In2-MeC

Timisoara, Romania
24 June, 2003

Essay Two:

Part Three:
Vedic Depth Psychology

Geeta Lal Sahai, in an article entitled “The Mysterious Unconscious” (which begins on page 108 of World Famous Strange Mysteries published by Pustak Mahal, Delhi, June 2001), gives this succinct introduction to Depth Psychology.

The exponents of Depth Psychology have compared our mind to the tip of an iceberg floating on the surface of water. A large part of the iceberg is under the water level and only a small portion of it is visible to the naked eye. The portion of the iceberg which is visible to us is just 1/8 of the entire body of ice. Hence 7/8 part thereof is submerged and cannot be seen.

Depth psychology was pioneered by C. G. Jung (1875-1961). Early in his career Jung was Sigmund Freud’s foremost disciple, but he broke with his teacher to establish his own school. In 1912 he published The Psychology of the Unconscious, still a groundwork for the depth psychologists of today. Jung was considerably influenced by the picture of the mind that the sage Patanjali gives in the Yoga-sutras. Patanjali, in turn, derived his schema from the Vedas. The Western version of depth psychology is typically eclectic. It can be characterized as a New Age discipline—almost a contradiction in terms, since New Age ideas are not known for adhering to disciplined thinking. Today’s depth psychologists freely bring mythology, drug experiences, ESP, shamanism and sheer fantasy to their work of probing into the hidden inner region of mental structures and processes. The germ of depth psychology is Vedic knowledge, and Vedic knowledge is not merely a working hypothesis. The image of an iceberg—one-eighth visible above the watery surface, seven-eighths hidden below—is a useful entry into our understanding of the Vedic description of the mind. What is hidden is not fluid and amorphous, something we can give shape to by our speculations. The hidden mind is formed of the very real and powerful energies of the Supreme Lord. Since this essay is intended to present only a schema, and since the elements of Vedic depth psychology will be developed in later essays, I shall present here a simple outline of the structure of the mind as it is described in Srimad-Bhagavatam and traditional Vaisnava Vedanta. The outline is presented in two parts. The first is vyasti-oriented. It shows the structure of the subtle body as it applies to a single human being.   It shows “your” mind. The second part of the outline is samasti-oriented. It shows the mind’s relation to the universe. My thanks go to HH Bhanu Maharaja for the first diagram, which he visualized after careful study of Srimad-Bhagavatam. The scriptural references in parentheses are my own addition to Maharaja’s expert work. The second diagram I drew up from the work of  Gitartha Vibhusana Siromani C. M. Padmabhachar, a Vaisnava and scholar of the Madhva Sampradaya. He nicely summarized Madhva’s Vedanta philosophy of the mind’s hidden relation to the universe in Life and Teachings of Sri Madhvachariar, published by the author in 1909 and republished by his grandson in 1983.


Srimad-Bhagavatam 2. 10. 16 makes clear that the individual soul is conditioned in exact accordance with the cosmic powers and dimensions of the universal form of the Lord. Thus, for example, there is a trans-dimensional hyperlink* between the human eye, the god of the sun who is the eye of the universal form, the power of sight, and visible form. [Bhag. 2. 10. 21]  Thus the Vedas term the human body ksudra-brahmanda, “small universe. ” The chart below outlines in a general way the relationship of an individual’s subtle body to the universe as a whole.      

Seven Worlds	Predominant Element	Kosa	Body
Satya-loka	Akasa	Anandamaya	Karana-deha
Tapa-loka	Vayu	Anandamaya	Karana-deha
Jana-loka	Vayu	Anandamaya	Karana-deha
Mahar-loka	Agni	Prana-/Mano-/Vijnanamaya	Linga-sarira
Svarga-loka	Agni	Prana-/Mano-/Vijnanamaya	Linga-sarira
Bhuvar-loka	Apa	Prana-/Mano-/Vijnanamaya	Linga-sarira
Bhur-loka	Bhumi	Anna-/Prana-/Mano-/Vijanamaya	Sthula-/Linga-sarira

The seven talas (planes) of the bila-svarga (underworld heaven of the demons) are within Bhur-loka; thus we possess in our psyche a hyperlink to the asura-loka as well as to the deva-loka (Bhuvar, Svar and Mahar) and the muni-loka (Jana, Tapa and Satya).    Our ten senses are hyperlinked to ten demigods.   Our minds are hyperlinked to the moon.   We are subtly linked to the total Universal Form. We can activate these links by mystic yoga. “Even on earth there are some yogis who can take their bath early in the morning in four places at once — Jagannatha Puri, Ramesvara, Hardwar and Dvaraka,” explains Srila Prabhupada in Life Comes from Life. “One yogi friend used to visit my father in Calcutta. The yogi told him that when he (the yogi) would simply sit down and touch his guru, he would travel from Calcutta to Dvaraka in two minutes. That is yogic power. ”   Vedic depth psychology reveals that nobody is really alone. We are intimately connected to the Lord and to a host of powerful macrocosmic personalities. Their influence is at play in our microcosmic consciousness.   The Srimad-Bhagavatam  narratives of the conflict between the demigods and demons that ranges across vast regions of the universe also pertain to our individual inner conflicts.   It is not a question of symbolism and metaphor.   The forces that stand behind the phenomena of external nature are behind our internal nature as well.
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* Hyperlink is computer language for an active address or an active string of text.   A hyperlink appears within normal text but stands out because 1) usually its typeface is differently colored, and 2) when you point your cursor at it, the cursor changes to the icon of a hand.   When you click on a hyperlink your computer follows it to a new location.   For example, you arrived at this page you are reading right now by clicking hyperlinks.

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