Sensorial Theopoetics

While the site of inquiry for a theopoetic comparison of “savoring” is language, in mystical texts one cannot extricate language from embodiment. Chapter 3 brings into focus the sensorial imagery of the poetry asking how these images, often erotic, are interpreted by the commentators. This chapter is composed of two sections, “Sight” and “Sound,” dealing with the two most prominent senses in the poems, which function synesthetically—incorporating the activity of the other senses. Being more subtle in the Cántico, and more obvious in Rāsa Līlā, the sensorial exchange in both cases is never completely direct. The commentators are tasked with explaining images of reflection and refraction, sounds and harmony, that represent the simultaneous absence and presence of God. Readers are invited to understand the sensorial, embodied, and spiritual dimensions not as separate, but as participating on their own terms in the experience of savoring God.