Abstract
Arundhathi Subramaniam, Women Who Wear Only Themselves: Conversations with Four Travelers on Sacred Journeys (Delhi: Speaking Tiger, 2021), 176 pp.
Subramaniam, a poet, curator and author of twelve books including prose and poetry, takes the journeys of four women to trace the essence of the much-discussed concept of bhakti (devotion) through spiritual voyage. She demystifies the unapologetic and extraordinary spiritual lives of these women by simultaneously addressing questions pertaining to seeking, search, divinity, love and beauty. Starting with the concept of thirst for the divine, Subramaniam deftly draws the reader within the subtle arenas of what constitutes the essence of bhakti and the esoteric relationship between the devotee and the deity. Calling herself a ‘seasoned listener’ (p. 3), the author embarks on the task of recording the spiritual lifestyles of Annapoorni Amma, the naked saint, Maa Karpoori, a young monk, Balarishi, a nadhayogini and Lata Mani, a prominent intellectual-turned-tantric practitioner.
Subramaniam’s thirst to comprehend the nuances of the spiritual path has always been sated by male mystics. Observing the lacuna in finding the voices of female mystics, she combines her own search with a gendered analysis of bhakti, to craft these four life-stories of spiritual women. She addresses them as a bunch of quiet women, who radiate a blazing fire within themselves. These female mystics of contemporary times quietly demonstrate a lifestyle, in stark contrast to earlier female mystics who were drawn into a kind of pasteurisation and were turned into calendar images and converted into temple figurines (p. 4). The author admits that she was attracted by the unusual quietness of these women, reflected in their attitudes. The book’s four chapters chronicle four individual journeys that throw light on the existing spiritual ethos of South India. Bringing the lives of these women to the fore, the author explicates the different shades and contours that exist within the Indian spiritual ecosystem.
Though these women adhere to different spiritual perspectives, their shared approach to the divine, through the process of self-discovery, serves as an overlapping similar feature. While claiming the act of listening to be an alchemic process for herself as an author, Subramaniam notes that the act of reading itself becomes a journey, as she draws her readers deeply inside the lived experiences of these spiritual women. Diving deeper into the mindscapes of these women mystics’ elusive lives, Subramaniam intersperses the text with relevant bhakti poems of the ancient era. She also defines the act of ‘seeking’ or ‘search’ as a valid form of desire. The recurrent tropes of hunger, thirst, craving and desire demystify the intricacies in the relationship between the divine and the devotee. The latter is not just content with worshipping the divine, but wants to eat, make love with, argue with and hurl abuse at this chosen godly entity. Undoubtedly, this destabilises any perceived notion of a hierarchical relationship and demonstrates the strong desire of the devotee (bhakta) to embody the divinity and become one with the divine.
Subramaniam’s conversations elucidate how the spiritual is woven into the routine lifestyles of these extraordinary women, who emanate a disconcerting and unnerving presence in the way they relate to their respective deities. For instance, the conversation with Annapoorni Amma reveals her palpable strong presence that speaks much louder than her words. Her refusal to wear clothes and the strong faith in her naked presence exhibits an aura of utter self-defenselessness and a breathtaking vulnerability, which acts as a thread of commonality between all the four women. The confidence with which these women hold their beliefs and flaunt their identity is what makes them women who ‘wear only themselves’. Annapoorni Amma’s self-defiance stems from the inextricable power that she has adorned herself with, since she has nothing to protect or lose other than blatantly wearing her true identity.
Lata Mani, a renowned academic and Marxist feminist was plummeted into the path of sacredness after a terrible car accident. The aftermath of this truly life-changing experience made her feel that she had woken up in the neighbourhood of the divine. Certainly, Lata Mani was never the same after this incident that forcefully drew her into the deeper place within her ‘self’, as discussed in the preface of the book (p. 13).
The metaphor of clothing plays a significant role, as each woman wears her individuality in a unique way, illuminated also in the design of the book’s cover. As every woman in the book recalls her divine journey, Subramaniam unveils the joy, pain and struggle prominent in the path of inhabiting one’s own ‘self’. She recounts how the prolonged solitude of the pandemic contributed to reflect on the conversations and interviews she conducted with these four women. Those intense moments of reflection initiated a palpable sense of urgency that motivated Subramaniam to document these stories.
The book also touches upon some wider pertinent questions surrounding the notion of bhakti itself. For instance, the bifurcation between flesh and spirit is addressed in the varied experiences discussed in the book. Through the integration of flesh and spirit, these women craft a unique path to reach the divine, reflecting on India’s diverse spiritual traditions. As the chapters unfold, one finds the growing intensity of the conversation unearthing the ‘aliveness’ of the self, as these women try to cast the radiance of their strong presence, albeit in a demure manner. Untouched by any fear of missing out on momentary ethereal pleasures, these women stand out for their singularity, pursuit, expansive nature and purpose. Bringing alive the stories of these four women spiritual mystics, this book is a welcome addition to the existing bhakti literature and certainly deserves a wide readership from both seekers and non-seekers alike.