offers a means of realizing one’s primordial wholeness and freedom. I as-
sumed the Hindu standpoint that healing, in religious terms, does not
mean curing the spiritual Self, for the spiritual Self is not subject to sick-
ness. I argued that healingin a religious sense means overcoming impedi-
ments that interfere with realizing(i.e., knowingand achieving)one’s
Self-nature in its full identity and freedom. Classical Yoga, which pro-
vided a foundation for the model of religious therapeutics, aims for the
transcendence of material nature. But even though classical Yoga pro-
vides an extensive system of religious therapeutics, it neglects relational-
ity, for its goal is kaivalya, ‘independence’ of Self as consciousness from
entanglement in material nature, including the body, nature, and social-
ity. Having integrated into the model Åyurveda’s holistic contribution to
the understanding and preservation of health, and Tantra’s approach that
enlightenment is attainable through physicality and aesthetic experience,
the model now requires a component embracing relationality. The idea of
community embodies meanings of relationality between person and the
sacred, among persons, and among the aspects of creation.
The idea of community thus has applications in the domains of reli-
gion, human social life, and ecology. In religion, community refers to par-
ticipation in, or contact with, that which is sacred. The word community
derives from the Latin communis ̄ , ‘common,’ which connotes shared
interests. The Indo-European root of commonand community is √mei,
‘to change,’ ‘to go,’ ‘to move.’ Derivatives of the root meirefer to the ex-
change of goods and services. Meiand its derivative ‘common’ also pro-
duce the word communication, pertaining to the transmission of informa-
tion or meaning. In the context of religious therapeutics, communication
includes prayer, ritual speech, scripture, and sacred music, which are vehi-
cles for communicating with the sacred, and for conveying among human
beings various means of getting in contact with the sacred.
Tantra holds material nature as sacred, thus grounding the valuation
of relationality, and among Indian traditions, Åyurveda gives the most at-
tention to the significance of the biophysical environment, as illustrated
by Åyurveda’s view of pharmacology. Pharmacology is a major branch of
both Åyurveda and contemporary scientific medicine. The Åyurvedic
view of pharmacology exemplifies Åyurveda’s ethos of bio-spiritual com-
munity. Plants, which provide food and medicine, are central in Hindu
religious cosmology. Exploration of community in the context of reli-
gious therapeutics spans themes including sacred song, and human
beings’ relationships with plants. In the spirit of honoring relationality
within the many domains of life embraced by religious therapeutics, con-
sider these verses from the UpaniÓsads:
168 religious therapeutics
one line long