WHAT IS "NATHA SAMPRADAYA ?"

What Is Hinduism's Natha Sampradaya?

The Natha Sampradaya, "the masters' way," is the mystical fountainhead of Saivism. The divine message of the eternal truths and how to succeed on the path to enlightenment are locked within the Natha tradition.

Natha means "lord or adept," and sampradaya refers to a living theological tradition. The roots of this venerable heritage stretch back beyond recorded history, when awakened Natha mystics worshiped the Lord of lords, Siva, and in yogic contemplation experienced their identity in Him.

The Natha Sampradaya has revealed the search for the innermost divine Self, balanced by temple worship, fueled by kundalini yoga, charted by monistic theism, illumined by a potent guru-shishya system, guided by soul-stirring scriptures and awakened by sadhana and tapas. Thus has it given mankind the mechanics for moving forward in evolution.

Today two main Natha streams are well known: the Nandinatha Sampradaya, made famous by Maharishi Nandinatha (ca 250bce), and the Adinatha Sampradaya, carried forth by Siddha Yogi Gorakshanatha (ca 900). Yea, there is infinitely more to know of the mysterious Nathas. The Tirumantiram states, "My peerless satguru, Nandinatha, of Saivam honored high, showed us a holy path for soul's redemption. It is Siva's divine path, San Marga, for all the world to tread and forever be free."

Verbal abuse becomes a way of life. The youngsters come and go unchaperoned. Nobody knows what anybody else is doing. Girls are getting pregnant out of wedlock. Boys are swearing, getting involved in gangs and experimenting with drugs. That is the hotel lobby home of a definitely dysfunctional family, a discouraged family. No wonder that in discouraged families teens want to leave home as quickly as possible--as soon they're able to get a job and rent an apartment.

That is not quality living, is it? Sorry to say, but most dual-professionals' homes, where husband and wife both have high-paying jobs, are more like a hotel lobby with a snack bar than like a home with a hearth, which is home with a heart. Think about your home. Is the guest God? Is your house a home? What kind of astral vibration does it actually have? Be honest with yourself. Evaluate! The astral pranas or energies radiating out from the hotel lobby kind of home make the occupants frustrated people.

They make people around them uncomfortable, because they live in an uncomfortable place. Yes, the pranas that emanate from an empty house make one an empty person. All Hindus in the world should reverse this situation for a stable, well-adjusted community for the new and coming generations of Hindus in the West, as well as in the East. This is the next step which those of the diaspora have to heartfully take.

It is only intelligence that can reverse a negative situation and turn it into a positive, encouraging situation. It is important for the mother to be mother, and for the father to allow her to be mother, so that together they can nurture the astral atmosphere within the house and make it vibrate with spiritual energies into a real home.

To make the house into a home is the next step. You will know if it is a home when you want to hurry back to it. You won't want to stay away too long, and you will find it difficult to leave. That's because you enjoy the vibration that you have created from your soul body. And your focus for whatever you are doing will be exquisite. It won't get divided. It is a slow process for a mother and a father to turn a house into a home. They have to be spiritually present in the home.

The auras of the mother and father and each of the children have to permeate the walls of the house. The Gods and guardian devas and ancestors have to be worshiped and invoked in the home. That turns a house into a really pranically viable home, building up the vibration so that you never want to leave.

Surrender Is The Way Out

The yoga marga must come naturally out of intense bhakti and internalized worship. The intensity of bhakti is developed on the kriya marga. The final remains of the ego are pulverized on the charya marga, where Sivathondu, selfless service, is performed unrelentingly with no thought of reward, but a hope that the punya, merit, will be beneficial in the long run.

The anava marga is easy to leave through total surrender to God, Gods and guru, along with seva, service to religious institutions. Surrender, prapatti, is the key. All the religions' teachings teach surrender to the divine forces. Great suffering, the psychic surgery kind of suffering, great repentance, is experienced in the overlapping of the charya marga with the anava marga.

The beginning knowledge of Hindu temple worship, scripture, being dragged into it by some aggressive teacher, later a desire for reconciliation--all this leads to penance, prayashchitta, followed by serious sadhana. It is not without a great ordeal and effort, soul-searching and decision-making that one marga bends into the other or bows before the other before it releases the consciousness to go on.

One marga must really bend before the other before one can be released. Before entering another marga, it is a matter of giving up, which is painful, most especially for the anava marga people, for whom suffering is no stranger. How can someone on the anava marga be convinced that there is a better way to live, think and act? The word here is pursuit. We are talking about pursuit.

Anava people are always pursuing something, the fulfillment comes on the anava marga, and there is fulfillment, but in a never-stopping pursuit of fulfillment. As soon as we stop the pursuit of fulfillment, we become unhappy, empty, feel unfulfilled and, I might even say, at times depressed.

The anava marga is the I-ness, me-ness, mine-ness; me, my, I. "I want, I give, I get, I collect." I, me and mine are the key words here. The true anava margi is the owner, the getter, the consumer, not always the producer, vulnerable to the emotions of fear, who uses jealousy as an asset to obtain.

Anger is the motivating power to fulfill desire, by stimulating fear in others. He is a master of deceit. The true anava margi, perfected in the art, has at beck and call the eighty-four wiles of the lower emotions. Why would someone begin to feel the need to change to a nicer way of life?

The word why is the important word here. They are questioning, they are asking, they are intuiting another way of life. They have observed, obviously, others living a fuller life, fulfilled by the fulfillments of their pursuits, having left the anava marga. Anava margis have become aware of the existence of the charya margis and maybe a kriya margi or two.

It is the very force of the desire of pursuit that leads the purusha, the soul, to the charya marga into Saiva Siddhanta. I see the whole thing like a tunnel--the karma marga, the maya marga, the anava marga, the charya marga, the kriya marga, yoga marga--which the soul matures through as a child matures from a child to an adult.

The problem is that it takes a little doing to define the pursuit. Therefore, the entrance of this tunnel, to be a good anava margi, is kind of crowded, and this is where the problem lies. To truly get on the anava marga, to define the ego's identity, one must have the goal of pursuit.

There are two margas before the anava marga begins, within the realm of deep ignorance. Here reside the masses who live in confusion, the professional consumers who know the generosity of society, who will never in this lifetime manifest a desire, a goal, a thought for the future worthy enough to be accepted on the anava marga. They are the slaves of the anava margis, those whom, as slaves, they manipulate without conscience.

HOW DO MONOISM AND DUALISM DIFFER ?

How Do Monism and Dualism Differ?

To most monists God is immanent, temporal, becoming. He is creation itself, material cause, but not efficient cause. To most dualists, God is transcendent, eternal, Creator--efficient cause but not material cause.

To explain creation, philosophers speak of three kinds of causes: efficient, instrumental and material. These are likened to a potter's molding a pot from clay.

The potter, who makes the process happen, is the efficient cause.

The wheel he uses to spin and mold the pot is the instrumental cause, thought of as God's power, or shakti.

The clay is the material cause.

Theistic dualists believe in God as Lord and Creator, but He remains ever separate from man and the world and is not the material cause.

Among the notable dualists have been Kapila, Madhva, Meykandar, Chaitanya, Aristotle, Augustine, Kant and virtually all Jewish, Christian and Muslim theologians. The most prevalent monism is pantheism, "all is God," and its views do not permit of a God who is Lord and Creator. He is immanent, temporal--material cause but not efficient cause. History's pantheists include Shankara, Vivekananda, Aurobindo, Plotinus, the Stoics, Spinoza and Ashvaghosha.

The Vedas proclaim, "As a thousand sparks from a fire well blazing spring forth, each one like the rest, so from the Imperishable all kinds of beings come forth, my dear, and to Him return."

Mysticism In the Home

The Saivite Hindu lifestyle is very special, very binding, strengthened by: the pancha nitya karmas; the Monday family home evening and the daily family meetings; the knowing that each child is and has been totally a part of the family, maybe for hundreds of years; the knowing that there is karma to be worked out within the family--feelings of happiness, unhappiness and misunderstandings, all to be resolved; and the knowing that there is a purpose for them all being together and that they may all be together until mukti, liberation from the cycle of rebirth. All this and more distinguishes the Saivite family from all other families on the planet. It is on the astral plane, the inner world of this world, that twenty-four-hour life takes place. Beings there do not have to sleep.

The positive activity of the astral world within the house or the apartment transforms it into a home, or if negative into a hotel room. To stabilize this astral activity and make sure it is positive, the home puja is performed by every Saivite family daily. Scriptures are read, the yamas and niyamas are fulfilled and all difficulties, large and small, are resolved before sleep. Divine ancestral devas are coaxed to live in the home, as well as devas from nearby temples where the family frequently worships.

This magic makes the home into a spiritual abode, not unlike a temple itself. Children are always treated with great respect and awe in a true Saivite home, for one does not always know who these young ones were in past lives.

They may be incarnations of a grandmother, grandfather, aunt or uncle, dearly beloved mother, sister, brother, respected father, distant related yogi or rishi. Who are they? What is their destiny to fulfill in this life? The answers lie in the voice of the universe, the mystical Saivite astrological system laid down by the rishis of yore.

The family's astrologer carefully explains the nature of each child, and how it will develop, flourish and unfold year after year. This gives the parents knowledge and hope, courage and understanding, tolerance and forgiveness, and all the other fine qualities that all Saivites want to cultivate within themselves.

In raising the children and simultaneously realizing that each is a part of Siva's well-ordered universe and has entered the family with his or her own prarabdha karmas to be lived out, the parents are neither excited nor dismayed when the predicted characteristics begin to manifest within the child. Yes, the Saivite home is a factory, an intricate mechanism manufacturing spiritual unfoldment for every member of the family.

Inspiring Belonging And Dignity

Siva's followers encourage and inspire children so they always feel they belong and are significant. If upsets occur, parents use loving, positive strategies such as time-out, logical consequences and denial of privileges.

Foundations for Fruitful Yoga

Many Hindu teachers in the West teach purely advaitic meditation, with no theism or religious practice, but most who have come to the West from India were raised in Hindu homes. They have within them a firm religious, cultural foundation for yoga.

Many do not pass the religious culture on to their Western devotees, however.

In an orthodox Hindu community they would most likely teach in a more traditional way. Advaita philosophy is appealing to the Westerner. It does not require a change in lifestyle. The nondual, advaita-based meditations do bring the devotees out of the conscious mind, but more often than not lead them into the subconscious.

It is here, within the subconscious, that unresolved problems with family and one's own personal ego begin to appear. Without a proper religious-cultural background and traditional Hindu belief system, these problems are difficult to handle. This turmoil is certainly not the purpose of advaitic meditations, but it is a by-product.

The wise guru trains his devotees in traditional Hindu culture and values and teaches the beginning yogas, as well as temple protocol, music, the arts and dance. All these should be mastered to build a proper subconscious foundation within the mind. Karma yoga and bhakti yoga are the necessary prelude to the higher philosophies and practices.

Group meditation is all right, as the group can really help the individual, as does the individual help the group. Intense meditation awakens the samskaras, the impressions of the past, and intensifies the prarabdha karmas, bringing them into manifestation before their time. It has a greenhouse effect.

No one should perform intensive meditation alone until he or she can serve selflessly and accept praise and blame and criticism without complaint or resentment, but with a sweet smile. Only when a devotee has reached this stage is he or she firmly on the kriya marga, which will lead quite naturally to the yoga marga.

Then, finally, raja yoga and other kinds of more refined, intensive sadhanas can safely be performed. These will clean up the karmas of the past without mental pain, once the proper foundation has been set within the mind and character of the devotee. The progressive sadhanas of karma yoga, bhakti yoga and then raja yoga are like clearing a path of its stones. First you remove the big stones. Then you walk back along the path. You still see big stones, but they are half the size as the first ones that were removed, and you remove these as well. Then you walk back along the path and remove more stones that stand out as large, and on and on until the path is clear.

It is a refinement process. The seeker on the path has to be soft, pliable, easy to get along with, as well as firm-minded. Therefore, bhakti, which is love in action, is a necessary prerequisite to success on the San Marga, the straight path to God, toward merger with Siva. All kinds of yogic techniques can be practiced, but they hold no fruitful rewards for those who are not firm-minded and not strong in the essential virtues. The prideful, antagonistic and difficult-to-get-along-with people must soften their hearts. This is done through bhakti and karma yoga. These practices alone will free the devotee from the anava marga--the path of building up and keeping the personal ego strong.

The anava marga is a difficult path to leave for the San Marga, but the results on the San Marga are so much more rewarding in the long run. It is often postulated by certain Indian schools of thought that once you reach a certain stage, bhakti should be set aside because it is dual by nature. But a devotee arriving into a high state of consciousness does not give up his love for God and the Gods. His devotion does not stop; rather it becomes more intense.

He does not stop eating, relating to family, friends and other devotees. These are all dual things, too. Yes, it is true that some teachers preach this doctrine. But to avoid the charya marga, having perhaps never been on it, and say, "I am on a greater and much higher one; I don't have to do that" is another philosophy, not ours.

In Saiva Siddhanta, the margas are progressive stages of character building. They are a foundation for good character, which is built on bhakti. Proper habit patterns created through the daily sadhanas of karma yoga and bhakti yoga lay this foundation within the mind, body and emotions. In case a devotee fails in pursuit of the higher yogas, he will always have his success on the charya marga to rely upon.

For someone to say, "I now intellectually understand the Vedas and do not need to express love and devotion" is sad indeed. One who had really realized the truths of the Vedas would never say this.

DO SAIVITES WORSHIP ONLY IN TEMPLES

One can worship God anywhere and be in contact with the inner worlds--in the temple, in the home shrine and in the yogi's contemplation. However, in the holy Siva temple the three worlds most perfectly commune.

In the shrine room gather messengers of the Mahadeva being worshiped to hear the prayers of the devotee and carry them to their Master. The Gods can be worshiped anywhere when the proper sankalpa, preparation, has been performed.

God's presence is everywhere, through everything, in everything, for Siva is the creator of all things, the manifestor of time, form and the space between forms. Siva is worshiped in the mind, in the heart, through the throat, in the head of the yogi locked in yoga. So great is the power of worship, communion and communication with the centillion devas, that when a little bell is rung, a flame appears in the lamp, the vermilion spot is placed, the flower appears and is offered, God Siva and the Gods are invoked. Contemplating the aftermath of puja or abhisheka, we feel the sannidhya or divine presence of Parashakti, tender motherly love, permeating to the outer walls around the temple. The Vedas proclaim, "Assemble all, with prayer to the Lord of Heaven, He is the One, the all-pervading, the guest of men. He, the ancient of days, abides in the present. Him, the One, the many follow on their path."

When you control your emotions, you are bringing through your spiritual being. It is only your spiritual being, your soul in action, bringing through the spirit, or bringing through God, that can control the mind. When you are living in an emotional state, you are only experiencing the mind temporarily out of control. And like anything that gains its own momentum, even if you do not control it, it will subside automatically after a period of time until it builds up again.

This is all caused by subtle transgressions of natural laws of the mind, in this life and in previous lives. There are many subtle laws. For instance, if you are planning to do something for someone and then you decide for some reason that you won't, all of the spiritual power that you had previously brought through from your spiritual being will be coagulated and blocked by your hesitation. Then tomorrow will not be as good as today was. It will be worse. To keep your spirit flowing, always allow yourself to be in the line of understanding. In other words, do not allow misunderstanding to arise in your mind.

Should misunderstanding arise, sit down, be quiet and do not get up until you understand the problem. You might have to sit for an hour. Instinctively your animal nature will not allow you to do that, but if you use willpower and persist, tomorrow will be a perfect day. Now, this is easy to talk about, and also easy to understand, but it takes a very discerning mind, utilizing the power of discrimination, to master these laws of the mind. Train your mind to awaken the spiritual being. This is as difficult to do as it is to train a person to dance or to swim, or to accomplish any athletic feat requiring a highly trained body. You have to always be the master, and be attentive to your goals in life.

What is your goal in this life?

Is your goal to sit and wallow in the emotions? Is it to memorize a lot of things that different people have said so you can quote from them? Or is your goal in life to find first your Infinite Being within yourself? If you could only once gain just a glimmer of your true Being--the spiritual Being flowing through the mind which you always thought was you. Instead, you have things that you have to do that you haven't done, things that you will do, and things that you will not do, things that you haven't made up your mind to do as yet and things you thought you would like to do but decided you wouldn't do.

All of this is going on as a process within yourself, and it keeps you nicely confused. A confused mind creates the form to which you give a name, and you become Mr. or Mrs. Somebody from Somewhere. You go along like that for years and years until all of a sudden you drop dead and give up the physical body. Then what happens? What happens to this mind that is so concerned about "What will my friends think?"

All of these various concepts that make up your personality, when you lay down your physical body and die, just what happens to them? Are you ready for that experience of death? You should always be ready, especially nowadays when the opportunities are so great. Always be ready, spiritually ready. Are you spiritually ready? Have you done your duty to your family? Have you done your duty to your temple? Have you done your duty to yourself? Or do you shirk some of your responsibilities?

It's not up to your swami to know all those things about you. Somebody once said, "Well, Gurudeva just knows everything about me." What good does that do? It's up to you to take a running total on yourself, daily, through feeling. You can't do it through thought; you'll get all mixed up. Are you ready to become a spirit, a spiritual being, an illumined mind, at the moment of death? Or at the moment of death are you ready to become a completely confused, congested mass of gaseous matter, which is what a confused mind looks like? These are vital religious questions that the individual must face and find the answers to.

The Written Marriage Covenant

Siva's followers compose a written promise to one another before marriage, defining the duties, responsibilities and expectations of their life together. At key junctures in life, they rewrite this vital agreement.

Torn Between Past and Future

What is the instant? That is what we have to discover through a moment of concentration. What is the moment? We all know what the past is--many people live in the past, over and over again, and they never catch up with the present. Other people live in the future--but of course when they do, they are really only living in the past, too, and they never find the present either. Just as an example, how many times have you gone to the temple without being fully there?

Part of you was there, part of you was living in the past, part of you was trying to live in the future; and there you were, emoting over the things that happened that should never have happened, and fearful of things that might happen in the future, which probably won't happen unless you continue being fearful of their happening until you create them!

Do you know that the ability to live right now, in the instant, is a spiritual power, reflecting the awakening of the soul and requiring a subconscious control of the mind? Your soul is never bothered with the things that disturb the rest of the mind! The mind lives in the past, and the mind tries to live in the future.

But when you quiet your mind, you live in the present. You are living within your soul, or the higher state of your mind which is undisturbed by the things of time. Also, when you live in the present, you eliminate fears, worries and doubts. Of course, you might feel a little out of place for a while, as if you weren't anybody, if for years and years you have been accustomed to making fears, worries and doubts your cherished possessions--more important to you than anything. There are people who just wouldn't know who they were if you took away from them their fears, worries and doubts. But if you want to be somebody, something, a state of being, you want to live in the eternal now.

There is a simple formula for attaining the eternal now. If you can remember it, you can center yourself within yourself very quickly and experience living right this instant.

Imagine yourself now, worried, bothered and disturbed, and in the midst of your disturbance say to yourself, "I am all right, right now. Just this instant, I am all right." What a shock to the disturbed part of your mind! It will not only be shocked, it will be shattered out of its disturbance when you declare the truth that you are all right in the eternal now.