The Value of Tantra: Markets, Modernity, and Mumbai's Master of Mantra.

This article examines the vibrant presence of tantric religiosity in contemporary India through a case study of a Mumbai-based tāntrika, whom we call Ramji Pandit, and of the ways in which his Tantra is co-constitutive of contemporary business practices and global market economies. We show how Ramji's tantric ritual services – based firmly in mantras, yantras, and a "science" of vibrational resonance – trouble the conventional ways that religion and economy are often conceptualized as separate domains of value and practice , thought to act upon one another. At once mediating the contradictions of a market-forward liberal socio-economic order, subverting hegemonic forms of economic rationality, and reinforcing consumerist structures and values of late capitalism, Ramji's tantric practice is of a piece with today's global economy in ways that demand further exploration. By investigating the economic and spiritual value projects and goals in which Tantra is enlisted, this article explores the "value of Tantra" today in India and globally. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]