Definition of Personality - the ancient Indian approach

Defining Personality as understood in Ancient Indian approach

           

            Understanding the individual in relationship to his environment has been the primary approach of Ancient Indian psychology  when it comes to the description of human behavior; the prakrithi – purusha approach. Prakrithi - the perception of environment  and purusha- perception of self. 

              Charaka Samhita expresses this idea as follows: “Mind, Soul and the Body—these three constitute a tripod, upon the meaningful combination of which the world is sustained. They constitute the substratum for everything, which is endowed with life. combination of the above three  is Purusha who is sentient and who is the subject matter for this science. The body and the mind are the abodes of diseases as well as health. Proper body-mind interaction is the cause for happiness”. Prakrithi, the environment, when it comes into contact with the purusha the individual self, the self, starts on a process of evolution that leads through several stages to the creation of the existing material world.

                In the Samkhya view, only prakrithi is active, while the self is incarcerated in it and only observes and experiences what the prakirthi is, the perception of the environment in relation to self.   It is devoid of consciousness. Prakrithi is unintelligible and gets greatly influenced by the Purusha, the perception by self.  It manifests itself as the various objects of experience based on the perception of he/she, th Purusha. Prakrithi is dynamic.  As a result, Prakrithi and all the physical objects that are effected or produced by Prakrithi, are also in a state of constant change and transformation. This dynamic state of the environment has been confirmed by the scientists today on various dimensions.

            Samkhya also describes Prakrithi as being constituted by tri-gunas, namely sattva, rajas and tamas. The term guna, in ordinary sense means quality or nature. But here, it is to be understood in the sense of constituent (component) of prakrithi. Sattva is concerned with happiness, rajas with action and  tamas with ignorance and inaction. This description by Samkhya can be clearly viewed as the prakrithi is not just being understood as a physical or materialistic environment; but a body which also comprises of human begins of different natures and characteristics grouped under the tri-gunas.

            This understanding further strengthens the idea that the interaction between prakrithi and purusha is not just an interaction between the individual self and the physical environment, but an interaction between the self and the environment as a whole, in which the other human beings of different natures are a part. Prakrithi being dynamic is the understanding of continuous and consistent changes that happen in the society as exposure to knowledge, experiences increases. Purusha’s interaction with prakrithi also makes him dynamic with changes also occurring in him as it happens with prakrithi.

            The perceptions or perceptual distortions in the interaction between prakrithi and purusha  causes the creation of 23 constituents, including intellect (buddhi,mahat), ego (ahamkara) and mind (Manas) which in turn leads to the development of swabhava  the consistent behavior or habit. This explanation based on samkhya view  comes very close to the definition given by Gordon All port for personality - "Personality is the dynamic organization within the individual of those psychophysical systems that determine his unique adjustments to the environment."