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Another Way To Live
Psychiatrist R.L. Kapur is curious about a possible connection between psychology and asceticism. Intrigued by Indian spiritual traditions and mindful of the number of people in India who visit ascetics to treat psychological problems like schizophrenia, Kapur takes a year’s sabbatical to learn yoga from Patanjali’s Yoga Sutras, keeping a meticulous diary of the effects of the exercise. Armed with the experience he climbs the rocky slopes of the Himalayas to meet and interview ascetics from different sects of Hinduism. He comes across a varied group—philosophers, intellectuals, artists, visionaries; some believed they were destined to become sadhus, others were prompted by circumstances. Another Way to Live explores these colourful and riveting life-stories.
- GenresNonfiction
205 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 2009
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Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews
September 13, 2024
Themes: Psychology, spirituality, philosophy.
A psychiatrist decides to delve into the mysticism of Yoga, asceticism, meditation and its psychological effects with concrete evidence and data.
So he leaves his job as Head of Psychiatry at NIMHANS to live among the Sadhus in the Himalayas. Documenting his journey and experiences throughout.
Published posthumously by his wife and a peer, he couldn't conclude his findings. Nevertheless his research material got published as this book.
What I loved:
1. Numerous case studies on the Sadhus. Who were they and why they chose to become a sadhu. Quite a diverse group.
2. The experiments and effects of yoganidra on self.
3. Nicely structured topics - on choosing a guru, on the lives and routines inside an ashram, on self realization and realizing the meaning of existence.
What i didn't like:
1. Not concluded due to the unfortunate demise of the author.
Overall:
A good travelogue cum documentary on Sadhus.
March 2, 2019
The intermingling of science and spirituality especially Indian spiritual traditions has had a long journey and witnessed many debates, discussions, fawning acceptance and equally acrimonious negations, but has also seen many concerted and dedicated efforts to understand it. Though was aware of many academic and rather pedantic works which dealt with the subject, a work for public consumption and common aficionados like myself wasn't in my purview. This is important because the current popular discourse on the intermingling of science and spirituality has either been lopsided or plain caustic on both sides. My personal interest in the subject had my antennas searching for such a work for quiet sometime. Thanks to Prof. Sangeetha Menon of NIAS who introduced Prof RL Kapurs seminal work 'Another Way to Live' to amateurs like me through her post on FB, that lacunae too was addressed.
Prof RL Kapur was a internationally well known psychiatrist and had held visiting positions in several prestigious institutions in UK and USA. He was Head of the Department of Psychiatry at NIMHANS in Bangalore. He also played a crucial role in the formative years of NIAS and was also the Deputy Director of the Institute for a long time. He used to visit the Himalayas almost every year to interview Sanyasis and Sadhus to find out the real motivation behind their drastic decisions to change their life style to Sanyas from normal family living. His work 'Another way to Live' is a culmination of his life long research which he conducted along with his wife Malavika Kapur, who was instrumental in publishing the work after Prof. Kapurs unfortunate demise.
In this rather long post I try to bring out the best of RL Kapur’s research, lessons learnt and findings from 'Another Way to live'.
RL Kapur initially lays out the reasons as to why this research was taken up and questions that bothered him with respect to the area of his work, which was psychiatry. I summarize them as below:
1) Can people change for the better?
2) Whether spirituality was helpful to ordinary people and those with mental health problems?
3) Was sanyas or life of renunciation and withdrawal be a technique which could provide a safe space for potential schizophrenics?
4) Study mystical experiences of Sadhus
5) Can some sadhus with siddhis go beyond the known laws of physics?
6) Whether there was something to learn from sanyasis which would help me and other professional therapists to become better psychiatrists and solve people's problems.
RL Kapurs earnest effort to understand the life of sanyasis without any blinkers are evident from the above reasons. As in any serious research, the methodology used is as important as the reasons laid out. Methodology used by RL Kapur while studying Sadhus/Sanyasis were as meticulous as one can expect:
1) Life history of a Sadhu
2) Point of encounter with spirituality
3) Reasons for taking sanyas
4) His/her experiences as sadhu later
5) Know about their spiritual experiences
6) Sadhus personal relationship with their gurus
7) Life of a sanyasi in detail
Prof. Kapur admits that although psychiatry is often successful in reducing distress caused by mental illness, it has had less success in promoting that state termed as 'positive mental health'. This state includes ability to cope with stresses of life, experience greater eneter, transform energy into joy, compassion and creativity. Could spiritual quest bring about this positive mental health was another question that bothered Prof. Kapur.
The research was also a spiritual quest for the author. However, during his research, he came across many beneficiaries who claimed that their lives changed for the better after living a life as a sanyasi or a dedicated disciple. In clear terms, he elaborates the lessons from spiritual quests which I summarize as below:
1) Constant interchange of energies is the law of life. Air one breathes in HAS TO BE breathed out. Same with food, taking anything and love too.
2) Do not cease from action but distance oneself from anticipation of the results. This brings equanimity of mind.
3) Equanimity of mind comes from constant vibrancy i.e from continuous action to correct one's balance
4) If genuine concern/respect is shown, face expresses it. Person opposite(client) will pick them up irrespective of difference in cultures or traditions.
5) Suffering can be often relieved without knowing its cause. Need not pay too much attention to causation every time.
As part of his research, Prof. Kapur himself involved in the study and practice of 'Ashtanga' Yoga for more than an year. Being a psychiatrist his learnings/hypotheses from his study of Yoga are below:
1) Meditation helps hypochondriacs by reducing attention they pay to body and relaxation of ego-boundaries can help people become less anxious
2) Pranayama increases alertness and may assist depressives
3) Asanas focus attention on body rather than on thoughts and is useful to schizoid people
4) Yoga Nidra shifts mode of experience away from linear verbal thinking to images and visualization which helps people with OCDs
Research findings: Yogic techniques can lead to a sense of well-being, joy, creativity, understanding, energy and compassion and therefore contribute to personal well-being.
The book also looks into various aspects of self, suffering, psychotherapy. I list a few findings of Prof. Kapur below.
On Self, learnings and suffering:
- Spirituality is a mental state in response to existential questions about the meaning of life, illness and death
- The most dangerous desire is the desire to have one particular self-image.
- Pursuit of sensible goals which are in tune with possibilities open to individual in social context, bring relief from suffering
- Suffering is because we either do not get what we want or because we are forced into a situation which we do not like.
- Is literacy(?) a precondition for self-knowledge?
- On why sadhus are always happy, full of energy and love? It comes from being free in every sense: no possessions, no worry about obtaining food and most importantly, no sense of separate self.
- Real spiritual accomplishment is cognitive, and come through contemplation and much enquiry
On comparisons with Psychotherapy and Indian spiritual traditions:
- Psychotherapy aims to bring peace and fulfillment in the ordinary day-to-day world while the Indian spiritual traditions ask you to transcend the ordinary world
- The focus of therapy is the individual self in its social context
- Western rationalist tradition regards suffering as an aberration that has to be suppressed. Eastern traditions view suffering as an inevitable consequence of being alive.
- One area of similarity between psychiatrist and the spiritual seeker is their interest in the individual, whether as patient, client or devotee.
- 'Prarabdha' philosophy can promote tolerance
You can read my much detailed review and notes here -> http://prashanth-vaidyaraj.blogspot.c...
Prof RL Kapur was a internationally well known psychiatrist and had held visiting positions in several prestigious institutions in UK and USA. He was Head of the Department of Psychiatry at NIMHANS in Bangalore. He also played a crucial role in the formative years of NIAS and was also the Deputy Director of the Institute for a long time. He used to visit the Himalayas almost every year to interview Sanyasis and Sadhus to find out the real motivation behind their drastic decisions to change their life style to Sanyas from normal family living. His work 'Another way to Live' is a culmination of his life long research which he conducted along with his wife Malavika Kapur, who was instrumental in publishing the work after Prof. Kapurs unfortunate demise.
In this rather long post I try to bring out the best of RL Kapur’s research, lessons learnt and findings from 'Another Way to live'.
RL Kapur initially lays out the reasons as to why this research was taken up and questions that bothered him with respect to the area of his work, which was psychiatry. I summarize them as below:
1) Can people change for the better?
2) Whether spirituality was helpful to ordinary people and those with mental health problems?
3) Was sanyas or life of renunciation and withdrawal be a technique which could provide a safe space for potential schizophrenics?
4) Study mystical experiences of Sadhus
5) Can some sadhus with siddhis go beyond the known laws of physics?
6) Whether there was something to learn from sanyasis which would help me and other professional therapists to become better psychiatrists and solve people's problems.
RL Kapurs earnest effort to understand the life of sanyasis without any blinkers are evident from the above reasons. As in any serious research, the methodology used is as important as the reasons laid out. Methodology used by RL Kapur while studying Sadhus/Sanyasis were as meticulous as one can expect:
1) Life history of a Sadhu
2) Point of encounter with spirituality
3) Reasons for taking sanyas
4) His/her experiences as sadhu later
5) Know about their spiritual experiences
6) Sadhus personal relationship with their gurus
7) Life of a sanyasi in detail
Prof. Kapur admits that although psychiatry is often successful in reducing distress caused by mental illness, it has had less success in promoting that state termed as 'positive mental health'. This state includes ability to cope with stresses of life, experience greater eneter, transform energy into joy, compassion and creativity. Could spiritual quest bring about this positive mental health was another question that bothered Prof. Kapur.
The research was also a spiritual quest for the author. However, during his research, he came across many beneficiaries who claimed that their lives changed for the better after living a life as a sanyasi or a dedicated disciple. In clear terms, he elaborates the lessons from spiritual quests which I summarize as below:
1) Constant interchange of energies is the law of life. Air one breathes in HAS TO BE breathed out. Same with food, taking anything and love too.
2) Do not cease from action but distance oneself from anticipation of the results. This brings equanimity of mind.
3) Equanimity of mind comes from constant vibrancy i.e from continuous action to correct one's balance
4) If genuine concern/respect is shown, face expresses it. Person opposite(client) will pick them up irrespective of difference in cultures or traditions.
5) Suffering can be often relieved without knowing its cause. Need not pay too much attention to causation every time.
As part of his research, Prof. Kapur himself involved in the study and practice of 'Ashtanga' Yoga for more than an year. Being a psychiatrist his learnings/hypotheses from his study of Yoga are below:
1) Meditation helps hypochondriacs by reducing attention they pay to body and relaxation of ego-boundaries can help people become less anxious
2) Pranayama increases alertness and may assist depressives
3) Asanas focus attention on body rather than on thoughts and is useful to schizoid people
4) Yoga Nidra shifts mode of experience away from linear verbal thinking to images and visualization which helps people with OCDs
Research findings: Yogic techniques can lead to a sense of well-being, joy, creativity, understanding, energy and compassion and therefore contribute to personal well-being.
The book also looks into various aspects of self, suffering, psychotherapy. I list a few findings of Prof. Kapur below.
On Self, learnings and suffering:
- Spirituality is a mental state in response to existential questions about the meaning of life, illness and death
- The most dangerous desire is the desire to have one particular self-image.
- Pursuit of sensible goals which are in tune with possibilities open to individual in social context, bring relief from suffering
- Suffering is because we either do not get what we want or because we are forced into a situation which we do not like.
- Is literacy(?) a precondition for self-knowledge?
- On why sadhus are always happy, full of energy and love? It comes from being free in every sense: no possessions, no worry about obtaining food and most importantly, no sense of separate self.
- Real spiritual accomplishment is cognitive, and come through contemplation and much enquiry
On comparisons with Psychotherapy and Indian spiritual traditions:
- Psychotherapy aims to bring peace and fulfillment in the ordinary day-to-day world while the Indian spiritual traditions ask you to transcend the ordinary world
- The focus of therapy is the individual self in its social context
- Western rationalist tradition regards suffering as an aberration that has to be suppressed. Eastern traditions view suffering as an inevitable consequence of being alive.
- One area of similarity between psychiatrist and the spiritual seeker is their interest in the individual, whether as patient, client or devotee.
- 'Prarabdha' philosophy can promote tolerance
You can read my much detailed review and notes here -> http://prashanth-vaidyaraj.blogspot.c...
December 20, 2013
I have been trying to get my hands on this book ever since I was told of its existence.
Sadly, an excellent and worthwhile read seems to have vanished into the out-of-stock world.
But as providence would have it I mentioned wanting to read it to a dear friend who promptly posted me his copy.
These days I read during my travels and thus found myself drawn into this world of a psychiatrist exploring Yoga and the lives of Sadhus for clues to mental health among other things. The pace is graceful, grave with the hint of a smile, charmingly personal and candidly impersonal by turn.
We can neither dismiss it as a dry clinical text for the author exposes his very intimate experience with the practice of Yoga and his narratives of his journeys and interviews with Sadhus reads with the consumate ease of the best of travel writers.
This is a book to hold on to, an almost reader for the amataur yogi, a revelation of the secret lives of all the sadhus we see daily all around us and their role in mental health, their own mental health...A classic by any standard
I hope that I shall be able to raise demand for it such that we see it reprinted many times over.
Sadly, an excellent and worthwhile read seems to have vanished into the out-of-stock world.
But as providence would have it I mentioned wanting to read it to a dear friend who promptly posted me his copy.
These days I read during my travels and thus found myself drawn into this world of a psychiatrist exploring Yoga and the lives of Sadhus for clues to mental health among other things. The pace is graceful, grave with the hint of a smile, charmingly personal and candidly impersonal by turn.
We can neither dismiss it as a dry clinical text for the author exposes his very intimate experience with the practice of Yoga and his narratives of his journeys and interviews with Sadhus reads with the consumate ease of the best of travel writers.
This is a book to hold on to, an almost reader for the amataur yogi, a revelation of the secret lives of all the sadhus we see daily all around us and their role in mental health, their own mental health...A classic by any standard
I hope that I shall be able to raise demand for it such that we see it reprinted many times over.
February 28, 2019
The writer shares his experience amongst Indian ascetics in the Himalayas. For the most part, it is about the lifestyles of the different sadhus that he encounters in this journey. The last few pages is where he tries to bring out the similarities and differences between the spiritual path and psychiatry which was his profession.
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews