By IANS,
New Delhi : It has been a rather profound journey for psychoanalyst-author Sudhir Kakar from translating the Kamasutra into English to exploring Indian sexuality to probing the existence of the mad and divine in today’s materialistic world.
Sudhir Kakar’s latest book, “Mad and Divine: Spirit and Psyche in the Modern World”, released in the capital Thursday, deals with the separation of the spirit and the body favoured by psychoanalysis.
He warns in his book that a focus on the body to the exclusion of the spirit is a denial of the body’s wholeness. Similarly, to focus on the spirit alone is to hold in contempt the body that makes us human.
Mumbai-based Kakar explores the connect between the spirit and the psyche – rather the interplay between the two – which at times is playful, at others deadly serious and the moments of creativity and transformation when the spirit cools the fire of desire or thaws the ice of self-centredness.
He also takes a look at the symbiotic relationship between the spirit and the psyche during religious rituals and in the healing traditions, both eastern and western, as also in the lives of some extraordinary men.
The book peeps into the well-documented childhood of Rajneesh, who, as the author says, “is a pioneer in the globalisation of spirituality”.
In his analysis of the part played by sexuality in the making of a saint, Kakar examines the life of Drukpa Kunley, who through his overtly scandalous parables, songs and actions vigorously pushes against the boundary of all that is forbidden.
The author also examines Gandhi’s practical spirituality – his vision of how we need to engage ourselves in our political and social worlds.
The book, divided into nine chapters, begins with the childhood of the “spiritually incorrect guru, Osho”.
“There is a very strong Hindu tradition that sexuality (sexual energy) can be transformed into spiritual enlightenment. Like the ancient yogis and the rishis, who used their sexual energies to move on to higher paths of life,” Kakar told IANS, trying to explain the connect between physicality, inner psyche and spirit.
“The psyche is like a large lake heated by the energy of sexuality, aggression and narcissism – ripples that may blow into a violent storm. At the bottom flows the cool spirit,” said Kakar who was in Delhi for the book launch.
The “spirit” in this book is not the “luminous cloud” of the mystic that floats ethereally in the mysterious domains of human stratosphere, but one that swirls in the crags of human passion.
Putting the book in context at the launch, Kakar said, “For a long time, any engagement with the spiritual in human sciences and among rationalists was considered esoteric. But in our times, there has been a resurgence of the romantic view which is essentially the ability to appreciate beauty and the higher paths of life.”
Rationalists, says Kakar, may try to prove that all gods have clay feet. “But the romantic vision in the West did not die out despite attacks by rationalists,” he said.
There is no need to meditate, says Kakar. “The connection with the psyche and the inner spirit is done all the time – whenever there is a spiritual moment in life. For instance, when the mother feeds her baby, she is absorbed in the task. It is a spiritual moment,” he said.