Transforming Adverse Cognition on the Path of Bhakti: Rule-Based Devotion, “My-Ness,” and the Existential Condition of Bondage

Travis Chilcott

doi:10.3390/rel7050049

Abstract

Early Gauḍīya Vaiṣṇava theologians developed a unique path of Hindu devotion during the 16th century through which an aspirant cultivates a rapturous form of selfless love (premā) for Kṛṣṇa, who is recognized as the supreme and personal deity. In the course and consequence of cultivating this selfless love, the recommended practices of devotion are claimed to free one from the basic existential condition of bondage that is of concern for a wide range of South Asian religious and philosophical traditions. One of the principle cognitive tendencies characterizing this condition is to have thoughts and feelings of possessiveness over objects of the world, or what is referred to as the state of “my-ness” (mamatā), e.g., my home, my children, or my wealth. Using the therapeutic model of schema therapy as a heuristic analogue, this article explores the relationship between recommended practices of rule-based devotion (vaidhi-bhakti) and the modulation of thoughts and feelings of possessiveness towards mundane objects. I argue that such practices function as learning strategies that can systematically rework and modulate how one relates to and responds to these objects in theologically desirable ways. I conclude by suggesting that connectionist theories of cognition and learning may offer a promising explanatory framework for understanding the dynamics of this kind of relationship.

Highlights

Among a wide range of Indian religious and philosophical traditions, bodily existence is a fundamental problem because it subjects us to a range of trials and tribulations
No matter how good we have it, we are subject to the mental and physical pains that we all experience in the course of life, whether from illness or injury, fear of death, loss, or what have you. The source of these miseries is widely attributed to identification with the psychophysical complex of a material body. This occurs due to a mistaken apprehension of one’s intrinsic nature or natural existential state apart from the body, which results in an existential condition of bondage
Critical goals include fundamentally changing undesirable ways of interpreting and emotionally and behaviorally responding to particular kinds of information into more desirable ways, relative to their respective assumptions and goals. In relation to these goals, both advocate systematic engagement in various cognitive and behavioral oriented practices that serve to help a person learn to recognize undesirable cognitive, emotional, and behavioral patterns together with the reasons for which these developed; learn alternative, desirable ways of responding to triggers; and practice responding to triggers in desirable alternative ways

Summary

Introduction

Among a wide range of Indian religious and philosophical traditions, bodily existence is a fundamental problem because it subjects us to a range of trials and tribulations. No matter how good we have it, we are subject to the mental and physical pains that we all experience in the course of life, whether from illness or injury, fear of death, loss, or what have you. The source of these miseries (duh.kha) is widely attributed to identification (abhimāna) with the psychophysical complex of a material body. This occurs due to a mistaken apprehension (avidyā) of one’s intrinsic nature or natural existential state apart from the body, which results in an existential condition of bondage (bandha). It is a condition of bondage because such identification obscures one’s intrinsic nature and potential (or the lack of an intrinsic nature, as in the case of much Buddhist thought) apart from the body; subjects one to the impulses, limitations, and miseries of the body; and perpetuates one’s mistaken identity with successive physical bodies in a cycle of repeated birth and death

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