Nath

For the star known as El Nath, see Beta Tauri.The Nath tradition is a heterodox siddha tradi-

The Navnath

tion containing many sub-sects. It was founded byMatsyendranath and further developed by Gorakshanath.These two individuals are also revered in Tibetan Bud-dhism as Mahasiddhas (great adepts) and are creditedwith great powers and perfected spiritual attainment.Gorakhpur, Uttar Pradesh, India, is the centre of Nathsampradaya.

1 EtymologyThe Sanskrit word ntha is the proper name of aNavnath initiatory tradition and the word itself literallymeans lord, protector, refuge. The related Sanskritterm Adi Natha means rst or original Lord, and is there-fore a synonym for Shiva, Mahadeva, or Maheshvara, andbeyond these supramental concepts, the Supreme Abso-lute Reality as the basis supporting all aspects and mani-

festations of consciousness.

2 HistoryThe Nath tradition has many sub-sects, but all honorMat-syendranath and Gorakshanath as the founders of thetradition.[1]

2.1 OriginsThe Natha Sampradaya (Devanagari: ),is a development of the earlier Siddha or AvadhutaSampradaya,[2] an ancient lineage of spiritual masters.Its founding is traditionally ascribed as an ideal reectedby the life and spiritual attainments of the guru Datta-treya, the avatar of Brahma, Vishnu & Shiva all in oneand born as the son of Rishi Atri and Anusuya Mata.[3]

2.2 NavnathMain article: Navnath

The Navnath are the nine saints, Masters or Naths onwhom the Navnath Sampradaya, the lineage of the ninegurus is based.[4] They are worshipped collectively as wellas individually.[5]

The nine teachers, collectively known as Navnaths, areconsidered representative of great teachers in this tradi-tion or parampara:[6]

The lineage starts with Rishi Dattatreya, mythologicaldeity-founder.[4][6]

1. Machindranath or Matsyendranath2. Gorakshanath or Gorakhnath3. Jalandharnath or Jalandernath also known as Jan

Peer4. Kanifnath5. Gahininath also known as Gaibi Peer6. Bhartrinath or Bhartarinath or Raja Bhartari7. Revananath8. Charpatinath

1

2 5 LITERARY INFLUENCES

9. Naganath or Nageshnath

The nine Naths are the incarnations of Nine Narayanaswho help Lord Narayan in taking care of the worldly ac-tivities. Lord Krishna had summoned the nine Narayansto his court for deciding the establishment of Nath Sam-praday.

2.3 MatsyendranathThe establishment of the Naths as a distinct historical sectpurportedly began around the 8th or 9th century with asimple sherman, Matsyendranath (sometimes calledMi-nanath, who may be identied with or called the father ofMatsyendranath in some sources).[7]

One story of the origin of the Nath teachings is that Mat-syendranath was swallowed by a sh and while inside thesh overheard the teachings given by Shiva to his wifeParvati. According to legend, the reason behind Shivaimparting a teaching at the bottom of the ocean was inorder to avoid being overheard by others. In the form ofa sh, Matsyendranath exerted his hearing in the mannerrequired to overhear and absorb the teachings of Shiva.After being rescued from the sh by another sherman,Matsyendranath took initiation as a sannyasin from Sid-dha Carpati. It was Matsyendranath who became knownas the founder of the specic stream of yogis known asthe Nath Sampradaya.

2.4 Caurangi and GorakshanathMatysendranaths two most important disciples wereCaurangi and Gorakshanath. The latter came to eclipsehis Master in importance in many of the branches andsub-sects of the Nath Sampradaya. Even today, Gorak-shanath is considered by many to have been the most in-uential of the ancient Naths. He is also reputed to havewritten the rst books dealing with Laya yoga and theraising of the kundalini-shakti.[3]

There are several sites, ashrams and temples in India ded-icated to Gorakshanatha. Many of them have been builtat sites where he lived and engaged in meditation andother sadhana. According to tradition, his samadhi shrine(tomb) and gaddi (seat) reside at the Gorakhnath Tem-ple in the city of Gorakhpur in Uttar Pradesh. How-ever, according to the claims of the vaishnava Nityanandathe samadhi shrines (tombs) of both Matsyendranath andGorakshanath reside at NathMandir near the Vajreshwaritemple about a kilometer from Ganeshpuri, Maharashtra,India.[8]

3 The aims of the NathasAccording to Muller-Ortega (1989: p. 37), the primaryaim of the ancient Nath Siddhas was to achieve liberation

or jivan-mukti during their current lifespan.[9] Accordingto a recent Nath Guru, Mahendranath, another aim wasto avoid reincarnation. In The Magick Path of Tantra, hewrote about several of the aims of the Naths;

Our aims in life are to enjoy peace, freedom,and happiness in this life, but also to avoid re-birth onto this Earth plane. All this dependsnot on divine benevolence, but on the way weourselves think and act.[10]

4 InitiationThe Natha Sampradaya is an initiatory Guru-shishya tra-dition. Membership in the sampradaya is always con-ferred by initiation (diksha) by a diksha-gurueitherthe lineage-holder or another member of the sampra-daya whose ability to initiate has been recognized by hisdiksha-guru.The Natha initiation itself is conducted inside a formalceremony in which some portion of the awareness andspiritual energy (shakti) of the Guru is transmitted to theshishya (student). The neophyte, now aNath, is also givena new namewith which to support their new identity. Thistransmission or touch of the guru is symbolically xedby the application of ash to several parts of the body.In The Phantastikos, Mahendranath, a guru of theAdinath Sampradaya, wrote;

The passage of wisdom and knowledgethrough the generations required the mysticmagic phenomenon of initiation, which is validto this day in the initiation transmission fromnaked guru to naked novice by touch, mark,and mantra. In this simple rite, the initiatorpasses something of himself to the one initi-ated. This initiation is the start of the trans-formation of the new Natha. It must not beoverlooked that this initiation has been passedon in one unbroken line for thousands of years.Once you receive the Nath initiation, it is yoursthroughout life. No one can take it from you,and you yourself can never renounce it. This isthe most permanent thing in an impermanentlife.[11]

5 Literary inuencesAccording to Nayak the literature from Sonepur andits twilight language, sandhya bhasa, originated withCharyapada, Matsyendranath, Daripada :

The growth of literature at Sonepur can betraced to Charyapada, to Matsyendranath and

6.2 Modern Natha lineages 3

Daripada of the Natha cult. They wrote es-oteric poetry in language known as Sandhyabhasa. The local idioms they used are still incurrency in this area.[12]

According to Nayak:

The mystic poetry of the Natha cult whichourished from 8th to 11th century largelyinuenced the Panchasakha literature of Ja-gannath, Balarama, Yasowanta, Achuyta andAnanta. The Nath literature of Sonepur seemsto have set the tone and temper of the literaturethe successive ages pursued.[12]

6 Divisions

6.1 Natha PanthasThe Nath Sampradaya is traditionally divided into twelvestreams or Panths. According to David Gordon White,these panths were not really a subdivision of a monolithicorder, but rather an amalgamation of separate groups de-scended from either Matsyendranath, Gorakshanath orone of their students.[7] However, there have always beenmany more Natha sects than will conveniently t intothe twelve formal panths.[7] Thus less populous sannyasinsub-sects such as the Adinath Sampradaya or NandinathaSampradaya are typically either ignored or amalgamatedinto one or another of the formal panths.According to the Shri Amrit Nath Ashram website, thetwelve Natha Panthi are as follows:

Satya natha Dharam natha Daria natha Ayi Panthia Vairaga kea Rama ke Kapilani Ganga nathi Mannathi Rawal ke Paava panth Paagala panthi

Another division is pointed out by RajmohanNath (1964)in the following list of the twelve sub-sects:[13]

Machhindranath Adinath Minanatggg Gorakhnath Khaparnath Satnath Balaknath Golaknath Birupakshanath Bhatriharinath Ainath Khecharanath Ramachandranath

6.2 Modern Natha lineages6.2.1 Inchegiri Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj

Main article: Nisargadatta Maharaj

The Inchegeri Sampradaya, also known as NimbargiSampradaya, is a lineage of Hindu Navnath c.q. Lin-gayat teachers from Maharashtra which was started byShri Bhausaheb Maharaj.[14] It is inspired by DeshasthaBrahmin Sant Mat teachers as Dnyaneshwar, Eknath andSamarth Ramdas. The Inchegeri Sampraday has becomewell-known throughout the western world due to the pop-ularity of Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj.

6.2.2 Adinath Sampradaya Shri GurudevMahen-dranath

A recent modern Natha of the Adinath Sampradaya wasMahendranath[15] (19111991), who received initiationin 1953 from guru Lokanath, the Avadhut of the Hi-malayas. In 1978, he founded the International Nath Or-der in order to make the Nath way of life available in theWest. He wrote many essays and articles, some of whichwere collected as The Scrolls of Mahendranath, rst pub-lished in 1990. His successor, Kapilnath, continues toteach and initiate sincere seekers.[16]

7 See also

7.1 Concepts Gurunath

4 9 SOURCES

Sahaja Sama Samarasa Sampradaya Svecchachara

7.2 Sub-sects Adinath Sampradaya Nandinatha Sampradaya

7.3 Legendary Naths Luipa Matsyendranath Gorakshanath Baba Balak Nath

7.4 Past teachers Nisargadatta Maharaj (18971981) - past master ofthe Navnath Sampradaya, student of Siddharamesh-war Maharaj

Satguru Sivaya Subramuniyaswami - a past Guru ofthe Nandinatha Sampradaya

Shri Madhavnath Maharaj (18571936)

7.5 Living teachers Adityanath the abbot of the Gorakhnath Math[7]

Bodhinatha Veylanswami Sannyasin and Satguruof the Nandinatha Sampradaya

Narayan Nath a householder Nath who is the cur-rent head of the Vairag panth[7]

8 Notes[1] Mallinson, James (2011) 'Nth Sapradya.' In: Brill En-

cyclopedia of Hinduism Vol. 3. Brill, pp. 407-428.

[2] Deshpande, M.N. (1986). The Caves of Panhale-Kaji.New Delhi: Archaeological Survey of India, Governmentof India.

[3] Mahendranath (1990), Notes on Pagan India

[4] nisargadatta.org, Navnath Sampradaya

[5] Berntsen 1988.

[6] Boucher year unknown.

[7] White, David Gordon (1996). The Alchemical Body.Chicago: University of Chicago Press.

[8] Shenoy, Gopalkrishna. Discipleship

[9] Muller-Ortega, Paul Eduardo (1989). The Triadic Heartof Shiva. Albany, NY: State University of New YorkPress. Source: (accessed: Saturday March 6, 2010)

[10] Mahendranath (1990), The Magick Path of Tantra

[11] Mahendranath (1990), The Phantastikos

[12] Nayak, Pabitra Mohan Nayak (2006). The Literary Her-itage of Sonepur. Orissa Review. May, 2006. Source:(accessed: Friday March 5, 2010)

[13] Bandyopadhyay, P. K. (1992). Natha Cult and Mahanad.page 73, Delhi, India: B.R. Publishing Corporation.

[14] ShantiKuteer Ashram, Bhausaheb Maharaj

[15] Simple Wikipedia, Shri Gurudev Mahendranath

[16] Mahendranath, Shri Gurudev. The Ultimate Promulga-tion & Pronunciamento of H.H. Shri Gurudev Mahen-dranath in The Open Door: Newsletter of the InternationalNath Order, originally published inMahendranath (1990).

9 Sources Adityanath (2002). Nath FAQ. Retrieved Oct. 20,2004.

Berntsen, Maxine; Zelliot, Eleanor (1988). The Ex-perience of Hinduism: Essays on Religion in Maha-rashtra. Albany, N.Y: State University of NewYorkPress. p. 338. ISBN 0-88706-662-3.

Boucher, Cathy (n.d.), The Lineage of Nine Gurus.The Navnath Sampradaya and Sri Nisargadatta Ma-haraj

Davisson, Sven (2003). Shri Kapilnath Interview inAsh: Journal of Experimental Spirituality, Vol. 2,No. 4, Winter 2003.

Gold, Daniel and Ann Grodzins Gold (1984). TheFate of the Householder Nath in History of Reli-gions, Vol. 24, No. 2 (Nov., 1984), pp. 113-132.

Mahendranath, Shri Gurudev (1990). The Scrollsof Mahendranath. International Nath Order. Re-trieved Mar. 6, 2006.

Mahendranath, Shri Gurudev. The Tantrik Initia-tion in The Occult World of a Tantrik Guru. Inter-national Nath Order. Retrieved Nov. 18, 2006.

About Nath/Jogis: Jogi. Retrieved Feb. 06, 2010.

510 External linksGeneral

The Great Natha Siddhas, Natha Sampradaya

Inchegari

Three Lineages. The Navnath Sampradaya andShree Nisargadatta Maharaj

Gurudev R.D Ranade Disciples of Nisargadatta Maharaj

Gurudev Mahendranath

International Nath Order

Other Nath-lineages

Jayant M. Gaitonde Guru Bhuvani Nath

6 11 TEXT AND IMAGE SOURCES, CONTRIBUTORS, AND LICENSES

11 Text and image sources, contributors, and licenses11.1 Text

Nath Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nath?oldid=666677982 Contributors: The Anome, Sam Spade, Orpheus, Dbachmann, Pearle,Ogress, Hanuman Das, Wiki-uk, Sciurin, Chemical Halo, Woohookitty, Dangerous-Boy, CFynn, TheRingess, Smithfarm, Gurubrahma,YurikBot, Sylvain1972, Retired username, Jkelly, Deville, Malaiya, SmackBot, Bluebot, Hibernian, Tamfang, Relax ull be ok, NoToFrauds,Baba Louis, ChaiWalla, CmdrObot, Ekajati, Qwyrxian, AntiVandalBot, Luna Santin, 230792, Ekabhishek, Premarun, Shaunak.s, B9 hum-mingbird hovering, MartinBot, Adavidb, LeMaster, Geekdiva, Redtigerxyz, Debnathsandeep, VolkovBot, FlagSteward, Anonymous Dis-sident, IPSOS, Buddhipriya, Kulaguru, Vritti, TypeEditor1, Closenplay, SieBot, Ivan tambuk, KashmiriPandit, Niceguyedc, Komala412,Ashutoshdeora, Brewcrewer, Yogasundari, Uniscape, Fattyjwoods, Anchaudhary, Editor2020, Shannon Rose, Ism schism, Shu Li Yen,Alexius08, MatthewVanitas, Addbot, Aseemseth, Rajeevdeshpande, Sivanath, Mjr162006, Jai baba bhirfa nath ji, Tide rolls, Lightbot,Yobot, Utvik old, GLec, Nathsena, AnomieBOT, Rubinbot, Xqbot, Vivaelcelta, Xango2001, Almabot, WALTHAM2, Thehelpfulbot,FrescoBot, Skyerise, MastiBot, Nijgoykar, Theprofessordoctor, Satdeep Gill, Wintonian, EmausBot, Pokbot, ClueBot NG, Nobody60,Kitties08, Natdag23, PhnomPencil, Joshua Jonathan, Docsu, BattyBot, ChrisGualtieri, Rockin It Loud, Yogiraj Jai Bhagwan Dhankhar,Viratinath, Aruneshvar, Sandyonmars, Jayaguru-Shishya, Tigercompanion25, Swamichetanananda, Kautilya3, Androner Philips Usa andAnonymous: 100

11.2 Images File:Navnath1.jpg Source: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/3/39/Navnath1.jpg License: CC BY-SA 3.0 Contributors:

Own work Original artist: User: File:Om.svg Source: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/a/ac/AUM_symbol%2C_the_primary_%28highest%29_name_

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EtymologyHistoryOriginsNavnathMatsyendranathCaurangi and Gorakshanath

The aims of the NathasInitiationLiterary influencesDivisionsNatha PanthasModern Natha lineagesInchegiri Sri Nisargadatta MaharajAdinath Sampradaya Shri Gurudev Mahendranath

See alsoConceptsSub-sectsLegendary NathsPast teachersLiving teachers

NotesSourcesExternal linksText and image sources, contributors, and licensesTextImagesContent license