“I Am Afraid of Telling You This, Lest You’d Be Scared Shitless!”: The Myth of Secrecy and the Study of the Esoteric Traditions of Bengal

Abstract

As the verse chosen as a title for this article emblematically shows, esoteric movements have consistently used secrecy as a literary topos in their oral and written cultural expressions for a number of purposes. Scholars of South Asian religions, especially those in field of Tantric studies, have been scrutinizing for decades the need for secretive doctrines and a secret code-language (sandhyā bhās .ā), mostly interrogating textual sources and neglecting the contemporary experience and exegetical authority of living lineages. In this paper, I firstly address ethical and epistemological problems in the study of esoteric religious movements in order to propose innovative methodological strategies. Then, I offer numerous examples drawn from extensive fieldwork and in-depth literary study of contemporary esoteric lineages of West Bengal (India) and Bangladesh, in order to discuss the local discourse on secrecy. Finally, I review previously assumed notions on secrecy in South Asian religions, and I suggest to take into serious consideration local perspectives on the accessibility of esoteric knowledge, leading to a more nuanced idea of secrecy, constantly subjected to temporal and situational negotiations between silence and disclosure.

Sonic matters: Singing as method and the epistemology of singing across Bengali esoteric lineages

“…Studying esoteric communities involves particular ethical and epistemological issues surrounding secrecy and the local protocols of knowledge disclosure/accessibility. I discuss these aspects in a previous article (Lorea 2018c). 6 On Bāuls, see Openshaw ([2002] 2004), Knight (2011), Lorea (2016; on Bangladeshi Fakirs, see Salomon (1991) andTrottier (2000); on Vais .…”

“…Studying esoteric communities involves particular ethical and epistemological issues surrounding secrecy and the local protocols of knowledge disclosure/accessibility. I discuss these aspects in a previous article (Lorea 2018c).…”

Conserving the ‘Container’ of Tantric Secrecy: A Discussion with Western Śākta Practitioners

“…This is not entirely invalid, as it speaks to the perceived hubris of the standards of objectivity and distance within the field of religious studies, which can be humorously summarized as: I personally have no belief or faith whatsoever in anything supernatural, or even transcendent for that matter, and so I thought myself eminently qualified for the difficult task of elucidating mystic states. (McDaniel 2018, p. 307, quoting De Chellis Hill 1993 Although Lorea (2018) has remarked that "[t]he chances to be introduced to a deeper layer of exclusive knowledge are much higher if the researcher or the 'beginner' practitioner, is able to frame answers and questions using the special terminology of the code-language appropriately" (p. 18), I have found the latter to be insufficient. Time and again, it was not my ability to articulate things in their terms or my academic credentials in the topic that opened doors for me, but rather my examples of how despite not having been initiated or done the practices myself, I had had comparatively similar experiences and insights throughout my life.…”

Songs of the Bauls: Voices from the Margins as Transformative Infrastructures

“…For interrogating and non-conforming from the margins, the Bauls and Fakirs and their voices are historically delegitimized (if nor erased) by the hegemonic forces, including orthodox upper-castes, and dogmatic religious institutions (Das 2014). As an alternate communicative means to respond to dominant aggressions and intolerances, Bauls, oftentimes espousing a poetic and indirect way, adopt aesthetic expressions as entry points to discursive spaces (Lorea 2018;Novetzke and Patton 2008). As a part of their struggle with structural absences (such as oppression, discrimination, exploitation, and poverty etc.…”