ABSTRACT
Hinduism has long been involved in constructing explanatory systems for psychic and physical distress, and evolving techniques for its alleviation. Hindu thinking is all about a therapeutic approach, where every aspect of daily life can be considered sacred and may be used in healing. This chapter attempts to reconcile the personal and the public journeys that Hindus make in the context of healing. It suggests that Hindu healing, successfully internalised but made publicly available, can be a personal and a shared journey towards salvation. The primacy of the ‘therapeutic’ in India is reflected in many facets of Indian culture, including its myriad gods and goddesses and the profusion of myths and legends that surround them. There is a god for every psychic season, a myth for every hidden anxiety, a deity for every physical ailment. Hinduism, like other Eastern spiritual practices, tends to emphasise the individual’s path to liberation, with multiple well-lit and signposted roads to reaching the absolute.
