“My Spirit Seemeth”: Śrī Sabhāpati Svāmī’s Refutation of the Lotus-Kingdoms

Presenter:

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Abstract

The literature of Śrī Sabhāpati Svāmī (b. 1828 in Madras, Tamil Nadu) formed a compelling synthesis of early modern Tamil yogic philosophy and practice that spread across India and was also engaged by colonial-era occultists such as Henry Olcott, Franz Bardon, and Aleister Crowley. In this paper I focus on a primary feature of Sabhāpati’s system, namely his practical method of refuting or canceling twelve cakras and four superseding principles as not being part of oneself, the act of which was presented as a means of attaining “Śiva’s Yoga of Kings” (civarājayōkam). In this paper I first demonstrate how the names for the cakras (“wheels”) or kamalas (“lotuses”) in Sabhāpati’s system of yoga were uniquely homologized with abstracted physical and mental faculties (e.g. elements, senses, passions, intellect, conscience, memory, and others), and were also described as “kingdoms.” These were also interwoven into a complex web of mantras and astrological correspondences, as especially outlined in Sabhāpati’s works in vernacular Indic languages. In the final part of the paper I describe how the yogin was directed by Sabhāpati to refute these cakras over the course of meditation in order to acquire a power of universal flight or projection out of the cranial vault, allowing him to experience an identity with various gods conceived of as the Brahman, especially Śiva and Viṣṇu, or Devī, and note a few likely reasons that occultists found this method so attractive.