Songs to emptiness: exploring the problem of embodiment in poet-saint Bhima Bhoi’s and other’s works

Bhakti tradition/s in India have a long history of transmission from the 7th Century Tamil poet-saints to late 19th Century traditions such as Alekh Mahima of Odisha where poet-saint Bhima Bhoi’s contribution is significant. In many Bhakti traditions, such as that of Aandal, Mira Bai, Sur Das and others, the God/Dess is tangible, visible, Sagun, and easy to comprehend and create an emotional bond with the ‘embodied’ deity. On the other hand, specific works of Kabir, Nanak or Bhoi deal with that which cannot be comprehended, or understood, the Nirgun, where there is no embodiment and bond is difficult to establish. This work attempts to examine the response – perception, conceptualization, and affective responses – to the poetry and songs of Bhima Bhoi and other Nirgun poets in contrast to poems and songs of Sagun traditions, in order to understand differences in responses to embodied vs disembodied Godhood. Audience response and EEG signals were analyzed in order to understand what happens in these contrasting conditions. Two experiments studying the experience of Bhakti poetry (through reading in one experiment, and through listening in the other), one involving subjective ratings and the second one measuring brain signal responses through EEG, were conducted. Results revealed stark differences in subjective perception of the embodied (Sagun) and the disembodied (Nirgun) poems in terms of the types of the genders ascribed, visualizations, and emotions experienced. There were no significant differences in frequency power analysis during visualization between both groups of poems, suggesting similar visualizations for both. However, we aim to explore this further to understand differences in forming imagery after exposure to Nirguna as opposed to Saguna poems.