Demystifying Yoga, Tantra, Siddhanta, Non-duality and Self-realisation
Tantra has been popularly associated in the west with sexual practices, although this is an over-simplification, to say the least.Matsyendranath (or Macchindranath), from the 9th-10th century, was one of the eighty-four Mahasiddhas, and is the patron deity of Nepal. He was guru of Gorakshanath, with whom he founded the school of Hatha yoga, one of the branches of Yogic practices. He is revered by both Hindus and Buddhists.
Matsyendranath is considered by many to be the founder of the Nath Sampradaya of sadhus. While the Naths had actually been known much earlier, from the time of Dattatreya, Macchinndranath did initiate a revival by combining the three viewpoints of Siddha, Tantra, and Nath philosophy.
Scholarship has tentatively associated Macchindranath with Luipa who is venerated as a Mahasiddha in the Vajrayana Buddhist tradition.
(source: Wikipedia)
The Natha Sampradaya is a development of the earlier Siddha or Avadhuta Sampradaya, an ancient lineage of spiritual masters. Its founding is traditionally ascribed as an ideal reflected by the life and spiritual attainments of the guru Dattatreya, who was considered by many to have been a human incarnation of Lord Shiva. The establishment of the Naths as a distinct historical sect purportedly began around the 8th or 9th century with a simple fisherman, Matsyendranath (sometimes called Minanath, who may be identified with or called the father of Matsyendranath in some sources).
One story of the origin of the Nath teachings is that Matsyendranath was swallowed by a fish and while inside the fish overheard the teachings given by Shiva to his wife Parvati. According to legend, the reason behind Shiva imparting a teaching at the bottom of the ocean was in order to avoid being overheard by others. In the form of a fish, Matsyendranath exerted his hearing in the manner required to overhear and absorb the teachings of Shiva. After being rescued from the fish by another fisherman, Matsyendranath took initiation as a sannyasin from Siddha Carpati. It was Matsyendranath who became known as the founder of the specific stream of yogis known as the Nath Sampradaya.
Matysendranath's two most important disciples were Caurangi and Gorakshanath. The latter came to eclipse his Master in importance in many of the branches and sub-sects of the Nath Sampradaya. Even today, Gorakshanath is considered by many to have been the most influential of the ancient Naths. He is also reputed to have written the first books dealing with Laya yoga and the raising of the kundalini-shakti.
There are several sites, ashrams and temples in India dedicated to Gorakshanatha. Many of them have been built at sites where he lived and engaged in meditation and other sadhanas. According to tradition, his samadhi shrine and gaddi (seat) reside at the Goraknath Temple in Gorakhpur. However, Baghavan Nityananda stated that the samadhi shrines (tombs) of both Matsyendranath and Gorakshanath reside at Nath Mandir near the Vajreshwari Temple about a kilometer from Ganeshpuri.
The Natha Sampradaya does not recognize caste barriers, and their teachings were adopted by outcasts and kings alike. The heterodox Nath tradition has many sub-sects, but all honor Matsyendranath and Gorakshanath as the founders of the tradition.
(source: Wikipedia)
The first Western scholar to take the study of Tantra seriously was Sir John Woodroffe (1865–1936), who wrote about Tantra under the pen name Arthur Avalon. He is generally held as the "founding father of Tantric studies." Unlike previous Western scholars, Woodroffe was an apologist for Tantra, defending Tantra against its many critics and presenting Tantra as an ethical philosophical system greatly in accord with the Vedas and Vedanta.
Following Sir John Woodroffe, a number of scholars began to actively investigate the Tantric teachings. These included a number of scholars of comparative religion and Indology, such as: Agehananda Bharati, Mircea Eliade, Julius Evola, Carl Jung, Giuseppe Tucci and Heinrich Zimmer.
Following these first presentations of Tantra, other more popular authors such as Joseph Campbell helped to bring Tantra into the imagination of the peoples of the West. Tantra came to be viewed by some as a "cult of ecstasy", combining sexuality and spirituality in such a way as to act as a corrective force to Western repressive attitudes about sex.
As Tantra has become more popular in the West it has undergone a major transformation. For many modern readers, "Tantra" has become a synonym for "spiritual sex" or "sacred sexuality", a belief that sex in itself ought to be recognized as a sacred act which is capable of elevating its participants to a more sublime spiritual plane. Though pop-tantra may adopt many of the concepts and terminology of Indian Tantra, it often omits one or more of the following: the traditional reliance on guruparampara (the guidance of a guru), extensive meditative practice, and traditional rules of conduct - both moral and ritualistic.
According to one author and critic on religion and politics, Hugh Urban:
Since at least the time of Agehananda Bharati, most Western scholars have been severely critical of these new forms of pop Tantra. This "California Tantra" as Georg Feuerstein calls it, is "based on a profound misunderstanding of the Tantric path. Their main error is to confuse Tantric bliss ... with ordinary orgasmic pleasure.
(Source: Wikipedia)
"In the Nath Tradition, legend ascribes the origin of Tantra to Dattatreya, a semi-mythological yogi and the assumed author of the Jivanmukta Gita ("Song of the liberated soul"). Matsyendranath is credited with authorship of the Kaulajnana-nirnaya, a voluminous ninth-century tantra dealing with a host of mystical and magical subjects, and occupies an important position in the Hindu tantric lineage, as well as in Tibetan Vajrayana Buddhism."
As Mircea Eliade pointed out in his well-known study on Yoga, "What characterizes Yoga is not only its practical side, but also its initiatory structure."
"The God-realized teacher grants "divine knowledge" (divya-jnana), as the Yoga-Shikha-Upanishad puts it. It is knowldedge that springs from enlightenment and attracts to enlightenment.
