cultural perspective". This can be taught as three warnings.

One word, several meanings. dharmadharmaधर्मsay: dhuhr-muhLiterally: that which holds or supports; from dhṛ-, to holdDharma is the right way of living: duty, ethics, and the order that holds society and the world together. It depends partly on one's role and stage of life.Western link Close to 'ethics', 'duty' or 'moral order'. The difference: dharma joins personal ethics, social roles and cosmic law, and it depends on context.Full entry in the glossaryClose means duty and right living in Hindu texts, but in Buddhism it usually means the Buddha's teaching. atmanatmanआत्मन्ātmansay: aat-muhnLiterally: self; in early use also 'breath'Atman means the self: the deepest 'I' behind body and mind. In Vedanta it is pure consciousness and is one with Brahman.Western link Close to 'self' or 'soul'. The key difference: Western psychology studies the self as a set of thoughts and traits; atman is the conscious witness of them.Full entry in the glossaryClose, the self, is one with Brahman in AdvaitaAdvaita Vedantaअद्वैत वेदान्तAdvaita Vedāntasay: uhd-vai-tuh vay-daan-tuhLiterally: not-two; non-dualAdvaita Vedanta teaches that the true self (atman) and ultimate reality (Brahman) are one. The feeling of being a separate person comes from ignorance.Western link Often called monism. Advaita writers prefer 'non-dualism': reality is not two, but it is not described as one countable thing either.Full entry in the glossaryClose, distinct from God in DvaitaDvaita Vedantaद्वैत वेदान्तDvaita Vedāntasay: dvai-tuh vay-daan-tuhLiterally: dualist Vedanta (dvaita, two-ness)Dvaita Vedanta is the dualist school of Vedanta founded by Madhva. It holds that God, souls and the world are real and forever distinct.Western link Close to classical theism in Christianity, Judaism and Islam, where the creature never becomes the Creator. Its quarrel with Advaita is like the quarrel between theism and mystical monism. The difference: Dvaita keeps the Indian frame of karma and rebirth, and liberation means release from that cycle.Full entry in the glossaryClose, and denied in Buddhism. Even rtartaऋतṛtasay: ri-tuhLiterally: what moves in order; truth, orderRta is the Vedic idea of cosmic order: the law that keeps the seasons, the stars and right human conduct in harmony.Western link Close to 'natural law', or to the Greek idea of the cosmos as an ordered whole. The difference: rta joins physical, moral and ritual order in one idea.Full entry in the glossaryClose, say Rao and Paranjpe, "has twin connotations": truth and the order of the universe (2016, sec. 2.2).

Many sources, which do not agree. These concepts come from the Vedas, the UpanishadsUpanishadउपनिषद्Upaniṣadsay: u-puh-ni-shuhdLiterally: sitting down near (a teacher); upa + ni + sadThe Upanishads are philosophical texts at the end of the Vedas. They ask what the self is and how it relates to the whole of reality.Western link Sometimes compared to Plato's dialogues, because they teach through questions and conversation. The key difference: their aim is direct experience of the self, not only a sound argument.Full entry in the glossaryClose, the Bhagavad GitaBhagavad Gitaभगवद्गीताBhagavad Gītāsay: bhuh-guh-vuhd gee-taaLiterally: song of the Blessed LordThe Bhagavad Gita is a 700-verse dialogue inside the Mahabharata. Krishna advises the warrior Arjuna, who is in crisis before a battle.Western link Often read as a counselling text: a person in crisis talks with a guide. Unlike most Western therapy, the guide also gives moral and spiritual teaching.Full entry in the glossaryClose, the Yoga SutraYoga Sutraयोगसूत्रYogasūtrasay: yo-guh soo-truhLiterally: threads (aphorisms) on yogaThe Yoga Sutra is the classic text of the Yoga school, by Patanjali. In about 195 short lines it explains how to calm and master the mind.Western link Close to a manual of attention training and self-regulation. The key difference: its goal is the freedom of pure consciousness (purusha), not only better mental health.Full entry in the glossaryClose, devotional poets, and Buddhist and Jain texts. As Rao and Paranjpe put it, "Indian thought is not monolithic" (2016, p. 9). The tradition even has a name for attending to context: desh-kala-patradesh-kala-patraदेश-काल-पात्रdeśa-kāla-pātrasay: day-shuh kaa-luh paa-truhLiterally: place, time and person (literally 'vessel')Place, time and person: the three things Hindu tradition says you must know before you can judge an action as right or wrong.Western link Close to Kurt Lewin's idea that behaviour depends on the person and the situation together. The difference: desh-kala-patra adds time, and it is used to judge whether an act is right, not only to explain it.Full entry in the glossaryClose, place, time and person.

A bridge is not an equation. A Western partner helps you understand an Indian idea, but it does not make the two the same, and Western measures may miss what the tradition cared about. The editors of the second course textbook write that research has measured yoga and meditation "almost exclusively on variables like blood pressure, anxiety, depression and extroversion", not on what the culture of origin valued, "such as equanimity, compassion, wisdom and detachment" (Cornelissen, Misra and Varma, 2014, p. xv). Such research is eticemic and eticsay: ee-mik, e-tikLiterally: from the linguistics terms 'phonemic' and 'phonetic'An emic approach studies a culture from the inside, using its own concepts. An etic approach studies it from the outside, using concepts meant to fit all cultures.Indian link studying a darshana on its own terms (emic) versus comparing it with Western psychology (etic).Full entry in the glossaryClose: done from an outsider's point of view.

The concepts one by one

The eleven concepts follow in the order the course teaches them. Dharma and rta were taught on the worldview page, so they get a short reminder. dhyanadhyanaध्यानdhyānasay: dhyaa-nuhLiterally: meditation, contemplation (dhyai-, to think)Dhyana is meditation: a steady, unbroken flow of attention toward one object. It is the seventh limb of Yoga, after concentration and before absorption.Western link Close to 'meditation', and to sustained attention in cognitive psychology. The difference: dhyana is one stage in a sequence, not a general word for any calming exercise.Full entry in the glossaryClose, ashtanga yogaashtanga yogaअष्टाङ्ग योगaṣṭāṅga yogasay: uhsh-taan-guh yo-guhLiterally: eight-limbed yoga (aṣṭa, eight + aṅga, limb)Ashtanga yoga is Patanjali's eight-limbed path: yama, niyama, asana, pranayama, pratyahara, dharana, dhyana and samadhi.Western link Close to a staged training programme that moves from behaviour to attention to inner states. No Western therapy joins ethics, body, breath and meditation in one sequence like this.Full entry in the glossaryClose and anasaktianasaktiअनासक्तिanāsaktisay: uh-naa-suhk-tiLiterally: non-attachment (an + āsakti, clinging)Anasakti means non-attachment: acting and enjoying life without clinging to things or to results. Indian psychologists study it as a source of calm and happiness.Western link Close to 'non-attachment' in mindfulness research, and to acceptance in acceptance-based therapies. The difference: it is rooted in duty (dharma) and service, not only in managing emotion.Full entry in the glossaryClose return in depth in Unit 5, so they are kept short here.

Sukha and ananda: pleasure and bliss

New Sanskrit word

sukha सुख

Say

su-khuh

Literally

"good space"; ease, pleasure (su, good + kha, space)

Sukha is the everyday Sanskrit word for pleasure, ease or happiness. Its opposite is duhkhadukkhaदुक्खsay: duk-khuhLiterally: uneasy, hard to bear (Sanskrit duḥkha: 'bad space'; opposite of sukha)Dukkha means suffering or unsatisfactoriness. In Buddhism, the first noble truth is that life as usually lived is marked by dukkha.Western link Close to 'suffering', 'distress' or 'dissatisfaction' in psychology. The difference: dukkha includes a quiet unease even in pleasant states, because they do not last.Full entry in the glossaryClose, pain or suffering (Cornelissen, Misra and Varma, 2014, p. 403). A cold drink on a hot afternoon gives sukha (an invented example): it is pleasant, it depends on the drink and the heat, and it is soon gone.

In Buddhism, sukha is one of three kinds of feeling: pleasant, painful and neutral. The Yoga Sutra warns that attachment follows pleasure (2.7), and says that contentment, santoshasantoshaसन्तोषsantoṣasay: suhn-to-shuhLiterally: contentmentSantosha means contentment: being at peace with what one has. It is one of the five niyamas, the personal observances of Yoga.Western link Close to life satisfaction. The difference: santosha is a discipline one practises, not a judgment one makes about one's life.Full entry in the glossaryClose, brings the highest happiness (2.42).

The Bhagavad Gita (18.37 to 18.39) sorts happiness by the three gunasgunaगुणguṇasay: gu-nuhLiterally: strand, thread; qualityThe gunas are the three qualities that make up nature and mind: sattva (clarity), rajas (activity) and tamas (inertia). Their mix shapes personality.Western link Close to trait or temperament models of personality, such as the Big Five. The difference: the gunas also describe matter, and their balance can change with practice.Full entry in the glossaryClose. Sattvicsattvaसत्त्वsay: suht-tvuhLiterally: being-ness; from sat, beingSattva is the guna of clarity, lightness and calm. A sattvic mind is clear, peaceful and ready for knowledge.Western link Close to emotional stability and openness in trait models, or to a calm, focused state. Unlike a trait, sattva is also a quality of foods and actions.Full entry in the glossaryClose happiness comes from a clear mind; it feels bitter at first and sweet in the end. Rajasicrajasरजस्say: ruh-juhsLiterally: dust, haze; the coloured or dim spaceRajas is the guna of activity, passion and restlessness. It drives desire, effort and change, and too much of it brings agitation.Western link Close to high arousal, drive or impulsivity. The difference: rajas is one part of a three-way balance, not a single scale.Full entry in the glossaryClose happiness comes from the senses meeting their objects; it feels sweet at first and bitter in the end. Tamasictamasतमस्say: tuh-muhsLiterally: darknessTamas is the guna of heaviness, dullness and inertia. It brings sleep, confusion and resistance to change.Western link Close to low arousal, inertia, or the lethargy seen in depression. The difference: tamas is also a quality of matter and of food.Full entry in the glossaryClose happiness comes from sleep, laziness and carelessness, and it deludes.

sukha in the glossary

Above ordinary happiness, many texts place anandaanandaआनन्दānandasay: aa-nuhn-duhLiterally: bliss, joyAnanda means bliss: a deep, lasting joy. In Vedanta it is not a passing feeling but the very nature of the true self and of Brahman.Western link Loosely close to eudaimonic wellbeing or a peak experience. The difference: ananda is said to be permanent and to belong to the self, while positive emotions come and go with their causes.Full entry in the glossaryClose, bliss. In VedantaVedantaवेदान्तVedāntasay: vay-daan-tuhLiterally: end of the VedaVedanta is the family of schools based on the Upanishads. They ask how the self (atman) relates to ultimate reality (Brahman).Western link Sometimes compared with idealist philosophy, which holds that mind or spirit is basic. The key difference: Vedanta claims this can be known by direct experience, not only by argument.Full entry in the glossaryClose, ananda is not a passing feeling but part of the nature of Brahman and the true self, which is why ultimate reality is called Sat Chit AnandaSat Chit Anandaसच्चिदानन्दsaccidānandasay: suht chit aa-nuhn-duhLiterally: being (sat), consciousness (cit), bliss (ānanda)Sat Chit Ananda means 'being, consciousness, bliss'. Vedanta uses it to describe Brahman and the true self, which is also the source of lasting happiness.Western link Loosely close to eudaimonic wellbeing and to peak experiences in humanistic psychology. The difference: ananda is held to be the nature of the self, not a state that comes and goes.Full entry in the glossaryClose, being, consciousness and bliss. Menon, writing on the Gita in the Handbook of Indian Psychology (2008; "the Handbook" below), puts it simply: "Happiness does not have a beginning or an end, because it is the very nature of the Self" (p. 181). The Taittiriya Upanishad (2.8) ranks joys like a ladder, each a hundred times the one below, from the joy of a strong, learned young man who owns the whole earth and its wealth up to the bliss of Brahman. Unit 5 begins with sat chit ananda.

One word, two levels

Menon (2008, p. 181) uses sukha for pleasure from objects, but the Gita also uses it for the highest happiness, as in the "endless" happiness of 5.21. Do not write that sukha always means low pleasure; look at the words around it.

Dharma: meaning and purpose

The worldview page taught dharmadharmaधर्मsay: dhuhr-muhLiterally: that which holds or supports; from dhṛ-, to holdDharma is the right way of living: duty, ethics, and the order that holds society and the world together. It depends partly on one's role and stage of life.Western link Close to 'ethics', 'duty' or 'moral order'. The difference: dharma joins personal ethics, social roles and cosmic law, and it depends on context.Full entry in the glossaryClose in full: duty, right, justice and virtue, from a root meaning "to hold". The course sets it beside meaning and purpose in life. One verse of the Gita (3.35) fits this reading well: it is better to follow one's own dharma, even imperfectly, than another person's dharma well. Rao and Paranjpe write that "Meaningful life in the Indian tradition is altruist and ego-transcending" (2016, sec. 7.3.3): it serves others and goes beyond the narrow self.

In positive psychology, meaning is the M of PERMA. Steger, Frazier, Oishi and Kaler (2006) built a Meaning in Life Questionnaire with two scales: the presence of meaning and the search for meaning. An Indian study shows how duty can carry meaning after a disaster. Priya (2014) lived among survivors of the 2001 Kachchh earthquake in Gujarat. They believed that doing their duties to family, society and nature was the condition for peace of mind, and their belief in karma "gave them new and positive meaning in life" (pp. 356 to 357). The study is small, about 40 people in one region, so it shows how duty can carry meaning, not that it always does.

The match breaks in three places. Meaning-in-life research measures whether a person feels their life has meaning, whatever that meaning is; dharma is an order a person is bound by, partly fixed by role, stage of life and, historically, birth. Dharma includes duties that bring no felt meaning at all, such as the duty of the warrior Arjuna to fight a war against his own cousins in the Gita. And VarnashramaVarnashramaवर्णाश्रमvarṇāśramasay: vuhr-naash-ruh-muhLiterally: class and stage of life (varṇa + āśrama)Varnashrama is the traditional scheme that sets a person's duties by their social group (varna) and their stage of life (ashrama).Western link Close to a mix of social role theory and life-span development theory. The key difference: the duties are set by tradition and seen as part of a cosmic order (dharma).Full entry in the glossaryClose dharma was used to justify castecasteLiterally: from Portuguese casta, breed or lineageA caste is a hereditary social group in India. People are born into it and traditionally marry within it. Castes were ranked, and lower-ranked castes faced exclusion and discrimination.Compare Close to social class or to an ethnic group, but caste is fixed at birth, kept by marriage within the group, and was given religious justification. Psychologists study caste prejudice much as they study racial prejudice.Full entry in the glossaryClose, as the worldview page explains.

Karma yoga: working without craving the fruits

New Sanskrit word

karma yoga कर्मयोग

Written

karmayoga

Say

kuhr-muh yo-guh

Literally

the yoga (discipline) of action

Karma yoga means doing one's work as a spiritual discipline, without craving its results. In Rao and Paranjpe's words, "Karma Yoga refers to action without hankering for gains" (2016, sec. 6.3.1). The key verse is Gita 2.47: you have a right to your action, but never to its fruits. The attitude is called nishkama karmanishkama karmaनिष्काम कर्मniṣkāma karmasay: nish-kaa-muh kuhr-muhLiterally: action without desire (niṣ + kāma + karma)Nishkama karma means doing one's duty without craving its results. The Bhagavad Gita teaches it as a way to act fully while staying calm and free.Western link Close to intrinsic motivation and to focusing on the process rather than the outcome. The difference: it is a spiritual discipline, with action offered as duty or to God.Full entry in the glossaryClose, action without craving, or anasaktianasaktiअनासक्तिanāsaktisay: uh-naa-suhk-tiLiterally: non-attachment (an + āsakti, clinging)Anasakti means non-attachment: acting and enjoying life without clinging to things or to results. Indian psychologists study it as a source of calm and happiness.Western link Close to 'non-attachment' in mindfulness research, and to acceptance in acceptance-based therapies. The difference: it is rooted in duty (dharma) and service, not only in managing emotion.Full entry in the glossaryClose, non-attachment. Its social aim is loka sangrahaloka sangrahaलोकसंग्रहlokasaṃgrahasay: lo-kuh suhng-gruh-huhLiterally: holding the world together (loka + saṃgraha)Loka sangraha means working for the welfare and unity of the world. The Bhagavad Gita says even wise people should act to keep society together.Western link Close to prosocial behaviour, civic responsibility and Erikson's generativity (care for the next generation). The difference: it is a duty of the wise, grounded in dharma.Full entry in the glossaryClose, the welfare of the world, often through sevasevaसेवाsevāsay: say-vaaLiterally: service, attendanceSeva means selfless service: helping others without expecting a reward. Hindu, Sikh and Buddhist traditions value it as a path to inner growth.Western link Close to altruism, volunteering and prosocial behaviour. The difference: seva also has a spiritual aim, the weakening of the ego.Full entry in the glossaryClose, selfless service.

A nurse on a night shift (an invented example) wants every patient to recover and does all she can for each one. But her care does not depend on being thanked. When a patient does not recover in spite of her best work, she is not crushed, and she does not start to care less. Her effort is hers to give; the result is not fully in her hands.

Karma yoga does not mean having no desires. Bal Gangadhar Tilak, a leader of India's freedom movement, wrote a long study of the Gita, the Gita Rahasya (1915). As Rao and Paranjpe summarise him, "what the Gita means in using the word niskama is not to dispel desire, but to avoid greed and voracious or insatiable pursuit of gains" (2016, sec. 6.3.1). "Voracious" and "insatiable" both mean never satisfied. The Gita (18.14) also names five causes of any result, of which the doer is only one. Rao and Paranjpe link this to the self-serving bias: our habit of taking credit for success and blaming circumstances for failure (sec. 6.3.2).

karma yoga in the glossary

Rao and Paranjpe give an example from sport. Worrying about "whether the ball will cross the goal line can distract a football player and make him ineffective"; what works is "being totally involved in the play" (2016, sec. 6.3.1). This sounds very like flow.

Indian researchers have measured these ideas. Pande and Naidu's (1992) scale of anasakti is described on the perspectives page. Banth and Talwar (2012) found that serious yoga practitioners scored much higher on anasakti than college students, though the practitioner group was small and self-selected. Mulla and Krishnan (2009) measured karma yoga in leaders as duty-orientation, indifference to rewards and equanimity, and found that leaders with a stronger sense of duty were seen as more charismatic.

Samatva: evenness of mind

New Sanskrit word

samatva समत्व

Say

suh-muht-vuh

Literally

evenness, sameness (sama, even + -tva, -ness)

Samatva is evenness of mind, and the Gita gives it a central place: "Evenness is called yoga" (2.48, as translated in Menon, 2008, p. 178). Another verse (2.38) asks Arjuna to treat pleasure and pain, gain and loss, victory and defeat alike. The Handbook adds a moral side: "making no distinction between friend and foe, pleasure and pain" (Handbook glossary, 2008, p. 620). Evenness is a mark of the sthitaprajnasthitaprajnaस्थितप्रज्ञsthitaprajñasay: sthi-tuh-pruhg-yuhLiterally: one whose wisdom stands firmThe sthitaprajna is the Bhagavad Gita's picture of an ideal person: steady in wisdom, calm in success and failure, free of a narrow ego, and compassionate.Western link Close to Maslow's self-actualising person or to emotional stability. The difference: the ideal is a settled way of being, not continued growth and achievement.Full entry in the glossaryClose, the Gita's person of steady wisdom.

A student (an invented example) comes first in one class test and fails the next. She does not let the praise make her careless or the failure make her give up. She takes both the same way and keeps working.

Samatva is not indifference. Alok Pandey, in a course-book chapter on psychotherapy and Indian thought, asks whether evenness would "lead to a casual lackadaisical approach towards life", that is, a careless and half-hearted one. His answer is no. He suggests stepping back before acting, and building "resilience and fortitude that can endure shocks". Above all he recommends "a conscious and willing surrender to God's Will" (Pandey, 2014, pp. 266 to 267). Nor does samatva mean pushing desires down. Dash, in the Handbook's chapter on motivation, writes that motives are always present: "It is not their suppression that is suggested" (2008, p. 344).

samatva in the glossary

The research for this guide found no study that measures samatva under that name, and Desbordes and colleagues (2015) say equanimity "should be a focus in future research studies".

Try this

A cricket coach in Pune (an invented example) tells Rohan, a 17-year-old fast bowler, before a final: 'Forget the result. Just enjoy every ball. That is karma yoga, and it is also what psychologists call flow.' Rohan's team loses. He stays calm after the match, but a week later he tells his parents: 'I don't care about anything any more, not cricket, not exams.'

Using karma yoga, flow and samatva, explain what the coach got right, what he blurred together, and whether Rohan's 'I don't care' is samatva.

Show the reasoning

The coach got the main point right. Karma yoga asks a person to act fully without craving the result, and Rao and Paranjpe's football example says that being "totally involved in the play" works better than worrying about the goal. But the coach blurred two things. Flow is a passing, enjoyable state that depends on a balance of challenge and skill. Karma yoga is a lifelong attitude to duty, kept up even when the work is dull or painful, and aimed at freedom, not enjoyment. "Just enjoy every ball" is advice about flow, not a full account of karma yoga.

Rohan's calm after the defeat looks like samatva, the evenness the Gita (2.38) asks for in victory and defeat. But "I don't care about anything" is something else. Pandey warns that evenness must not become "a casual lackadaisical approach towards life", and Tilak argued that nishkama karma means giving up greed for results, not giving up desire and effort. Samatva lets a person act fully without being shaken; Rohan has stopped acting. His loss of interest is a reason for an adult, and perhaps a counsellor, to talk with him, not a sign of spiritual progress.

Bhakti: devotion

New Sanskrit word

bhakti भक्ति

Say

bhuhk-ti

Literally

sharing, devotion (bhaj-, to share, to worship)

Bhakti is loving devotion to God. Girishwar Misra writes that it "reflects passion or love for the infinite" and "is non-selfish, humble, and leads to sublime joy (ananda)" (Misra, 2014, p. 216). In the Gita it is one of three main paths, beside action and knowledge.

Bhakti has its own short texts, the bhakti sutrassutraसूत्रsūtrasay: soo-truhLiterally: threadA sutra is a very short sentence that holds a teaching in a few words. Whole texts were written this way so that students could learn them by heart.Western link Close to an aphorism or a numbered list of propositions. Unlike most Western aphorisms, sutras were meant to be read with a long commentary.Full entry in the glossaryClose; the two classic ones are credited to the sages Narada and Shandilya. The Narada Bhakti SutraNarada Bhakti Sutraनारदभक्तिसूत्रNārada-bhakti-sūtrasay: naa-ruh-duh bhuhk-ti soo-truhLiterally: the threads (short sayings) on devotion, by NaradaThe Narada Bhakti Sutra is a short text of sayings that explains bhakti. Its second sutra defines devotion as the highest form of love, for God.Western link No close Western match. Psychologically it describes love, gratitude and surrender; in religion it resembles writings on selfless love for God.Full entry in the glossaryClose defines bhakti as "the highest form of love". Rao and Paranjpe explain that this love shows itself in "all forms of love in various types of human relationships such as parent-child, master-servant, friendship, and conjugal [married] or romantic love" (2016, sec. 6.2.4). So a devotee may love God as a child loves a parent, as a servant loves a master, as a friend, or as a lover. Another text, the Bhagavata PuranaPuranaपुराणpurāṇasay: pu-raa-nuhLiterally: ancient; of old times (from purā, formerly)The Puranas are long Sanskrit texts of myths, legends and family histories of gods, heroes and saints. Tradition counts eighteen major ones. Most people know them through retelling.Western link Closest to a body of sacred myth and legend in any scripture tradition. The difference: the Puranas mix stories of creation, family histories, law and devotion, and were meant to be performed and retold.Full entry in the glossaryClose (7.5.23), lists nine forms of devotion, from listening to and singing about God up to offering oneself. A grandmother in Udupi (an invented example) sings to Krishna every evening, not for a reward and not to feel calmer: for her, the love is the point.

Rao and Paranjpe treat the last of the nine, atmanivedanaatmanivedanaआत्मनिवेदनātmanivedanasay: aat-muh-ni-vay-duh-nuhLiterally: offering of the self (atman, self + nivedana, offering)Atmanivedana means offering oneself wholly to God, so that the ego dissolves. It is the last and highest of the nine forms of devotion.Western link No close match in mainstream psychology. The nearest idea is 'surrender to God' as studied in the psychology of religion.Full entry in the glossaryClose, offering oneself completely, as the highest. They write that "its ultimate aim is total surrender at His feet so that the devotee's ego is dissolved" (2016, sec. 6.2.4). The Gita ends (18.66) with Krishna asking Arjuna to give up all other duties and take refuge in him alone; Pandey calls this "the greatest word of the Gita" (2014, p. 267).

bhakti in the glossary

A date to treat with care

Rao and Paranjpe's account of bhakti includes the Alvars, Tamil poet-saints who praised the god Vishnu. They say the earliest period of this tradition extends from 4203 to 2706 BCE (2016, sec. 6.2.4), following a traditional chronology. Historians place the Alvars around the 6th to 9th centuries CE. Do not repeat the early date as fact.

Bhakti treats emotion differently from the other paths. The paths of knowledge and action, and Patanjali's YogaYogaयोगsay: yo-guhLiterally: joining, yoking; discipline; from yuj-, to yokeYoga is both a school of philosophy and a set of practices that train body, breath and mind. Its classic text is Patanjali's Yoga Sutra.Western link Often compared with mind-body or mindfulness-based interventions. The key difference: classical Yoga is a full ethical and spiritual path, not only a technique for health.Full entry in the glossaryClose, lower a person's emotional investment; in bhakti, "an intensification of emotions is suggested", mainly of love directed toward God (Rao and Paranjpe, 2016, sec. 6.4).

Bhakti and reason. The course stresses that bhakti is not the opposite of reason. In the Gita (10.10), Krishna gives "the yoga of understanding" to those who worship him with love: devotion leads to understanding and does not replace it. Bhakti treats reason as useful but not enough, and adds love as a way of knowing.

Subjective reality. The course also speaks of bhakti as a "subjective reality". Pandey writes that "truth is not only an external objective reality but an intimate subjective reality, deeply real to the one identified with it" (2014, p. 277). For a psychologist this means the devotee's experience is real for the devotee: it changes how they feel and act. Psychologists of religion usually study such experience and its effects without ruling on whether God exists.

How strong is the gratitude evidence?

Davis and colleagues (2016) ran a meta-analysismeta-analysisA meta-analysis combines the results of many studies on the same question with statistics, to estimate how large an effect is on average.Full entry in the glossaryClose, a study that pools the results of many studies. They found that gratitude exercises did a little better than a neutral activity (d = .17, a small effect) and no better than other active exercises. The course books report no study of bhakti itself and wellbeing.

The self and Brahman: Advaita and Dvaita

The page on perspectives on reality taught Advaita VedantaAdvaita Vedantaअद्वैत वेदान्तAdvaita Vedāntasay: uhd-vai-tuh vay-daan-tuhLiterally: not-two; non-dualAdvaita Vedanta teaches that the true self (atman) and ultimate reality (Brahman) are one. The feeling of being a separate person comes from ignorance.Western link Often called monism. Advaita writers prefer 'non-dualism': reality is not two, but it is not described as one countable thing either.Full entry in the glossaryClose: there is one ultimate reality, BrahmanBrahmanब्रह्मन्brahmansay: bruh-hmuhnLiterally: the vast; from bṛh-, to grow, expandBrahman is the ultimate reality in Vedanta: the one source and ground of everything. It is often described as being, consciousness and bliss.Western link Close to 'the Absolute' in Western philosophy, or to God in mystical theology. The difference: in Advaita, Brahman is not separate from the self that seeks it.Full entry in the glossaryClose, and the true self, atmanatmanआत्मन्ātmansay: aat-muhnLiterally: self; in early use also 'breath'Atman means the self: the deepest 'I' behind body and mind. In Vedanta it is pure consciousness and is one with Brahman.Western link Close to 'self' or 'soul'. The key difference: Western psychology studies the self as a set of thoughts and traits; atman is the conscious witness of them.Full entry in the glossaryClose, is the same as Brahman. The course sets this beside self-transcendence and self-actualisation.

New Sanskrit word

aham brahmasmi अहं ब्रह्मास्मि

Written

ahaṃ brahmāsmi

Say

uh-huhm bruh-maas-mi

Literally

I am Brahman (aham, I + brahma, Brahman + asmi, am)

The sentence "I am Brahman" comes from the Brihadaranyaka Upanishad (1.4.10), which says that whoever knows "I am Brahman" becomes all this. It is one of the four "great sentences", the mahavakyasmahavakyaमहावाक्यmahāvākyasay: muh-haa-vaak-yuhLiterally: great sentenceThe mahavakyas are four 'great sentences' from the Upanishads that Advaita Vedanta takes as the core of its teaching that the self is Brahman.Western link No close Western match.Full entry in the glossaryClose, at the heart of Advaita. The others are "consciousness is Brahman", "you are that" and "this self is Brahman" (Paranjpe and Rao, 2008, p. 278).

The "I" here is not the personal ego, the "me" with a name, a job and a bank balance. It is pure consciousness. Kiran Kumar Salagame explains that this transcendence "is really not an 'experience' in the ordinary sense because, transcendence implies no experiencer or experienced" (2014, p. 165). A student of Advaita first examines the great sentences with reason (mananamananaमननsay: muh-nuh-nuhLiterally: thinking over, reflection; from man-, to thinkThe second step of knowing in Vedanta: thinking a teaching through, testing it with reason until doubts are removed.Western link Close to critical thinking and reflection. The difference: the aim is to remove doubt so that deep meditation can follow, not to reach a final answer by reasoning alone.Full entry in the glossaryClose), then meditates on them until their meaning is realised.

The course summed the idea up as "God within yourself". That phrase fits Advaita, but it also fits schools that believe in a personal God dwelling in each heart, and the two readings mean very different things.

aham brahmasmi in the glossary

Advaita was taught most famously by ShankaraShankaraशङ्करŚaṅkarasay: shuhng-kuh-ruhIndian philosopher of the 8th century CE, the most influential teacher of Advaita Vedanta, which holds that the true self and ultimate reality are one.Full entry in the glossaryClose, around the 8th century CE. The self and Brahman are one; the sense of being a separate person comes from ignorance.

Dvaita, the dualist school of VedantaVedantaवेदान्तVedāntasay: vay-daan-tuhLiterally: end of the VedaVedanta is the family of schools based on the Upanishads. They ask how the self (atman) relates to ultimate reality (Brahman).Western link Sometimes compared with idealist philosophy, which holds that mind or spirit is basic. The key difference: Vedanta claims this can be known by direct experience, not only by argument.Full entry in the glossaryClose, was founded by MadhvaMadhvaमध्वsay: muhdh-vuhIndian philosopher of the 13th century CE (dates usually given as 1238 to 1317), from South India, who founded Dvaita (dualist) Vedanta.Full entry in the glossaryClose in South India in the 13th century CE. For Dvaita VedantaDvaita Vedantaद्वैत वेदान्तDvaita Vedāntasay: dvai-tuh vay-daan-tuhLiterally: dualist Vedanta (dvaita, two-ness)Dvaita Vedanta is the dualist school of Vedanta founded by Madhva. It holds that God, souls and the world are real and forever distinct.Western link Close to classical theism in Christianity, Judaism and Islam, where the creature never becomes the Creator. Its quarrel with Advaita is like the quarrel between theism and mystical monism. The difference: Dvaita keeps the Indian frame of karma and rebirth, and liberation means release from that cycle.Full entry in the glossaryClose, the self and God are forever distinct, because the soul depends on God. Madhva's followers accept the Brihadaranyaka Upanishad but reject Advaita's reading of it: for them, "I am Brahman" cannot mean that the soul is God. The devotee's joy lies in a relationship with a God who is other. This helps explain why devotion is so central in the dualist schools: their devotees presume "a fundamental and inexorable [unchangeable] difference between the devotee and the deity", and some would rather be reborn to go on loving God (Rao and Paranjpe, 2016, sec. 2.10).

Madhva's dates

The Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy (V. Stoker, "Madhva") gives 1238 to 1317, and Britannica gives these as possible dates. The Handbook gives older, traditional dates, 1199 to 1278 (Paranjpe and Rao, 2008, p. 254). "13th century" is safe in an exam.

Vairagya: letting go

New Sanskrit word

vairagya वैराग्य

Written

vairāgya

Say

vai-raag-yuh

Literally

absence of passion; loss of colour (vi + rāga)

Vairagya is dispassion: a mind no longer coloured by craving. A course textbook glossary gives "disgust, distaste for; freedom from all worldly desires" (Cornelissen, Misra and Varma, 2014, p. 404), and Rao and Paranjpe translate it as "affective neutrality". The Yoga Sutra (1.12) says the movements of the mind are stilled by steady practice (abhyasaabhyasaअभ्यासabhyāsasay: uh-bhyaa-suhLiterally: repeated practice (abhi + ās-)Abhyasa means steady, repeated practice. The Yoga Sutra says the mind is calmed by practice and dispassion (vairagya) working together.Western link Close to 'deliberate practice' and habit formation in the psychology of learning. The difference: abhyasa aims at a steady mind and asks for devotion, not only repetition.Full entry in the glossaryClose) and dispassion together. Vedanta lists vairagya among a seeker's qualities, beside vivekavivekaविवेकsay: vi-vay-kuhLiterally: discrimination, telling apartViveka is discernment: the ability to tell the real from the unreal, the lasting from the passing, and the true self from what is not the self.Western link Close to 'discernment' or 'wisdom', and partly to metacognition. The difference: its main object is the difference between the self and what the self observes.Full entry in the glossaryClose, telling the lasting from the passing (Jha, 2008, p. 358).

Ravi loves sweets (an invented example). One kind of letting go is slow: he watches the pull of sweets, notices how quickly the pleasure passes, and over months the pull weakens. Another kind is sudden: after a health scare he swears off sweets forever, and a week later he is eating them again. The tradition trusts only the first kind.

Vairagya is not running away from life. Pandey warns that "An over-emphasis on this other-worldliness may well lead to inertia, justified under the holy name of vairagya" (2014, p. 261).

vairagya in the glossary

Patanjali names two levels. Lower vairagya (Yoga Sutra 1.15) is freedom from thirst for objects "seen or heard", with a sense of having mastered them; "heard" means pleasures promised by scripture, such as heaven. Swami Sivananda, a 20th-century Indian teacher of yoga and Vedanta, translates higher vairagya (1.16) as the state "wherein even the attachment to the qualities [sattwa, rajas and tamas] drops, owing to the knowledge of the Purusha" (Sivananda, 1938). Once a person knows pure consciousness, purushapurushaपुरुषpuruṣasay: pu-ru-shuhLiterally: person, manIn Sankhya and Yoga, purusha is pure consciousness: the silent witness that is aware but does not act. It is completely separate from mind and matter.Western link Close to 'pure consciousness' or the 'witness' in consciousness studies. Unlike Descartes' mind, purusha does not think; thinking belongs to matter.Full entry in the glossaryClose, even the subtlest qualities of nature lose their pull, and the way opens to kaivalyakaivalyaकैवल्यsay: kai-vuhl-yuhLiterally: aloneness, isolation (kevala, alone)Kaivalya is the final goal of Sankhya and Yoga: the 'aloneness' of pure consciousness (purusha), freed from all mixing with mind and matter.Western link No close match. It loosely resembles 'pure awareness' or witness consciousness, but kaivalya is a lasting freedom, not a passing state.Full entry in the glossaryClose, final freedom. A later commentator, Vachaspati Mishra, divides the lower kind into four stages.

Kinds and stages of vairagya

First, two passing kinds of detachment that do not last. Then the two levels that Patanjali names: lower dispassion, in four stages, and higher dispassion. Read from top to bottom.

Passing kinds

Smashana vairagya, "cremation-ground" detachment

A sudden loss of interest in the world at a funeral or in a crisis. It soon fades, and the old desires return.

Abhava vairagya, detachment from lack

Giving something up only because you cannot get it, like the fox who calls the grapes sour. The wish is still there underneath.

These are named as warnings: they do not last.

Lasting dispassion grows from insight, not from a shock or a lack.

Lower vairagya Yoga Sutra 1.15

No thirst for objects seen or promised, with a sense of mastery over them. A later commentator, Vachaspati Mishra, describes four stages.

1. 1

   Effort. You try not to let the mind run after pleasures. The pull is still strong.

2. 2

   Telling apart. Some things no longer tempt you; others still do. You work on these one by one and know which pull remains.

3. 3

   One sense. The outer senses are quiet. Only one "sense" is still active, the mind, which still likes some things and dislikes others.

4. 4

   Mastery. Objects seen, or promised by scripture, no longer tempt. The mind is free of likes and dislikes.

then

Higher vairagya Yoga Sutra 1.16

No thirst even for the three gunas, the qualities of nature itself, because the person has come to know pure consciousness (purusha). In Yoga this leads to the final freedom, kaivalya.

The English names of the four stages follow Rama Prasada's translation of Vachaspati Mishra, slightly simplified. Swami Sivananda (1938) describes the same four stages and the detachment felt at a funeral. "Abhava vairagya" is a popular term, not one from the classical texts.

Sanskrit names of the four stages

The four stages have Sanskrit names, which you may meet in other books. Here they are as Swami Sivananda (1938) spells them: yatamana (effort), vyatireka (telling apart), ekendriya (one sense) and vashikara (mastery).

Smashana vairagya. Smashana means cremation ground. smashana vairagyasmashana vairagyaश्मशानवैराग्यśmaśāna-vairāgyasay: shmuh-shaa-nuh vai-raag-yuhLiterally: cremation-ground dispassion (shmashana, cremation ground)Smashana vairagya is the brief detachment people feel at a funeral, when life suddenly seems empty. It soon fades, so the tradition does not trust it.Western link No close Western match. Terror management theory studies how reminders of death change people for a short time, but it finds stronger defence of one's worldview, not detachment.Full entry in the glossaryClose is the sudden detachment people feel at a funeral, when worldly things seem empty. The Monier-Williams Sanskrit dictionary defines it as "momentary abandonment of worldly desires at the sight of a burning-ground". The tradition names it as a warning. Sivananda writes that such temporary vairagya, felt at a funeral or by a woman in the pain of childbirth, "cannot help one to attain spiritual exaltation". Vairagya caused by misery is unstable: the mind "is simply waiting for a chance to get back the things that have been given up or lost". Lasting vairagya grows from discrimination between the real and the unreal (Sivananda, 1938).

Abhava vairagya. Abhava means absence or lack. abhava vairagyaabhava vairagyaअभाव वैराग्यabhāva vairāgyasay: uh-bhaa-vuh vai-raag-yuhLiterally: dispassion from absence (abhava, absence or lack)Abhava vairagya is a popular name for false detachment: giving something up only because one cannot get it, like the fox who calls the grapes sour.Western link Close to 'sour grapes' thinking, named after the fable of the fox: deciding that something one cannot have was not worth having. The difference: abhava vairagya is named only as a warning, because it does not last.Full entry in the glossaryClose is a popular name for the detachment of a person who gives something up only because they cannot get it. It is like the fox in the old story who cannot reach the grapes and walks away saying they are sour. The person says "I don't want it", but underneath the wish is still there, waiting for the thing to come within reach. Like smashana vairagya, it is a passing kind, named as a warning and not as a goal.

Where the term abhava vairagya comes from

The classical texts and Sanskrit dictionaries checked for this guide do not use the term. The research for this guide found it in one popular source, a blog post on vairagya (Sreeram Manoj Kumar, 2017), which lists it beside smashana vairagya and prasuti vairagya, the passing detachment that comes with the pain of childbirth. If your teacher uses the term in another sense, ask.

Notice a tension inside the Indian list itself. Vairagya lowers emotional investment, and bhakti raises it (Rao and Paranjpe, 2016, sec. 6.4). So the Indian traditions do not give one answer to the question "are strong emotions good for a person?", and no single Western idea, such as positive emotion, can stand for all of them.

Dhyana: meditation

dhyanadhyanaध्यानdhyānasay: dhyaa-nuhLiterally: meditation, contemplation (dhyai-, to think)Dhyana is meditation: a steady, unbroken flow of attention toward one object. It is the seventh limb of Yoga, after concentration and before absorption.Western link Close to 'meditation', and to sustained attention in cognitive psychology. The difference: dhyana is one stage in a sequence, not a general word for any calming exercise.Full entry in the glossaryClose is meditation in the strict sense of the Yoga Sutra (3.2): a continuous flow of the same thought toward one object. It is the seventh of Yoga's eight limbs, after dharanadharanaधारणाdhāraṇāsay: dhaa-ruh-naaLiterally: holding, fixing (dhṛ-, to hold)Dharana is concentration: holding the mind on one place or object, such as the breath or a point. It is the sixth limb of Yoga.Western link Close to focused attention, as in research on focused-attention meditation. The difference: it is a step toward absorption, not an end in itself.Full entry in the glossaryClose, fixing the mind on one place, and before samadhisamadhiसमाधिsamādhisay: suh-maa-dhiLiterally: putting together; complete absorption (sam + ā + dhā-)Samadhi is deep absorption in meditation, where the sense of a separate meditator fades and the mind becomes one with its object. It is the eighth limb of Yoga.Western link Close to 'altered' or non-ordinary states of consciousness, and loosely to deep flow. The difference: samadhi comes from long training and is said to give true knowledge.Full entry in the glossaryClose, absorption. The course sets it beside mindfulness, flow and wellbeing. The match holds in part: dhyana's steady flow of one thought resembles the absorption of flow, a link that Kristeller and Rikhye also draw in the Handbook (2008, p. 524).

It breaks in three ways. Mindfulness as Kabat-Zinn teaches it is open awareness of whatever arises, closer to the Buddhist practice of satisatiसतिsay: suh-tiLiterally: memory, recollection (Sanskrit smṛti)Sati is the Pali word usually translated 'mindfulness': clear awareness of what is happening in body and mind, from moment to moment.Western link Close to 'mindfulness' in clinical psychology: paying attention on purpose, in the present moment, without judging. The difference: classical sati also includes remembering what is wholesome.Full entry in the glossaryClose; dhyana is one-pointed concentration on a single object. Flow happens in an activity with a goal, while dhyana follows pratyaharapratyaharaप्रत्याहारpratyāhārasay: pruh-tyaa-haa-ruhLiterally: drawing back (prati + ā + hṛ-, to take)Pratyahara is withdrawal of the senses: turning attention inward so that outside sights and sounds no longer pull the mind. It is the fifth limb of Yoga.Western link Close to selective attention and sensory gating, or to the inward focus of relaxation and biofeedback. The difference: it is a deliberate step toward meditation.Full entry in the glossaryClose, the withdrawal of the senses from their objects. And dhyana is one stage in a path that begins with ethics, not a stand-alone wellness technique.

A large review of meditation programmes found "small to moderate reductions of multiple negative dimensions of psychological stress", but no evidence that meditation beats other active treatments (Goyal and colleagues, 2014). Unit 5 studies dhyana in detail.

About the meditation review

Goyal and colleagues (2014) pooled 47 trials with 3,515 participants. Van Dam and colleagues (2018) wrote a well-known warning against hype in mindfulness research.

Ashtanga yoga: the eight limbs, faith and continuity

Patanjali'sPatanjaliपतञ्जलिPatañjalisay: puh-tuhn-juh-liThe compiler of the Yoga Sutras, a short classical text on training the mind. Most scholars date it to the 1st or 2nd century CE, and no later than the 5th century.Full entry in the glossaryClose ashtanga yogaashtanga yogaअष्टाङ्ग योगaṣṭāṅga yogasay: uhsh-taan-guh yo-guhLiterally: eight-limbed yoga (aṣṭa, eight + aṅga, limb)Ashtanga yoga is Patanjali's eight-limbed path: yama, niyama, asana, pranayama, pratyahara, dharana, dhyana and samadhi.Western link Close to a staged training programme that moves from behaviour to attention to inner states. No Western therapy joins ethics, body, breath and meditation in one sequence like this.Full entry in the glossaryClose (Yoga Sutra 2.29) has eight limbs: yamasyamaयमsay: yuh-muhLiterally: restraint, controlThe yamas are the five moral restraints that begin the eight limbs of Yoga: non-harming, truthfulness, not stealing, sexual restraint and non-possessiveness.Western link Close to ethical codes, and to self-control in psychology. The difference: the yamas are the first step of a mental training, not a separate set of rules.Full entry in the glossaryClose (restraints), niyamasniyamaनियमsay: ni-yuh-muhLiterally: rule, observanceThe niyamas are five personal observances, the second limb of Yoga: purity, contentment, disciplined effort, self-study and surrender to Ishvara.Western link Close to self-care, healthy habits and values-based living in positive psychology. The difference: they are steps on a spiritual path and include devotion.Full entry in the glossaryClose (observances), asanaasanaआसनāsanasay: aa-suh-nuhLiterally: seat, sitting; posture (ās-, to sit)An asana is a yoga posture. In Patanjali's Yoga it is the third limb and means a steady, comfortable seat for meditation.Western link Close to physical exercise or stretching. The difference: in Yoga, posture serves stillness of body, breath and mind, not fitness alone.Full entry in the glossaryClose (posture), pranayamapranayamaप्राणायामprāṇāyāmasay: praa-naa-yaa-muhLiterally: extension or control of prana (prāṇa + āyāma)Pranayama is the regulation of breath and life energy (prana). It is the fourth limb of Yoga and is used to calm and steady the mind.Western link Close to the breathing techniques used in stress management and therapy, such as paced breathing. The difference: in Yoga the breath is a way to work with prana and the mind.Full entry in the glossaryClose (breath control), pratyahara (withdrawing the senses), dharana (fixing the mind), dhyana (meditation) and samadhi (absorption). The yamas are non-harming, truthfulness, not stealing, sexual restraint and not hoarding. The niyamas are purity, contentment, disciplined effort (tapastapasतपस्say: tuh-puhsLiterally: heat, glow (tap-, to burn)Tapas means 'heat': disciplined effort or austerity that builds inner strength, such as fasting, silence or steady practice in hard conditions.Western link Close to self-discipline, grit or self-control. The difference: tapas is meant to purify the mind, not only to reach a goal.Full entry in the glossaryClose), self-study (svadhyayasvadhyayaस्वाध्यायsvādhyāyasay: svaa-dhyaa-yuhLiterally: one's own study; recitation (sva + adhyāya)Svadhyaya means self-study: study of sacred texts, and reflection on oneself in their light. It is one of the five niyamas of Yoga.Western link Close to reflective practice, journaling and introspection. The difference: the reflection is guided by sacred texts and aims at spiritual growth.Full entry in the glossaryClose) and surrender to IshvaraIshvaraईश्वरĪśvarasay: eesh-vuh-ruhLiterally: lord, master (īś-, to rule)Ishvara means 'the Lord' or God. In Patanjali's Yoga, Ishvara is a special self, never touched by affliction or karma, and devotion to Ishvara supports practice.Western link Close to 'God' in theism. The difference: in Yoga, Ishvara is a model and a help for practice, not a creator or judge.Full entry in the glossaryClose. The course sets ashtanga yoga beside character strengths and holistic wellbeing.

The yamas and niyamas do read like character strengths: non-harming fits humanity, truthfulness fits honesty, and self-study fits love of learning. But character strengths are traits people have in different amounts, and the advice is to use your best ones. The yamas are vows everyone must keep, all of them, at all times; the Yoga Sutra (2.31) calls them a "great vow". You do not pick your strongest yama. The eight limbs are also a sequence toward samadhi, not a list of strengths for ordinary life. For "holistic wellbeing" the nearest Western model is the biopsychosocial modelbiopsychosocial modelThe view, used widely in medicine and clinical psychology, that health and illness come from biological, psychological and social causes working together.Indian link Ayurveda's view of body, mind and self as one system, and the pancha kosha model of the person in layers.Full entry in the glossaryClose, but most yoga research studies only posture and breath, not the ethical limbs (Rao and Paranjpe, 2008, p. 208).

Faith and continuity. The course says yoga works through "faith and continuity", and the Yoga Sutra supports both words. Practice becomes firmly grounded when it is kept up for a long time, without a break, and with devotion (1.14). For most people, progress depends on shraddhashraddhaश्रद्धाśraddhāsay: shruhd-dhaaLiterally: placing the heart (on something); faith, trustShraddha means faith or trust: a committed confidence in a path, a teacher or a text. The Yoga Sutra lists it first among the supports of progress.Western link Close to commitment, expectancy and self-efficacy in psychology, and to faith in the psychology of religion. The difference: shraddha is treated as a needed part of the method, which makes its effects hard to separate from expectation in research.Full entry in the glossaryClose (faith or trust), energy, mindfulness, concentration and wisdom (1.20). Pandey separates faith from belief. As Rao and Paranjpe report him, belief "is outward focussed", while faith "is internal and intrinsic to the person", part of who the person is (2016, sec. 7.3.2). This raises a problem for research: if faith is part of the method, it is hard to separate the effect of the practice from the effect of expecting it to work.

Ahimsa: not harming

ahimsaahimsaअहिंसाahiṃsāsay: uh-him-saaLiterally: not harming (a + hiṃsā, injury)Ahimsa means not harming any living being in thought, word or deed. It is the first restraint (yama) in Yoga and the central value of Jainism.Western link Close to 'non-violence' and to the 'do no harm' ethic of medicine and psychology. The difference: ahimsa extends to animals and to one's own thoughts.Full entry in the glossaryClose means not harming any living being in thought, word or deed. It is the first yama and the central value of Jainism, and Gandhi made it the basis of non-violent political action. The course sets it beside positive relationships and empathy. In the Gita (6.32), the highest yogi judges the pleasure and pain of every being by comparison with their own, and (12.13) the devotee God loves is without hatred, friendly and compassionate. The Yoga Sutra (2.35) adds: "on being firmly grounded in nonviolence, there is in his (yogin's) presence giving up of enmity" (quoted in Rao and Paranjpe, 2016, sec. 7.3.2).

The nearest Western ideas are the empathy-altruism hypothesis of Batson and colleagues (1981), which says empathy leads to truly selfless helping, and Ryff's (1989) "positive relations with others", along with the R of PERMA. Ahimsa would support warm, trusting relationships, and Gita 6.32 is close to taking another person's point of view. But ahimsa is a restraint, a "do not", that extends to all living beings, in Jainism even insects; empathy research is mostly about humans, often close ones. Empathy is a feeling that can favour people like us; ahimsa is a rule meant to hold whatever one feels. And Gandhi made ahimsa a political method, while positive psychology has no programme of that kind.

A study to read with care

Rao and Paranjpe (2016, sec. 7.3.2) report, without criticism, a study inspired by Yoga Sutra 2.35 that claimed group meditation reduced violent crime in Washington, D.C. (Hagelin and colleagues, 1999). Its authors came from the Transcendental Meditation movement's own institutions, and the claimed effect is not accepted in mainstream science.

Rta: order and balance

The worldview page taught rtartaऋतṛtasay: ri-tuhLiterally: what moves in order; truth, orderRta is the Vedic idea of cosmic order: the law that keeps the seasons, the stars and right human conduct in harmony.Western link Close to 'natural law', or to the Greek idea of the cosmos as an ordered whole. The difference: rta joins physical, moral and ritual order in one idea.Full entry in the glossaryClose, the Vedic order that is both truth and the lawful pattern of the universe. The course sets it beside environmental wellbeing and balance. None of the course books links rta directly to ecology; the link comes from the syllabus, which returns to humans and their environment in Units 3, 4 and 5. "Environmental wellbeing" is not part of PERMA, and Ryff's (1989) "environmental mastery" means managing one's surroundings and daily life, not caring for nature. The nearest research is on connectedness to nature (Mayer and Frantz, 2004). A meta-analysis by Capaldi, Dopko and Zelenski (2014) found a small link between feeling connected to nature and being happy.

The match holds in its picture: rta places humans inside an ordered whole that includes nature. It breaks in its content: rta is a cosmic and moral order that includes ritual and truth, not a feeling of connection. And the ancient ideal did not stop the exploitation of nature in India, as Rao and Paranjpe admit.

The whole map

The course reuses some Western partners: positive emotion, mindfulness and flow each appear twice. Some partners also come from outside positive psychology: mindfulness came into psychology through medicine, emotion regulation through the study of emotion, and "environmental wellbeing" is not part of PERMA.

The debate

Should Indian concepts be paired with positive psychology at all? The course textbooks say yes, with conditions. Critics, including the textbook authors themselves, point to real losses.

What each side can learn

Rao and Paranjpe (2016, sec. 7.3.3) see the two fields as mirror images: "Whereas Indian psychology is rich in its theoretical content, positive psychology is overwhelmingly practice oriented and data-driven with little theoretical binding." Indian psychology could give a "theoretical underpinning", a base of theory, to ideas that positive psychology uses loosely, such as happiness, flow and wisdom. In return, Indian psychology "needs greater empirical grounding": more testing against observation.

They also read positive psychology in their own way: "what underlies good life is altruism and overcoming mundane selfish cravings ... What is vague and unstated in positive psychology becomes explicit and central in Indian psychology." This is their reading, not a finding of positive psychology. PERMA has five separate parts, and one of them, accomplishment pursued for its own sake, need not be altruistic at all.

Finally, Rao and Paranjpe name two deep differences. The first is about knowledge. Indian psychology accepts para vidyapara vidyaपरा विद्याparā vidyāsay: puh-raa vid-yaaLiterally: higher knowledgePara vidya is 'higher knowledge': direct knowledge of ultimate reality. It is gained in deep states of consciousness, not through the senses or reasoning.Western link Close to mystical or transcendent knowledge in the psychology of religion. Mainstream psychology does not accept it as a scientific method; Indian psychologists argue that it can be trained and checked.Full entry in the glossaryClose, "knowledge beyond the sensory range", and knowing in which subject and object are not separate, while "Positive psychology, like mainstream psychology, is basically closed to these modes of knowing." The second is about the self: positive psychology "appears committed to the Western individualistic view of the self", unlike the more collective Indian view (citing Christopher, 2014). They call these differences "real and substantial", but not enough to stop the two fields helping each other.

Turning a path into a technique

The biggest risk is that a path to liberation becomes a stress technique. Rao and Paranjpe complain that in modern yoga, "abhyasa and vairagya, the two main means suggested by Patanjali are conveniently ignored", and doubt that anyone can quiet the mind without vairagya "when certain yogic practices are undertaken to get ahead in the rat race of contemporary corporate life styles" (2008, p. 208). Rao and Paranjpe (2016, sec. 1.2) also warn, as the ancient-roots page reports, that spotting parallels does little to develop Indian psychology.

The risk runs the other way too. One course-book chapter, written from Sri Aurobindo's Integral Yoga, claims that "all of the feelings and traits aimed at in positive psychology are due ultimately to contact with the psychic being (soul)" (Miovic, 2014, p. 283). That is one school's metaphysics, not a research finding.

What the evidence shows, and what it does not

The evidence is real but thin. Most Indian studies are small and correlational, so they show links, not causes. Most Western studies measure Western outcomes, such as anxiety or mood, with techniques taken out of their setting. None of them tests the tradition's own main claims: that ananda is the nature of the self, or that vairagya and karma yoga lead to liberation.

Why this matters for a psychologist

• In counselling. Ask clients what they mean by these words. "Calm" may be samatvasamatvaसमत्वsay: suh-muht-vuhLiterally: evenness, sameness (sama, even + -tva, -ness)Samatva means evenness of mind: staying the same in success and failure, pleasure and pain, praise and blame. The Bhagavad Gita (2.48) calls it yoga itself.Western link Close to equanimity as meditation researchers define it, and loosely to resilience and emotion regulation. The difference: resilience is recovery after setbacks, while samatva is evenness toward good and bad events alike, and comes from loosening the ego's stake in results.Full entry in the glossaryClose, or hidden distress, or giving up. Detachment just after a death may be smashana vairagyasmashana vairagyaश्मशानवैराग्यśmaśāna-vairāgyasay: shmuh-shaa-nuh vai-raag-yuhLiterally: cremation-ground dispassion (shmashana, cremation ground)Smashana vairagya is the brief detachment people feel at a funeral, when life suddenly seems empty. It soon fades, so the tradition does not trust it.Western link No close Western match. Terror management theory studies how reminders of death change people for a short time, but it finds stronger defence of one's worldview, not detachment.Full entry in the glossaryClose, a passing mood. Do not treat it as a lasting spiritual change. If it does not pass, or the person stops coping with daily life, check for depression. A devout client's experience of God is a subjective reality that shapes how they cope; you can work with it without ruling on whether God exists.
• In research. Measure what the tradition values, such as equanimity, compassion, wisdom and detachment, not only stress and mood. Use measures built from Indian concepts, such as the anasaktianasaktiअनासक्तिanāsaktisay: uh-naa-suhk-tiLiterally: non-attachment (an + āsakti, clinging)Anasakti means non-attachment: acting and enjoying life without clinging to things or to results. Indian psychologists study it as a source of calm and happiness.Western link Close to 'non-attachment' in mindfulness research, and to acceptance in acceptance-based therapies. The difference: it is rooted in duty (dharma) and service, not only in managing emotion.Full entry in the glossaryClose scales, and say which text or school each comes from. Where faith is part of a practice, design the study so that expectation can be told apart from the practice.
• In education. Gratitude diaries have small effects on wellbeing (Davis and colleagues, 2016), and they are not bhaktibhaktiभक्तिsay: bhuhk-tiLiterally: sharing, devotion (bhaj-, to share, to worship)Bhakti means loving devotion to God. Bhakti yoga, the path of devotion, is one of three main paths in the Bhagavad Gita, with action and knowledge.Western link Close to religious devotion, and to positive emotions such as love and gratitude in the psychology of religion. The difference: bhakti is a full path to liberation.Full entry in the glossaryClose. A lesson on character strengths is not the yamasyamaयमsay: yuh-muhLiterally: restraint, controlThe yamas are the five moral restraints that begin the eight limbs of Yoga: non-harming, truthfulness, not stealing, sexual restraint and non-possessiveness.Western link Close to ethical codes, and to self-control in psychology. The difference: the yamas are the first step of a mental training, not a separate set of rules.Full entry in the glossaryClose. Teach each Indian idea in its own terms first, and its Western partner second.
• In workplaces. Karma yogakarma yogaकर्मयोगkarmayogasay: kuhr-muh yo-guhLiterally: the yoga (discipline) of actionKarma yoga is the path of action: doing one's duty fully and well while giving up craving for its results. The Bhagavad Gita teaches it as a way to freedom.Western link Close to a focus on process rather than outcome, to intrinsic motivation and to flow, and to altruism when it serves others. The difference: flow is a passing, enjoyable state, while karma yoga is a lifelong attitude, held in dull or painful duty too, and aimed at liberation.Full entry in the glossaryClose has entered leadership research (Mulla and Krishnan, 2009). But nishkama karmanishkama karmaनिष्काम कर्मniṣkāma karmasay: nish-kaa-muh kuhr-muhLiterally: action without desire (niṣ + kāma + karma)Nishkama karma means doing one's duty without craving its results. The Bhagavad Gita teaches it as a way to act fully while staying calm and free.Western link Close to intrinsic motivation and to focusing on the process rather than the outcome. The difference: it is a spiritual discipline, with action offered as duty or to God.Full entry in the glossaryClose does not mean "care less about results to sell more": Tilak's reading is that one gives up greed, not effort.

Try this

A wellness influencer (an invented example) posts a chart that gets 2 lakh views: 'Ananda = positive emotion. Dharma = meaning. Bhakti = gratitude. Vairagya = mindfulness. Ancient India had positive psychology 3,000 years ago!' A classmate shares it in your group chat and asks whether it is right.

Judge the chart using at least three of its pairs and the idea of reading a concept in context. Then rewrite one row so that it is accurate.

Show the reasoning

The chart takes real pairs from this course but turns each bridge into an equation. Ananda is not a positive emotion: in Vedanta it is the nature of the self, said to have no beginning or end, while PERMA's positive emotion is a passing state with causes. Dharma overlaps with meaning, but meaning-in-life research measures whether a person feels their life has meaning, while dharma is an order a person is bound by, which may bring no felt meaning at all. Bhakti contains gratitude, but it is love of God for its own sake; Rao and Paranjpe call devotion used for gains the "garden variety". Vairagya and mindfulness both loosen craving, but vairagya rests on a judgment that worldly objects cannot satisfy, while mindfulness attends without judging.

The last line is an "India knew it first" claim. Rao and Paranjpe warn that spotting such parallels does little to develop Indian psychology, and they say the two fields "are different" even though they can learn from each other. A fair row also names its school, because Indian concepts have several meanings. An accurate row would read: "Ananda (Vedanta): bliss as the nature of the self. Nearest Western idea: eudaimonic wellbeing. Difference: ananda is said to be permanent and uncovered, not produced by good conditions."