Hindu Psychology Case Study

"Oh, East is East, and West is West, and never the twain shall meet.

Till Earth and Sky stand presently at God's great Judgment Seat.

But there is neither East nor West, Border, nor Breed, nor Birth,

When two strong men stand face to face, though they come from

the ends of the Earth."

-Rudyard Kipling

In his 1939 article "What India Can Teach Us," Jung praises India's integrative religion, seeing it as a model for the modern Western world. India's religion embraced "the whole man from top to bottom" unlike the Western variety, which separated the rational from the natural human being. Jung appreciatively concluded that India had avoided the "fatal dissociation between an upper and a lower half of the human personality." (Johnson, 1995).

The scope of this paper was initially to be a general investigation into the psychological aspects of stressors that arise as a result of practicing Hinduism. I had opted to engage this investigation of Hinduism through an interview process of persons who identified themselves practicing Hindus. I received four responses to an ad placed on open e-mail list serve through the California Institute of Integral Studies, CIIS. All four individuals were either affiliated with CIIS or referred to me as an outside resource from a respondent affiliated with CIIS. The outside referral lead me to contact the author and teacher, June McDaniel; herself a specialist in the area of ecstatic Hindu religions.

Another source of information on Hinduism was obtained through a visit to the Hare Krishna Temple in Berkeley Ca. during the celebration of Gaura-purnima, or the Golden Full Moon, a Vaisnava festival celebrating the divine appearance of the Yuga Avatara, Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu (ISCKON, 2012). I was able to have a brief impromptu conversation with one of the temples members which I will discuss later in this paper.

As I navigated the different types of Hinduism and Hindu practices being relayed by the interviewees, they made clear to me the need for a brief outline of what I understand to be a working definition of Hinduism as a religion. I see Hinduism as an umbrella under which the numerous concepts and ideas that were provided to me by the interviewees; each of whom practiced and experienced Hinduism from different sects of this vast, complex and ancient religion. For the purpose of this paper I will define Hinduism in two ways. The first as "the dominant religion of India that emphasizes dharma with its resulting ritual and social observances and often mystical contemplation and ascetic practices" (Webster, 2012), and "A body of religious and philosophical beliefs and cultural practices native to India and characterized by the belief in reincarnation and a supreme being of many forms and natures, by the view that opposing theories are aspects of one eternal truth" (Hinduism, 2012). I would like to state there are many varied and interesting ways in which Hinduism has been defined and these two are by no means the final description. I found that Internet search engines provide a broad overview of Hinduism that is readily available. Common sites such as Google.com, Bing.com, Yahoo.com and Answers.com, all provide an overlap of information on the general aspects of Hinduism. Also what I have read in multiple texts, aids in verifying this information.

In the Journal of Social Work, David R. Hodge writes, "Although there are more than 800 million Hindu adherents worldwide, 13 percent of the Earth's population, the overwhelming majority live in India, the cradle of Hinduism, where they are approximately 85% of the population" (Hodge, 2004). Though the majority of Hindus still reside within India, there are large communities that have developed across the united states, but their numbers are much less in comparison. "Hinduism is a minority religion in the United States, American Hindus accounting for an estimated 0.4% of total US population. The vast majority of American Hindus are Indian Americans, immigrants from India and Nepal and their descendants, besides a much smaller number of converts" (Nimmagadda & Cowger, 1999).

Hinduism is most probably the "Oldest of the world's major religions"(Shouler & Anthony, 2009). The Oxford Dictionary of Asian Mythology states Hinduism has, "evolved out of the Vedic religion of ancient India. There are two main branches of Hinduism, Vaishnavism and Shaivism, each of which includes many sects. Though the various sects each rely on their own set of scriptures, they all revere the ancient Vedas" (Coterell, 1986). Later the same text also describes the term Hindu as, "a word derived etymologically from the Persian pronunciation of the Sanskrit 'sindu', meaning "river" and referring to the Indus River Valley or India itself. Hinduism is more a flow of traditions, practices, and customs than it is a religion in the usual sense of the word" (Corterell, 1986). It is agued that Hinduism is both a monotheistic religion and a polytheistic religion. Although most Hindus favor one particular god or goddess, 'ishtadeva' , usually derived through family tradition, it is also acceptable to recognize a multiplicity of deities. "It is commonly understood that these ishtadevas are also manifestations of more central divinities, such as Vishnu, Durga, Shiva, Kali, Saraswati or Krishna etc. and these may be also manifestations of the great Mother Devi or the 'father' Brahma. Ultimately the many are an expression of the One" (Knott, K. 1998).

There are no ultimate agreements on how many gods and goddesses are in the Hindu pantheon, one source states there are over "330 million forms". However it is also mentioned that the number 330 million was simply, "used to give a symbolic expression to the fundamental Hindu doctrine that God lives in the hearts of all living beings" (Pandit, 2012). Author Bansai Pandit goes on to state,

"A Hindu deity (god or goddess; note small g) represents a particular aspect of the Supreme Being. For example, Saraswati represents the learning and knowledge aspect of the Supreme Being. Thus, if a Hindu wants to pray for acquiring knowledge and understanding, he prays to Saraswati. Just as sunlight cannot have a separate and independent existence from the sun itself, a Hindu deity does not have a separate and independent existence from the Supreme Being. Thus, Hindu worship of deities is monotheistic polytheism and not simple polytheism (in other words, idolatry.)"

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