Living Mantra: Mantra, Deity, and Visionary Experience Today [Hardcover]

Living Mantra is an anthropology of mantra-experience among Hindu-tantric practitioners. In ancient Indian doctrine and legends, mantras perceived by rishis (seers) invoke deities and have transformative powers. Adopting a methodology that combines scholarship and practice, Mani Rao discovers a continuing tradition of visionaries (rishis/seers) and revelations in south Indias Andhra-Telangana. Both deeply researched and replete with fascinating narratives, the book  reformulates the poetics of mantra-practice as it probes practical questions. Can one know if a vision is real or imagined? Is vision visual? Are deity-visions mediated by culture? If mantras are effective, what is the role of devotion? Are mantras language? Living Mantra interrogates not only theoretical questions, but also those a practitioner would ask: how does one choose a deity, for example, or what might bind one to a guru? Rao breaks fresh ground in redirecting attention to the moments that precede systematization and canon-formation, showing how authoritative sources are formed.    

Part 1: Preparation.- 1. Introduction.- 2. A Mountain of Scholarship.- 3. Crossing Over.- 4. Are there Revelations Today? - Part 2: Fieldwork.-  5. Body-Yantra: Sahasrakshi Meru Temple, Devipuram.- 6. Self-Made: Svayam Siddha Kali Pitham, Guntur.- 7. I am in Mantra, Mantra is in me : Nachiketa Tapovan, Kodgal.- Part 3.- 8. Understanding Mantra Again.

Rao dovetails scholarship and practice to grapple with the captivating, eye-opening, mind-blowing narratives of the practitioners & Living Mantra documents the modern-day existence of seers (rishis), thus underscoring the open, ongoing nature of divine revelation in Hls4