Page 128 - DEDU502_GUIDANCE_AND_COUNSELING_ENGLISH

Guidance and Counseling Kulwinder Pal, Lovely Professional University

Notes Unit 11: Counseling: Concept, Need and Goals with

Reference to India

CONTENTS
Objectives
Introduction
11.1 Concept of Counseling
11.2 Need of Counseling in Human Problems
11.3 Goals of Counseling
11.4 The Role of Government of India and Universities
11.5 Present Status of Counseling in India
11.6 Summary

11.7 Key words
11.8 Review Questions
11.9 Further Readings

Objectives

After reading this unit students will be able to:
• Explain the Concept of Counseling
• Discuss the need of Counseling in human problems
• Explain the goals of Counseling
• Describe the role of government of India and universities
• Explain the present status of Counseling in India

Introduction

Counseling is not a new institution in the Indian context. The first counselor was Lord Krishna
himself and the Bhagavad Gita embodies the finest principles of counseling for people of all
lands, all ages and of all times. The Gita or the Song Celestial explains how Arjuna, whose mind
was in great conflict, was helped to overcome this conflict through an insight into himself.
Arjuna’s conflict was one of ‘mine and thine’, that is, between Sva and Para. The conflict was
resolved through self-understanding or through self-realization. One has to act in accordance
with his Swadharma. Man should act in accordance with the demands of his station and his duties
in life. Self-realization, understood in the context of the Gita, is not the same as what we understand
by the term in the Rogerian or existential sense. Man has to realize his inner nature, that is, his
spirituality which reveals oneness with the ultimate. This helps to overcome the illusory
distinction between the Atma and the Paramatama. In the pursuit of the higher spirit, man is
concerned with freedom— freedom to obtain self-realization. In modern times the word ‘freedom’
is used in a different sense. Its connotation is limited to freedom of action, speech, religious faith
as well as freedom to find the fullest expression for one’s potential. In this sense of the term, we
are immediately concerned with material existence and the psysical world.

122 LOVELY PROFESSIONAL UNIVERSITY