Hope in the Indian Psychology Context: Philosophical Foundations and Empirical Findings

Abstract

This chapter is dedicated to explore the concept of hope from an Indian perspective, reverting to the traditional philosophical scriptures of the Upanishads and the Srimadbhagwadgita and associating it to empirical findings derived from the Hope-Barometer survey. In order to investigate the ontological and epistemological roots, we firstly present the general claims of Indian Psychology, and secondly analyze the discourse on hope through the interpretive writings on the epic texts of two influential thinkers and philosophers’ viz. Swami Vivekananda and Sri Aurobindo so as to formulate and unearth the core thoughts about hope. Next, we present an empirical cross-cultural comparison of various elements of hope with reference to results obtained on Indian and German samples. Hope is a universal phenomenon although with different cultural expressions and accents. Our findings reveal the similarities and differences between the two cultural and religious groups in terms of cognitive, spiritual and social sources and targets of hope.