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Obscure Religious Cults as Background of Bengali Literature c17: Chapter IX: The Religion of the Nātha Siddhas

Obscure Religious Cults as Background of Bengali Literature c17

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Contents

Chapter IX: The Religion of the Nātha Siddhas

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The religious views of the Nātha Siddhas are as much obscured by the insufficiency and anomaly of accounts as is the history of the whole cult. The distinctive features of their yogic practices as also the theories behind them are not found explained systematically in any of the Sanskrit or non-Sanskrit texts, associated with the cult somehow or other. The Sanskrit texts are mainly texts on Haṭha-yoga in general and the vernacular texts are generally poetical texts on legends and myths. The method of treatment of the present writer has, therefore, been to analyse and examine all the available data and to give a systematic exposition of them so as to give a general idea about the nature of the cult.

(i) General Air of Supernaturalism

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The general religious nature of Nāthism is characterised by a wide-spread belief in occult power attained through the practice of yoga. All the legends are permeated through and through with a spirit of supernaturalism more in the form of the display of magical feats and sorcery by the Siddhas than in the form of occasional interference from the gods and goddesses, or any other supernatural being. Occultism is an inseparable ingredient of popular religious consciousness,—nay, it is often the salt of popular religious belief. In the history of Indian religion occultism is associated with religious beliefs and practices from the time of the *Atharva-veda*, and henceforth it is associated with all esoteric religious systems in the Hindu, Buddhist and other religious schools. In Pāli literature we find occasional reference to the belief in the *Iddhis* (i.e., *ṛddhi*) or occult powers attainable through religious practices. We find frequent reference to the ten supernatural powers (*daśa-bala*) and also to the six supernatural faculties (*abhijñā*) which are attainable by a Buddhist adept. Patañjali, the great propounder of yoga, who dealt primarily with the psychological aspect of yoga, also devoted a full chapter of the *yoga-sūtra* to the different kinds of supernatural powers (*vibhutis*) attainable through concetration of mind on different objects or on different centres of the body. The eight supernatural faculties, viz., *Aṇimā* (the power of becoming as small as an atom), *Mahimā* (the power of becoming big), *Laghimā* (the power of assuming excessive lightness at will), *Garimā* (the power of becoming as heavy as one likes), *Prāpti* (the power of obtaining everything at will), *Prakāmya* (the power of obtaining all objects of pleasure at will), *Īśitva* (the power of obtaining supremacy over everything) and *Vaśitva* (the power of subduing, fascinating or bewitching) are well known in the school of yoga.¹ It is held that through the practices of Haṭha-yoga "the gross body begins to acquire something of the nature of the subtle body and to possess something of its relations with the life-energy; that becomes a greater force more powerfully felt and yet capable of a lighter and freer and more resolvable physical actions, powers which culminate in the Haṭhayogic *siddhis* or extraordinary powers of *garimā*, *mahimā* *aṇimā* and *laghimā*."² These powers are generally known as the eight powers of lord Śiva himself, who is the lord of yoga.

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¹ To these eight another is often added, which is *Kāmāvasāyitva* (i.e., the power of suppressing desire, self-denial or mortification).

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² *The Synthesis of Yoga* by Aurobindo Ghose, *Ārya*, 1918, pp. 404-405.

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The Nātha Siddhas (including Mayanāmati, who too was versed in the mystic knowledge of yoga) displayed throughout these eight supernatural powers. Thus we find in the *Gorakṣa-vijaya* that when Śiva granted the boon to a princess that she should get Gorakh as her husband, the great Yogin Gorakh assumed the form of a child of six months before the princess and expressed the desire of sucking her breasts. The princess got offended and insisted on having Gorakh as her husband; Gorakh could not agree to her proposal, but gave her his old patched and ragged garment and asked her to wash it in water and to drink that water. This would, he assured, give her a son. She obeyed and the words of Gorakh came to be true.

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Display of super-natural power by the Nātha Siddhas.

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After that Gorakh was sitting under a Bakula tree and at that time Kānu-pā was passing in the sky above. Gorakh could know of it by the shadow of the Siddha falling below; he got offended and sent his pair of wooden sandals to go up and bind the arrogant Siddha down and the order of Gorakh was instantaneously carried out. Again, when Gorakh resolved to enter into the country of Kadalī in disguise of a Brahmin in order to rescue his Guru, he sent Laṅga and Mahā-laṅga (two attendants on Gorakh) to Viśva-karmā asking the latter to supply him at once with a golden sacred thread, a pair of golden ear-rings, golden frontal marks, golden umbrella, stick, etc., and everything was readily and most obediently supplied by Viśva-karmā. When Gorakh again demanded for the necessaries for assuming the form of a dancing girl, Viśva-karmā supplied him with all golden articles at once. The Nāthas seldom walked on earth, they moved in the air and would traverse hundreds of miles within the twinkle of an eye. To remove the illusion of Guru Mīna-nāth and to recover him to his sense, Gorakh-nāth displayed various yogic powers before the Guru. He first split into two Binduk-nāth (who was born to Mīna-nāth in Kadalī), then washed his (Binduk-nāth’s) body in the manner of a washerman and dried it up in the sun,—and then revived him once more by the fillip of his fingers. Mayanāmatī and Hāḍi-siddhā displayed magical powers at every step in all the versions of the story of Gopi-cānd. They could know everything by their dhiyāna (i.e., dhyāna, meditation) or mahā-jñāna (great mystic knowledge) and could do anything and everything they liked with the help of a mere Huṃkāra (i.e. the sound of the mystic syllable ‘huṃ’) or such other Tāntric mystic syllables.¹ At the time of Mayanāmatī’s initiation by Gorakh in her childhood, Gorakh made a full grown banian tree from its seed within the time of twelve Daṇḍas.² Again, twelve crores of Yogins with thirteen crores of disciples, who assembled on the occasion of Mayanā’s initiation, and whose assemblage occupied the space that could be traversed in six months, could be served with the rice that was cooked from a single grain of paddy,—and yet after all had eaten to their heart’s content, the food for one Siddha was still left in the earthen pot.³

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¹ In the Rangpur version of the story we always find that Hāḍipā or Mayanāmatī did everything by the muttering of tuḍu tuḍu ; tuḍu tuḍu here, however, represents the muttering of the mystic syllables.

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² One Daṇḍa is approximate to 24 minutes.

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³ Gopi-candrer Pāñcāli (C. U.), p. 344.

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In the description of Hāḍi-siddha we find that he makes ear-rings of the sun and the moon, and lord Indra himself fans him; he cooks his food in the moon and eats his food on the back of the tortoise,—and goddess Lakṣmī herself prepares food for him. The five daughters of Indra remove the leaves on which he takes his food and Suvacanī⁴ supplies him with betel-nut, the Nāga-girls of the Netherland prepare his tobacco-pipe and Meghanāl, son of Yama, comes forward to serve him with a fan. He walks with his golden sandals and if he gets hold of Yama he beats him severely.⁵ Before Gopi-cānd agreed to accept Hāḍi-siddha as his Guru, he (Gopi-cānd) wanted to be convinced of the yogic powers of the latter. In one of the versions of the song we find that at the challenge of the king, the Siddha

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⁴ An indigenous demi-goddess of Bengal:

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⁵ Gopi-candrer Gān, Bujhān Khaṇḍa, (C. U.) p. 61.

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Supernatural powers of Hāḍi-siddha.

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at once got ready, rolled thrice on the ground and got his body pasted with eighty maunds of dust,—made the rope round his loins with eighty maunds of jute, put on a cap made of eighty four maunds of iron, held in hand an iron stick weighing eighty three maunds, and put on a pair of iron sandals weighing eighty two maunds. The Hāḍi got ready and came out of his cell and drank water with twenty two maunds of pea. He stretched his hands which reached the sky above; he stretched his legs which reached the Netherland below; the hairs of his body stood like plam trees and the cap on his head reached the mountain Kailāsa. When the Hāḍi Siddha began to move, mother earth began to quake with cracking sound; when the Hāḍi stood up his head struck against heaven above; when he began to move with a broom, a broken spade, a basket to carry rubbish, and an earthen water jar on head, he crossed fortytwo *Krośas*¹ in one single step, and wherever he placed his feet, the foot-prints made large tanks. When he arrived at the port of Kaliṅkā, he first made a *Humkāra* for broom, and innumerable brooms poured down from above and began to cleanse the market automatically; then he made another *Humkāra* for baskets and innumerable baskets began to remove rubbish automatically; when he made *Humkāra* for the spade, innumerable spades began to scrape the ground automatically; similarly innumerable earthen jars began to pour down water. Hāḍipā then went to the house of Mayanā and asked from her something to eat. Mayanā asked him to take his bath and then to take meal. Hāḍipā went to the river to bathe, released in the river a piece of torn cloth with twelve knots and thereby the water was dried up; the merchants in their stranded boats began to weep; fish, shark, dolphin, crocodile—all began to cry in the dry bed of the river; Hāḍipā took pity on them, pressed the piece of cloth with twelve knots and the river became once more overflooded with water. He then entered the coconut-garden of the king and sat on his yogic posture and all coconuts dropped down before him; he spilt them up with his nail, drank water and ate up the nut and the coconuts returned to the trees and remained hanging just as before. By that time Mayanā finished her cooking and invited Hāḍipā to take meal; the meal prepared was taken by the Hāḍi all at once,—but that could not appease his hunger. He then took seven bags of dried paddy, three bags of salted onion and swallowed the whole thing with twenty-two jars of water.¹ Similar other magical feats were displayed by the Hāḍi as proof of his yogic power. He cut a man into two and revived him at will within the twinkle of an eye; he transferred the head of queen Adunā to the trunk of queen Padunā and vice versa and again set everything right. When he was buried under the stable, he tore off all his bondage of rope and chain by means of a single Huṃkāra; the chain of hand became transformed into a rosary of beads; the heavy stone on his chest became the outer garment of yoga (yoga-paṭṭa); the rope with which he was bound became the rope of his loins; and the grave was transformed into an under-ground cave where Hāḍi remained absorbed in his yoga-meditation.² These are some of the types of magical powers displayed by the Siddhas, mainly by Gorakh, Hāḍipā and Mayanāmati. We need not multiply instances. Similar legends of magical power displayed by the Nātha Siddhas are found abundantly also in the Nātha literature of other vernaculars. This curious blending of supernaturalism and occultism with the most realistic description of the story and the keen human interest involved in the pathos of the great renunciation of a young king like Gopī-candra, has infused Nātha literature with a peculiar literary charm.

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¹ A *Krośa* is a little more than two miles.

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¹ Vide Gopi-candrer Gān, Bujhān Khaṇḍa (C. U.), pp. 80-85. Cf. also Gopi-candrer Sannyās, pp. 440-441.

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² Gopi-candrer Sannyās, p. 418.

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In the literary field, at least so far as Bengali literature is concerned, this emphasis on occultism in the Nātha literature sharply makes it distinct from the literature belonging to similar esoteric schools, we mean the literature of the Buddhist Sahajiyās, the Vaiṣṇava Sahajiyās, the Bāuls and such other schools of Bengal. We have seen before how a spirit of revolt against occultism and outward show of austere practices characterises the literature of the different Sahajiyā sects including the literature of the Sūfī poets. Very frequently and severely did Kabir criticise the sect of the Gorakh-yogins in his poems; so have also his followers including Nānak, the Sikh prophet.

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Judging from the religious point of view such occultism represents only the popularly adumbrated superficial feature of Nāthism. It is not also a fact that such display of supernatural power characterises all literature belonging to the Nātha cult. In some of the Hindi texts on Gorakh and Matsyendra and in some texts of Hindi literature ascribed to Gorakhnāth we find the same spirit of heterodoxy as is found in the Sahajiyā literature, and there the Nāthas have joined with the Sahajiyās in their spirit of criticism. The perusal of an early Hindi text like the Gorakh-bodh will tempt one to believe that there is no difference between Nāthism and the various other Sahajiyā cults in their religious attitude. The other fragments of literature ascribed to Gorakh and Carpaṭa (who also has been included in the list of the Siddhas and is well-known in Hindi and Punjabi Nātha literature as a great Siddha of the Nātha Sect) will lead one to the same conclusion.¹ In the Sanskrit texts on yoga, which are ascribed to the authorship of Gorakh-nāth, or are traditionally associated with the name of Gorakh and are believed to represent the religious views and practices of the Nātha-yogins, we often find criticism levelled against other orthodox religious systems from the stand-point of yoga. We may for instance refer to the *Gorakṣa-siddhānta-saṃgraha*,¹ where we find many orthodox schools severely criticised from the point of view of yoga and there the supremacy of the yoga-school has been established with reference to the texts belonging to various yogic schools.² In the sixth chapter of the *Siddha-siddhānta-paddhati* we find description of the real yogin, and in the fifth chapter of the *Gorakṣa-saṃhitā* we find an elaborate description of the final state of yoga. From these descriptions it will appear that the state of non-duality, bereft of all disturbance of mentation, is the final state of yoga. On this point these yogins will appear homogeneous in spirit with the Buddhist Sahajiyā yogins. In the small texts, entitled *Amanaska-vivaraṇa* and *Yoga-bīja*³ belonging to the yogic cult of the Siddhas, we find the same spirit of criticism.⁴ A very faint echo of this voice of yoga literature in general is sometimes found also in Bengali Nātha literature, where the path of yoga is eulogised to king Gopī-cānd either by his mother Mayanā-matī or by his Guru Hāḍi-siddha.⁵

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¹ For such literature ascribed to Gorakh and Carpaṭa, see Dr. Mohan Singh's work on Gorakh-nāth.

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¹ The text is a compendium of news and views on the yogic cult of Gorakṣa collected from the Sanskrit texts that are traditionally associated with the cult as embodying the doctrines of the cult.

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² *Vide*, pp. 1-9; 12 et seq; 23-24; 49, 54, etc. Gopī-nāth Kavirāja's edition. *Cf.* also *Kaula-jñāna-nirṇaya* ascribed to Matsyendra, particualrly *Akula-vīra-tantra* included in it.

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³ The two texts are published in the Vasumatī series of Bengal in a collection of many small yogic texts published under the general caption of *Śāstra-śataka*.

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⁴ *Cf.* *Amanaska-vivaraṇa*, verse No. I.

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⁵ *Cf.*, *Gopī-candrer Gān* (C U., Part I), p. 70; *Gopī-candrer Sannyās* (C. U., Part II), p. 413, etc.

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It will be doing the worst sort of injustice to Nāthism as a popular religious sect to hold that in its origin and nature it had nothing in it worth considering but the practices of Haṭha-yoga with the only end of attaining some occult powers. It is the wild, though sweet, imagination of the uninitiated village poets that is responsible for the growth of so much occultism in the Nātha cult at the cost of the truth in the cult which is certainly worth considering. Behind the legends and traditions found in popular poetry we occasionally find glimpses of light, with the help of which we shall try in the following pages to catch at the inner truth of the cult.

(ii) The final End of the Nātha Siddhas

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What was the final aim of the Nātha Siddhas and what was the means (Sādhanā) through which this end was to be attained? If we are to give the answer in a nutshell, we should say that the final aim of the Nātha Siddhas was the attainment of Śivahood in and through the attainment of immortality, and the means of attaining it was primarily Haṭha-yoga. The question of escaping death may be taken to be the most salient feature of Haṭha-yoga in general as contrasted to the other forms of yoga, viz., Mantra-yoga, Laya-yoga and Rāja-yoga. The latter three schools are idealistic in their philosophical outlook and, therefore, lay the greatest emphasis on the final arrest of the mind and the attainment of liberation thereby (liberation from the whirl of coming and going); the emphasis of Haṭha-yoga seems to be primarily on the physical or physiological practices which remove disease, decay and death. In the description of the benefits attainable through the practices of yoga we frequently meet with statements that through such and such yogic practices the yogin gets rid of all diseases, his old body becomes rejuvenated, his body becomes changeless like a mountain; he becomes a victor over *Kāla* (i.e., time) and a deceiver of *Kāla*; he becomes a victor over Death (*mṛtyuñjaya*). Patañjali, the great propounder of yoga, gives Haṭha-yoga but a subsidiary place—it is resorted to only for gaining a control over the physical and the physiological systems, and this control necesssrily affects psychological states and conditions, and a perfect control over the psychological states leads to final liberation. In this final state of liberation the Puruṣa or the ‘seer’ remains in his sheer essential nature. This final aim of yoga as the final arrest of mind has often been admitted also by Haṭha-yoga, and in some of the standard texts Haṭha-yoga has been made subservient to Rāja-yoga (i.e., the yoga par excellence, which is the yoga of meditation);¹ but considering the general tone of Haṭha-yoga it seems that the very approach of Haṭha-yoga was somewhat different from the approach of the other schools of yoga. There is indeed the question of liberation in Haṭha-yoga,—but here the conception of liberation itself is different from that of the other schools of thought. Liberation here means immortality first in a perfect body (*siddha-deha*) and then in a divine body (*divya-deha*), and this is the *Siddhi* or the perfection after which the Siddhas aspired.

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¹ *Jivan-mukti* or immortality in a perfect body is the final aim of the Nātha Siddhas.

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The final aim of the Nātha Siddhas is *Jivan-mukti* or liberation while living, and this state of liberation is what is meant by immortality. While the other schools of thought regard the final dissolution of the body or its final dissociation from the spirit indispensable for liberation, the Siddhas seek liberation in a transformed or transmaterialised body, which is the perfect body. What is this perfect body or the divine body? It is an indestructible spiritual body,

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*kevalaṃ rāja-yogāya haṭha-vidyopadiśyate* ||
*Haṭha-yoga-pradīpikā*, (1-2).

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absolutely free from the principles of defilement or the principles of *aśuddha-māyā*; but it is associated with principles of *viśuddha-māyā* which prevents it from becoming absolutely static and acts as the absolutely purified dynamic principle for its further evolution through subtler stages to lead it to the final state of *parā-mukti*. The yogins in their perfect body are prompted by the principles of *viśuddha-māyā* to benevolent activities rendering spiritual guidance to innumerable religious aspirers,—and this state is the fittest state for becoming a Guru or spiritual preceptor. It is for this reason that the Siddhas are the true preceptors in the world. Further, due to the absolute dissociation of the *aśuddha-māyā* these benevolent activities of the Siddhas cannot any more bind them down to the world of suffering. This active state of the Siddha, which helps the religious aspirers of the world on the one hand and evolves its own final state of *parā-mukti* on the other, may very well be compared to the Bodhisattvahood of the Buddhists, where there is the principle of activity in the form of universal compassion, which uplifts the suffering beings on the one hand, and, on the other hand, makes the Bodhisattva march forward through the ten stages of *Bodhisattva-bhūmi* towards the final goal of Buddhahood.

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In the *Yoga-vīja*, a small yogic text, we find that the body is of two kinds, *viz.*, unripe (*apakva*) and ripe (*pakva*). The unripe body is the body not disciplined by yoga, and the ripe body is the body disciplined by yoga. Through the fire of yoga the body becomes supra-material and above all sorrows and sufferings, while the unripe material body of ordinary people becomes the cause of all sorrow and sufferings. Such a yoga body (*yoga-deha*) is rare even to the gods; it is a body bereft of all limitations and bondage and at the same time possessing great powers; it is limitless like the sky but

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The ripe body and the unripe body.

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purer even than the sky.¹ The great yogin with his perfect body moves in the world according to his own will,--and as this perfect body is produced through the burning away of his physical body through the fire of yoga there is no further death for him. Where an ordinary man lives (in his physical form) the yogin is dead,--and where there is the death for all (in the physical form) there is no death for the yogin. He has no duty of his own,--but at the same time is not defiled by any activity,--he is liberated while living --and is always living in his true body, which is bereft of all defilement.² A deathless ripe body of this type is the first requisite for a Siddha; for such a ripe body helps the Siddhas in attaining the first state of *Divya-deha* or *Parā-mukti*.

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¹ *apakvāḥ paripakvāś ca dvi-vidhā dehinaḥ smṛtāḥ* | *apakvā yoga-hīnāstu pakvā yogena dehinaḥ* || *pakvā yogāgninā dehī ajaḍaḥ śoka-varjitaḥ* | *jaḍas tat pārthivo jñeyaḥ apakvo duḥkhado bhavet* || *śarīreṇa jitaḥ sarve śarīram yogibhir jitam* | *tat katham kurute teṣām sarva-duḥkhādikam phalam* || *mahā-bhūtāni tattvāni saṃhṛtāni krameṇa ca* | *sapta-dhātumayo deho dagdho yogā-gninā śanaiḥ* || *devair api na labhyate yoga-deho mahābalaḥ* || *cheda-bandhair vimukto'sau nānā-śakti-dharaḥ puraḥ* | *yathā-kāśas tathā dehaḥ ākāśād api nirmalaḥ* || Verses 33, 34, 46, 48, 49 and 50. Vasumatī edition (in the collection of *Śāstra-śataka*).

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² *saṃsarec ca punas tāni svecchayā vijitendriyaḥ* | *maraṇam tasya kim devī pṛcchasindu-nibhā-nane* || *nāsau maraṇam āpnoti punar yoga-balena tat* | *puraiva mṛta evāsau mṛtasya maraṇam kutaḥ* || *maraṇam yatra sarveṣām tatrāsau sakhi jivati* | *yatra jivanti mūḍhās te tatrāsau mṛyate sadā* || *kartavyam naiva tasyāsti kṛtenāsau na lipyate* | *jivan-muktaḥ sadā svasthaḥ sarva-doṣa-vivarjitah* || Ibid., verses (53-56).

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It seems that as pre-eminently a Śaivite school the aim of the Nātha cult was the attainment of Śivahood or the state of Maheśvara. Immortality is recognised to be the quintessence of the ultimate nature of the Lord; to attain the state of *Parā-mukti* in and through the state of *Jīvan-mukti* is, therefore, virtually the same as to attain the state of Maheśvara. It is for this reason that in common belief we find great Nātha Siddhas like Matsyendra and Gorakh often identified with Śiva or Maheśvara. It will not be correct to think therefore that the Nātha cult is essentially an atheistic school of alchemy. The real significance of the attainment of immortality is the attainment of the state of the Great Lord.

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The legendary accounts, given in the Nātha literature of the life and activities of the Nātha Siddhas, including king Gopī-cānd’s mother Mayanāmatī and king Gopī-cānd himself, will corroborate our statement on the final aim of the Nātha yogins and their general religious attitude. The myths, legends, traditions and stories have all behind them the quest of immortality,—an escape from the clutching jaws of decay and the cruel snatch of death. It is easily detectable in the stories of the Nātha literature that what differentiates the Siddhas from ordinary men is their power of control over death and decay. Yama, the king of death, had no hold over the Nātha Siddhas, and whenever he, in the course of the execution of his ordinary daily duties, forgot this important fact and transgressed his power and foolishly extended his hands to any of the Siddhas, the poor Lord of Death was taught a very good lesson by the Siddhas. In the *Gorakṣa-vijaya* or the *Mina-cetana* we find that when Gorakh heard from Kānu-pā of the captivity of his Guru Mīna-nāth in the land of Kadali in the hands of wicked women, he took up his mystic bag of cloth (*siddha-jhuli*), put on his loose garment and the pair of wooden sandals, held his staff in hand and at once entered the city of Yama. Yama was seated on his throne in the open assembly and at the sight of Gorakh he rose from his seat in reverence and humbly enquired about the cause of his (Gorakh’s) sudden visit to the city of the dead. Gorakh took Yama severely to task for summoning his Guru Mīna-nāth and thus poking his (Yama’s) nose in the affairs of the immortal Siddhas. Gorakh further remarked that if Yama would have the audacity of meddling with the affairs of the Siddhas he (Gorakh) would drag him (Yama) to Brahmā himself and let him (Yama) learn from Brahmā the exact limitations of his capacity. Gorakh rebuked Yama strongly in a high spirit, threatened him with an immediate order of dismissal and the ruin of his capital; and as a matter of fact when Gorakh stood up angrily with his hanging bag and loose garment of patched cloth and began to utter the Humkāra, Yama began to tremble with his whole kingdom. Yama got afraid, felt helpless and immediately lay before Gorakh all the files of official records; Gorakh examined them one by one, picked up the file containing the decree on his Guru,—effaced the name of his Guru from the list of the dead, upset the decree of Yama and then left the city with a strict warning.¹

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¹ Gorakṣa-vijaya, pp. 45-48.

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The story of the fall of Mīna-nāth among the women of Kadalī signifies that worldly enjoyment in the form of the satisfaction of carnal desires leads a man to disease and decay; and death in that case becomes the inevitable catastrophe of the drama of life. The self-oblivion of Mīna-nāth symbolises man’s oblivion of his true immortal nature;—and the charms of Kadalī represents the snares of life. What was repeatedly emphasised by Gorakh in his enigmatic songs in the guise of the dancing girl to recall his self-forgotten Guru to his true judgment, is that the life of pleasure in company of beautiful women leads to the inevitable end of death, while the only way of escaping death and being immortal even in this very life and body is to have recourse to the path of yoga.¹ This is the cardinal truth which Mīna-nāth, inspite of all his former Sādhanā, lost sight of through the curse of goddess Durgā, the curse symbolising the eternal curse of Nescience on humanity : and this is the cardinal truth which was variously explained through various imageries by the worthy disciple Gorakh to his Guru. In his songs as the dancing girl Gorakh repeatedly pointed out that the Guru was going to die a most ordinary death in the company of women; he (Gorakh) therefore urged him to have recourse to the yogic processes of making the body perfect, which has been spoken as Kāya-sādhanā² or the cultivation of the body through the processes of yoga. This Kāya-sādhanā is the most important thing in the Nātha literature and Kāya-siddhi or the perfection of body may be taken to be the summum bonum after which the yogins were aspiring.

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¹ Cf. tomhā sama puruṣa je nāhi kona dese | gali gela mohāras yāu mātra ses || kadalir rājā tumhi mina adhikārī | uṭhite nā pāra mātra āpanā samvari || ... .. sādha sādha āpanā kāyā mādaleta bole | sarva dhan hārāilā kāminīr kole || ...... guru haiyā nā bujha āpanār bo! | kāyā sukhāila tohmār kāminīr kol || abhay bhāṇḍār guru nirbhaye nila hari | sudhā ghar gṛha tumi rahicha pāsari || ......kāyā sādha kāyā sādha guru mocandar | [tumi guru mocandar jagata īśvar || ] etc. Ibid., pp. 21 et seq. Cf. also pp. 106 et seq.

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² Cf. nācanti je gorakhnāth ghāgharer role | [kāyā sādha kāyā sādha mādale hena bole || ] navin kukile jena ādha ādha bole | kāyā sādha kāyā sādha mandirāe bole || Gorakṣa-vijaya, pp. 94-95. sādha sādha āpanā kāyā mādaleta bole | sarva dhan hārāilā kāminīr kole || * * * kāyā sādha kāyā sādha guru mocandar | [tumi guru mocandar jagata īśvar || Ibid, p. 98. kāyā sādha kāyā sādha āhni putra bali | Ibid. 130.

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It may also be pointed out that the original question of Durgā (who may be taken to be the Prakṛti or the embodiment of the principle of phenomenalism) to Śiva (who is the changeless truth in its ultimate form), with which the Gorakṣa-vijaya, or the Mīna-cetena begins, is,—"Why is it, my lord, that thou art

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The original question.

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immortal, and mortal am I? Advise me the truth, O lord, so that I also may be immortal for ages.'¹ It was in answer to this question of Durgā or Pārvatī that the secret of Haṭha-yoga was expounded by Lord Śiva to his beloved consort, which the first Siddha Mina-nāth managed to hear in the form of a fish, and which was afterwards spread and popularised by the latter all over the world.

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¹ tumhī kene tara gosāñi āmhi kene mari | hena tattva kaha dev joge joge tari || Gorakṣa-vijaya, p. 12. ² Cf. tīrir ghārer jñān dekhi rājā jñān kaile helā | ai dine bhāḍuyā yam pāti gyāla khyālā || Gopi-candrer Gān (C.U., Part I), p. 12.

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This quest of immortality and the secret of its attainment through yoga is the pivot round which the whole cycle of the stories of Māṇik-candra and his son Gopī-candra revolved. There we find that when Mayanāmatī came to know that due to the spells employed by the subjects of the king through the practice of some malevolent Tāntric rites king Māṇik-candra was about to fall a prey to Death, she hastened to the kingdom and asked the king to learn Mahājñāna (i.e., the secrets of yoga) from her, which, she repeatedly assured, would enable him to defy the decree of Death; but the king declined and as a result he met with the ordinary mortal end. It has been said that the disregard of Mahājñāna was the plea for Yama for extending his hands on to the king.² However, after the death of the king Yama sent one of his officers with summons to bring the life (jiu=jīva) of the king; Mayanā in her meditation saw the messenger of Yama near the king and offered him a pony in exchange of the life of the king. The next day two officers came, and Mayanā bribed them with the life of a maid-servant; on the fourth day came four, who were bribed with the life of Mayanā's brother; on the fifth day again came five officers, and Mayanā offered them an amount of five hundred rupees in cash for buying sweet-meats and eating to their heart's content. But this time Godā-yama, the messenger, would not be satisfied without the life of the king. At this Mayanā flew into rage and began to tremble,—she at once muttered within the *Mahā-mantra*, transformed herself through her yogic power into Caṇḍī and into Kālī with her large sword (*khāḍā* = Skt. *khaḍga*) and attacked the whole host of the Yamas, caught hold of some of them and belaboured them severely and the Yamas flew away somehow with their lives. Godā-yama (who seems to have been the leader of the party) was in a fix; helpless as he was, he, with his elder brother Āvāla-yama, went to Śiva. With the advice of Śiva the Yamas extracted from the king his life in the absence of Mayanā who was sent for water and they flew away in the form of golden black-bees. Mayanā could know of this from the river and at once pursued Godā-yama and entered the palace of Death. Through her spell all the inhabitants of the palace at once got attacked with severe headache, and some flew away in fear. By her *Huṃkāra* Mayanā caught hold of Godā-yama, bound him down and began to beat him severely with an iron rod. Godā, however, begged most humbly Mayanā's mercy and agreed to give her back the life of her husband, which, Godā said, was kept in the market place. Mayanā followed Godā, who somehow managed to slip from her hands and escaped. Godā went straight to the queen of Yama and sought her protection; she took pity on Godā and hid him in a corner covering him with straw; but Mayanā could know everything in her meditation and chased him there in the form of a serpent. Godā transformed himself into a mouse, Mayanā chased it in the form of lacs of cats; Godā became a pigeon,—Mayanā pursued it in the form of innumerable hawks. In this way Godā-yama tried to escape by transforming himself into innumerable beings in land, water and air,—but he did not succeed. Mayanā at last caught hold of Godā who was compelled to let loose the life of Mānik-candra. Lord Śiva and Gorakh, Mayanā's Guru, however, interfered in the matter and the prestige of Death was somehow saved by coming to respectable terms with Mayanā. The whole story, in its full-fledged form, is nothing but a popular myth; but the spirit that is hidden behind and serves as the nucleus of the whole detail is that a perfect yogin conquers death completely,—and so much is his control over death that he may deal with Death at any time in any way he pleases.¹

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¹ The story of Mayanāmati's initiation by Gorakh-nāth in her childhood shows that Gorakh was moved at the idea that even a chaste and beautiful girl like Mayanā should meet with the same fate as other ordinary mortals, and he then initiated her into the cult of yoga to make her immortal. After her initiation Gorakh declared,—'Death himself has now given a written bond (not to extend his hands over Mayanā).' He further declared that Mayanā would never be burnt in fire, drowned in water, pierced through by any weapon; if she should die in the day-time he (Gorakh) would not let the sun go, but would bind him down,—if she should die at home, he would not let Yama go, but bind him down,—if she should die of a cut from a flat sword (*khāḍa* = a large sacrificial knife), he would bind goddess Caṇḍī (who generally bears such a weapon) down,—Mayanā would survive even the sun and the moon. *tave jñān kahe gorakh anādir tatva | āpane jam rājāe lekhi dila khata || tave jñān kahi dila brahma-jñān buli | jamer sahite rājā karila kolākuli | maināmatir nāme lekhā phelila phāriyā | āḍāi akṣar jñān kahe karṇa-tale niyā || agnie nā jāve poḍā pānite nā hae tal | lohār astra nā phuṭiva śarīr kuśal || guru bole dine maile maenāmati āi | sūrya bāndhi māṅgāiva eḍā-eḍi nāi | rātrite paḍiyā maile maenāmati āi | candra bāndhi māṅgāiva eḍā-eḍi nāhi || bāḍite paḍiyā maile maināmati āi | jam bāndhi māṅgāiva eḍā-eḍi nāhi || [khāḍḍāe kāṭā gele mayanāmati āi | caṇḍire bāndhiyā laimu eḍā-eḍi nāi || āmi dilām brahma-jñān tomārā deya bar | candra sūrya maraṇe jiyāva lā āḍāipa har || ] Gopī candrer Pāṃcāli, (C. U. Part II), p. 345,

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We may further note that Mayanā became *Satī* with her husband, but fire could not burn Mayanā. At the instance of his queens, Gopī-cānd put Mayanā to cruel and direful tests. She was thrown into fire, but even her garment was not stained with smoke; she was drowned in water bound within a bag, but mother Gaṅgā herself came forward to welcome her in her (Gaṅgā's) lap; she walked on a bridge made of hair; she walked on the edge of a razor; she was shut up for full seven days and nights within a boiler containing boiling oil, which was being heated from below constantly;

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she crossed all the rivers in the boat of the husk of a corn, but nothing could bring about her death, neither was any part of her body damaged in any way.¹ Mayanā herself declared to her son Gopī-cānd,—"By the practice of the mystic knowledge one becomes immortal, (and the course of life will retard towards immortality from its natural flow towards death and decay) just like the current of the tide-wave running backward. Through the boon granted by Gorakh-nāth I am deathless; I can remain in the void for full fourteen ages,—in water for full thirteen ages, in the fire for twelve years. When the creation will sink below and finally dissolve, and the earth will be not and there will remain only all-pervading water, the sun and the moon will set for ever and the whole universe will be destroyed,—I shall float on for ever,—I shall have no death."²

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¹ See Gopī-candrer Pāṃcāli, (C. U. Part II), pp. 366-369; Govinda-candra-gīta (Mr. Śil's edition), pp. 71-73; Gopī-candrer Gān, Bujhān Khaṇḍa, (C. U., Part I), pp. 87-130, etc.

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² Govinda-candra Gīt (Mr. Śil's edition). pp. 70-71.

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Jālandhari-pā or Hāḍi-siddhā also gave ample proof of his control over Death. In describing the extraordinary yogic power of Hāḍipā Mayanā says to Gopī-cānd that whenever Hāḍipā chances to catch hold of Yama or any of his officers he beats them severely for full eight hours, and there is no escape for Yama from the hands of the Hāḍi.³ When Gopī-cānd accepted Hāḍipā as his Guru, renounced the world and left the palace with his Guru, the king was unable to keep pace with the Guru in the path through the dense forest, created by the *Huṃkāra* of the Hāḍi and he was lagging behind. The police officers of Yama, so to speak, availed themselves of this opportunity and attacked Gopī-cānd and extracted his life from him⁴ and went to the city of Death. After sometimes Hāḍipā looked back and found the king dead. The yogin flew into fierce rage, ordered all the tigers of the forest to guard the corpse of the king and himself went straight to the city of the dead, inflicted severe punishment on all, beginning with the king to the lowest of the officer. The king of Death begged his (Hāḍipā's) pardon and promptly ordered his officers to return the life of king Gopi-cānd.¹ These popular legends are significant. Of course the imagination of the poets has often exaggerated the yogic powers of the Siddhas and put the yogic truths in extremely popular legendary form,—but the truth behind is the truth of immortality attainable through Haṭha-yoga.

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³ dauḍiyā byāḍāite jadi jamer lagya pāy | cilācāṅgi diyā jamaka tin pahar kilāy || māriyā dhariyā jamaka karuṇā sikhāy | hyāna sādhya nāi jamer palāiyā eḍāy || Gopī-candrer Gān (C. U., Part I), p. 61.

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⁴ It may be remembered in this connection that in the ordinary course the king had only eighteen years' longevity.

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¹ See Gopi-candrer Gān, (C. U. Part I), pp. 202-207. In another place Hāḍi-siddhā with the help of a Huṃkāra called upon the sovereign Yama with all his followers and officers to make a good road for him and Gopi-cānd; Yama readily obeyed the order and went out with all the necessary implements to construct a long road for them. Ibid., pp. 213-217.

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A very important fact to notice in this connection is that the keynote of the story of Gopi-cānd's great renunciation also is the quest of immortality. It was his own mother Mayanāmatī, who compelled the king by hook or by crook to leave his loving wives, his boundless wealth and immense power and to take the vow of a Nātha-yogin in his budding youth at the age of eighteen. Mayanā lamented that she had none else to call her a mother excepting Gopi-cānd,—yet she did insist on (his Gopi-cānd's) becoming the disciple of Hāḍipā and taking the vow of a yogin, inspite of the stubborn unwillingness of the king and his conspiracy with the queens. What was there in Mayanā that dominated over her ordinary motherly affection? It was the hope of immortality for her only son, who otherwise, in the course of his ordinary life of worldly enjoyment, would have died a premature death at the age of eighteen. She was not by nature a heartless witch,—it was for a higher gain that she acted heartlessly for the time being to compel her son to be a yogin.¹

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¹ *Gopī-candrer Pāṃcālī*, (C. U. Part II), pp. 326-331.

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The ideal of immortality in the *Siddha-deha* as propounded by the yogins of the Siddha-school exerted considerable influence also on the Orissa school of Vaiṣṇavism of the sixteenth century. Though the general conception of the final state as described by the exponents of this school was mainly in the line of the *Bhagavad-gītā*, the ideal of immortality in the *Siddha-deha* was there.² We find there instructions on yoga for making the body immutable.³ The yogic system involving the control over the sun and the moon⁴ was advised to be adopted for the perfection of the body.⁵

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² *Vide*, *Brahma-śaṅkali* of Acyutānanda Dāsa, Prāci-grantha-mālā series, No. 5, p. 2, 3.

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³ *yantra binyāsi tantra kaha* | *yemante rahiva e deha* || *Ibid*., p. 4.

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⁴ *Vide Infra*, p. 269 et seq.

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⁵ *Brahma-śaṅkali*, p. 15. *cf.* also *candra sūryaṅku kale goṣṭhi* | *biṣama brahma agni uṭhi* || *pralaya tāku na bādhai* | *teveṭi siddha aṅga hai* || *Ibid*., p. 17,

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Here we may note that though there was a general similarity in the methods adopted by the Nātha-yogins, the Buddhist Sahajiyās, the Vaiṣṇava Sahajiyās and the followers of the Nirguṇa-school of Hindi poetry mainly in the practices of *Kāya-sādhana*, yet there were fundamental differences in their aims and attitude. Thus, while the former schools held the realisation of the ultimate nature of the self as well as of the not-self, either in the form of perfect enlightenment, which is great bliss (as in the case of the Buddhists) or in the form of perfect love (as in the case of the Vaiṣṇavas) or as the ‘Incomprehensible Beloved’ (as in the Nirguṇa school of Northern and Western India), to be the final aim of all Sādhanā, the Nātha-yogins employed all the yogic practices for the attainment of immortality and Maheśvarahood thereby. Of course, this final immortal state of the yogin has also been spoken of as the state of liberation or the state of the Sahaja, yet a difference in the general outlook as well as in the religious approach is on the whole perceptible. It is this difference in outlook and approach and also the differences in practices, which we shall speak later on, that necessitate the postulation of a line of demarcation between the different Sahajiyā schools on the one hand and the school of the Nātha-yogins on the other.

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(iii) The Means

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(A) Ulṭā-sādhanā or the Regressive Process

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Coming to the question of the practical Sādhanā we find that the Nātha Siddhas called their Sādhanā Kāya-sādhanā (culture of the body) with a view to attaining Kāya-siddhi (perfection of the body). The process has frequently been styled in the vernaculars as the Ulṭā-sādhanā, or the regressive process ¹ and the epithet is doubly significant. The yoga-practices of the Nātha Siddhas is Ulṭā or regressive, firstly in the sense that it involves yogic processes which give a regressive or upward motion to the whole biological as well as psychological systems which in their ordinary nature possess a downward tendency; and secondly, in the sense that such yogic practices lead the Siddha to his original ultimate nature as the immortal *Being* in his perfect or divine body, back from the ordinary creative process of *becoming*. We have had several occasions to dwell on the two aspects of the reality underlying the universal process as a whole; *viz.*, Śiva as the noumenal aspect, or pure consciousness and perfect rest and the Śakti as the phenomenal aspect of world-activity—the aspect of change and evolution. As most of the schools of yoga take the body to be the epitome of the universe, and the life-process, including its physical, biological and psychological aspects, to be a microcosm of the world-process, the life-process in the physical body is also believed to possess these two aspects, *viz.*, the Śiva aspect of perfect rest in the divine or the perfect body, and the Śakti aspect of activity in the physical body of continual change. Śakti in her ordinary course of phenomenal manifestation leads to change, death and decay—to the whirl of coming and going. The aim of the yogin is to stop this ordinary downward course of Śakti, downward in the sense of a phenomenal manifestation, and to give her, through physical and psychological, or rather physico-psychical efforts, an upward motion so that by a regressive process she may once more proceed backward to be united with Śiva and be absorbed in the nature of Śiva who is the Motionless Immortal Being. According to Tāntric and Haṭha-yogic belief, we have already seen, the region of the body below the navel is the region of Śakti, while the region above the navel is the region of Śiva; the former is called the domain of *Pravṛtti* or activity and change, while the latter is the domain of *Nivṛtti* or rest. It is generally believed that Śakti, or the principle of change, resides coiled as a serpent in the nature of the world-force in the lowest nervous plexus situated just on the lowest extremity of the spinal chord, while Śiva, the principle of rest, is situated in the Sahasrāra or the lotus of thousand petals in the head. The Sahasrāra and the Mūlādhara (the highest and the lowest plexuses) are the two poles within which evolves the whole creative process. Yoga consists in the raising of the Śakti from the lowest region of change and activity to the highest region of rest so as to be united with and absorbed in Śiva. This union of Śiva and Śakti symbolises in the wider sense the stoppage of the ordinary process of becoming and the retrogression of the whole world-process for the attainment of the changeless state of the Immortal Being. How is this retrogression to be effected? By a perfect control over the physical, biological and psychological processes and by setting a regressive motion in them through slow and gradual processes of yoga;—this is what is meant by the Ulṭā sādhana. Because of this Ulṭā nature of the Sādhana, the language of the songs in which the secret of the Sādhana is couched is also generally of a Ulṭā nature, or extremely paradoxical and enigmatic.¹ The process has also been explained under the imagery of proceeding against the current (ujāna-sādhana).²

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¹ āe guru ūlaṭiyā yog dhara kāyā tomhār sthir kara nija mantra karaha svoran | ūlaṭiyā āpanā tripini dea je sthānā (thānā ?) khāl jor bharite kāraṇ || Gorakṣa-vijaya, p. 115. bhāla kaha yae putra jati gorakhāi | ūlaṭi sādhite jog gāe bal nāi || Ibid, p. 116. jadi se sādhivā kāyā ulaṭi dhar jog || ūlaṭiyā dhar guru sumerur kalā | pākiche māthār keśa hai jāiva kālā || Ibid, p. 145. etc. Cf. gigani caḍhi pivai pāṇi | ulaṭi sakaṭi āp ghari āṇi || Gorakh-bodh, Verse No. 38.

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¹ Cf. guru mīna-nāth re ulṭā ulṭā dhārā | pukura mure dhāna śukāiyā ugāra-tale bāḍā || etc. Quoted in the introduction of the Goraḳṣa-vijaya by Munsi Abdul Karim. Cf. also a similar song in the Dharma-maṅgala of Sahadev Cakravartī, B. S. P. P., B.S. 1304. See Appendix E.

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² Cf. saṭ-cakra bheda guru khelauk ījān | Goraḳṣa-vijaya, p. 147.

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All spiritual or religious endeavours are processes of Ulṭā-sādhana in a general sense inasmuch as they give a higher or upward tendency to our lower being. It has been said in a popular Buddhist verse that when an intense thirst is felt within for something higher, the mind becomes no more perturbed by desires, and at that state one is said to be in an upward current.³ We have referred before to the word parāvṛtti found in Mahāyānic texts. In the Mahāyāna-sūtrālaṅkāra we hear of the parāvṛtti of the five senses, of the mind, of the sex-act, etc.¹ It seems to us that the real significance of the word *parāvṛtti* is just the same as the *Uḷṭā*-sādhana. It is the process of introversion, a reversal of the world of *pravṛtti* to the state of *nivṛtti*. We have seen also that the Pañca-śākhā school of Orissa Vaiṣṇavism was influenced to a considerable extent by the ideal of Kāya-sādhana of the Siddha school; these Vaiṣṇavas also have often spoken of the *Uḷṭā* process or the *Ujāna* process in their yogic Sādhana.² We have further seen that the Sūfīs and the Bauls of Bengal were Sādhakas of this *Uḷṭā*-sādhana.³ A very nice exposition of this *Uḷṭā*-sādhana is found in the *Jñāna-sāgara* of Āli-rājā. There it is said that the process of divine love is a reverse process,—and he who does not know the secret of this reverse process cannot have eternal life. Here the forward becomes the backward and the backward becomes the forward and the world is related to the reality in this inverted law.⁴ The way towards perfection

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³ chanda-jātā avasāye manasā ca phuṭā siyā | kāmesu appaṭibaddha-cittā uddhamsoto ti vuccati || Therī-gāthā, (1. 12).

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¹ IX, Verses (41-46).

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² > e pañca-bhūta madhye byāpi |

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³ Vide Supra, pp. 185-86.

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⁴ > pirīti uḷṭā rıt nā bujhe cature |

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khelanti parama svarūpī ||
binā ujāni na balāi |
ke acchi siddha aṅga bahi ||
uḷaṭa ujāni calile |
pūrita mānasa-sarovare ||

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Brahma-śaṅkali of Achyutānanda Dāsa, (Prācī-grantha-mālā series), p. 26.

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Again, uḷaṭi ūrdhvaku kṣepai || Ibid., p. 7,
hetura mūle dhara ṭāṇi |
bahantā nadīka ujāṇi ||
* * * *
ujāna laya-yoga khaṭa | etc. Ibid., p. 11.
yeve tu dhāivu ujāni |
kṣepīva gagana ku pāni ||
teve parame hoi mela | etc. Ibid., p. 17.
Again, yogīmkara yoga ujānare siddha hoi | Śūnya-saṃhitā, Ch. XXI.

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(Prācī-grantha-mālā series), p. 112.

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ye nā cine uḷṭā se nā jiye saṃsāre ||
samukh bimukh hae bimukh samukh |
pāḷṭā niyame ṣav jagat saṃyog || Jñāna-sāgara, pp. 36-37,

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has been kept hidden by the Lord and only the unreal path (*asāra panthā*) is kept open before all creatures; it is for this reason that man, after his birth in this world, naturally has recourse to the unreal path and remains absorbed in transitory enjoyment. The reason why the path towards pefection is thus concealed by the Lord from the eyes of ordinary creatures is that the possibility of easy access would have made it cheap; the Lord has enhanced the value and the glory of the path by keeping it secret and extremely difficult of access.¹ All these seem to be an echo of the well-known Upaniṣadic saying that by giving the senses an outward tendency and turning them away from the inward truth the Self-created One gave proof of His jealousy, as it were; it is because of this fact that man generally sees what is external, and not that which is within; but wise people there are, who, in quest of life eternal, have inverted their visual power and realised the self in and through a reverse process.²

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