What is Sanskrit Psychology?
Many think that theirs is the only possible truth. It isn’t.
People all over the world have embraced some way of understanding life and their place in it. Most people believe that the world-view given to them, by the their parents or their society, think that their way is true. Many think that theirs is the only possible truth. It isn’t.
It’s almost unbelievable that yoga has reached every shore of every continent (I’m guessing that someone has done something vaguely yogic on Antarctica). At its core it has such a specific point of view, such a cultural base that puts it at odds with every other way of making sense of reality, that it should be rejected along with forest gods, trepanning, and human sacrifice. Yet in studios, homes, beaches, ashrams, health centres, doctor’s surgeries, schools and prisons, people are pulling out the mat, taking a breath, and attempting to bend their legs into pretzels.
Yoga cures depression, anxiety and trauma. Doesn’t it..?
For most people, that’s where they stop. To many who have a go, yoga is a stretching exercise with some promises of other poorly understood benefits. Yoga cures depression, anxiety and trauma. Yoga makes behaviour better and learning easier. Yoga is healthful, and calming, and spiritual, and ancient, and modern, and scientific. Yoga will help you get the girl/boy, cure all disease, get those stubborn stains out, and is guaranteed to make you better in all ways. Unless you do it wrong, then it’s obviously your fault.
There are others of us who don’t accept everything we’re told about such practices. There are those of us that know that yoga is a complex, challenging, changing, multi-factored umbrella term. There are those of us who understand that yoga isn’t ancient or modern. It doesn’t have a single history or a single practice. It is a human behaviour that has changed over time — with the times — and it has the power to change people. Real yoga people know that yoga isn’t a body practice, or a mind practice, because body and mind are already joined. That is the root of Sanskrit Psychology.
…the language of namaste and chanting, of mumbled meditations and books that end in -sutra or-sastra.
You might be familiar with Sanskrit, the ancient writing and language system of India. It’s the origin of the sometimes-familiar yoga posture names that end in asana. It’s the language of namaste and chanting, of mumbled meditations and books that end in -sutra or-sastra. It’s also the language of an ancient form of psychology the predates and far exceeds the reach of modern psychology. It is the language of yoga and meditation in many, but not all, of its forms.
I imagine you’re familiar with western psychology though. You have brain, it produces consciousness. Consciousness gives you have memories, and behaviours, and senses, and attachments. You get “diseases” known as depression, or anxiety, or ADHD. Psychology comes along, tells you what’s wrong with your brain and gives you an expensive medicine or a set of treatment practices that you’re responsible for, that only work half of the time (don’t believe me? Look it up) but blames you when it doesn’t (“you have treatment-resistant depression!”).
…you’re not connected properly for some reason, to yourself, to others, to nature, to the cosmos.
Sanskrit — or Indian — psychology begins differently. This worldview considers matter (including brains) to come from consciousness, not the other way round. This has a profound impact on how you can see yourself and others. It means that when things don’t seem to fit together that it isn’t some fault of yours, or some disease. It means that you’re not connected properly for some reason, to yourself, to others, to nature, to the cosmos. It means that we’re all joined, not separate entities or souls wandering around competing with each other. It is, in short, the entire basis for the systems of yoga. That makes it something worth knowing and thinking about, for those of us who want to change ourselves, and the world.