The Quest for the Inner Man: Transpersonal Psychology and Integral Sadhana

ABSTRACT

Transpersonal psychotherapy is characterised by the acceptance of the spiritual and cosmic dimensions of the personality, and the possibility of the development of higher states of consciousness. The transpersonal psychotherapist examines the negative influence of psychological conflicts on spiritual development, and the positive influence of spiritual practices on intrapersonal and interpersonal conflicts.

By including spiritual development in the therapeutical level the transpersonal psycho-therapist moves towards the dynamic process of self-transcendence where the individual is seen against his cosmic background.

Sadhana, the spiritual practice or discipline of Yoga, is related to the gradual unfoldment of the divine consciousness present in each and every being and which ultimately leads to the Divine life. Sri Aurobindo’s integral sadhana aims at the growth of a new consciousness and new inner life in which the surface personality, if looked at from the true and larger consciousness, becomes an instrument for its own perfection.

It is not an escape from the world to God, but a transformation of the seeker’s integral being into the terms of God-existence, i.e., to transform one’s entire being into God, ‘so that in a sense God Himself, the real person in us, becomes the Sadhaka (spiritual practitioner) of the Sadhana’.
In this critical survey the author tries to reveal unexplored features of two different but often overlapping approaches.

It is not always evident whether apparent similarities or divergences in their views are a matter of ideas or simply of terminology, and this work attempts to give the reader a clear insight and a deep appreciation of their respective psychological views.