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Emotions: An Indian perspective

The present paper is an attempt to understand emotions and the affect from Indian traditional point of view. In the Indian philosophical texts’ detailed descriptions of emotions are not available nor are dealt with as a separate concept. This view of emotions lays emphasis on desires as the root cau...

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Autor principal: Ramaprasad, Dharitri
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Medknow Publications & Media Pvt Ltd 2013
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3705675/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/23858247
http://dx.doi.org/10.4103/0019-5545.105514
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author Ramaprasad, Dharitri
author_facet Ramaprasad, Dharitri
author_sort Ramaprasad, Dharitri
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description The present paper is an attempt to understand emotions and the affect from Indian traditional point of view. In the Indian philosophical texts’ detailed descriptions of emotions are not available nor are dealt with as a separate concept. This view of emotions lays emphasis on desires as the root cause of emotional upheavals. They are seen as modification of desire and attachment. The desires are seen as arising from the contact and attachment of the ego or ahamkara with the external world and are caused by a sense of imperfection, incompleteness or non-fulfillment. Ego or ahamkara is differentiated from the true Self or atman. Emotions are viewed as springs of action and are bipolar in nature. According to Patanjali's Yoga Shastra, suffering is due to ignorance about one's true “self” (avidya). Hence, suffering or dukha arises from within and not from the outside world. Bhagvadgita traces all emotional experiences to the gunas, i.e., sattva, rajas, and tamas. Works of Bharathmuni have contributed to the understanding of emotional experiences. Concept of rasa or aesthetic relish is central to this approach to understanding affective experiences as dealt with in the Natyashastra of Bharathamuni. These views underline the recommended path for self-transformation. Regulating emotions, both emotional experience and emotional expression, is an integral part of the recommended “principles of living.”
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spelling pubmed-37056752013-07-15 Emotions: An Indian perspective Ramaprasad, Dharitri Indian J Psychiatry Review Article The present paper is an attempt to understand emotions and the affect from Indian traditional point of view. In the Indian philosophical texts’ detailed descriptions of emotions are not available nor are dealt with as a separate concept. This view of emotions lays emphasis on desires as the root cause of emotional upheavals. They are seen as modification of desire and attachment. The desires are seen as arising from the contact and attachment of the ego or ahamkara with the external world and are caused by a sense of imperfection, incompleteness or non-fulfillment. Ego or ahamkara is differentiated from the true Self or atman. Emotions are viewed as springs of action and are bipolar in nature. According to Patanjali's Yoga Shastra, suffering is due to ignorance about one's true “self” (avidya). Hence, suffering or dukha arises from within and not from the outside world. Bhagvadgita traces all emotional experiences to the gunas, i.e., sattva, rajas, and tamas. Works of Bharathmuni have contributed to the understanding of emotional experiences. Concept of rasa or aesthetic relish is central to this approach to understanding affective experiences as dealt with in the Natyashastra of Bharathamuni. These views underline the recommended path for self-transformation. Regulating emotions, both emotional experience and emotional expression, is an integral part of the recommended “principles of living.” Medknow Publications & Media Pvt Ltd 2013-01 /pmc/articles/PMC3705675/ /pubmed/23858247 http://dx.doi.org/10.4103/0019-5545.105514 Text en Copyright: © Indian Journal of Psychiatry http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/3.0 This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 Unported, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
spellingShingle Review Article
Ramaprasad, Dharitri
Emotions: An Indian perspective
title Emotions: An Indian perspective
title_full Emotions: An Indian perspective
title_fullStr Emotions: An Indian perspective
title_full_unstemmed Emotions: An Indian perspective
title_short Emotions: An Indian perspective
title_sort emotions: an indian perspective
topic Review Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3705675/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/23858247
http://dx.doi.org/10.4103/0019-5545.105514
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