Jhs Hir033
Jhs Hir033
Jhs Hir033
1093/jhs/hir033
Advance Access Publication 11 October 2011
Brands will become religions and some individuals, who are seen as an expres-
sion of their brands, will themselves become religions
–Jesper Kunde1
Introduction
This article assumes the categories Tantra and the West in a very limited sense.
Thus the topic of the discourse itself demands explanation. The problem is, any
conversation about cultures leads to some reduction, and the only thing we can do
is to be aware of this reduction and its limitations. Tantra here stands for the
religious practices emerging in the Indian sub-continent that predominantly wor-
ship goddesses identified as ‘power’ (śakti). It is secretive in nature, shares prac-
tices within the close circles identified as ‘families’ (kula), is transgressive of the
societal ethos and norms, and introduces diverse images in visualisation practices.
Again, this is not a definition of Tantra but a selection of categories that concerns
ß The Author 2011. Oxford University Press and The Oxford Centre for Hindu Studies. All rights reserved.
For permissions, please email [email protected]
Sthaneshwar Timalsina 275
the current discourse.2 The West here stands for power, the power of cultural
hegemony and capitalism, and this again is a selection of categories.
Relying on these assumptions, this article explores the nature and consequences
of the depiction and appropriation of Tantra in contemporary societies, primarily
the migration of Tantric practices to the West and re-introduction of these prac-
tices that have been repackaged in the West to its homeland. Hindus in practice
often blend and mix multiple ingredients out of the Vedas, Smr.tis, Tantras, Bhakti,
Yoga, and so on. Although indigenous practices in the Indian sub-continent that
survive in various forms and can be collectively identified as Tantric are wide-
the cover of darkness gives the discourse a platform. In the cremation ground,
bodies are burnt to ashes, and in ashes, there lies no individuality. The darkness of
night stands for the same dissolution of difference. Applying the metaphor of the
dark, the discourse on Tantra is not to unmask the ‘unknownness’ of the other but
to relinquish the never-known otherliness. ‘Speaking for’ is an effort to confront
the character of a Tantric, as to reveal is not his nature. If Tantra is secretive in
nature, it not only does not speak about itself, it also does not speak for itself. This
is not because Tantra rejects its otherliness or its existence. It assumes its exist-
ence in its otherliness.
with offerings of liquor, human blood, and flesh.5 This rejection of Tantric identity
while embodying the Tantras comes to its culmination with Vidy@ran. ya, who
authors the lengthy Ś[email protected], an anthology of various Tantric practices
that surround the deity Tripur@, while retaining the lineage of Śaṅkara. In this
subsequent mode, while Tantras do not remain untouchable, Tantric identity does.
This domestication and appropriation of Tantra also parallels the prominence of
the goddess of beauty and eros, Tripurasundara, over the goddess of time and
death, [email protected] The degree to which Tantra becomes benign is inversely proportional
to the perception of a Tantric as more and more scary. With the appropriation of
solitude is used here as a broad category to define Tantra. As multiple Hindu Sam@j
practitioners function today with the ideal of reviving the glorious past that in
itself is borrowed from the figment of the Orientalist’s imagination, they all con-
sider Tantra as a chapter of the dark past. The noteworthy difference in imagining
Tantras in precolonial India, as in the case of Vidy@ran. ya, and in colonial India, as
in the case of Sam@j movements, is the discourse on monotheism. Within the
cultural subordination in the context of Indian cultural dialogue itself, worship-
ping images or goddesses was never problematic. It was only the societal taboos
transgressed by the K@p@likas that became problematic to the mainstream Hindus.
this is the atim@rga or the transgressive nature of the path that simultaneously
constitutes the core of Tantra and makes Tantra alien to the West, for both
Tantra-philes and Tantra-phobes. With the many subgroups of P@śupatas,
K@p@likas, K@l@mukhas, Aghoris, and so on, Tantra emerged as the path that
contravenes regular codes determining what is ‘religious’ and ‘ethical’ and em-
braces marginal paths and practices, rituals and philosophies, and worships violent
and ecstatic forms. This disregard for norms shatters the hegemony of the elite by
sidelining what is considered pure and benevolent and brings into the stream that
what is ‘outside’: the outcaste, the horrific and fearsome, the hidden and neg-
The denial of rationality to the Other has been a common strategy in subordi-
nating the Other throughout human history . . . (King 1999, p. 26)
The concept of the bipolarity of ‘rational’ and ‘mystical’, according to King, rests
upon Kantian philosophy.15 Following this argument, the ‘Orient’ is mystical in a
sense that it lacks scientific knowledge or rationality. Although various religious
phenomena from the East that include Sufi mysticism, Vedanta, or Zen Buddhism
were introduced before Tantra migrated to the West, Tantra most closely fits the
Western imagination of the East, because among all the ‘mystic’ religions, Tantra is
the most obscure, most strange, and thus, most alien. An Aghori living in the
Sthaneshwar Timalsina 281
cremation ground, consuming human flesh along with hard liquor and opium,
eating excrement, walking nude, appearing insane with rolling red eyes and in-
coherent shouts: all of these elements depict a heathen savage unaware of the
dawn of civilisation. The early description of Tantra found in Western literature
and shared among the first generation of Westerners interested in Tantra aligns
with the picture described above.16
The polarity of Oriental and Occidental has remained a common category in
studying non-Western civilisation. The discussion about ‘Tantra in the West’ indi-
cates an acceptance, even if partly, of this construct of bipolarity. This otherliness
money from one to another individual, the divine is shaped, branded, maimed, and
abandoned. Just as no orgasm gives final satisfaction, religious practices cannot
satisfy the market: there literally is a hunger for spirituality that is being satisfied
through workshops and darśans, through hugging or through emission of powers.
As long as spirituality remains out of the domain of the market, it undermines the
supremacy of capitalism. On the contrary, in this new paradigm, nothing, includ-
ing gods, is supposed to remain outside of the marketplace.
This experiment of Tantra brings both psychological and social challenges: it
exposes the repressed and it threatens the existing social hierarchy. The human
Commodified tantra
The traditional tendency of Tantras to deny their identity gives a potential ground
for the rise of ‘spirituality’. Religions, following this new brand of spirituality, are
adherents to divisive and superstitious beliefs and practices. Spirituality, on the
other hand, is inclusive and scientific. This new disguise, a religious child of
capitalism, ‘is a means of colonizing and commodifying Asian wisdom trad-
itions’.19 This new market of spirituality allows the blend and fusion of all
that exists: Kabbala Dzog-chen, Sufi Mah@mudr@ practice, and so on. Following
the strange argument of the spiritual masses, while one of these practices in
itself can be exclusive and non-scientific, their fusion is liberating. To identify
oneself as a Hindu or a Buddhist is problematic, to practice Tantra and yoga is
not.
What this new trend of spirituality inherits from the missionary religions is the
process of subordination of existing forms of religious practices, whether through
branding them as irrational or through labelling them as extremist. And what
facilitates the spread of the good words of Tantra is its exotic teachings when
blended with charismatic males and enchanting females. Hedonistic in its appear-
ance, this peculiarity of Tantra to embrace the body and thus emotions has not
only been romanticised in the popular imagination, but also has been the tool for
expanding the market.
The denial of the societal self is both the life-blood of and the scaffold for
Tantric traditions. Because of its character of not wanting to be a mainstream
social movement, or because of its very revolutionary character of eschewing
social norms, it continually enchants individuals tired of the hollowness of the
284 Tantra in the Cross-cultural Context
tradition found in the Mutts of Śaṅkara can be exemplified. Śaṅkara is the fore-
most Vedanta theologian of India. In my personal conversation with the
Śaṅkar@ch@ryas of Dwaraka and Kanchi, it was confirmed that they worship the
Śra Cakra and Tripurasundara, one of the ten Mah@vidy@ deities worshipped by
Tantrics. However, these Śaṅkaras are not Tantric in other respects and their
Tantric practice is somehow concealed. In this mode, there is something more
with the gurus than what is taught to the public.
The selective practice of Tantra, found in its homeland, further supports that
Tantric practice remains in flux. This elasticity gets a new twist in the market-
As has been noted, Tantra represents the occult, the pagan, and the ‘flesh’ side of
beliefs. Its oriental origin makes it yet more occult and alien. Discussion of Tantra
in the West requires deconstruction of the nuances that make Tantra unique and
relevant to the study of non-Western culture. Analysing such nuances allows a
Tantra in the West twice displaces Tantra from its original form of secrecy. First,
Tantra is taken over by the Sm@rta culture and the Tantric secrecy is layered over
by the elite societal concepts of purity. In this process, what is displaced is the
feminine side of divinity. Tantra thus can be compared to the flesh of Indian
spirituality. With metaphors of Tantric secrecy linked with vulva and Tantric
goddesses having the myth of origin relating these deities with female genitalia,
exposing the Tantric body parallels exposure of the most sensitive parts of the
female body. The hegemony of the elite culture displaces this Tantric body once,
while this culture being imported to the West, and twice displaces what is kept
relatively lower price, while personal encounter with gurus will be extremely
expensive, based on the ranking of the gurus. Like the commodified body, the
role of Tantra also remains the same: to grant ecstatic and orgasmic experience
that has been likened to enlightenment in the New Age market. It is less relevant
to discuss whether Tantra in fact embodies such properties, as it is the market and
the outlook of the market that guides its distribution.
In conclusion, the undomesticated side of Tantra is violent, with blood being
part of its ritual. The goddess to represent this aspect is K@la, the dark goddess who
represents the ‘dark-skinned other’, and the domesticated goddess, for instance,
References
Brooks, D., 1990. The Secret of the Three Cities. Chicago: The University of Chicago Press.
Cabezón, J. I., Davaney, S. G., 2004. Identity and the Politics of Scholarship in the Study of
Religion. New York: Routledge.
Carrette, J. (ed). Religion and Culture: Michel Foucault. New York: Routledge.
Carrette, J., King, R., 2004. Selling Spirituality: The Silent Takeover of Religion. New York:
Routledge.
Clarke, J. J., 1997. Oriental Enlightenment: The Encounter between Asian and Western Thought.
London: Routledge.
King, R., 1999. Orientalism and Religion: Postcolonial Theory, India, and ‘the Mystical East’. New
York: Routledge.
Kunde, J., 2000. Corporate Religion. London: Prentice Hall.
McDermott, R., Kripal, J., 2003. Encountering K@la in the Margins at the Center, in the West.
Berkeley: University of California Press.
Dayananda, Sarasvati. Saty@rthaprak@śa. http://www.aryasamaj.org/newsite/Light_Of_
Truth.pdf (accessed 2 August 2011).
Śivas+tra, 1979. Śiva S+tras: The Yoga of Supreme Identity. With translation by Jaideva Singh.
Delhi: Motilal Banarsidass.
Smith, J. K. A., 2005. Jacques Derrida: Live Theory. New York: Continuum.
Tantr@loka. 1987. The Tantr@loka of Abhinavagupta: With the Commentary of Jayaratha
(Vols. 1–8). R. C. Dwivedi, N. Rastogi (eds). Delhi: Motilal Banarsidass.
Urban, H., 2003. Tantra: Sex, Secrecy, Politics, and Power in the Study of Religion. Berkeley:
University of California Press.
White, D. G., 2006. Kiss of the Yogini: ‘Tantric Sex’ in Its South Asian Contexts. Chicago: The
University of Chicago Press.
Notes
1 Kunde (2000, p. 6).
2 For the definition, or general characteristics of Tantras, see Brooks (1990,
pp. 46–72).
Sthaneshwar Timalsina 289
3 For discussion on co-creation of the image of Tantric deity during the colonial
times, see Humes. 2003. ‘Wrestling With K@la: South Asian and British
Constructions of the Dark Goddess,’ in McDermott and Kripal (pp. 145–68).
4 The P@śupata S+tras instruct the practitioner not to reveal one’s signs (avyaktaliṅga
Ch. 3.1) and teach that one should conduct oneself like a ghoul (pretavac caret
Ch. 3.11). So that people do not engage him in their worldly matters, the text
suggests that the practitioner should pretend snoring (kr@theta v@ Ch. 3.12) or
shake the body (spandeta v@ Ch. 3.13). Teaching that ‘a wise man becomes pure
when subdued [by the world]’ (paribh+yam@no hi vidv@n kr.tsnatap@ bhavati Ch. 3.19),