Abhinavagupta’s Erotic Mysticism: The Reconciliation of Spirit and Flesh

Abstract

This article focuses on the erotic aspects of a particular mystical worldview, the "erotic mysticism" of Abhinavagupta, the Hindu Tantric sage of Kashmir (ca. 975-1025 CE). In particular, I concentrate on Abhinavagupta's intertwining of consciousness and sexuality, as one example of his interpretative capacities. A master of multiple traditions, discourses, and methodologies3?ranging from the most analytical to the most poetic, and including Vyakarana,4 Nyaya-Vaisesika,5 Buddhist logic, hermeneutics, Saiva and Sakta mythology, symbolism, and religious imaginaire* Tantric and yogic ritual, theology, and aesthetics?Abhinavagupta applied his visionary capacities to numerous problematics, seamlessly blending diverse epistemic fields,7 creatively synthesizing different aspects of Being,8 and continually reconnecting polarities?One and Many, Purity and Power (see Sanderson 1985), Self and Other (see Dupuche 2001)?in his nondualistic vision of reality. Out of this vast array of problematics to which Abhinavagupta devoted himself, I will focus on consciousness and sexuality. I focus on these precisely because of the lack of attention that sexuality often gets in academic discussions of the seemingly abstract notion of consciousness. For Abhinavagupta, these two "polarities" are reconnected in his form of Tantra that I will refer to as "erotic mysticism." This term was used?for the first time in Hindu Studies as far as I am aware?by Edward C. Dimock, Jr., in his classic work The Place of the Hidden Moon: Erotic Mysticism in the Vaisiiava-sahajiya Cult of Bengal (1989 [1966]). Dimock (1989: 3, 15, and passim) shows that the Vaisnava-sahajiyas attempted to