Transcending Time and Space in the Search for Synthesis: A Commentary on Paranjpe's Understanding Yoga Psychology:...

This volume makes a notable contribution with a deep and extensive analysis to achieve the movement from Yoga Philosophy to Yoga Psychology for the promotion of integration with Modern Psychology, a task hitherto unrealized despite the burgeoning attention to Yoga. This commentary is constrained by my own limited knowledge of traditional Indian philosophy in making a thorough examination of Paranjpe's contribution beyond attention to selected concepts and sporadic illustrations from the original volume. Yoga practice is, Paranjpe informs us, just the tip of an immense consolidation of knowledge, deep intellectual thought and theoretical consideration about the embodied sense of self, health and well-being. Spirituality is foundational to the theory and practice of yoga. This volume has immense potential relevance for contemporary psychological theory and practice in an attempt to highlight embodied and spiritual considerations of human existence. With some notable exceptions, modern psychology has adopted the positivistic paradigm that systematically rejects traditional knowledge systems. Through intercultural translation (a concept I borrow from Santos, 2018), Paranjpe successfully transcends this divide and provides detailed possibilities about why and how this knowledge can relate to, inform and expand the science of human being and becoming that is inclusive, built for mutuality rather than domination; travelling on the path of dialogue between diverse knowledge systems.