THE ANALYTICAL PSYCHOLOGY OF JUNG AND THE AGAMIC PSYCHOLOGY OF MEYKANDAR
Carl C. Jung, the founder of analytical psychology, had a fascination for Eastern thinking and an understanding of it that comes as a pleasant surprise for an Eastern man.
His penetration into the deeper layers of human mind through his studies of mythologies, religious practices art, and so forth both East and West is, to say the least, a remarkable intellectual achievement comparable to the best in the Indian philosophical- psychological tradition. The conceptual categories he has introduced and the theoretical framework he has erected certainly provide a framework that a modern man can use to gain an understanding of the mysteries of the human mind.
Of course the East, and in particular the Agamic/Tantric tradition in India as well as outside has been doing similar sort of thing from time immemorial. They have developed a variety of Sadhanas, experienced the outcomes (payan) of these Sadhanas and reflected upon the Structure of Reality, the nature of the creatures and so forth to account for the experienced connections between the Sadhanas and outcomes. This long and ancient tradition in India, coeval with the beginning of civilization itself finds its clearest and admirably logical formalization in the work of Meykandar (13th century).
In the Sivajnanabodam of Meykandar we find the divisions 'potuvatikaram' and 'cirappatikaram' with the former subdivided into 'piramanaviyal' and 'illakanaviyal' and the latter into 'catanaviyal' and 'payaniyal'.
The potuvatikaram deals with matters pertaining to the ontological, epistemological and meatphysical issues. The 'piramanaviyal' discusses the ontological issues from premises that are universally acceptable, and establishes the axiomatic TRUTHS and in the context of it the logically necessary and irreducible categories of objects for an adequate explanation of the objective, phenomenal world. Metaphysics is here articulated as the most comprehensive Hermeneutic Science.
The 'Ilakkanaviyal' takes the discussion further and establishes the essential functional characteristics of the different ontologically fundamental categories of objects established earlier. The Catanaviyal deals with the practices, exercises, in short the psycho-techniques (called utties in Tamil) that are adequate and necessary from the point of view of categories of objects and their essential functional attributes established earlier and for the purposes of SEEING for oneself these fundamental ontological entities. The section on 'payaniyal' deals with the outcomes, results and so forth i.e. the nature of self-knowledge or understanding that is attained through these Sadhanas.
The text as a whole thus, reveals a clear grasp of the formal structure of the behavioral or psychological sciences but as field of Hermeneutic Science, the clearest at any rate in the long intellectual history of India and perhaps also the world.
There is also another feature of Saiva Siddhanta tradition that clearly establishes the scientific character of the endeavour. The earlier agamic texts (including Jnanamirtham,circa 11th cent) that were divided into cariyai, kriyai, yogam and jnanam were descriptions of psycho-techniques deemed universally applicable.
Under jnanam we have descriptions and discussions of universally valid aspects of human (and animal) behaviour, states of consciousness, techniques for attaining the different states of consciousness and so forth. We do not find any references to individuals and their experiences as the phenomena that requires the theoretical concepts introduced. Saiva Siddhanta developed during the times of the Imperial Cholas departs from all these. The life history of the nayanmars , the god-possessed baktas of Siva and in particular critical instances in their life ( as described for example in Periapuranam) were taken as the data, the phenomena that needed an explanation. The earlier texts in Saiva siddhanta tradition 'Tiruvunthiyar' and 'Tirukalirrupatiyar' (12th century) make continuos reference to the critical instances in the life of the nayanmars .
The focus of analysis has not been the literary outpourings of the nayanmars (as it has been in the Vaishnava tradition in the Tamil country) but rather the life or the critical incidences in the life of the nayanmars. The record of the biographies of the nayanmars served a function very similar to case histories of patients in modern psychoanalysis.
Kallatanar (10 century) very clearly foumulated this intellectual temper, the scientific orientation as 'ulakiyal kURi porulial uraiththal'- establishing the nature of subjects after a naturalistic /scientific hermeneutic study of their behaviour and functional characteristics. (Kallatam, CeyyuL 13). Though this remark was made with reference to Thirukural, it is clear that at about the time he wrote these lines, there must have been considerable thinking about methodological issues that culminated in the birth of Saiva Siddhanta and along with it behavioral science proper as a field belonging to the general Hermeneutic sciences in the long intellectual history of man. An offshoot of this may the birth of medical science as a rigorous science that goes by the name of 'Siddha Vaidhyam'.
An unbiased examination of the original texts of the master Siddhas reveals an impressive scientific spirit pervading the whole tradition.
All these are meant as preliminary remarks to indicate that a comparative study of Saiva Siddhanta and the Analytical Psychology of Jung is not a misplaced enterprise.
Both are psychological systems in the narrow sense, teachings of ways of life (neri, markkam , camayam) in the broader sense. Jungian psychology is also chosen not only because it represents the most profound psychological system that the West has produced so far but also because there are remarkable convergences in thought, in principles and formulations of the nature of human mind. Jung talks of the psyche, as a substantive entity complex in itself and retaining identity in the evolutionary process without references to which human (and animal) behaviour cannot be adquately explained. This is similar to the concept of pasu (or anma) in Saiva Siddhanta, one of the three ultimate, irreducible object categories, uncreated and indestructible, complex in itself and the agent of the actions of the creatures .
Jung also talks about archetypes (also called primordial images, gestalts, imago etc.) that influence the psychic functions of man (and animal) in important ways. This seems to correspond to Siddhantic concept of murthi (also termed uru, peruvativu, arulvativu, etc) which are also taken as important in shaping human behaviour. Corresponding to the characteristically Jungian notions of Personal and Collective Unconscious, we have the doctrines of different types of Karma and Siva-Sakti .
In view of these essential correspondences a question arises as to whether these two systems, despite differences at the surface level, are in fact one basically. The studies being reported in this paper reveal that Jungian psychology though in line with the basic orientation of Saiva Siddhanta but is not as well developed as Saiva Siddhanta with an array of adequately differentiated basic categories.
It appears to me that the important distinction between Karma and Pathi is obfuscated by Jung and lumped together under the very general notion of Collective Unconscious. The Fundamental Ontology that Meykandar has secured for Saiva Siddhanta appears to be a serious desideratum in the Jungian Psychology. This lack leads to a somewhat different conception of what constitutes self-realisation, individuation and so forth.
Dr Loganathan Krishnan @ Ullaganar
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