28. Keith Edward Cantú | Esotericism, Bauls, and Sabhapati Swami

In this episode we sit down with Keith Cantú for a wide ranging
conversation on the language and categories of esotericism, the
occult, and yoga. We learn about Keith's background, travels, and
language training as well as unique experience learning from the
Bauls of Bengal.  Listeners/viewers are treated to a live
rendition of a Baul song. Keith shares with us his fascinating
dissertation research on Sri Sabhapati Swami, lesser-known Tamil
yogi who had a substantial impact on nineteenth- and
twentieth-century South Asian and Western occult movements. We
close out by previewing Keith's upcoming online course, YS 119 |
Yoga and Esotericism.


Speaker Bio


Dr. Keith Edward Cantú is an Assistant Professor (postdoctoral
research associate) at the Jagiellonian University in Kraków,
where his current research focuses on the political patronage of
yogic “meditation halls” (maṭālayams) and “tumuli” (jīva-camātis)
in Tamil Nadu. He recently completed his doctoral dissertation at
the University of California, Santa Barbara, the focus of which
was the Tamil, pan-Indian, and international reception of the
early modern yogi Sabhapati Swami’s system of Śivarājayoga. 


In addition to his dissertation, which is soon set to be
published with an academic press, Keith was the co-editor with
Saymon Zakaria of City of Mirrors: Songs of Lālan Sā̃i (Oxford
University Press, South Asia Research series, 2017), a volume of
nineteenth-century Bengali Bāul Fakiri songs translated by Carol
Salomon. He also has published several articles and chapters
relating to topics as varied as yoga and cultural authenticity,
theosophical orientalism and yoga, the ethnography of Tantra, and
Islamic esotericism, and has translated a Sanskrit chapter of the
Rasāyanakhaṇḍa on the alchemical wonders of Śrīśailam
(forthcoming via the Ayuryog project). When not researching he is
also working with the Bengali community at a non-profit clinic as
a health education and outreach specialist.


Links


YS 119 | Yoga and Esotericism 

https://ucsb.academia.edu/KeithCantu 

"Don't Take Any Wooden Nickels": Western Esotericism, Yoga,
and the Discourse of Authenticity"