The Journal of Hindu Studies Advance Access published June 26, 2012

The Journal of Hindu Studies 2012;1–17 doi:10.1093/jhs/his022

Conceptual Blending Theory, ‘Reverse Amnesia’,

and the Study of Tantra1
Glen Alexander Hayes*
*Corresponding author: Bloomfield College, Bloomfield, NJ, USA.
glen_hayes@bloomfield.edu

Abstract: In contrast to the preceding essays, which focus on the study of

Downloaded from http://jhs.oxfordjournals.org/ by guest on June 27, 2012

Tantric texts and communities, this article is very much an excursion into
methodology and possible new avenues for the study of Tantra. It will consider
recent insights from the growing field of the Cognitive Science of Religion
(CSR), especially the modern conceptual metaphor theory developed by
George Lakoff and Mark Johnson and ‘conceptual blending theory’, a
more-recent method crafted by Gilles Fauconnier and Mark Turner. We will
apply their ideas such as ‘conceptual integration networks’, ‘cross-domain
mapping’, ‘emergent structure’, and ‘blended worlds’ to the consideration of
Hindu Tantric visualization sequences, generation of the ‘yogic body’, and
the ‘remembrance’ of one’s ‘forgotten’ cosmic essence as a type of anamnesis
(‘reverse amnesia’). We will examine beliefs, practices, and texts from the
VaiX>ava Sahajiy@ Tantric traditions of 16th to 19th century greater Bengal.
I argue that these new CSR methods can help us to illuminate the vivid and
imaginative worlds and processes found in the highly esoteric VaiX>ava
Sahajiy@ traditions, and may be useful to the study of religion in general.

This essay presents a somewhat different aspect of Tantric Studies compared to

the previous four essays, which focused on textual analysis in order to consider
issues of intellectual communities, regional influences, and other intriguing mat-
ters that may be gleaned from existing Tantric texts. Here I will take a decidedly
methodological turn for, as has been amply demonstrated over the decades at the
meetings of The Society for Tantric Studies, the field also grows by our exploring
of new ways of studying Tantra. In terms of subject area, we will be considering
the Hindu Tantric traditions known collectively as the VaiX>ava Sahajiy@ traditions
of greater Bengal (ca. 16th to 19th century CE), especially the texts associated with
the noted guru Siddha Mukundadeva, who was active around the mid-17th century
CE.2 These Tantric VaiX>avas borrowed extensively from the contemporary schools
of the so-called ‘Bengali’ or Gaunaya branch of orthodox devotional VaiX>avism,
centered on the charismatic figure of the godman KPX>a Caitanya (ca. 1486–1533

ß The Author 2012. Oxford University Press and The Oxford Centre for Hindu Studies. All rights reserved.
For permissions, please email journals.permissions@oup.com
2 The Study of Tantra

CE) and its six theologians (gosv@mins). Thus, we will also explore some aspects of
Gaunaya VaiX>ava ritual and cosmophysiology. But we will conduct our exploration
by applying recent insights from the field of contemporary or ‘conceptual’ meta-
phor theory, as well as the more-recent field known as ‘conceptual blending the-
ory’. Both of these approaches are considered to be aspects of the rapidly growing
field of the ‘Cognitive Science of Religion’ (CSR), which includes not only metaphor
and blending theories, but also the more ‘hard science’ insights from neuroscience
and neuropsychology. Although I have made some initial attempts at using these
theories in other publications,3 we are frankly just in the early stages of this effort,
and I hope that this essay will stimulate discussion among my colleagues in the
Academy. Using a nuanced approach to the study of religion and Tantra using CSR
methods, we stand to gain powerful insights into the vivid uses of the mind and

Downloaded from http://jhs.oxfordjournals.org/ by guest on June 27, 2012

imagination in the religious experience.
The past few decades have provided the historian of religions with powerful
new methodologies for the study of human imagination and cognition – vital
aspects for any understanding of religion. As Edward Slingerland (2008) has clearly
demonstrated and powerfully argued in his superb recent work, What Science Offers
the Humanities,4 recent developments in cognitive science are now enabling us to
explore aspects and nuances of the human imagination and embodied experience
that were previously unavailable for scholarly analysis. What I hope to do today is
to provide a quick review of conceptual metaphor theory and conceptual blending
theory, and then suggest how basic ideas such as ‘emergent structure’ and aspects
of ‘cross-domain mapping’ can help us to better understand religious rituals and
visualizations in Hindu Tantric traditions from Bengal in northeastern India. As
noted, I will use examples from the VaiX>ava Sahajiy@ Tantric yogic traditions
associated with Siddha Mukundadeva (ca. 1650 CE). I will suggest how conceptual
blending theory can help us to ‘unpack’ the elaborate and often beautiful visionary
sequences that are used in this vernacular Bengali Tantric tradition. To set up the
problem in its most essential, ‘embodied’ form: if the goal of VaiX>ava Sahajiy@
Tantrics is to experience a state of bliss (@nanda), in a type of ‘subtle’ or ‘yogic
body’, on another level of reality (Vraja, VPnd@vana, Sahajapur), then just ‘how’
does one ‘get’ ‘there’? In other words, what type of neurobiological experience or
conceptual blend must be available to the adept, and how do they ‘run the blend’?
If another, ‘yogic form’ (siddha-r+pa) or even ‘divine body’ (deva-deha) is required,
how is this imagined, and how is it experienced? Furthermore, how might this
entail a type of ‘reverse amnesia’, where the adept ‘forgets’ their worldly identity
(r+pa) and realizes their true form (svar+pa) as a participant in the eternal love
drama of the god KPX>a and his divine consort R@dh@ including, for advanced
Sahajiy@s, becoming KPX>a or R@dh@ themselves? This derives from the Gaunaya
VaiX>ava concept of smara>a (‘remembering, recalling’), which requires the de-
votee to ritually and psychologically ‘adopt’ the persona and even ‘body’ of a
character spiritually present on the eternal celestial plane (dh@ma) of R@dh@ and
KPX>a in heavenly Vraja.5 The Sahajiy@s, transforming this into a Tantric version
 Glen Alexander Hayes 3

where all men become KPX>a and all women R@dh@, themselves participating in
adulterous love-trysts (much to the outrage of orthodox VaiX>avas through the
centuries), refer to this as ‘attribution practice’ or @ropa-s@dhana, in which one dis-
solves one’s worldly nature and form (r+pa) and assumes the ‘forgotten’ underlying
cosmic ‘essential form’ (svar+pa) of the Divine Cowherd or his consorts. Now let us
explore how this elaborate ritual, devotional, and yogic process may be considered
from the perspective of the CSR.
Although many readers may be familiar with modern conceptual metaphor and
blending theories, some are not; thus, I will take a brief detour with a summary of
the basics of these new methods before looking at our Sahajiy@ and Gaunaya ex-
amples. (I would also direct readers to Slingerland’s superb work, especially
Chapter 4, where he provides an insightful and concise overview of both theories.)

Downloaded from http://jhs.oxfordjournals.org/ by guest on June 27, 2012

Recent cognitive linguistic research in the area of ‘contemporary metaphor’ stu-
dies (e.g. Lakoff, Johnson, Turner)6 has led to the even more recent efforts known
as ‘conceptual blending theory’,7 which extend and critique metaphor theory
using recent discoveries in neuroscience and cognitive science. I have been espe-
cially interested in using some of the concepts developed by Gilles Fauconnier and
Mark Turner in The Way We Think (2002) regarding ‘conceptual blending’ to illus-
trate entirely new ways of studying Tantra. Although this essay is not the place for
a thorough overview of this promising new methodology, I will quickly review the
theory, and apply it to some examples from VaiX>ava Sahajiy@ texts that I have
translated.8
Much of recent conceptual metaphor theory really flourished with the publica-
tion in 1980 of George Lakoff and Mark Johnson’s groundbreaking Metaphors We
Live By, a deceptively short work which developed the argument that metaphors
are not just woven into everyday speech (‘I find your thesis hard to digest.’), but
operate in fact more deeply in our minds, influencing how we perceive, construe
and behave in the world.9 A number of other wonderful books developed out of
this, by Lakoff, Turner, Mark Johnson, and others.
Let us begin with some of their basic points. As Lakoff and Johnson observe in
Metaphors We Live By (p.3): ‘metaphor is pervasive in everyday life, not just in
language but in thought and action. Our ordinary conceptual system, in terms
of which we both think and act, is fundamentally metaphorical in nature.’ In The
Body in the Mind, Mark Johnson (1987) observes that metaphor is:

conceived as a pervasive mode of understanding by which we project pat-

terns from one domain of experience in order to structure another domain
of a different kind. So conceived, metaphor is not merely a linguistic mode
of expression; rather, it is one of the chief cognitive structures by which
we are able to have coherent, ordered experiences that we can reason
about and make sense of. Through metaphor, we make use of patterns
that obtain in our physical experience to organize our more abstract
understanding.10
4 The Study of Tantra

As Lakoff, Johnson, and others developed this theory of ‘conceptual metaphor

theory’, they standardized some typography to indicate a metaphor, generally
using all capital letters, as in the LIFE IS A JOURNEY or LOVE IS A JOURNEY
metaphors. They also emphasized that conceptual metaphors are expressed as
two different domains of meaning, joined by the copula ‘IS’. The result of these
developments by Lakoff and Johnson goes beyond mere typography, as it also
involves the basic idea of metaphors being based on the structure of the so-called
‘TARGET IS SOURCE’ format. The two domains have very different meanings and
functions. In this central formulation, the TARGET domain is the generally abstract
thing that we are trying to understand (like LIFE or LOVE), and the SOURCE domain
involves the more concrete reference, like JOURNEY, and provides the framing
information and details that are ‘cross-mapped’ onto the TARGET. Thus, the basic

Downloaded from http://jhs.oxfordjournals.org/ by guest on June 27, 2012

core metaphor of LIFE IS A JOURNEY (similar to the central Tantric metaphor of
S?DHANA IS A JOURNEY) can be used to illustrate how the details of journeys
(paths, roads, obstacles, travelers, topography, time, and such) are used to under-
stand the mysteriousness of life.11 Other interesting general examples would be
ARGUMENT IS WAR, and DEATH IS SLEEP. There are so many more to be explored.
As useful as this approach has been, it has always had its limitations, including
working with the many ‘entailments’ or nuances, details, and consequences that
grow out of the metaphors, and explaining how only some aspects of the SOURCE
domain are mapped to the TARGET domain, but not others – and why. (Slingerland
shares this critique in his book, pp.174–6.) Lakoff and Johnson have indeed helped
to popularize and establish the modern study of metaphors, but it is really the
more recent efforts of Turner with Gilles Fauconnier (in The Way We Think) that
have extended and enriched the theory. And it is precisely these enrichments to
the methodology that I believe can help the scholar of South Asian religions and
Tantra to gain greater insight into the imaginative worlds that underlie the texts
and rituals that we study.
As presented in The Way We Think, conceptual blending is an essential aspect of
being human; in fact, Fauconnier and Turner argue (using research by Stephen
Mithen), that the ability to create conceptual blends and networks first emerged
some 50,000 years ago. This stage, following upon the evolution of biologically
modern humans (which dates to perhaps 200,000 years) led to our ancestors
becoming truly cognitively modern humans. As Mark Turner observes on the ex-
cellent website portal (http://markturner.org) dealing with blending:

During the Upper Paleolithic, human beings developed an unprecedented abil-

ity to innovate. They acquired a modern human imagination, which gave them
the ability to invent new concepts and to assemble new and dynamic mental
patterns. The results of this change were awesome: human beings developed
art, science, religion, culture, refined tool use, and language. Our ancestors
gained this superiority through the evolution of the mental capacity for con-
ceptual blending. Conceptual blending has a fascinating dynamics and a crucial
 Glen Alexander Hayes 5

role in how we think and live. It operates largely behind the scenes. Almost
invisibly to consciousness, it choreographs vast networks of conceptual mean-
ing, yielding cognitive products, which, at the conscious level, appear simple.12

Many scholars from a range of disciplines have begun to apply this theory, and
here I am suggesting its usefulness for the study of Hindu Tantra. At the risk of
oversimplifying their incredibly complicated methodology, we can say that con-
ceptual blending is a process whereby we take information and meanings from two
or more ‘mental spaces’ (neuronal assemblies called ‘inputs’) and, using an over-
arching ‘frame’ or organizing pattern provided by what they call a ‘generic space’,
we create an entirely new ‘blended space’ that combines aspects of the inputs and
frame (see Fig. 1, and also Slingerland, pp.176–7 on ‘mental spaces’). This results in

Downloaded from http://jhs.oxfordjournals.org/ by guest on June 27, 2012

a range of what they call ‘conceptual integration networks’, from the most basic
‘simplex’ network, to a ‘mirror’ network, to the ‘single-scope’ network of trad-
itional TARGET-SOURCE metaphors, and culminating in the amazing ‘double-
scope’ and ‘megablend’ networks that are at the heart of language, art, religion,
and much daily life.13 Even a cursory glance at Tantric texts and rituals reveals
the presence of often-complex ‘conceptual integration networks’, as we shall see
further.
These networks refer to the many ways that the brain accesses and combines
neuronal assemblies or ‘mental spaces’, creating meaning and thought. The ‘hard
science’ on this is still developing, but we know enough to take initial steps in
applying these insights.14 This involves far more than just language and meta-
phors. All conceptual integration networks involve the ‘compression’ of different
aspects of the inputs – using the organizing frames – to create the new ‘blended
spaces’. In brief, this is how our imagination and perception ‘works’, in a most
dynamic (but largely unnoticed) way.

“Generic Space”

Input 1 Input 2

values and properties 1 values and properties 2

Blended Space
“Emergent Structure”
new values and properties

Figure 1. The basic structure of conceptual blending.

6 The Study of Tantra

‘Mirror networks’, for example, are integration networks in which all spaces –
inputs, generic, and blended – share a common organizing frame or theme. An
‘organizing frame for a mental space is a frame that specifies the nature of the
relevant activity, events, and participants’. (Fauconnier and Turner, 2002, p.123)
The input spaces ‘mirror’ each other since they have the same basic organizing
frame, as do the generic and blended spaces. Slingerland (2008) observes (p.160)
that all such conceptual blending may in fact be a common form of ‘synaesthesia’,
where we combine two or more senses together. Such uses of our capacity for
synaesthesia must certainly also underlie Tantric visualizations and s@dhana. For
example, the ?tmatattva, an undated VaiX>ava Sahajiy@ text which I recently pub-
lished, very clearly outlines stages of s@dhana in which the different senses are to
be blended and absorbed into higher states of consciousness.15

Downloaded from http://jhs.oxfordjournals.org/ by guest on June 27, 2012

What Fauconnier and Turner refer to as ‘single-scope’ networks are better
known as the above-mentioned conventional SOURCE-TARGET metaphors of the
type originally studied by Lakoff and Johnson. In other words, there are two input
spaces with two different organizing frames, but only one organizing frame is pro-
jected into the blend. This is the key. For example, in the metaphor of two top
executives who are in competition (BUSINESS IS BOXING), we might say that
they are fighting like two boxers: ‘The late Steve Jobs often fought it out with
Bill Gates.’ The generic organizing frame is that of COMPETITION. The SOURCE
domain is ‘boxing’, which provides the organizing frame, details, and framing
input, while the TARGET domain is that of ‘business’, the focus of understanding.
Although the two men may have never struck one another, in the blend their roles
as ‘boxers’ make sense and we are able to gain global insight from the network. As
with any such basic metaphor, the conceptual integration network provokes in-
sight into ‘one thing’ (boxing) which is then projected onto ‘another thing’ (busi-
ness). The same type of ‘cross-mapping’ or projection is true of religious
metaphors like GOD IS LOVE, and Tantric metaphors like THE YOGIC BODY IS A
LOTUS FLOWER, or CONSCIOUNESS IS A DESTINATION. We use inferences and
details available from the framing input (boxing, love, lotus flowers, destinations),
which themselves already have many compressions of meaning. And even these
inputs are blends themselves – so that we can have complicated systems of
blended spaces becoming inputs for further blending. This may reflect cultural
development (Slingerland 2008 suggests using an ‘epidemiological metaphor’ for
this; pp.212–14), as certain blends become entrenched in a culture, always avail-
able to make new blends to be ‘reblended’ (or perhaps, to be forgotten). And this
cognitive network can be very, very powerful (a power that gurus and s@dhanas
take advantage of), as it evokes ‘emotions, seemingly anchored in the trustworthy
framing input, that feel to us as if they are all-clarifying.’ (Fauconnier and Turner
2002, p.129). So, we can more readily understand the more diffuse concepts of
business, God, the yogic body, or consciousness because we project onto them – in
the blend – things that are quite well known from the more-detailed source domain
of framing. Above all, it is this blending of what they call the ‘inner-space’
 Glen Alexander Hayes 7

relations or properties in the SOURCE input (boxing, love, lotus flowers, destin-
ations) with the more diffuse or less knowable qualities in the TARGET input
(business, God, the yogic body, consciousness) that allow metaphors to do the
cognitive and imaginative ‘heavy lifting’ that they do, ranging from ordinary lan-
guage (‘He digested the book.’) to more complicated Tantric metaphors like THE
YOGIC BODY IS A LOTUS FLOWER and CONSCIOUSNESS IS A DESTINATION.16 As
Fauconnier and Turner note (p.131), ‘This kind of projection is an imaginative
achievement’, which is taken even further with the richest of networks, called a
‘double-scope’ network and a megablended network (involving more than two
inputs/frames).
With ‘double-scope’ networks, we come to perhaps the most intriguing concept
that may be used in the study of religion and Tantra, as they (as well as mega-

Downloaded from http://jhs.oxfordjournals.org/ by guest on June 27, 2012

blends) produce the most imaginative and creative blends. In this type of network,
there are not only two different inputs and two different organizing frames, but those
frames may typically clash with each other, so that only parts of each frame are
projected into the blend, leading to an entirely new ‘blended space’ which has its own
‘emergent structure’ and frame. It is this concept of the ‘emergent’ or novel blend
that I feel is most useful for the study of Tantra. Let’s examine a good ‘real-world’
example used by Fauconnier and Turner: that of the Computer Desktop (such as
the Windows XP and Word version that I am ‘writing’ this on). The first input is
that of ‘office work’, and includes details like desks, files, folders, trashcans, and
paper clips.17 The second input is that of ‘computer commands’, such as print,
copy, find, replace, save, point-and-click, and paste. In the blended space of the
Computer Desktop (Windows or Mac), of course, we never actually touch or lift any
‘folders’, and pointing and clicking is not part of traditional pre-computer office
work.18 Only certain parts and details of each input are projected into the space,
and they only really make sense in the new emergent structure of the blended space.
Although the organizing ‘frames’ of offices and computers clash in some ways (and
the topology of a 3D office world is ‘relaxed’ or ‘compressed’ for the 2D screen in
the blend), they result in an incredibly creative and imaginative blended network.
As they observe, ‘This emergent structure is not in the inputs – it is part of the
cognitive construction in the blend . . . The blend is an integrated platform for
organizing and developing those other platforms.’ (Fauconnier and Turner 2002,
p.133). Thus, we might say that any Tantric visualization or ritual also involves the
creation of complex ‘emergent structures’ of experience and imagination, for they
only occur (at least initially) in the blended ‘world’ of the s@dhana imparted by the
guru. Conceptual blending theory also allows us to bridge from textuality to ritual,
as s@dhana involves receiving and ‘running the blends’ not only in the texts and
oral transmissions, but also in the performative bodily movements mediated by yet
other blended spaces and worlds. Through conceptual integration networks, texts
and ritual are fused, a blending that has been addressed in many ways by other
scholars of Tantra through the years.19
8 The Study of Tantra

Another critical aspect of blending that can be applied to the study of Tantra is
what Fauconnier and Turner (2002, pp.217 ff.) term ‘counterfactual reasoning’,
which allows us to operate mentally on the ‘unreal’, to run scenarios, check
outcomes, and then make choices. For example, hypothesizing about becoming
another person (‘If I were you.’), or stating ‘I see nothing’, are powerful counter-
factual statements. But we do this all the time, creating seemingly ‘absurd’ possible
worlds that, while actually powerful conceptual blends, seem to be just a routine
feat of the imagination. In addition to using the conditional sense of ‘If’ and
consequent clauses, counterfactuals also make use of the clash between analogy
and disanalogy, between what seems to be possible and what seems impossible.
(Slingerland 2008, pp.182–4, refers to this perceptual and construal modality as
seeing ‘as-if.’) Fauconnier and Turner (2002) observe that:

Downloaded from http://jhs.oxfordjournals.org/ by guest on June 27, 2012

the capacity to juggle counterfactual spaces is a consequence of the evolution
of cognitively modern human beings and their remarkable capacity for
double-scope blending. Counterfactuals are a good exemplar of double-scope
blending because the oppositions between the spaces are so manifest. One
cannot overstate the importance of counterfactuals in human life. (p.231)

Counterfactuals are at the roots of scientific and mathematical reasoning and,

this point needs to be emphasized, they underlie just about every religious world-
view and cosmology. To draw inferences about an unseen deity or heavenly realm,
to communicate with spirits and to fly in an astral body to an invisible realm
all involve complex counterfactuals and double-scope blending. To be sure, the
person who is involved in ‘running the blend’ will not regard it as such; instead,
they will attribute profound ontological, cosmological, and epistemological status
to the blend. To the religious person, the blends are very much experienced as
‘real’, like most blends. At the very least, they are neurobiological realities. But
religious blends are entrenched in societies, cultures, languages, and even in ‘ma-
terial anchors’ such as texts, statues, and buildings. This is because ‘human beings
use conceptual integration to create rich and diverse conceptual worlds with such
features as sexual fantasies, grammar, complex numbers, personal identity, re-
demption, and lottery depression.’ (Fauconnier and Turner 2002, p.309). It seems
quite clear to me that such complex conceptual integration networks and ‘worlds’
are also essential to many aspects of Tantra.
To conclude this necessarily brief overview of CSR theory, I would argue that
any accomplished Tantric guru has also been very skilled in the development and
transmission of creative ‘double-scope’ and ‘megablend’ blending of the sort we
have reviewed. Tantra, in the broadest of terms, is an imaginative exploration of
the human body, mind and the cosmos in the search for a final transformative
state. I would argue that virtually all of the key aspects of Tantra involve creative
conceptual integration networks and complex blends. This entails not just
‘running the blends’ conceptually, but actually ‘living the blends’ in actual life,
 Glen Alexander Hayes 9

entrenching them in a subculture, and transmitting them to subsequent gener-

ations – through texts, sculpture, painting, architecture, and ritual. Tantra may be
regarded, then, as a blend which has been repeatedly ‘reblended’20 Among other
things, this would involve the basic process of s@dhana (the system of ritual prac-
tices), including yoga and ritual sexual intercourse; uses of mantras and bajas
(powerful phrases and syllables); worship of the guru and deities; rituals using
physical substances and objects; pilgrimages to sacred spaces; and especially the
visualization and entering of the ‘yogic body’. In all of this, we see the powerful
role of the ‘emergent structure’ of the blended space of the Tantric worldviews
and experiences; although the inputs may, for example, be the human body and a
chanting of syllables, the ‘emergent structure’ of a higher reality is experienced as a
neurobiological reality by the practitioner. Seen this way, a classic conundrum such as

Downloaded from http://jhs.oxfordjournals.org/ by guest on June 27, 2012

‘where are the cakras?’ becomes moot: their placement ‘near’ the bellybutton or
atop the skull misses the point. They reside in the ‘blended space’ and ‘emergent
structure’ that is conveyed by the guru, the texts, and s@dhanas of the respective
lineages or samprad@yas. It is clearly counterfactual to say that there are lotus
flowers and ponds in the physical body; but, once projected into the blended
space of the yogic body, this compression makes very good ‘sense’ and enhances
the experience of embodiment.
Let us return now to considering how the incredibly interesting and compli-
cated ritual process of smara>a or @ropa-s@dhana can be examined using conceptual
blending theory. By identifying certain ‘vital relations’ between the inputs, such as
‘identity’ and ‘causality’ (Fauconnier and Turner 2002, p.161), we will find that this
process may be regarded as a type of ‘reverse amnesia’ (anamnesis) in which the
adept gradually ‘remembers’ (smara>a) their ‘true identity’ (svar+pa) as a character
in the eternally unfolding mythical drama of R@dh@ and KPX>a.21 The VaiX>ava
Sahajiy@s combined beliefs and practices from diverse Tantric and alchemical
traditions22 prior to their flourishing in the 16th through 18th centuries, a topic
which has been explored by a number of scholars.23 As we have noted, the
VaiX>ava Sahajiy@s extensively adapted and ‘reblended’ devotional bhakti practices
from the very popular Caitanya movement of Bengali VaiX>avism.24 The under-
lying orthodox Gaunaya VaiX>ava system derives from the famous exploits of the
divine cowherd KPX>a, presented especially in the Bh@gavata Pur@>a (ca. 8th to 9th
centuries CE) and in later VaiX>ava Hindu texts. The frame story involves the love
trysts between KPX>a, regarded by orthodox VaiX>avas as the Supreme Godhead,
and various milkmaids (gopas), especially R@dh@, who are regarded as both the
blissful emanations of god and as the inner human soul. There are many episodes
to the story, but the key is to visualize the romancing and even love-making of the
divine couple in the celestial realm of Vraja. How? For this, Sahajiy@s adapt the
devotional process of ritually creating, imagining, and ‘becoming’ one of the char-
acters in the drama – typically one of the female attendants or friends of R@dh@, a
‘maiden’ (mañjara), ‘friend’ (sakha), or milkmaid (gopa). The Sahajiy@s typically use
this system as just a preliminary one in their much longer series of rituals, but it
10 The Study of Tantra

Downloaded from http://jhs.oxfordjournals.org/ by guest on June 27, 2012

Figure 2. Possible blending of the maiden (mañjara) s@dhana of orthodox Bengali VaiX>avism.
Physical forms (r+pa) of ordinary men and women are ‘remembered’ (smara>a) as the ‘perfected
form’ (siddha-r+pa), of the maidens, friends, and milkmaids in the KPX>a story. In the Blended
Space – which is the goal of s@dhana – the emergent structure is transcendent, the timeless realm
of Vraja and divine love (prema).

involves singing the stories of this love-play (lal@), physically dancing and chant-
ing, adopting the emotions (bh@va) of a particular maiden, and – thanks to the
initiation of a guru and the gift of a powerful mantra – ‘remembering’ (smara>a) the
actual appearance and personality of the inner maiden, whom one has ‘forgotten’
they really are, due to cycles of rebirth in the swirl of the phenomenal universe.
For details I would refer readers to David Haberman’s superb study of Gaunaya
VaiX>ava devotional practices, Acting as a Way of Salvation: A Study of R@g@nug@
Bhakti S@dhana (1988). As developed by one of the great VaiX>ava theologians in
the 16th century, R+pa Gosv@min, and then ‘Tantricized’ by the Tantric VaiX>ava
Sahajiy@ guru Siddha Mukundadeva a century later, this process not only results in
the creation of a megablended ‘emergent structure’ which is the body and realm of
the ‘maiden’, but it is also built upon the theory that the guru helps one to recover
this ‘forgotten’ identity (abhim@na) of the maiden.
In Fig. 2 I have sketched out a possible conceptual blending chart to ‘unpack’
this maiden body, and the various inputs and vital relations involved. Of note for
us is that this is not just a visualized process; by using the performative move-
ments of the actual physical body (r+pa), and using the projected details from the
mythical drama, the adept seems to trigger mirror neurons, activating and reor-
ganizing inner ‘bodily schema’, and creating novel sensorimotor programs.
Because the intensity of the emotions and sexuality are also experienced and
projected into the emergent structure of the blend, the entire process leads to
the adept truly believing and experiencing oneself no longer as a Bengali devotee
in, let us say, 1650, but rather as a beautiful young maiden, helping R@dh@ in her
 Glen Alexander Hayes 11

trysts on the celestial plane. Among the community of orthodox VaiX>avas,

Haberman reports, this transformation can be so real that one male devotee,
who had ‘remembered’ his maiden identity in Vraja, was seen by colleagues
nearby as if in a trance, and in fact seemed to have grown female breasts!
(Haberman 1988, p.92). Thus, this ritual process provides both the cognitive sci-
entist of religion and the South Asianist with a wealth of imagery to analyze using
new theories from CSR.
Although this maiden body (siddha-r+pa; mañjara-r+pa) was regarded by R+pa
Gosv@min as being created out of a ‘particle of light’ (jyotir-a:śa) of God/KPX>a,
it was brought to realization through the agency of the initiating guru and the
cosmic revelatory powers of the initiatory mantra. For later Sahajiy@s, this served
as but the first or second of three stages of ritual practice, the highest being that of

Downloaded from http://jhs.oxfordjournals.org/ by guest on June 27, 2012

the ‘perfected’ or siddha stage.25 Much to the chagrin and outrage of orthodox
VaiX>avas then and now, the Sahajiy@s, as Tantrics, ‘ratcheted the blend’, to use
Slingerland’s phrasing, and argued that each male devotee himself should become
KPX>a, and each female devotee should become R@dh@.26 But rather than experien-
cing this love play as voyeuristic young girls in the celestial realm, Sahajiy@s made
the bold (and very Tantric) claim that one should actually engage in ritual sexual
intercourse in this body, in this world, and then, through the practice of coitus
reservatus, reverse the flow of sexual fluids through yogic channels into the
inner body, where the ‘divine’ androgynous body of the Sahaja-m@nuXa would be
‘born.’ I have written about this process elsewhere (Hayes 1995, 2000, 2012; see one
possible conceptual blending chart for this process in Fig. 3.), but here we need
just observe that this takes the ‘maiden process’ further, in that one ‘remembers’

Figure 3. Possible blending of overall Sahajiyà Tantric s@dhana. Physical forms (r+pa) are blended
with essence (svar+pa), men and women with KPX>a and R@dh@, the li>gam and yoni with a bee (ali)
and lotus (padma). In the Blended Space – which is the goal of s@dhana – the emergent structure
is transcendent, the timeless realm of Sahaja and cosmic substance (vastu).
12 The Study of Tantra

oneself as not just KPX>a or R@dh@, but in fact as the androgynous inner cosmic
being, the ‘innate’, ‘co-eval’, or ‘together-born’ (sahaj-ja) being (Sahaja-m@nuXa)
which is above and beyond everything. There are many wonderful passages con-
cerning this esoteric practices that lead one to this ‘destination’ above the inner
lotus flowers and ponds/tanks (sarovara). One compares the tongue of the guru to
the penis, the ear of the adept to the vagina, the initiatory mantra as the semen,
and the songs and chanting to the female blood/seed.27 And whereas the result of
worldly lovemaking may be the birth of a physical child, the result of Sahajiy@
sexual s@dhana is the birth of the divine yogic body ‘within’ the male body, the
yogically reversed sexual fluids (rasa-rati) becoming ‘cosmic essence’ (vastu). The
inner body is then fashioned out of this ‘cosmic essence’,28 and is often visualized
as a series of ascending lotus ponds (sarovara), connected by a ‘crooked river’

Downloaded from http://jhs.oxfordjournals.org/ by guest on June 27, 2012

(b@ṅk@-nada)), which one takes ‘upwards against the current’ (sroter uj@na) up to
the ‘destination’ of Sahajapur and the achievement of becoming the ‘forgotten’
Sahaja-m@nuXa. This Sahajiy@ cosmophysiological model of the yogic body is quite
different from the better-known Śaiva and Ś@kta systems of the cakras and n@nas, as
it is based more on fluids than energies, and centers on rivers and lotus ponds
rather than just lotus flowers. This ‘fluidic’ nature of the VaiX>ava Sahajiy@ yogic
body may very well reflect the riverine topography of greater Bengal, where most
of the community lived.
I hope that the above exploration of selected VaiX>ava Sahajiy@ and Gaunaya
VaiX>ava beliefs and practices has illustrated the potential uses of new method-
ology derived from the CSR. We have seen how some Hindu Tantrics have created
novel and powerful ‘blended worlds’, used vivid counterfactuals, and have experi-
enced a type of ‘reverse amnesia’ in their long journey to the ‘destination’ of
cosmic consciousness. We are only at the beginning of our own interdisciplinary
quest to understand how cognitive science can further illuminate these distinctive
ways of being an embodied, gendered, and emotional human being. Rather than
providing a challenge to our more usual textual and field-based studies of Tantra,
I hope that the uses of CSR will prove to be complimentary to our older meth-
odologies and hermeneutical stances. I look forward to our ongoing conversations
in print and at conferences.

References
Basu (Bose), M. M., 1932. Sahajiy@ S@hitya. Calcutta, India: University of Calcutta.
Bellah, R. N., 2011. Religion in Human Evolution: From the Paleolithic to the Aaxial Age.
Cambridge, MA: The Belknap Press of Harvard University Press.
Bose, M., 1986. The Post-Caitanya Sahajia [sic] Cult of Bengal. Reprint ed. Delhi, India: Gian
Publishing House.
Bulkeley, K. (eds). 2005. Soul, Psyche, Brain: New Directions in the Study of Religion and
Brain-Mind Science. New York: Palgrave MacMillan.
Bulkeley, K., 2004. The Wondering Brain: Thinking About Religion with and Beyond Cognitive
Neuroscience. New York: Routledge.
 Glen Alexander Hayes 13

Critchley, S., 2012. ‘Philip K. Dick, Science Fiction Philosopher.’ in The New York Times
Online. 3 pts. May 21–23, 2012. Available: http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/tag/
philip-k-dick/ [date last accessed May 23, 2012].
Dasa, P., 1972. Caitanyottara Prathama C@ribi Sahajiy@ Puṅthi. Calcutta: Bharati Book Stall.
Dasa, P., 1978. Sahajiy@ o Gaunaya VaiX>ava Dharma. Calcutta: Firma K. L. M. Private Ltd.
Dasgupta, S., 1969. Obscure Religious Cults. 3rd ed. Calcutta: Firma K. L. Mukhopadhyay.
Dimock, E. C. Jr, 1989. The Place of the Hidden Moon: Erotic Mysticism in the Vaishnava-Sahajiy@
Cult of Bengal. Reprint ed. Chicago: Phoenix Books.
Dimock, E. C. Jr, Stewart, T. K. (eds. and trans.) (1999). Caitanya Carit@mPta of
KPX>ad@sa Kavir@ja: A Translation and Commentary. Harvard Oriental Series, vol. 56.
Witzel, M. ed. Cambridge, MA: Department of Sanskrit and Indian Studies, Harvard
University.
Fauconnier, G., Turner, M., 2002. The Way We Think: Conceptual Blending and the Mind’s
Hidden Complexities. New York: Basic Books.

Downloaded from http://jhs.oxfordjournals.org/ by guest on June 27, 2012

Flood, G., 2006. The Tantric Body: The Secret Tradition of Hindu Religion. New York: I. B.
Tauris.
Gallagher, S., 2005. How the Body Shapes the Mind. New York: Oxford University Press.
Gibbs, R. W. Jr, 2006. Embodiment and Cognitive Science. New York: Cambridge University
Press.
Haberman, D., 1988. Acting as a Way of Salvation: A Study of R@g@nug@ Bhakti S@dhana. New
York: Oxford University Press.
Hayes, G. A., 1985. ‘Shapes for the soul: a study of body symbolism in the VaiX>ava-
sahajiy@ tradition of medieval Bengal.’ Ph.D. dissertation, University of Chicago.
Hayes, G. A., 1995. The VaiX>ava Sahajiy@ traditions of medieval Bengal. In: Lopez, D. S. Jr
(ed). Religions of India in Practice. Princeton Readings in Religions. Princeton: Princeton
University Press, pp. 333–51.
Hayes, G. A., 2000. The necklace of immortality: a 17th-century VaiX>ava Sahajiy@ text.
In: White, D. G. (ed). Tantra in Practice. Princeton Readings in Religions. Princeton:
Princeton University Press, pp. 308–25.
Hayes, G. A., 2003. Metaphoric worlds and yoga in the VaiX>ava Sahajiy@ Tantric traditions
of medieval Bengal. In: Whicher, I., Carpenter, D. (eds). Yoga: The Indian Tradition,
pp. 162–84. New York: RoutledgeCurzon.
Hayes, G. A., 2005. Contemporary metaphor theory and alternative views of Krishna and
R@dh@ in Vaishnava Sahajiy@ Tantric traditions. In: Beck, G. (ed). Alternative Krishnas:
Regional and Vernacular Variations on a Hindu Deity, Albany: SUNY Press. pp. 19–32.
Hayes, G. A., 2006. ‘The Guru’s tongue: metaphor, imagery, and vernacular language in
VaiX>ava Sahajiy@ traditions.’ In Pacific World: Journal of the Institute of Buddhist Studies..
Berkeley: Institute of Buddhist Studies. 3rd series no. 8. pp. 41–71.
Hayes, G. A., 2012. Eroticism and cosmic transformation as yoga: the ?tmatattva of the
VaiX>ava Sahajiy@s of Bengal. In: White, D. G. (ed). Yoga in Practice. Princeton Readings
in Religions. Princeton: Princeton University Press, pp. 223–41.
Johnson, M., 1987. The Body in the Mind: The Bodily Basis of Meaning, Imagination, and Reason.
Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
Kaplan-Solms, K., Solms, M., 2002. Clinical Studies in Neuro-Psychoanalysis: Introduction to a
Depth Neuropsychology. 2nd ed. New York: Karnac.
Kaviraja, G., 1969/1975. Tantrik S@dhana o Siddhanta. 2 vols. Burdhwan: Bardhaman
Visvavidyalaya.
Kelly, E. F. et al. (eds). 2007. Irreducible Mind: Toward a Psychology for the 21st Century.
New York: Rowman and Littlefield.
Koch, C., 2004. The Quest for Consciousness: A Neurobiological Approach. Englewood, Colorado:
Roberts and Company.
14 The Study of Tantra

Lakoff, G., 1987. Women, Fire, and Dangerous Things: What Categories Reveal about the Mind.
Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
Lakoff, G., Johnson, M., 1980. Metaphors We Live By. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
Lakoff, G., Nunez, R. E., 2000. Where Mathematics Comes from: How the Embodied Mind Brings
Mathematics into Being. New York: Basic Books.
Lakoff, G., Turner, M., 1989. More than Cool Reason: A Field Guide to Poetic Metaphor. Chicago:
University of Chicago Press.
Lakoff, M., Johnson, M., 1999. Philosophy in the Flesh: The Embodied Mind and its Challenge to
Western Thought. New York: Basic Books.
McDaniel, J., 2012. ‘The role of Yoga in some Bengali Bhakti traditions: Shaktism, Gaudiya
Vaisnavism, Baul, and Sahajiya Dharma.’ Journal of Hindu Studies 5: 53–74.
Newberg, A., Waldman, M. R., 2009. How God Changes Your Brain: Breakthrough Findings from
a Leading Neuroscientist. New York: Ballentine Books.
Openshaw, J., 2002. Seeking B@uls of Bengal. New York: Cambridge University Press.
Ramachandran, V. S., 2004. A Brief Tour of Consciousness: From Imposter Poodles to Purple

Downloaded from http://jhs.oxfordjournals.org/ by guest on June 27, 2012

Numbers. New York: Pi Press.
Ramachandran, V. S., 2011. The Tell-Tale Brain: A Neuroscientist’s Quest for What Makes Us
Human. New York: W. W. Norton and Co.
Slingerland, E., 2008. What Science Offers the Humanities: Integrating Dody and Culture. New
York: Cambridge University Press.
Stewart, T. K., 2010. The Final Word: The Caitanya-Carit@mPta and the Grammar of Religious
Tradition. New York: Oxford University Press.
Turner, M. The portal for Mark Turner’s very useful website on the latest in conceptual
metaphor theory and conceptual blending theory. Available: http://markturner.org.
Urban, H. B., 2001a. The Economics of Ecstasy: Tantra, Secrecy, and Power in Colonial Bengal.
New York: Oxford University Press.
Urban, H. B., 2001b. Songs of Ecstasy: Tantric and Devotional Songs from Colonial Bengal.
New York: Oxford University Press.
White, D. G., 1996. The Alchemical Body: Siddha Traditions in Medieval India. Chicago:
University of Chicago Press.
White, D. G., 2003. Kiss of the Yogina: ‘Tantric Sex’ in its South Asian Contexts. Chicago:
University of Chicago Press.

Notes
1 I would like to dedicate this essay to the memory of the late Professor Joseph
O’Connell of The University of Toronto, who passed away while this draft was
being edited. Professor O’Connell, for decades a champion of Bengal Studies and
the study of Bengali VaiX>avism, originally suggested to me the idea of Bengali
VaiX>ava smara>a as a type of anamnesis.
2 See note 23 below for standard scholarly studies on the VaiX>ava Sahajiy@ trad-
itions. Although these transgressive Bengali Hindu Tantrics have been termed
‘VaiX>ava’, they actually privileged Tantric interpretations of the god KPX>a and
his lover R@dh@. The term ‘Sahajiy@’ or ‘seeker of Sahaja’ derives from the Sanskrit
and Bengali word ‘sahaja,’ itself a compound of saha-ja, literally ‘together-born.’ This
awkward English phrase refers to the ultimate Sahajiy@ goal of uniting the cosmic
male and female essences into the androgynous salvific state of the Sahaja-m@nuXa.
This is roughly parallel to the union of Śiva and Śakti in other Tantric traditions.
Other glosses of sahaja are ‘innate’, ‘spontaneous’, ‘co-eval’, ‘natural’, and ‘easy’.
 Glen Alexander Hayes 15

3 See Hayes (2003, 2005, 2006).

4 Slingerland (2008). See note 14 below for other recent works in the area of cognitive
science.
5 The most useful study of this is Haberman (1988). The practice was especially
developed by one of the six Bengali VaiX>ava theologians, R+pa Gosv@min. It was
also called mañjara-s@dhana, or ‘practice with [the spiritual body of] a young
maiden’. This underlies the well-known Bengali VaiX>ava practice of singing and
chanting to KPX>a, as well as joyful dancing in his honor (kartana, sa:kartana). Also
see Stewart (2010) for a detailed discussion of the Bengali VaiX>ava texts supporting
this practice.
6 See note 9 below.
7 Fauconnier and Turner (2002).
8 For my translations of selected VaiX>ava Sahajiy@ texts, see Hayes (1985, 1995, 2000,

Downloaded from http://jhs.oxfordjournals.org/ by guest on June 27, 2012

2012). Dimock (1989), Dasgupta (1969), and Bose (1986) also have translated portions
of texts. Dimock includes a complete translation of a short ritual text (pp.234–45).
9 Lakoff and Johnson (1980). See also the later work exploring metaphor and em-
bodiment by Johnson (1987). Other useful works by Lakoff, Johnson, and Mark
Turner include Lakoff (1987); Lakoff and Turner (1989); Lakoff and Johnson
(1999); and Lakoff and Nunez (2000), which explores relationships between embodi-
ment and mathematics. The literature on contemporary metaphor theory is exten-
sive, and growing all of the time. I am indebted to all of these works for helping me
to appreciate the pivotal role of conceptual metaphor in the medieval VaiX>ava
Sahajiy@ traditions.
10 Johnson (1987, pp.xiv–xv).
11 I explored this Tantric metaphor in Hayes (2003) and Hayes (2005).
12 See http://markturner.org. There is some recent evidence of colored minerals being
applied as body painting, which may suggest an earlier date for conceptual blend-
ing, perhaps as far back as 100,000 years. The recent magnum opus by Robert Bellah
(2011) also examines the role of religion in human evolution.
13 See Fauconnier and Turner (2002), especially pp.113–37.
14 The ‘hard science’ on all of this is still evolving, and there is a great need for
scholars of religion and the humanities to work with neuroscientists in future
endeavors. At the American Academy of Religion, the Cognitive Science of
Religion Program Unit was recently formed, and they have co-sponsored fascinating
panel sessions with the Tantric Studies Program Unit. Slingerland (2008), especially
chapters 3 and 4, explores this need to work across disciplines. Another useful
consideration may be found in Bulkeley (2005). Also see his useful survey of
recent interactions between religious studies and the cognitive science of religion,
Bulkeley (2004). Recent useful works in the general area of cognitive neuroscience
include Ramachandran (2004, 2011); Newberg and Waldman (2009); Gallagher
(2005); Gibbs, Jr. (2006); Kelly et al. (2007); Kaplan-Solms and Mark Solms (2002);
and Koch (2004). This is just a sampling of recent works in the field, which is
flourishing now. My thanks to Kelly Bulkeley for suggesting many of these titles.
15 See Hayes (2012). The ?tmatattva, which may be as late as the 18th century, illus-
trates how basic S@:kya-Yoga cosmophysiology may be given a Tantric
reinterpretation.
16 The Study of Tantra

16 See Fauconnier and Turner (2002, 129–30), and Figure 7.3 for a detailed discussion
and diagram of how all of this can be ‘mapped out.’ For VaiX>ava Sahajiy@s, the
ultimate cosmic state of liberation, wherein all dualities collapse, is said to occur
when the androgynous Sahaja-m@nuXa (the ‘innate’ or ‘co-eval’ Being) resides in the
‘destination’ called variously ‘The Place of the Hidden Moon’ (guptacandrapur) or
‘The Innate Place’ (sahajapur). A literal translation of sahaja (saha-ja), of course, is
‘together-born’, which glosses poorly in English. As we shall see, however, the
imagery of ‘birth’ is essential to central tropes and blends in the tradition.
17 In the latest version of Windows XP, on my laptop, the ‘trashcan’ has been
‘upgraded’ to the more environmentally friendly ‘Recycle’ bin. Even blends can
be subject to popular trends!
18 See Fauconnier and Turner (2002, p.340) for more examples involving the clashes in
the Computer Desktop blend.

Downloaded from http://jhs.oxfordjournals.org/ by guest on June 27, 2012

19 For example, Flood (2006) explores the intricate relationship between ‘text’ and
‘body’ in Śaiva Tantric traditions. A basic goal of the Tantric visualization of an
image or a ma>nala is to gradually learn the details of that which is beheld, and then
to merge with the deity or being depicted in the image and/or diagram. This would
require a massive megablended conceptual integration network to be fashioned
over months and years.
20 Although he does not use the terms ‘blend’ or ‘reblending’, Hugh Urban’s fine study
and translations of the songs of the Kart@bhaj@s of Bengal illustrate how Tantric
traditions were reimagined and reinterpreted in response to the growth of mer-
cantile capitalism in colonial Bengal. See Urban (2001a) and Urban (2001b), the later
of which contains vivid translations of Tantric Kart@bhaj@ songs. For an exploration
of how the B@uls of Bengal also adapted Tantric beliefs and practices, see Openshaw
2002.
21 The classical Greek philosophical and epistemological treatment of anamnesis may
be found, of course in Plato’s dialogues Meno and Phaedra. For Plato, the forgotten
ontological status is that of the free soul, not completely dissimilar to the VaiX>ava
notion. In a very different and more recent vein, we find the late science fiction
writer Philip K. Dick making creative use of anamnesis in stories such as ‘We can
remember it for you Wholesale’, which was turned into the blockbuster movie Total
Recall. Philosopher Simon Critchley recently contributed a three-part essay to the
New York Times (online only) on Dick’s use of anamnesis and its similarity to
Gnosticism. See Critchely (2012).
22 For a useful study of alchemy and Tantra, see White (1996). Although he does not
treat the medieval VaiX>ava Sahajiy@s, White explores the transgressive practices
and use of sexual substances in earlier Tantric traditions that were utilized in their
own form by the later VaiX>ava Sahajiy@s. On sexual substances in Tantra, also see
White 2003.
23 Standard scholarly works on the VaiX>ava Sahajiy@s in English are Dasgupta (1969),
especially pp.113–56; Bose (1986); and Dimock (1989). Dasgupta tends to see
the medieval VaiX>ava Sahajiy@s as a later development of the earlier Buddhist
Tantrics who used the term sahaja, while Bose/Basu (reflecting most current schol-
arly opinion) argues that they should be regarded as primarily a post-Caitanya
movement. My own works of translation and analysis include: Hayes (1985, 1995,
 Glen Alexander Hayes 17

2000, 2003, 2005, 2012). Scholarly works in Bengali include: Bose (1932); Dasa (1972,
1978); and Kaviraja (1969/1975), which covers the VaiX>ava Sahajiy@s in various
places.
24 The most useful and comprehensive study of the Bengali VaiX>ava traditions de-
veloping around Caitanya is Stewart (2010), and the massive translation of the key
text, the Caitanya-carit@mPta, by KPX>ad@sa Kavir@ja, in Dimock and Stewart (1999).
25 According to the AmPtaratn@vala (‘The Necklace of Immortality’) of Mukunda-d@sa, a
later 17th-century text connected to the Mukunda-deva lineage, the three stages
are: ‘beginner’ (pravarta), ‘accomplished’ (s@dhaka), and ‘perfected’ (siddha). See
Hayes (2000) for translations of selected passages from this text and some analysis.
As with most Tantra, the adept first requires initiation by the dakX@ guru, who utters
powerful mantras and baja syllables into the ear. However, the VaiX>ava Sahajiy@s
also required a second guru, the ‘teaching’ or śikX@ guru to impart the later phases of

Downloaded from http://jhs.oxfordjournals.org/ by guest on June 27, 2012

s@dhana. Dimock (1989, pp.199–200) noted that this second teacher was often a
woman, who imparted the ritual sexual techniques.
26 See McDaniel (2012, pp.63–7) for a discussion of how this Tantric interpretation of
taking on the identities and bodies of R@dh@ and KPX>a remains controversial
even in recent Bengal.
27 This is a passage from a 17th-century text by ?kiñcanad@sa, the Vivarta-vil@sa
(‘The Game of Transformation’), which itself is a Sahajiy@ commentary upon the
Caitanya-carit@mPta of KPX>ad@sa Kavir@ja. See Hayes (2006) for a discussion of these
verses and the concept of ‘reverse birth’ in VaiX>ava Sahajiy@ tradition.
28 In contrast, the worldly mixing of sexual fluids into the womb lead to the birth
of a baby; this ‘reverse practice’ (ulb@-s@dhana) leads to the generation of the inner
yogic body, regarded variously as the ‘perfected form’ (siddha-r+pa), ‘divine body’
(deva-deha) or ‘maiden form’ (mañjara-r+pa).