Tantra as Seva in the Ramananda Sampraday

The first paper of this panel seeks to address the idea of siddhi in relation to the order of Ramanandi sadhus. In this case the Ramanandi approach to siddhis draws on Tantric practice to break through the proscriptive laws of nature, yet does so as a means for rendering service, seva to the larger community. While siddhis are at times rejected within Indian ascetic tradition, as Patañjali aptly illustrates in his Vibhuti Pāda, precisely because they take the practitioner back to an egoic relation to world as other, the Ramanandi yogi draws on the power of siddhi for larger than individual-self aims.