Manuscript(s): Scholars and Theories
Hindu Arts and Aesthetics
Acoustemology
To further this inquiry with acoustemology, it would be interesting to consider how the predisposition of peace can be analyzed and documented. During his fieldwork in the Bosavi rainforest with Kaluli life, Feld often found connection between sound and emotion, with sound offering a remedy for the experience of emotion. “Human weeping turns into song, and song turns into crying because sound always becomes and embodies sentiment; sonic materiality is the transformed reverberation of emotional depth” (Feld 2016, 17). Feld’s realization through acoustemology reveals the grounded nature of connecting and fully embodying sound, recognizing the impact on the emotional experience. How can acoustemology be used to further understand the impassioned change of internal transformation from rasa as conveyed in Hindu aesthetic literature? Can acoustemology reveal more fully the predisposition of peace and the state of peace within the inner being? How may acoustemology further support a scholar in realizing Brahman? Unexpectedly, acoustemology led Feld to realize how and why Bosavi songs are mechanisms for cohabitation, suggesting that Bosavi’s most prolific composers were the most accomplished ornithologists. What will acoustemology reveal in Hindu arts and aesthetics?
What will acoustemology reveal in Hindu arts and aesthetics?
Conclusion
An inter-subjective qualitative analysis has shown to be absolutely essential given the nature of the knowledge in the Upanishads, particularly in relation to sound’s energy. Feld’s acoustemology as a methodology for inter-subjectivity and qualitative analysis for sound has already proven to be a substantial research tool for gathering knowledge. After recording, transcribing, and translating about one thousand bird-voiced forest path songs, Feld found they contain almost seven thousand lexical descriptors that include sensuous phonaesthetic of light, motion, wind, and sound qualities. Acoustic ecology and soundscape without acoustemology may lead to an evaluation of Hindu arts and aesthetics that is too objective to acknowledge an awareness of relationality, given the cultural-historical context and ongoing transformation of living tradition. Frazier suggests that after the ‘visual turn,’ there is a necessity for Hindu studies to incorporate decolonized indigenous methodologies. When it comes to sacred sound and archetypal art form, acoustemology may actually be the key methodology for understanding the two kinds of knowledge on which Brahmans meditate upon: sound (śabda) and non-sound (aśabda), as lower and higher knowledge—and how the two kinds support each other.
Śākta Perspective
I draw attention to the tension of non-difference when a devotee performs worshipful service toward the supreme being, while exploring how the Devī Gītā describes Śākta theology and supreme devotion in relation to Vedic worship. Hindu sacred texts such as the Bhāgavata Purāna prioritize the path of devotion (bhakti) over the path of knowledge (jñana), while the Devī Gītā views knowledge of pure consciousness as identical with the goal of devotion. In the Devī Gītā, The Song of the Goddess: A Translation, Annotation, and Commentary, C. Mackenzie Brown (1998) states that the “Devī Gītā qualifies bhakti: if it is not conjoined with knowledge, it is deficient. It does not make a similar qualification of knowledge. On a practical level, the Devī Gītā often treats the two paths as equals, as intertwining, or simply as different aspects of one path” (Brown 1998, 235). When intertwining bhakti and jñana, the first challenge I consider addresses the presumable separateness in the relationship between the devotee and supreme being. The second challenge visits the proper injunctions in supreme devotion, without selfish desires and ulterior motives while realizing an awareness of the supreme spiritual goals. Overall, this paper explores the methodology of Śākta theology through a soteriological analysis on the Devī Gītā, while suggesting that the pathway to pure consciousness is evident in the Devī Gītā after overcoming the tension in two key challenges.
Overcoming conceptual tension while perceiving the divine ~
Conclusion
The common question about Sakta theology is the function of desire within every living being as an unfolding of the divine energy Sakti, without the general quest or traditional focus on a desire for liberation. “In Sakta theology, desire–in its broadest sense–is considered Sakti’s creative energy of desire (iccha-sakti) and its manifestation in the human mind is not regarded as an obstacle to be overcome, but rather, as potentiality to be harnessed to the greater goal of integration and realization” (Sherma 2022, 131). Sherma explores the occurrence of reintegration after realization which takes the course through the sadhana of service. Sherma states: “I suggest it could mean a fulfillment of desire into creative self-agency, consecrated to the goal of realization of the identity of self, Sakti and world through the sadhana of service. In this way, every profession becomes a calling, each endeavor an offering, every enterprise undertaken a gift on the altar of service” (ibid.). This reenvisioning leads to an interdependence of divine desire for experience and harmony with the nature and purpose of the Goddess. Thereby, understanding the cosmos through Sakta theology leads to a realization of the world as the self-expression of Sakti seeking greater levels of self-revelation within the greater field of divine satisfaction.
Selected Bibliography
Beck, Guy L. (1993). Sonic Theology: Hinduism and Sacred Sound. The University of South Carolina Press.
Brown, C. Mackenzie. (1998). The Devī Gītā, The Song of the Goddess: A Translation, Annotation, and Commentary. State University of New York Press.
Feld, Steven. (2015). “Acoustemology.” Keywords in Sound ed. by D. Novak and M. Sakakeeny, pp. 12-21. Duke University Press.
Frazier, Jessica. (2010). “Arts and Aesthetics in Hindu Studies.” The Journal of Hindu Studies. 3:1–11. Doi: 10.1093/jhs/hiq011
Nagler, Michael N. (2007). Afterward of The Upanishads: Classics of Indian Spirituality by Eknath Easwaran. The Blue Mountain Center of Meditation.
Sherma, Rita. (2000). “‘Sa Ham—I Am She’: Woman as Goddess.” Is the Goddess a Feminist? The Politics of South Asian Goddesses, ed. by Alf Hiltebeitel and Kathleen M. Erndl (New York: New York University Press), pp. 24-51.
Sherma, Rita. (2022). Religion and Sustainability: Interreligious Resources, Interdisciplinary Responses. Springer-Nature United Nations Sustainable Development.