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Anasakti, the Hindu Ideal, and its Relationship to Well-Being and Orientations to Happiness

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Abstract

Anasakti, a Sanskrit term for traits like non-attachment, equipoise, selfless duty orientation, and effort in the absence of concern for the outcome, can be regarded as a Hindu-ideal cluster of personality traits. The relationship of Anasakti with well-being and the three distinct happiness orientations was explored through a study of 676 college students and a sample of 65 yogic practitioners in India. The findings revealed that the yogic practitioners were markedly higher in Anasakti than the secular population. For the yogic population, there was a large correlation between Anasakti and the Orientation to Meaningful Life, and it accounted for more than 20% of the variance in the regression of Anasakti against all the measures of well-being. The yogic population’s scores also correlated with several other measures of well-being. The scores of the secular population were less strongly related to the well-being scores; though, several correlation coefficients were statistically significant.

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Correspondence to Charu Talwar.

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Banth, S., Talwar, C. Anasakti, the Hindu Ideal, and its Relationship to Well-Being and Orientations to Happiness. J Relig Health 51, 934–946 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10943-010-9402-3

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