Modality in Spiritual Literature : A Corpus Aided Discourse Study on Sadhguru and Eckhart Tolle

Abstract: This study investigates and discusses how two spiritual teachers from different parts of the world interact with their devotees, what the probable impacts of their interaction are, and whether they speak similarly or differently based on the use of modal auxiliary verbs and pronouns. Linguistically speaking, the mystics mostly have to address their audience/readers in a particular manner with expressions which represent certainty, possibility, obligation and so on; thus, a study of such is necessary and modal auxiliary verbs represent such expressions. The two primary texts were chosen based on contemporary work and popularity. One of the texts was authored by Sadhguru Jaggi Vasudev, a spiritual teacher, an international spokesperson and a popular author. The other text was by Eckhart Tolle, a spiritual teacher and best-selling author. A corpus-assisted discourse approach was taken while looking into modal auxiliary verbs and their pronoun bigrams using Ant-Conc and Log-likelihood Calculator. Both quantitative and qualitative approaches were taken for the analysis.  Findings suggest three things. First, both authors use similar types of modal verbs (epistemic) in most cases. Second, after comparing the type of modal verbs (epistemic/deontic) significant differences are observed. When the authors use epistemic modals, the choice of bigrams addresses different audience types and the way they approach a concept is different. Sadhguru (2020) addresses the general audience/readers whereas Tolle (2004) addresses the readers who need spiritual guidance. Finally, the choice of modal verbs represents mostly certainty that keeps the mood of the book calm and content for the readers. To sum up, spiritual teachers mostly speak from their experience and represent the expression of certainty and possibility though they address their readers differently.