The widely known fact that psychology comes from two Greek words “Psyche”, synonymous to soul and “logos”
means study, reflects a predominantly Westernised origin of the discipline. The western philosophy described
psychology as an endeavour to reach the soul, or consciousness in order to understand the human mind and
behaviours. Ancient Greek philosophers explained the heart as the soul or centre of thought and studied its movement
to understand the psychological processes. An early thinker and philosopher Plato (427-347 BCE) tried to theorise
the origin of thoughts and behaviours on the basis of brain activities, thus naming the brain the “thinking organ” of
the human body. Later, in 1890, James defined psychology as “the science of mental life, both of its phenomena and
their conditions”.
However, from the Eastern perspective, specifically Indian philosophers have defined the consciousness as an
awakened state of the soul, which broadly covers everything a person is made of, from conscious to subliminal
processes, from cognition to affect and from personality to inspiration. The knowledge system of Indian philosophy
enabled ancient thinkers to explain behaviour from the perspective of (but not limited to) sattva, tamas and rajas
gunas, which is almost parallel to the concept of the environment and ecological influence on personality. Guna refers
to a set of characteristics that can be found in every aspect of human-nature interaction, from complex behaviour to
food choices each human-nature interface is entangled in these three gunas. Sattva guna typically refers to the traits
related with purity, honour and wisdom, such traits help the humans to develop habits that enhances their integrity
and harmony. Rajas guna is related to the passion, momentum and act that are interrelated with flow. Tamas guna is
the dark part or the shadow behind the persona (the socially constructed self), which is related to death instincts and
destructive ideas within the human psyche.
It can be pointed out that western school of thoughts inclined towards the outcome of psychological processes
through behaviour (both adaptive and maladaptive); whereas Indian knowledge system focused majorly on the
introspective domains of individual’s psyche through practices such as meditation (dhyan), asana and yoga. However,
the postmodern understanding and exploration of psychology require both introspection and behavioural observation
