Psychological capital “Psycap” in the Devi Mahatmyam: discover your “Hero Within”

Abstract

The purpose of this paper is to relate the episodes of the Devi Mahatmyam in the light of Psychological Capital (PsyCap) components: hope, efficacy, resilience, and optimism. The Psychological Capital components in the Devi Mahatmyam are portrayed as spelled out in it. A literature review on Positive Psychology and Psychological Capital components has also been conducted in this paper to show the importance of Positive Psychology. The Devi Mahatmyam applies the PsyCap components such as problem solving, goal-orientation, adversity coping etc. through its different episodes when its esoteric meaning is understood properly. Since the Hindu scriptures have practical repercussion, this paper proposes to put forward the fact that focused research towards developing psychological intervention to augment psychological capital is to be made seriously using insights from scriptures like the Devi Mahatmyam. At the end of the paper a model has been shown to depict the idea that enhanced spirituality leads to improvement in Psychological Capital and are interwoven with each other.