These are some nath fundamentals.
I think we can safely assume ourselves to be “Neo-naths” with little contact with the motherland of India. ANS uses two Nath guru lineages, Mahendranath and Gurunath. Although I have not read deeply into the Hamsa yoga of Gurunath, I suspect these are two rather different viewpoints and procedures. Gurunath is from the ancient householder nath tradition and Mahendranath is sannyasi. The Adinath panth is quite unknown among modern naths in India and much research remains to be done on our origins.

This vagueness is quite liberating. We don’t want to reproduce the dreadful fundamentalism of some indian Nath centers which are currently highly political and inappropriate.

In the 1924 book “Gorakshnath and the Kanphata Yogis” the naths of india are surveyed by the british and appear to be hindu and muslim and male and female in equal numbers. This is no longer true today. The great majority of women have fled to the astral planes and I doubt there are many actual muslim naths although I have met a wonderful Pirnath (Pir is a muslim title) who had a very Kabir like equanimity toward religion altogether.

Mahendranath despaired of western naths ever developing new patterns that respond to a new era and a new society. If he had lived a little longer he would have been pleased, I think. We have become cybernaths, joined together in a McLuhanesque global neural network, a mystical body of nath. Come to think of it the internet was born just as Mahendranath died in 1992. I visualize planetary magic timed and held together by the internet, but I am an old timer and I think the young naths will come up with many more far out and bizarre ideas and scenarios.

I want to discuss nath iconography and in this I borrow almost entirely from India and the past. We gather, practice and according to our own ideas we worship at the DHUNI. This is the firepit. I encourage all naths to spend long hours in front of the fire. There is a great deal of knowledge, insight and detachment to be gained from this practice. Develop our own system of approaching flame. Certainly make offerings of everything from sage and incense (samagri) to books, money and valued and sentimental objects. Such destruction and sweetness will lead naturally to our greatest sacrament which is ASH.

ASH is our most important substance. Naths smear our bodies in ash, cover our heads in ash, make our cult marks in ash, heal the sick with a pinch of ash which has been charged with energy. We use it as a vibe and energy collector and we mark time by the accumulation of mountains of ash created through endless ascetic practice and devotion to the care of the dhuni. For those of Hindu tendency it is a joining with the ultimate Adinath the ash-smeared god of the burning ground, the Great Lord Shiva himself. Ash speaks of the end of all things, of destruction of form, end to desire, karma, and the end of attachment. All things are eventually brought to the fire and reduced to the essence which is ash.

One emblem which we all share is the TRISHUL or trident, another sign of Shiva, of the outsider the transgressor of societal virtue, the left hand practitioner, the one who eats less, sleeps less, speaks rarely, desires little and owns nothing…the all powerful magician who walks in darkness without fear and without baggage.

We are accompanied by the DAMERU, the double-headed drum with which we mark the heartbeat of passing time and of the stars which dance in that other sky which will appear to the exhausted seeker sitting by the fire. The drum (and it need not be dameru) is the first step in the ancient nath study of SABD, sound, both the outer sound of the planet roaring through the cosmic vastness and the inner sounds of bees and spirit voices singing, of intuition and insight found only in the inner temple of our awakened mind. We chant the MANTRAs of ancient days and modern days too, as offerings to the fire and as inquiry into the secrets of sound. We naths have our own mantras. Make efforts to seek them out.

We share the RUDRAKSHA bead with all Shaivites. It is the round seed of a certain tree and, when strung together, it is used as a MALA and as necklace, bracelets and can even be wrapped tightly around the trunk of the body to ensure one never sleeps soundly and comfy again. This is a good thing actually…. for a while.

All of this, firepit, ash, trident, drum and mantra, rudraksha and mala are outer signs of our inner work. Obviously we can let slip all these outer manifestations and still, through inner work, emerge as the new, the liberated, the enlightened, self-created Being.

But when and if we ever gather together again in a great international nath mela let our signs and symbols, our cult marks, our legends, our songs, drumbeats and mantras, our poems and above all our fires show that we are united in a great effort to transform ourselves and the world into a free and joyous home, a place worthy of incarnation and deep transformation. Potential fulfilled to the brim!
jai Nathji

PART TWO___

Mahendranath developed a group of core concepts that anyone could do well to read and understand. The three K’s : Karmas are our starting point in life, the traits and personality that comes packaged with our body. The kleshas are the 5 obstructions; ego, ignorance, attachment, repulsion and clinging to life. Konditioning is the subtle, indeed barely detectable, forces with which we are tamed and how we become acceptable members of our society. These are negative forces affecting our ability to function properly.

Samarasa is a complex idea that in its simplest expression means sameness, we remain in a simple and balanced state, not driven by desire and disgust. Svecchachara means that we do our own will and once again are not driven by the forces of ego, society, civilisation and the teachings of our mothers and leaders. This leads to spontaneous and unconditioned response that can never fail to answer the needs of the moment. We will all be wrestling with these key ideas as long as we call ourselves naths.

These ideas are meant to lead us to enlightenment, to inner freedom and finally to the state of Being which we call the AVADHOOT. Descriptions of the Avadhoot are very important because there is no use striving for the undefined and unknown. We must have some picture of the goal. Finding a living example of such a being is the greatest blessing we can receive in this life. Please keep your minds and your mind’s eye open! Such beings most definitely exist in every age and in many places. One thing of which we can be sure…nobody else has ever recognised this being. They will be strange, attractive, charming and magical as quarks and will probably be skirting jail and the nuthouse at all times. There will be no group of fans clinging to this disreputable scoundrel and one will very possibly be greeted by shit and lies and every form of dissimulation. How to distinguish this person from a madman or a jerk is up to your insight/intuition. Nobody can help you here. Nobody will ever confirm your choice as right or wrong. Good luck with this!

How, practically do we walk this path in the 21st century in this western civilisation? I really don’t know. I know that in olden times in India the path was fairly well described. First the aspirant made vows in which they renounced family, accumulation, this world and the next. Then they devoted themselves and humbled themselves to a guru in whom they had complete faith. This guru would use any and all means to diminish the ego and the badly aimed drives of the student (and often try to make a profit too!). The student would use meditation, fasting, yoga, silence, prayer, solitude and renouncement as tools to entirely remake themselves. Knowing the ancient stories of saints and gods, they would strive to emulate these astonishing heroes of old. They would go on long, dangerous and difficult pilgrimage and take every opportunity to bathe in the waves of grace which emanate from all realized beings and even their graves, of any and all persuasions.

Again the ability to discriminate between one thing and another was key to success. Ultimately there is no predictor of success, there is no path which guarantees we will reach the goal. Nobody knows who, nobody knows how or why any being may attain enlightenment. The efforts made seem to stay with us to some degree and it is believed that the tiniest increments made over endless spans of lifetimes will eventually lead to heaven. Believe it if you must, but I suggest you make great wrenching efforts and plan to succeed now in this lifetime. We are all, every one of us, in our most nuclear form, enlightened and omniscient. We are starlight and yogis of great power. That may be the greatest key of all. If I could just get out of my own way… if I would just acknowledge my own divinity…listen to my own voice and follow myself on my own path… well its possible I may succeed. It could happen.

PART III

I am sitting at my computer watching photos drift by on the screen. They are my digital images of late summer and autumn leaves in the north. Mixed in with landscapes are photos of friends, some laughter, some anxiety, adventures. A years’ worth of photos of people, places, trees, airports artworks sit on the hard-drive and cycle through endlessly. Because these images are painted with light they are hyper-real in appearance and occasionally slip over into surreal, either through manipulation or by accident. They each represent a distinct link to my consciousness, to my unique viewpoint on this planet. After all I can only be in spot at once and nothing else can be in that spot at the same time. It is time and space making a nice graph of my life and each photo a point.

The music is a medley that I had put together for an acquaintance. Freddy Fender, TexMex music god, starts to sing about how things are for him out along the border. Suddenly the lyrics, the music, the images, all synchronize. When he sings about a shining path the perfect photo appears. When he sings about friends, my friends faces come on the screen. The image on the computer is framed by a blasting winter snowstorm outside the window.

I had just finished seeing a friend off. It had been an enlightening visit. I had captured some of the surface and some of the depths in photos. I loaded the woodstove, fed the birds, did the dishes then the laundry, swept the floor and finally sat back with that deeply self satisfied relaxation and sigh of contentment.

The combination of deeply content relaxation, disconsonant visuals and synchronous music worked to launch me into a deeply altered consciousness. The images became an oracle, which spoke through the music. I had a reflecting, many-mirrored conversation with “myself” as expressed through self created links to other spots on my recent timeline. This unusual pattern is of course a product of tech and what I can do with it, or else what I can do to myself, using tech and virtuality to create strange roads along which I can walk..

Intensive creativity, repeatedly using imagery, sound, emotion, and time space soundbites are a useful toolset for altering consciousness. The new oracle is effective in a most tantric way. Self reflecting self, enjoying and confirming the inner temple with images from outside that are still self and of course digital self and rainbowlight self too. Ego, finding so much self must panic and sink through the cracks at least for a time. Long enough to get the messsage through to yourself from your self. On the other hand the music just comes from the radio.

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