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The Place of the Hidden Moon: Erotic Mysticism in the Vaisnava-Sahajiya Cult of Bengal

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This is an excellent reference book concerning the mysterious Sahajiya cult of Bengal. The Sahajiyas were very secretive, with good reason, and developed their own "twilight language" for communication.

This twilight language is so esoteric that their teachings are almost extinct. Is this a good thing? In my opinion, no. You do not want to throw away the wheat from the chaff, or the baby with the bathwater: even a broken clock is right twice a day. It would be a great tragedy for this philosophy to completely disappear.

Today, in many circles, the term "sahajiya" is considered a pejorative insult. But great schools of thought have been lost in the history of the world due to misapprehension and misconception. In the western world, Gnosticism is an example.

This being said, I must take issue with a section from this book. In this passage, the peerless, illustrious, incomparable Nityananda Rama is inferred to be a sahajiya just because he knows the "street term" for alcohol ("ananda", or "bliss"). This is faulty logic. I know that the street term for heroin is "smack", but just knowing this does not make me a heroin user.