Modern Transformations of sādhanā as Art, Study, and Awareness: Religious Experience and Hindu Tantric Practice
J. C. Ruff
Religions April 9, 2019 DOI: 10.3390/rel10040259 (opens in new tab)
Study at a glance
AI-extracted from the abstract| Characteristics | Theoretical or philosophical paper Peer reviewed |
|---|---|
| Key points | Argues that contemporary artists, dancers, and musicians describe their creative work in religious terms—devotion (śraddhā, bhakti), practice (sādhanā), grace from the goddess, and secular teachers as gurus—so that art becomes sādhanā and sādhanā becomes art. Contends that this hybrid experience, though a departure from traditional ritual, has recognizable grounding in tantric traditions, especially the high tantra of the Kashmiri Śaiva exegetes. |
Abstract
“My first raising of the kuṇḍalinī was hearing Ma [her teacher] speak about art.” The experience of the awakening of śakti within practitioners in contemporary cultures occurs both in traditional religious settings and within novel circumstances. Traditional situations include direct transmission from a guru (śaktipāta), self-awakening through the practice of kuṇḍalinī-yoga or haṭhayoga, and direct acts of grace (anugraha) from the goddess or god. There are also novel expressions in hybrid religious-cultural experiences wherein artists, dancers, and musicians describe their arts explicitly in terms of faith/devotion (śraddhā, bhakti, etc.) and practice (sādhanā). They also describe direct experience of grace from the goddess or describe their ostensibly secular teachers as gurus. In contemporary experience, art becomes sādhanā and sādhanā becomes art. Creativity and artistic expression work as modern transformations of traditional religious experience. This development, while moving away from traditional ritual and practice, does have recognizable grounding within many tantric traditions, especially among the high tantra of the Kashmiri Śaiva exegetes.