Karl Baier (University of Vienna)
Saturday, 9:45 – 10:30
Annie Besant: Yoga and the Quest for Occult Knowledge
In her younger days, Annie Besant was not only a political activist. She also belonged to the first small group of women allowed to study at the University of London. Between 1879–1883, she attended lectures on diverse natural sciences and mathematics. Because of politically motivated repressions, she left the University before getting a degree.
Some years later, Theosophy, Indian philosophy, and yoga opened an alternative way to higher knowledge for her. Using what she had learned during her academic years, she advanced the Theosophical discourse on the sources of occult insights and – among other things – even developed a concept of occult chemistry together with Charles Leadbeater.
This paper deals with Annie Besant’s views on yoga in the light of her occult epistemology. Furthermore, her teachings are investigated against the backdrop of earlier conceptualizations of occult knowledge and the methods to acquire it, such as mesmeric clairvoyance or reading in the akasha chronicles. Besant’s contribution to the Theosophical understanding of yoga and its role with regard to occult research will be outlined.
Keith Cantu (University of California, Santa Barbara)
Saturday, 9:00 – 9:45
The Vedāntic Rājayoga of Śrī Sabhāpati Swāmī: Its History and Practice
The literature of Śrī Sabhāpati Swāmī (b. 1840 in Madras, Tamil Nadu) presents a dynamic synthesis of medieval and early-modern yoga that continues to defy attempts at proper categorization. However, a clear contextual referent for Sabhāpati’s system is his practical method of refuting twelve cakras and four superseding principles, the act of which was presented as a means of attaining Rājayoga, or “The Yoga of Kings.”
In the first part of this paper I share my research into Sabhāpati’s life, accompanied by archival material I have unearthed, and personal photographs that I have taken while following in his footsteps. I also refer to the way in which Sabhāpati’s practical methods were of interest to occultists like Henry Olcott and Aleister Crowley, as well as Franz Hartmann, who translated one of Sabhāpati’s books into German and annotated it with his own comments.
In the second part of the paper I outline how the cakras in Sabhāpati’s system of Rājayoga were attributed to physical and mental qualities, the full scope of which can only be ascertained by engaging his Indic-language literature (e.g., his works in Tamil, Sanskrit, and Hindi). Building off certain indications given by Karl Baier’s research, I describe how the yogin was directed to slay, cancel, or refute these cakras while meditating, with the intent of eventually projecting out of the cranial vault and experiencing an identity with the god Śiva. I also examine how his yogic practices included both visualization and aural chanting of various correspondent syllables, and were facilitated by a relatively cohesive set of illustrated diagrams that provided numeric legends connecting to in-text references and technical terms.
Julie Chajes (Tel Aviv University)
Friday, 15:30 – 16:15
Blavatsky, Reincarnation, and India
Helena Blavatsky (1831–1891), the founder of the Theosophical Society, played a significant role in the popularization of reincarnation in the Western world. Historians have portrayed her doctrine as having western philosophical bases, an important insight that corrects the straightforward association of Theosophy with “Buddhism” and “Hinduism” that was typically asserted by early twentieth-century commentators. Be that as it may, Blavatsky’s numerous contacts in India, where she lived between 1879 and 1885, influenced her discussions of reincarnation. Becoming her close confidantes and submitting articles to Blavatsky’s periodical, The Theosophist, Indian members of the Society, such as Mohini M. Chatterjee and Tallapragada Subba Row, provided Blavatsky with the Vedantic terminology she adopted (and inevitably understood in neo-Platonic terms). Blavatsky presented her resulting teachings as a type of “monism,” and as an alternative to the materialist monism that was popularised by the German scientist and philosopher Ernst Haeckel (1834–1919). This paper presents Blavatsky’s reincarnation doctrine as a case study not in the “Western” distortion of Asian ideas, but as one of cultural entanglement, showing how European philosophical concerns came together with those of acculturated Indian elites, contributing to the popularization of beliefs that have come to have a prominent place in postmodern spirituality.
Philip Deslippe (University of California, Santa Barbara)
Friday, 11:15 – 12:00
Occult Currents and Mediums Between the United States and South Asia
Historians and scholars often rely upon discrete and unidirectional language to portray the spread of Asian religious traditions to the United States: metaphors of transplanted seeds and migrating birds; neat divisions between “East” and “West”; descriptions of travel that imply singular movement. Through a series of detailed examples, this paper suggests that there were two important but disproportionately neglected factors at play in the development of the occult in the United States and South Asia during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries: the dynamic exchanges and shared networks between the two. Many teachers did not just simply come to the United States, but were hosted, invited, or assisted by groups in America, such the Theosophical Society, Rosicrucians, and Freemasons. They also often returned to India and came back to the United States with significant changes brought about by their visits. Just as teachers from South Asia came to the United States, there were also a relatively large number of Americans who went to India, and still other Americans who claimed affiliations, both dubious and legitimate, with Indian teachers and organizations through print, correspondence, and out-of-body travel. There were also the shared networks of print that allowed for American periodicals and books to be distributed throughout India that likewise allowed for Indian authors and publishers to have an audience in the United States. Ultimately, we are left not with a simply meeting of “East” and “West,” or a transposing of traditions and practices, but a complex, shared transnational network where boundaries were blurred and overlapped—where American ideas of the occult found a home in South Asia, South Asian ideas of the occult took hold in America, and both often meet each other in a shared middle ground.
Gordan Djurdjevic (Simon Fraser University)
Friday, 12:00 – 12:45
Going Against the Grain: Comparing the Practice of Reversal in South Asian and Western Esotericism
That the spiritual practice often goes against the grain of what is socially accepted as normative is a notion that is attested cross-culturally. In particular, we arguably see this principle exhibited in certain forms of esoteric theory and practice. In South Asia, while the ascetic traditions generally speaking attempt to counteract the “gravitational” pull of saṃsāra, which otherwise leads to unwanted rebirths, by renouncing social identities and obligations, some forms of yoga engage the practice of reversal (ulṭā sādhanā) by endeavoring to redirect the flow of the seminal fluid, based on their specific understanding of the esoteric physiology of the human subtle body. This paper compares the practice of reversal and its associated ideological worldview as attested among the Nāth yogis in India with some examples found in Western esotericism, in particular in the writings of Charles Stansfeld Jones (Frater Achad) and Kenneth Grant. I conclude with some general observations related to the subject of comparative esotericism and its potential value as a category in academic research.
Caterina Guenzi (Ecole des Hautes Etudes en Sciences Social [EHESS], Paris)
Saturday, 14:00 – 14:45
Dealing with Visible and Invisible Fruits: Astrology, Karman and Karmic Healing in North India
In Sanskrit horoscopic literature, astrology is not conceived as an occult art. Quite on the contrary, astral science (jyotiṣa) is associated with the idea of ‘light’ (jyotis) and planetary combinations are said to make ‘visible’ (dṛṣṭa) the fruits (phala) of previous actions that would otherwise be ‘invisible’ (adṛṣṭa). The first part of my paper will focus on the relationship between astrology and the theory of karma through the analysis of an early eighteenth century North Indian Sanskrit treatise, the Karmavipākasaṃhitā—one of the very few texts showing how concretely the position of stars at birth can reveal the portion of human destiny that is hidden according to the theory of karma.
Following on the Karmavipākasaṃhitā, the second part of the paper will deal with ‘karmic healing’ as described in this early modern text and as practiced by ‘occult’ or ‘spiritual’ therapists in contemporary Delhi among middle and upper class New Age sympathisers. I will compare the way ‘past life regression’ is realized and remedies are prescribed to end suffering in the two cases. As it will be shown, the appropriation and circulation of the theory of karma in esoteric milieus in Europe and the US has strongly impacted the way karmic healing is practiced today in metropolitan contexts in India.
Peter Heehs (Independent Scholar, Puducherry)
Saturday, 11:00 – 11:45
The Occult Side of Sri Aurobindo: Esoteric and Tantric Strands in the Teachings of a Twentieth-Century Yogin
Sri Aurobindo (Aurobindo Ghose, 1872–1950) never received any instruction in Indian Tantric Yoga and had only second-hand knowledge of Western esoteric traditions, yet his own system of yoga incorporates a number of elements of Tantric and Western esoteric teachings. In this paper I will examine some of these elements, try to identify their sources, and show how Aurobindo modified them to fit in with his own philosophy and method of practice. In The Synthesis of Yoga, he wrote that his yoga “starts from the method of Vedanta to arrive at the aim of the Tantra.” This tantric aim was perfection (siddhi), leading to a transformation of body and life. Liberation (mukti), the goal of most systems of Vedanta, Samkhya, classical yoga, etc., was for him a stage on the way to perfection. The “Vedantic” methods he recommended were primarily those he found in the Upanishads and Bhagavad Gita—in particular those associated with the paths of karma, jnana, and bhakti. But he also spoke of a path of perfection that he systematized as sapta-chatushtaya (the seven quartets), a system that came to him in the course of his practice. It includes elements that are found in Patanjala yoga, Pancharatra (Vaishnava tantra), and other traditional sources, but also material whose source is difficult to pin down. Aurobindo had some familiarity with the work of Theosophical Society and the Society for Psychical Research and regarded both as inferior to traditional Indian systems. Nevertheless, he borrowed terms and ideas from both groups. In 1914, he came in touch with Mirra Alfassa, a disciple of the Algeria-based occultist Max Theon. He took from her some of Theon’s terminology and ideas and incorporated them into his system. Focusing on the Tantric ideas of cakras and siddhis and the esoteric ideas of “soul-spark” and “psychic being,” I will show how Aurobindo appropriated existing concepts and reformulated them to serve his own needs. His system, however, is not just an assemblage of disparate materials, but a synthesis guided by his own intuition and experience.
Magdalena Kraler (University of Vienna)
Saturday, 14:00 – 14:45
Desmond Dunne's "Insight School of Yoga": Between Occultism and Secularism
Yoga in Britain in the 1950ies and 60ies: Desmond Dunne’s (1913– ?) “Insight School of Yoga” deals with occultism in the best sense of the word – it is hidden under an outer layer of more secular yoga teachings. Dunne, who had a profound influence on yoga practitioners in Britain and the US before the immense rise of yoga in the 1970ies, shares his system of yoga theory and practice called “Yogism” in various books and in a home study course. The Private Lessons in Practical Yoga for Western Students first address abilities to encounter daily life through diet, postures, dynamic breathing, relaxation, and mental disciplines, aiming for a thoroughly healthy body and mind. Then, the advanced lessons develop “psychic” capacities such as clairvoyance and a heightened sensitivity and productivity of the subtle body and the mind. The Higher Teachings of Yoga, an advanced follow-up course to the Private Lessons, finally, continue to develop the knowledge of the “Overself”, or “super-consciousness” in a neo-Vedāntic fashion based on the teachings and scriptures of Paul Brunton (1898– 1981).
Dunne’s Insight School of Yoga and his books published on yoga serve as an important example for the transition of the initial entanglement of modern yoga with occult practices to secularisation, which enabled a wider dissemination of the practice into various branches of society. For him, India is certainly the source of occult knowledge, but it is not the Westerner’s task to encounter that knowledge in full at first sight. This paper deals with Dunne’s general concept of “Yogism”, but also focusses on the “hidden” and “higher teachings” of its occult-yogic practices.
Mriganka Mukhapadhyay (University of Amsterdam)
Friday, 09:15 – 10:00
The Grammar of Occultism: Studying Modern South Asia in the Context of an Entangled History of Esotericism
This paper aims to contribute to a new methodological and theoretical approach that bridges the gap between the studies of esotericism and occultism on one hand, and South Asian studies on the other. Making a broad overview of how western esoteric currents and Indian spirituality mutually influenced each other, an attempt will be made to develop a study of entangled history of occultism. I will try to show how the category of “rejected knowledge” (Hanegraaff) worked in colonial South Asia, where western occultism was accepted by educated middle class, and became integrated into mainstream socio-cultural life. On this basis, it will be demonstrated how the notion of “entanglement” and “transculturality” should be used to study occultism in modern South Asia. This paper will critically engage with theories from Western Esotericism, Post-colonial studies, Grammar of Identity/Alterity (Gingrich and Baumann), and investigate how these could be applied in the study of occultism in South Asia, thus giving a new direction in academic research.
Tim Rudbøg (University of Copenhagen)
Friday, 14:45 – 15:30
Universal Brotherhood in India: Globalizing the Theosophical Society
The objective ‘to form a nucleus of the universal brotherhood of humanity without distinction of race, creed, sex, caste, or colour’ is known as one of the three fundamental propositions of the Theosophical Society (the other two being ‘to encourage the study of comparative religion, philosophy, and science’ and ‘to investigate the unexplained laws of nature and the powers latent in man’). However, as this paper will show, the primary proposition only became of central importance in the period between 1879–1882 in connection to the transfer of the headquarters of the Theosophical Society to India.
This paper will analyze the reasons behind this and, in this connection, explore the origin of the idea of universal brotherhood, the reorganization of the Theosophical Society in India, and the implementation of the idea as a globalizing strategy.
As this paper will also show, the quest for ancient and authentic esoteric teachings in India, as the perceived cradle of civilization and as the historical fountain source of wisdom, was undoubtedly one of the main forces that in 1879 drove Helena P. Blavatsky and H. S. Olcott across the ocean to Bombay; however, it was the attitude of universal brotherhood and the policy of non-dogmatism that socially facilitated the initial success of spreading the Theosophical Society in India.
A part of the story, which the conclusion of this paper also brings into focus, is that while the Theosophical Society often is perceived particularly as an esoteric or occult movement, it in fact became the global carrier of modernizing Enlightenment ideals.
Julian Strube (University of Heidelberg)
Friday, 10:00 – 10:45
Awakening India’s Shakti: Tantra and (Anti-)Modern Hindu Identity
In the second half of the nineteenth century, Tantra emerged as a central identity marker of a wide range of Bengali intellectuals. These authors engaged with contemporary debates about the meaning of religion, science, and nation, polemicizing against what they perceived as the corruption of Indian wisdom by the influence of English education. This paper will focus on two aspects of their understanding of Tantra: First, their claim that Tantra represents an ancient unity of religion, science, and philosophy that was confirmed by the recent discoveries of Western science; second, their argument that Tantra formed the esoteric core of a universal religious “orthodoxy” that had to be defended against “modern reformers” in both East and West.
These debates, it will be argued, can only be understood against the background of globally entangled debates about religious and national identities. The writings of John Woodroffe and “Arthur Avalon” will serve as a central example for this argument. It will be shown that Woodroffe, who is often perceived as a Western interpreter of Tantra, reproduced the aforementioned specific Bengali discourse about Tantra. Like these Bengali intellectuals, Woodroffe argued that the revival of Tantra would be essential, not only for the vigor of Indian national identity, but also for humanity’s future as a whole. A genealogical reconstruction of this notion can decisively contribute to an understanding of religious and national identity formations from a global perspective.