The Individual in Indian Thought System: Implications for Indian Psychology and Education

The Individual in Indian Thought System: Implications for Indian Psychology and Education

The Ancient Indian Thought System has been extraordinary in the sense that it has treated an Individual as a subject, emphasizing self-consciousness, free-will and self-determination as his or her exclusive endowment. The Individual has been conceived as the meeting ground of the divinity and humanity, the Avyakta and the Vyakta. Advait reaches the startling conclusion that finite has no reality in an ultimate reference and the Individual could not be ascribed to a being in which all finite personalities merged without retaining a vestige of their distinctive experiences. Nyaya-Vaisesika and Purva- Mimamasa postulate plurality of souls, whereas Samkhya reduces all psychological principles to duality of Prakriti and Purusa only. Almost every school of thought which is more of an interpretation rather than a construction of reality, has not only conceptualized the pivotal position of Individuality, but has followed it up with the delineation of a schemata for the development of the Individual in close accordance with the reality postulated. This mapping of a course of development, in the form of a discipline (anubandha and anusasna), is a unique feature which, sustained by a system of education, presents a formidable way of thought and action evidenced in Indian Philosophy. According to Indian Thought System, the process of development of the Individual has to take cognizance of its realistic ontology and rationalistic epistemology, the former defining the ‘end’ and latter the ‘means’. This leaves us with a formidable task of identifying the postulates that characterize the Individual and his or her development in more familiar idioms and usages and chart a process of accomplishment and practical discipline, geared to culminate in the final liberation of human spirit from its entanglement with world that binds man to the chariot wheels of phenomenal existence.
This concept is an attempt to visualize that the Individual is a complex construct which can truly be understood by the instrumentalities of self and Consciousness as figured in Indian Thought System. Modern psychology is trying to understand the concept of well being on the basis of corporal and social entities overlooking entire metaphysical entities which can truly reveal the content, intent, nature and structure of the Individuality. Also, the paper suggests some practical measures regarding the development of the Individual which can be pragmatically practised in the field of Indian Psychology and Education.
Dr.Arbind Kumar Jha is specialized in these concepts and those who interest know more please contact him at drarbind@gmail.com