Nandhinath
Nandhinath is the first Guru of the Nath Sampradaya of Shaivism. Nandinath has eight disciples. These eight disciples are
- Sanatkumar
- Sanakar
- Sanadanar
- Sananthanar
- Shivayogamuni
- Patanjali
- Vyaghrapada
- Tirumular
Maharishi Nandinath → Tirumular → → → Nameless Rishi from Himalayas → Kadaitswami → Chellappaswami → Siva Yogaswami → Satguru Sivaya Subramuniyaswami →Satguru Bodhinatha Veylanswami
- Malangan
- Indiran
- Soman
- Brahman
- Rudran
- Kalangi
- Kanchamalayam
TIRUMULAR reached Tiruvavaduthurai, where, in the Tamil language, he recorded the truths of the Shaiva Agamas and the precious Vedas in the Tirumantiram, a book of over 3,000 esoteric verses.
In the line of Kalangi
- Righama
- Maligaideva
- Nadantar
- Bhoganathar
- Paramananda
Yogaswami, Sri Lanka’s most renowned contemporary spiritual master (1872‒1964), is a Sivajñâni and Nâtha Siddhar revered by both Hindus and Buddhists. He was trained in and practiced kundalini yoga under Satguru Chellappaswami, from whom he received guru diksha. He is 161st Jagadacharya of the Nandinatha Sampradaya‘s Kailasa Parampara.
Yogaswami conveyed his teachings in hundreds of songs, called Natchintanai
NATCHINTANAI, “GOOD THOUGHTS’
Yogaswami conveyed his teachings in over 3,000 poems and songs, called Natchintanai, ‘good thoughts’, urging seekers to follow dharma and realize God within. These gems flowed spontaneously from him. Any devotee present would write them down, and he occasionally scribed them himself. Natchintanai has been published in several books and through the primary outlet and archive of his teachings, the Sivathondan, a monthly journal he established in 1934. To this day, Yogaswami’s devotees intone Natchintanai songs during their daily worship. Natchintanai is a profound tool for teaching Hinduism’s core truths.
In the Nath Tradition, Adinath is Lord Shiva himself, and Balaknath is Babaji, son of Shiva. Little is known about Babaji himself, but over the years, information has come out that traces his origin to an incarnation of Lord Murugan [Son of Shiva], also known as Karthikeya, Subramanya, or Skanda, born in the year 203 AD in a small coastal village in Tamil Nadu. Later he moved to Kataragama in Sri Lanka, where he became one of the pupils of Siddha Bhoganathar, a famous Nath yogi.
At the age of 16, Babaji was blessed by Bhoganath with the science of Kaya Kalpa, which allowed him to remain a youth forever. This explains why Babaji still appears to many as a sixteen-year-old.
After Bhoganath had completed his training of Babaji, he sent him to the famous rishi Agastya who is one of the famous Saptha (seven) Rishis, who taught him Kriya Yoga. Since that time, Babaji has been the torchbearer of Kriya Yoga on the planet.
Chellappaswami, meaning ‘Wealthy Father’, was a reclusive and enigmatic Siddha who became the 160th Satguru (1840-1915) of the Nandinatha Sampradaya’s Kailasa Parampara. He lived on Sri Lanka’s Jaffna peninsula near the Nallur Kandaswami Temple in a small hut with a small samadhi shrine. Among his disciples was Sage Yogaswami, the Satguru of Satguru Sivaya Subrimuniyaswami, whom he trained intensely for five years and initiated as his successor.
Among these luminaries was the nameless Rishi from the Himalayas (ca. 1770-1840), the first known Siddha of the Nandinatha Sampradaya in modern times who in the late eighteenth century entered a teashop in a village near Bangalore, sat down, and entered into deep samadhi. He did not move for seven years, nor did he speak. Streams of devotees came for his darshan. Their unspoken prayers and questions were mysteriously answered in dreams or written, paper messages that manifested in the air and floated down. Then one day, Rishi left the village, later to pass his power to Kadaitswami.
Around 1850 Rishi began to frequent a small village near Bangalore
The footsteps of the hundreds of disciples of the disciples of Tirumular have been lost in the shifting sands of time. Neither names nor biographies for the many Gurus who lived in the centuries between 200 BCE and the late 1700s AD, when the Rishi from the Himalayas appeared in Bengaluru (Bangalore), are known. Walking the 2,200 kilometers from the Himalayas to Bangalore was not merely arduous; it could be life-threatening. It required enormous stamina, and it called forth a simplicity few could sustain.
Tea shops were gathering places back then, the traveler’s place of respite and rejuvenation. Here a shopkeeper prepares hot tea, deftly pouring the boiling brew back and forth between two cups held a meter apart to cool it to the perfect temperature. The Rishi from the Himalayas became a legend when he sat for seven years in a tea shop without moving. People came from far and near to witness this miracle, so many that a brass railing had to be installed to keep the crowds from touching him and disturbing his meditation. The tea shop eventually became a shrine, as people came to see a spiritual giant of remarkable yogic powers. Those powers were nowhere more evident than in the magical way that prayers were answered in his presence. Sometimes answers fell from above on small pieces of paper.
Among these luminaries was the nameless Rishi from the Himalayas (ca. 1770-1840), the first known Siddha of the Nandinatha Sampradaya in modern times who in the late eighteenth century entered a teashop in a village near Bangalore, sat down, and entered into deep samadhi. He did not move for seven years, nor did he speak. Streams of devotees came for his darshan. Their unspoken prayers and questions were mysteriously answered in dreams or written, paper messages that manifested in the air and floated down. Then one day, Rishi left the village, later to pass his power to Kadaitswami.
Around 1850 Rishi began to frequent a small village near Bangalore
The footsteps of the hundreds of disciples of the disciples of Tirumular have been lost in the shifting sands of time. Neither names nor biographies for the many Gurus who lived in the centuries between 200 BCE and the late 1700s AD, when the Rishi from the Himalayas appeared in Bengaluru (Bangalore), are known. Walking the 2,200 kilometers from the Himalayas to Bangalore was not merely arduous; it could be life-threatening. It required enormous stamina, and it called forth a simplicity few could sustain.
Tea shops were gathering places back then, the traveler’s place of respite and rejuvenation. Here a shopkeeper prepares hot tea, deftly pouring the boiling brew back and forth between two cups held a meter apart to cool it to the perfect temperature. The Rishi from the Himalayas became a legend when he sat for seven years in a tea shop without moving. People came from far and near to witness this miracle, so many that a brass railing had to be installed to keep the crowds from touching him and disturbing his meditation. The tea shop eventually became a shrine, as people came to see a spiritual giant of remarkable yogic powers. Those powers were nowhere more evident than in the magical way that prayers were answered in his presence. Sometimes answers fell from above on small pieces of paper.
During the last few years of his life, Kadaitswami ceased going back to Mandaitivu and remained in the Jaffna area. He took a liking to a small, privately owned temple to Lord Nataraja in Neeraviady, a few kilometers from the marketplace. A hut was built for him in the compound behind the temple, where he stayed with Kulandaivelswami. This became his domain, a place of solitude and communion. He declared to his followers, ‘This is Chidambaram,‘ referring to the renowned temple of Lord Nataraja, the Cosmic Dancer, in South India, which is mystically thought of as the centre of the universe.
It was at this spot, on October 13, 1891, Shatabhishak nakshatra, that Kadaitswami made his Great Departure from this Earth plane. Kulandaivelswami was with him in those final moments. He had instructed his shishyas to inter his body in a crypt, as is often done with illumined souls. Kulandaivelswami oversaw the samadhi ceremony and interment at the site of his hut. Soon afterward, a large stone was placed on the spot, and devotees regularly conducted pujas to it. A year later, in 1892, in keeping with Swami’s orders, a sizable temple was built enshrining a Sivalingam from Benares, India, which took the place of the large stone.
Patanjali had many students
- Sri Govindapada
- Adi Shankaracharya
Patanjali wrote three powerful scriptures to share an ocean of wisdom with mankind.
- Patanjali Tantra
A primordial source on Ayurveda about wellness, health and medicine for ailments.
2. Maha Bhashyam
An elaborate commentary on ‘Ashtadhyayi” ( 8 chapters) – a treatise on every aspect of Samskritam grammar written in the 6th to 5th century BCE by the greatest grammarian Panini, about which linguists & litterateurs marvel the world over, even till today!
3. Yoga Sutras
Compilation and systematisation of innumerable yoga practices that became the foundational text of Yoga practiced for eons.