Indian Female Gurus in Contemporary Hinduism A Study of Central Aspects and Expressions of Their Religious Leadership Marie-Thérèse Charpentier Marie-Thérèse Charpentier Born 1948 in Paris, France M.A. Stockholm University, Sweden, 1995 Researcher, Åbo Akademi University, Finland Cover design: Marie-Thérèse Charpentier Photo: Lennart Charpentier Layout and typography: Maths Bertell and Fredrik Ottoson Åbo Akademi University Press Biskopsgatan 13, FI-20500 Åbo, Finland Tel: +358-20 786 1468 Fax : +358-20 786 1459 E-mail:[email protected] http://abo.fi/stiftelsen/forlag/ Distribution : Oy Tibo-Trading Ab P.O. Box 33, FI-21601 PARGAS, Finland Tfn: +358-2 454 9200 Fax: +358-2 454 9220 E-mail: [email protected] http://www.tibo.net © Marie-Thérèse Charpentier 2010 INDIAN FEMALE GURUS IN CONTEMPORARY HINDUISM Indian Female Gurus in Contemporary Hinduism A Study of Central Aspects and Expressions of Their Religious Leadership Marie-Thérèse Charpentier ÅBO 2010 ÅBO AKADEMIS FÖRLAG – ÅBO AKADEMI UNIVERSITY PRESS CIP Cataloguing in Publication Charpentier, Marie-Thérèse. Indian female gurus in contemporary Hinduism : a study of central aspects and expressions of their religious leadership / Marie-Thérèse Charpentier. – Åbo : Åbo Akademi University Press, 2010. Diss.: Åbo Akademi University. ISBN 978-951-765-544-6 ISBN 978-951-765-544-6 ISBN 978-951-765-545-3 (digital) Painosalama Oy Åbo 2010 To Rebecka, Petra, and Erika CONTENTS CONTENTS ................................................................................................................ 7 Acknowledgment ....................................................................................................... 9 I – Introduction ......................................................................................................... 13 1. Prologue ............................................................................................................ 13 2. Problem formulation and research questions .............................................. 14 3. Previous research ............................................................................................. 20 4. Theoretical and methodological approaches ............................................... 24 4.1 Paden’s perspective of comparative religion ......................................... 24 4.2 A gender approach .................................................................................... 26 4.3 Gender, power, subordination, empowerment and agency ............... 28 4.4 Deprivation theory..................................................................................... 30 4.5 ‚Women as agents‛ and ‚‘Woman’ as symbol‛ ................................... 31 5. The Field: Seventy female gurus and four representatives ....................... 34 6. My four examples ............................................................................................ 36 7. The material ...................................................................................................... 37 8. Fieldwork methodology and methodological problems ........................... 41 8.1 The practice of daran ................................................................................ 44 8.2 The constraints of the research ................................................................ 48 8.3 Textual studies and the anthropology of religion ................................. 49 8.4 Hagiographical sources ............................................................................. 51 9. Confidentiality .................................................................................................. 55 10. Expected contributions and potential relevance ....................................... 55 11. Presentation of chapters ................................................................................ 56 II – Female Gurus in Hinduism: a Historical Survey Followed by Portraits of Four Female Spiritual Masters ............................................................................... 59 1. The paradigm of guruhood in Hindu tradition .......................................... 59 2. Slowly emerging from their invisibility ....................................................... 63 3. Portraits of four female gurus ........................................................................ 69 III – Female Guruhood in a Social Setting ............................................................ 93 1. ‚Caste‛ background ........................................................................................ 94 1.1 ‚Caste‛ or vara .......................................................................................... 95 2. Education .......................................................................................................... 99 3. Place of birth, geographic mobility, and religious environment ............ 103 4. The impact of Ramakrishna, Sharada Devi, and Vivekananda .............. 109 5. Conclusion ...................................................................................................... 114 IV – The Call to Holiness: Childhood and Teens .............................................. 117 1. Miraculous birth and exemplary childhood .............................................. 120 2. Trances and illnesses ..................................................................................... 125 3. Paranormal gifts ............................................................................................. 130 4. ‚Going to the forest‛ ..................................................................................... 137 5. Conclusion ...................................................................................................... 142 V – From Private Religiosity to Public Recognition: Becoming a Guru ........ 147 1. Scriptural and institutional authority ......................................................... 148 7 2. Various forms of transmission of spiritual authority ............................... 151 3. The centrality of religious experience and enlightenment ...................... 157 4. Charismatic authority .................................................................................... 165 5. Female spiritual leadership, legitimacy, authority, and power .............. 168 6. Conclusion ....................................................................................................... 177 VI – Female Guruhood, Celibacy, and Married Life ........................................ 179 1. ‚To be in the world but not of it‛: the position of the Bhagavadgt ..... 181 2. Tantra and married life .................................................................................. 183 3. Guruhood and householdership ................................................................. 185 4. Strdharma, pativratdharma, and the concept of akti ................................ 190 5. Sexual abstinence within marriage .............................................................. 194 6. Rejecting Marriage ......................................................................................... 197 7. When family members become disciples: Reversing the familial hierarchy .............................................................................................................. 203 8. Guruhood and widowhood .......................................................................... 208 9. Guruhood and divorce .................................................................................. 212 10. Conclusion ..................................................................................................... 216 VII – The Play of the Goddess .............................................................................. 221 1. The thousand faces of the Indian goddess ................................................. 222 2. The avatra paradigm in Hindu thought .................................................... 228 3. akti and goddess worship ........................................................................... 230 4. The moods of the living goddess: ritualizing divine ecstasy .................. 232 5. Female avatrs ................................................................................................. 243 6. Disciples’ and gurus’ perceptions of the sacred feminine in a human body, and the meanings of Indian goddess symbolism ............................... 247 7. Does Hindu goddess worship translate into women’s social status? .... 253 8. Conclusion ....................................................................................................... 258 VIII – Conformists or Rebels? ............................................................................... 261 1. Challenging social conventions ................................................................... 262 2. Following purity restrictions ........................................................................ 267 3. An inner, silent ‚revolution‛ ........................................................................ 276 4. Non-verbal communication and empowerment ....................................... 286 5. Conclusion ....................................................................................................... 292 IX – Summary and Concluding Remarks ........................................................... 295 1. Summary ......................................................................................................... 295 2. Sanctioning and legitimizing female Hindu leadership .........................