Raga Music as Transindividual Sono-Ritual in the Context of Sri Aurobindo’s Integral Yoga

Presentation by Jonathan Kay (PhD Candidate, East-West Psychology, California Institute of Integral Studies, San Francisco) for South Asian Studies Association Annual Conference 2024 “Order and Disorder in South Asia” Live at California Institute of Integral Studies March 2nd, 2024 Raga Music as Transindividual Sono-Ritual in the Context of Sri Aurobindo’s Integral Yoga This paper explores Raga music within the framework of transcultural psychology and philosophy, delving into the realms of individual and collective transindividuation. Departing from the prevalent perception of Raga music as a consumable taste within the cultural marketplace, the discussion reframes it as a transformative sono-ritual integral to the spiritual journey of an aspirant. Drawing on Banerji’s ontology of ownership, the paper distinguishes between the motivations and goals of Raga music as encountered in the culture industries as a flavor of consumption, with that of the spiritual aspirations of a sadhak committed to psycho-cosmological self-exceeding and transformation. Based upon the socio-spiritual objectives of Sri Aurobindo’s Integral Yoga, I posits that a sadhak and participant of a Raga sono-ritual can engage with the sublime experience of Rasa, not merely for personal liberation out of life, but also as a conduit for Divine enjoyment in life, transforming the nature of collectivity in musical ways. From this vantage point, the sono-ritual emerges as a means to cultivate an intuitive sense (taste) of social unity in plurality, and can acts as a shared collective aspiration as a future-oriented and transformative social practice giving rise to new forms of political, ethical and aesthetic futures.