Vineet Gairola

Vineet Gairola

Vineet Gairola, a Ph.D. Scholar of Psychology at the Department of Liberal Arts, Indian Institute of Technology, Hyderabad, was recently awarded the Student Research Award 2021 by the American Psychological Association for his research into psychological meanings, origins, and patterns in spiritual ideation and practice in Uttarakhand Himalayas. He is also the winner of the Psychoanalytic Research Exceptional Contribution Award given by the International Psychoanalytical Association (IPA), London. He got the award for his research titled “Bhagavad Gita and Psychotherapy: A Cure for Soul?”

He speaks to Tuhina Banerjee. Excerpts:

You are the first from India to win the Student Research Award, 2021 given by American Psychological Association, and also the Psychoanalytical Research Exceptional Contribution Award conferred by the International Psychoanalytical Association, London. How does it feel like to get such widespread recognition?

It feels like a synchronous response from the universe. Every opportunity has a metaphysical basis to it. When you are working and enjoying doing what you do — so much so that you start to live it – it serves as ground zero of your work and establishes meaningful connections.
I recall in 2019 and 2020 when working as a Research Assistant at the National Council of Educational Research and Training (NCERT) and teaching final-year undergraduate students at Ambedkar University Delhi. I was working, going to the gym, playing music, presenting my paper at international conferences, and writing papers one after the other for which I have received these awards now. My main focus was on writing, and I enjoyed it thoroughly.
My Ph.D. proposal, ‘Analysis of the Psychological Meanings, Origins, and Patterns in Spiritual Ideation and Practice in Uttarakhand Himalayas’, explores the spiritual and mystical practices of the Uttarakhand Himalayas. It has received the Student Research Award 2021. It makes me happy. The work of my Ph.D. is in progress and I hope it will bring fresh insights into understanding our relationship with the sacred and about the ritual practices and processions of devi-devtas seen in the Uttarakhand Himalayas.

So, your research covers the ritual worship practices and processions of the Uttarakhand Himalayas. Tell us about it.

For my recent fieldwork, I navigated a ritual procession of the goddess Chandika in the Rudraprayag district of Garhwal in Uttarakhand. It was a nine-month-long processional journey starting from October 15, 2021 to June 10, 2022. I participated in it for three months where I wore a dhoti as a part of the ritual protocol. I fasted for all those three months like the rest of the people who were walking with the devi. The palanquin of Chandika devi was a long pole made of bamboo which had a dome on top of it. On the top, it had yantras and idols of the devi along with numerous herbs which were ‘charged’ through the mantras. I walked about 750 km barefoot with the devi. I also met local healers known as bakkiyas and pujaris of various temples who experienced possession by the devi or a devta to whom the temple belonged. Their stories clearly demonstrate how devi-devtas are involved in the daily lives of the entire community. 

How can Bhagavad Gita the soul cure? How do you think our old scriptures heal us psychologically?

It was one of the reasons why I curated the title of my book chapter like that. It is titled ‘Bhagavad Gita and Psychotherapy: A Cure for Soul?’, which is published in an edited book by Springer. It is not a text to be read, it is an experience to be realised. This is what precisely makes the Bhagavad Gita timeless. It addresses guilt, crisis, anxiety, sorrow, even cognitive distortions, and depression. It tells truly the ways of attaining harmony in the universe through action, knowledge, and bhakti. True knowledge is that which liberates and keeps one’s arrogance in check. 

Vineet playing the dhol-damaun during the worship of the goddess Rajrajeshwari in Kandara village of Rudraprayag district, Uttarakhand

Dhol damun and devi devtas of Uttarakhand: From routes to roots. You presented this paper at a psychology conference at Fortis Hospital. Where does music figure in worship?

This was the first paper that I presented at an international conference organised by the National Academy of Psychology (NAOP) at Pondicherry University in 2019. Rhythmic instruments named dhol-damaun play a central role in various community ritual practices in Uttarakhand. Starting from birth, doing the sanskaras, marriage, to death, dhol-damaun are played together. The dhol-damaun and their sounds themselves are a repository of esoteric drumming knowledge known as dholsagar, literally, the ocean of drumming. There are different rhythms played for the deities out of which one is the rhythm of invoking the deity. I played it myself during the worship of the goddess Rajrajeshwari in Kandara village of Rudraprayag district in 2019. Without the music, the worship practices are understood as incomplete. It is something that the devtas long for. Dhol is understood as Shakti and Damaun is understood as Shiva. When dhol-damaun are played together, it is a cosmic assemblage of Shiva and Shakti which adds to the mystical power of the drumming practice.

How do you define mental well-being?

Mental and physical are two sides of the same coin just like the terms such as ‘inside’ and ‘outside’. The ‘and’ between physical and mental, inside and outside are actually bridges, not silos. One must remember, the inner is the inner of the outer, and the outer is the outer of the inner. What we refer to as the body is the visible part of what we refer to as the mind and vice-versa. When we are feeling light and pleasant, there is certain exuberance around us, isn’t it? The word swasthya is important to understand this wholeness. The word denotes more than just healing and illness. Swa means “the Self” and swasthya then means one who is established in the Self. One who has to find the stillness within. The inner centering which the winds cannot move, which the blade cannot cut, and which the ocean cannot drown. Doing dhyana is one of the tenets of realising swasthya. It is a combination of our physical and mental capacities and capabilities.

Many firms are giving importance to mental health. Some of them are giving their staff to unplug from work for 10 days twice a year. How do think the perception of mental health is changing in the corporate world?

The change is gradual and I hope it progresses in the right direction. I have also seen that the boom in catering to mental health during and after Covid-19 has resulted in some being self-proclaimed experts in psychology without proper training and experience. A deeper awareness is required to demystify what psychology really is and dispel the myths surrounding it. A single definition cannot encompass its depth. Broadly, it is about understanding our conscious and unconscious actions, patterns, and motivations in whatever we chose to do in our everyday life. To understand others, one must begin with oneself. One must start with “I don’t know” rather than “I know” to delve deeper into the mysterious ordinariness of the everyday. As numerous surveys have demonstrated, corporate employees are prone to diabetes, heart disease, back pain, and blood pressure which also adversely affect their mental faculties. With respect to the corporate world, yes, the change is there. People have started giving importance to their swasthya and that of their families. Through seminars, webinars, and interactive sessions which are increasing in the corporate world, people are learning about thoughts, emotions, patterns, how they transact in the everyday life, and how awareness of one’s actions plays an important role. 

How was the experience of teaching students about Yoga sutras by Patanjali and mystical practices in India?

This is something that I craved for a long time. I myself am interested in Yogasutra by Patanjali and perspectives from Upanishads and Bhagavad Gita which are profoundly psychological in nature. After I finished the course on Psychological Testing at Ambedkar University Delhi, 22 students approached me stating that they wanted to learn about perspectives on Indian psychology from me. It felt heart-warming that this enthusiastic bunch wants to learn psychological perspectives apart from what is expected of them. It clearly showed that they are intrinsically motivated in doing so. As it was the time of Covid during 2020, I taught them free of charge and online. We had a Google group where I used to distribute readings to the students.

What is your private research on Wilfred R Bion about? You won the Stephen Mitchell Award for it.”

Wilfred Bion was born in India and he left India at the age of eight. That was striking for me as he left India but India never left him. He was very fond of rain in India and his ayah who took care of him while he was in India. He participated in World War I. He is the only psychologist or psychoanalyst to participate in a World War! He worked with patients with psychosis. His writings are said to be profoundly mystical. He gave the concept of ‘O’ which he says is the absolutely unknowable and ultimate reality. It is also understood as a state. O as a state is without memory and without desire. Wilfred Bion suggested that the analyst or therapist must be in a state of O during the session. As I am a dancer and a musician as well, I tap into the music of one’s writing. When I read the works of Wilfred Bion, I realised that his concept of O can be traced back to his experiences in India, specifically to the sound of Om that he used to hear in the temples. I wrote about this connection between his concept of O with Om in my paper ‘On Wilfred R. Bion’s Way of Being: Linking Truth, Thought, and Nostalgia’ which received the Stephen Mitchell Award from the Society for Psychoanalysis and Psychoanalytic Psychology, Division 39 of the American Psychological Association (APA).