R ̄agas, or melodic frameworks, cultivate meditative awareness in
both musicians and listeners. The verbal root of raga ̄ is √raj or rañj, ‘to
color’ ‘to please’: “Hence the term occupies a rich semantic field that in-
cludes such things as color, feeling, intensity, passion, love, and beauty.
The primary aim of a r ̄aga, then, is to bring delight by stimulating an
emotional response in the hearer.”^72 From a T ̄antric standpoint, r ̄agascan
calm and concentrate the mind, and stimulate it aesthetically in the direc-
tion of religious realization.
Whether or not one accepts T ̄antric interpretations of how dance
and music can contribute to spiritual realization, Tantra provides useful
articulations of the spiritual potential of engagement with art. Tantra em-
braces the somatic and the aesthetic within its religious domain, and pro-
vides a conception of art that is both therapeutic and religious. If we take
the term aestheticin its fundamental meaning of pertaining to sense expe-
rience, and the term artin its broader connotation as applicable to forms
that evoke meanings beyond themselves, Tantra indicates that the realm
of aesthetics can be a significant dimension of religious therapeutics. In-
sight into religious therapeutics in the domain of aesthetics could be de-
veloped by considering the healing applications of religious expressions
such as Navajo and Tibetan sand-paintings, and the use of sacred music,
dance, and other arts in a range of traditions.
SACRED MUSIC AS A RELIGIOUS THERAPEUTICAcross world traditions, sacred music is valued for its healing powers, for
example, in the peace and well-being induced by hearing Gregorian
chant, and the use of indigenous American (American Indian) medicine
songs sung in curing ceremonies. The T ̄antric conception of body as an
instrument of liberation grounds a notion of sacred music as a religious
therapeutic, as does the notion of ́sabda-brahman, sound as the origin
and fundamental expression of being. The Kashmir Íaiva text Span-
dak ̄arika ̄ (Stanzas on Vibration) conveys that the purpose of mantrais the
achievement of unobscured consciousness. The following passage from
the commentary SpandavivÓrtiof R ̄aj ̄anaka R ̄ama expresses that the use
of mantra for physical healing is of the same order, but of a lesser degree
that the use of mantra for the imparting of supraphysical wholeness:
(Mantras) that have not become one with the supreme Lord [by “seiz-
ing the strength” associated with Íiva] are no more than mere phonemic
sounds, subject to creation and destruction.... However, by layingtantra and aesthetic therapeutics 157