This site uses cookies. By continuing to browse the site you are agreeing to our use of cookies.
I accept this policy
Find out more here
The Sense Of The Presence
Brill’s MyBook program is exclusively available on BrillOnline Books and Journals. Students and scholars affiliated with an institution that has purchased a Brill E-Book on the BrillOnline platform automatically have access to the MyBook option for the title(s) acquired by the Library. Brill MyBook is a print-on-demand paperback copy which is sold at a favorably uniform low price.
Chapter Summary
This chapter explores the sensory and interactive modes for approaching the presence of Sathya Sai Baba in the devotional world centered on him. Devotees long to touch his feet, receive his words or a mantra such as the Gayatri, or ash from his hands. Seeing him at darshan time is like receiving an electric charge. This "sacred sensorium" or perceptual apparatus for approaching the guru or the divine is cultural, historical, social and political in nature rather than merely psychological. The chapter argues that we have to embed the sensory perception of the sacred and its corporeality within a larger discursive framework that addresses both the phenomenology of the event and its historical, epistemological, performative, and social registers.
Keywords: darshan; global religious movement; sacred sensorium; Sathya Sai Baba
- View table of contents for this E-Book
-
Please wait...
back to top