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Namah Vol. 27, Issue 4, 15th January 2020

to be accepted as a belief-system at the most) was the less favoured deity and soon to
and certainly not in mind-centric modern be cast away with the passage of time. A
psychology. Perhaps one is afraid even of truce was formed by declaring religion as a
admitting such a possibility since it may matter of personal belief whereas science and
well mean the end of an empire of mind- reason was the goddess to be worshipped
constructed knowledge-system (another and believed in publicly and by the state.
belief-system) that encourages, or at least A dichotomy arose between the realm of
accepts as normal, our mortal seeking for religious thought whose birth place was
sexual pleasure and the expression of anger, originally some mystic experience and secular
fear, ambition, lust, pride, vanity, greed and science. This led often to conflicts in the initial
all the rest as normal! On the other hand the period until the religious beliefs, devoid of
seeking for the soul or having glimpses of it the spiritual impulsion, started receding
find either no place in modern psychology and slowly getting confined to churches and
or else are brazenly declared abnormal! monuments and festivals.
Everything can be talked about in academic
circles but the terms soul and Divine are In India however there was no such conflict.
taboo or simply mocked; at best considered Religious life was never a set of fixed dogmas
an article of religious faith rather than part of for one and all. It was seen as a step towards
our spiritual seeking and self-discovery. The the spiritual and the spiritual seeking was
resistance against the ‘Psyche’ set in motion kept alive through countless saints and
by Aphrodite and her worshippers is still sages who reaffirmed the fact of spiritual
active under new names and forms. experiences. The sheer volume of these
experiences coming through a number of
The historical context seekers and mystics would form enough
empirical data for a proper scientific study.
One such form is Freudian psychology But the Western oriented approach, unable to
which sees sexual desire (instinct) as the differentiate between religion and spirituality,
root of our impulse to live rather than the just washed the baby with the bath-water. In
soul. It is understandable that this be so in denying religion and religious thought and
the Western context since what has remained claiming them as products of an irrational
there of spiritual seeking is largely the shell or superstitious creedal belief, it also took
of a religion with fixed dogmas and beliefs away faith and aspiration and spiritual
in which the spiritual seeking lies buried experience. Psychology has suffered much
and smouldering as a thin spark under the due to this discrimination (or the lack of it)
smoke of a priori denial, doubt and blind giving to the students a lop-sided view of
belief.There is little left for people to choose. the self and world as a huge unintelligible
Climbing the rising tide of reason and science machine running mechanically without a
that was proving victorious over matter and maker or master within it. Yet nevertheless
making life comfortable and less painful, the machine acts intelligently and works as if
many chose for the new goddess of Reason with an inbuilt wisdom conscious of its steps
and building temples and cults around it. moving towards a growing perfection! The
Others chose blind religious beliefs which result has been disastrous to say the least.

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