Spiritual Materialism/ Material Spiritualism: Shakta Tantric Approaches to Matter

Abstract

In opposition to ontological discourses that denigrate matter and uphold the superiority of the spirit, one can foreground the Shakta Tantric conceptualization of matter and spirit as interchangeable forces that inform the dynamics of the universe. Rather than seeing matter and spirit as incommensurable poles of a binary, Shakta Tantric yoga integrates them. This approach informs the Shakta Tantric universe of the renowned twentieth-century Bengali yogi, Vishuddhananda Paramahamsa whose Akhanda Mahayoga (Integral Great Yoga) integrates certain aspects of classical Yoga with Shakta Tantric discourses of dynamic matter, thereby enthusing the Shakta Tantric yogi to radically re-epistemologize “matter”. This paper explores how Vishuddhananda’s mode of yoga, through theory and praxis, gives rise to a unique philosophy of spiritual materialism or material spiritualism, foregrounding the ways the Divine Feminine – by revealing the fluid interplay of matter and spirit – forces us to jettison the binarization of these two aspects of existence. In the course of this exploration, the paper investigates whether and how the spiritual materialism/material spiritualism of Shakta Tantra may be seen as prefiguring the western discourses of New Materialism and Posthumanism. As Vishuddhananda hailed from Bengal, a tropical region of India celebrated for its association with Shaktism, the paper explores how his view of spiritual materialism may contribute to an emergent episteme of Tropical Materialisms by proposing a possible connection between such spiritual materialism and certain specific aspects of tropical nature that might have led to the Shakta “spiritualization” of its material dimensions.