Embodied Ontologies of Belonging: Tantric Yoga in Śaivism

Śaiva Tantra has historically been viewed as taboo and reduced to moral transgression because of its engagement with the body, ritual, sexuality, and sonic practice. Unlike orthodox spiritual traditions centered on renunciation and purity, Tantra emerges as an alternative spirituality that locates liberation within embodied and relational experience. Existing scholarship often romanticizes Tantra as mystical freedom or dismisses it as deviant practice, leaving limited attention to Tantra as a lived and embodied yogic tradition. Drawing on non-dual Śaiva traditions, particularly Pratyabhijñā and Spanda philosophy, this paper combines textual and hermeneutic analysis with attention to embodied practices such as mantra, nāda yoga, vibration, and sensory awareness. The study argues that Tantra destabilizes binaries such as sacred/profane and purity/pollution, reframing taboo as a transformative spiritual strategy and proposing an embodied spirituality of belonging rooted in resonance, participation, and ethical responsibility.