Religious and Spiritual Practices in India: A Positive Psychological Perspective 9819923964, 9789819923960

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Kamlesh Singh Gaurav Saxena   Editors

Religious and Spiritual Practices in India A Positive Psychological Perspective

Religious and Spiritual Practices in India

Kamlesh Singh · Gaurav Saxena Editors

Religious and Spiritual Practices in India A Positive Psychological Perspective

Editors Kamlesh Singh Department of Humanities and Social Sciences Indian Institute of Technology Delhi New Delhi, India

Gaurav Saxena School of Psychological Science University of Bristol Bristol, UK

ISBN 978-981-99-2396-0 ISBN 978-981-99-2397-7 (eBook) https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-99-2397-7 © The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd. 2023 This work is subject to copyright. All rights are solely and exclusively licensed by the Publisher, whether the whole or part of the material is concerned, specifically the rights of translation, reprinting, reuse of illustrations, recitation, broadcasting, reproduction on microfilms or in any other physical way, and transmission or information storage and retrieval, electronic adaptation, computer software, or by similar or dissimilar methodology now known or hereafter developed. The use of general descriptive names, registered names, trademarks, service marks, etc. in this publication does not imply, even in the absence of a specific statement, that such names are exempt from the relevant protective laws and regulations and therefore free for general use. The publisher, the authors, and the editors are safe to assume that the advice and information in this book are believed to be true and accurate at the date of publication. Neither the publisher nor the authors or the editors give a warranty, expressed or implied, with respect to the material contained herein or for any errors or omissions that may have been made. The publisher remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations. This Springer imprint is published by the registered company Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd. The registered company address is: 152 Beach Road, #21-01/04 Gateway East, Singapore 189721, Singapore

Contents

1

Religion, Spirituality, and Happiness: Through an Indian Lens . . . . Jyotsna Agrawal, Kamlesh Singh, and Gaurav Saxena

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Part I 2

Understanding Hinduism from a Psychological Lens . . . . . . . . . . . . . A. S. Guru Prapanna Sri, Kamlesh Singh, and Gaurav Saxena

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3

Positive Practices Within Hinduism . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Vineet Gairola and Kamlesh Singh

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4

Muslim Concepts of Mind and Soul in Contemporary India . . . . . . . Asma Nabi, Kamlesh Singh, and Paul Kaplick

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5

Positive Psychotherapeutic Constructs and Trends in Islamic Psychology . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Asma Nabi, Kamlesh Singh, and Fahad Khan

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6

Buddhism and Its Contribution to Positive Psychology . . . . . . . . . . . . 113 Kamlesh Singh, Kamalpreet Kaur Sohi, Harshmeet Kaur, and Purnima Singh

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Buddhist Practices Enhancing Positive Life: Mindfulness and Beyond . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 141 Pulkit Khanna, Kamlesh Singh, and Shruti Dua

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Perspectives on Positive Psychology from Christianity . . . . . . . . . . . . 169 Sneha John and Kamlesh Singh

9

Jainism: A Religion of Compassion and Non-violence . . . . . . . . . . . . . 197 Kirti Tyagi and Kamlesh Singh

10 Sikhism and Its Contribution to Well-Being . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 223 Saniya Bhutani and Kamlesh Singh

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Contents

11 Role of Socio-spiritual Reformers in the Social Well-Being of Contemporary India . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 251 Pooja Swami Sahni, Kamlesh Singh, and Ekta Chopra 12 Well-Being Enhancing Rituals in India . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 273 Shefali Midha and Kamlesh Singh Part II 13 Promoting Inclusive Well-Being Research . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 301 Gaurav Saxena and Kamlesh Singh 14 Happiness and Well-Being in Old Age . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 317 Shilpa Bandyopadhyay and Kamlesh Singh 15 Happiness-Enhancing Strategies Among Indians . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 341 Shefali Midha and Kamlesh Singh 16 Religion, Spirituality, and Positive Socio-cultural Practices in India: A Way Ahead . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 369 Gaurav Saxena and Kamlesh Singh Author Index . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 381

About the Editors

Kamlesh Singh is currently Professor (Psychology) at the Department of Humanities and Social Sciences, IIT Delhi. She has published two (co-authored) books— Measures of Positive Psychology: Development and Validation (2016) with Springer and Translational Research and Applied Psychology in India (2019) with Sage publishers. She is also Author of the award-winning book Bharatiya Sandarbh Mein Vyavaharik Sakaratmak Manovigyan (2018). It was awarded the Rajbhasha Gaurav Award by the Ministry of Home Affairs, Government of India. She has published over 100 research papers in peer-reviewed national and international journals and 17 book chapters. In 2019, she was Recipient of the prestigious “Shane J. Lopez” for professional contributions to the field of Positive Psychology by the Section on Positive Psychology, American Psychological Association. Gaurav Saxena is a Research Scholar at the School of Psychological Science, University of Bristol, UK. After completing his master’s in Experimental Psychology from the University of Bristol, UK, he worked as a Researcher at the Department of Humanities and Social Sciences, Indian Institute of Technology Delhi, India and the Department of Psychology, University of Liverpool, UK. He has a track record of publications in reputed and high-impact journals. He has worked on numerous international and cross-disciplinary projects, which have been funded by national and international bodies, such as Rajya Anand Sansthan, Government of Madhya Pradesh, and the European Research Council. His research interests cover a wide range of topics, including positive psychology, well-being, mental health literacy, and decolonizing psychology education and research.

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Chapter 1

Religion, Spirituality, and Happiness: Through an Indian Lens Jyotsna Agrawal, Kamlesh Singh , and Gaurav Saxena

Abstract Religion and spirituality (R/S) form an essential part of an individual’s identity. About 80% of people around the world are believed to be associated with some religion. Researchers have become increasingly interested in the psychological associations between religiosity and spirituality in the last few decades. The first part of this chapter introduces the present understanding of R/S and gives an overview of the distribution of some global religions across the world. It then presents the current psychological stance on R/S. Research has evidenced that several religious and spiritual practices are associated with psychology constructs. This chapter briefly reviews the available empirical research on religious and spiritual practices and psychology constructs to highlight the associations among them. In the second section, we briefly outline the waves of positive psychology and discuss the existing mainstream happiness research, which predominantly reflects western ideals. The chapter then presents the understanding of happiness from Indian psychology and elaborates on the lay conception of happiness among Indians. The chapter concludes by highlighting the gaps in existing research and provides direction for future research. Keywords Religiosity · Spirituality · Positive psychology · Happiness · Well-being · India · Indian psychology

Religion and spirituality (R/S) are important aspects of an individual’s identity. Substantial research has evidenced their role in promoting positive human behavior J. Agrawal (B) Department of Clinical Psychology, National Institute of Mental Health and Neurosciences, Bengaluru, India e-mail: [email protected] K. Singh Department of Humanities and Social Sciences, Indian Institute of Technology Delhi, New Delhi, India e-mail: [email protected] G. Saxena School of Psychological Science, University of Bristol, Bristol, UK © The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd. 2023 K. Singh and G. Saxena (eds.), Religious and Spiritual Practices in India, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-99-2397-7_1

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J. Agrawal et al.

and well-being. After setting the context of this book, the introductory chapter will discuss the practices and philosophies of several religions that are predominantly followed in India. The chapter will begin by describing different aspects of religion, spirituality, and the interaction between the two. It will then turn its attention to discuss the psychological approaches to understanding R/S and then highlight their positive impact on well-being.

1.1 Religion and Spirituality R/S are considered ways of developing awareness about personally relevant ideas around what is sacred or divine and finding means to connect with this sacred or divine (Nelson, 2009). Religion primarily conducts this search within an institutional or organized context (Schlehofer et al., 2008). Religious and spiritual beliefs and practices have been present across civilizations that have flourished at different locations and eras and still provide succor to millions of humans in various ways. About 80% of people worldwide are connected to some religion (Pew Research Center, 2015), suggesting a plausible evolutionary and/or psychological need. Table 1.1 presents the distribution of religions in India and the world. Along with other developments, the past decade has seen a growing popularization of psychological perspectives on religion. According to Streib and Hood (2013), religion is associated with transcending aspects of daily life concerns and defined religion as “symbolic and ritual, thus social construction of experiences of “great” transcendences in terms of ultimate concern” (p. 141). Religion can impact an individual’s way of life, both individually, through its influence on emotions, actions, desires and commitments, and interpersonally, because of its impact on relationships with others (Nelson, 2009). While some see religion as a value orientation, others consider it a multidimensional social phenomenon involving rituals, experiences, ethics, etc. Smart (1998) proposed seven dimensions of religion—(i) practicalritual; (ii) experiential-emotional; (iii) narrative-mythic; (iv) doctrinal-philosophical; (v) ethical-legal; (vi) social-institutional; and (vii) material. Religion is sometimes Table 1.1 Composition of India’s and world’s population by religion

Religion

Indiaa (%)

Worldb (%)

Hinduism

79.8

15.1

Islam

14.2

24.1

2.3

31.2

Christianity Buddhism

0.7

6.9

Jainism

0.4