ABSTRACT
This essay analyzes how the religious desire proximity to that which is believed to be a source of or a conduit for the sacred. Within the South Asian context, this desire manifests socially in devotees’ attempts to touch the guru, to be close to the guru, to eat the guru’s leftover food, to wear what the guru has worn, to sleep where the guru has slept, and so on. The essay also analyzes how disciplinary logics of physicality, what I call haptic logics, govern guru communities and reinforce devotees’ desire for proximity to the guru by sacralizing physical contact with the guru. I suggest that this desire to be close to sources of religious power coupled with the authoritarian power relationship between guru and disciple create social situations that are readied forums for sexual abuse.
