Sensational Rhythms of the Ineffable

<jats:title>Abstract</jats:title> <jats:p>Implementing a decolonial framework and translation, Sensational Rhythms of the Ineffable explores how the body becomes a site of deep devotional experiences and ethical sensations through musical participation. It seeks to understand a central aspect of the Sikh episteme that Sabad Kīrtan—the congregational singing of Sikh scriptural verses—is an eminent means of imbibing the ethical message of the scripture and of experiencing the ineffable presence of the Divine, itself understood in ethical terms as the ultimate reality of the oneness of all existence. Based on two decades of fieldwork and deep study of the scriptural verses, and the Sikh metaphysics of Anhad Nād the author uncovers a theory within the songs that leads her to propose that rhythm—an element equally innate to music, the body, and everyday lived life—has a fundamental role in the affectively effective capacity of musical worship to invigorate the perceptual presence of the Ineffable and the embodied sensation of oneness. This native theory structures the book and undergirds its analysis. After providing an explanation of the theoretical and methodological approach (introduction), a summary of Sabad Kīrtan and thick description of its context (chapter 1), an elucidation of the philosophical foundation of embodied interrelationality in Sikh musical worship (chapter 2), and an illumination of the Sikh theory of lived rhythm (chapter 3), the core musical chapters (4 through 6), analyze how diverse musical styles of Sabad Kīrtan are but various means of intensifying the sensation of the same ethical oneness of all existence that Sikh sacred songs declare. The conclusion delves into cross-disciplinary and cross-cultural conversations on the main themes emerging from the study, namely, the ethics of interconnectedness and the ineffable potentialities of the unbounded body.</jats:p>