Tattvabodha and the hierarchical necessity of Abraham Maslow

Abstract

The problems of modern man may be related with the difficulty in understanding human nature and its motivations. The Vedic text Tattvabodha by Sankaracharya as well as Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs help us to better understand human being and its motives. The purpose of this essay is to articulate an approximation between Tattvabodha and the Hierarchy of Needs. The benefits are that such dialog allows a better understanding of each text, separately and jointly. For Sankaracharya, man is constituted by five layers: food, energy, lower mind, higher mind, and happiness. On the other hand, for Maslow, there are eight needs which may be separated into deficit needs and higher needs. The layers related to food and physiological needs are very close, as well as happiness and self-actualization and transcendence needs.