Initiation
The Natha Sampradaya is an initiatory Guru-shishya tradition. Membership in the sampradaya is always conferred by initiation (diksha) by a diksha-guru—either the lineage-holder or another member of the sampradaya whose ability to initiate has been recognized by his diksha-guru.
The Natha initiation itself is conducted inside a formal ceremony in which some portion of the awareness and spiritual energy (shakti) of the Guru is transmitted to the shishya (student). The neophyte, now a Nath, is also given a new name with which to support their new identity. This transmission or "touch" of the Guru is symbolically fixed by the application of ash to several parts of the body.
In The Phantastikos, Shri Gurudev Mahendranath, a Guru of the Adinath Sampradaya, wrote;
- "The passage of wisdom and knowledge through the generations required the mystic magick phenomenon of initiation, which is valid to this day in the initiation transmission from naked guru to naked novice by touch, mark, and mantra. In this simple rite, the initiator passes something of himself to the one initiated. This initiation is the start of the transformation of the new Natha. It must not be overlooked that this initiation has been passed on in one unbroken line for thousands of years. Once you receive the Nath initiation, it is yours throughout life. No one can take it from you, and you yourself can never renounce it. This is the most permanent thing in an impermanent life."
there are principally two divisions of nath sampradaya namely naths of NADA and naths of BINDA . any layman initiated by a nath guru in to nath sampradaya is called nath of nada tradition (parampara) while house holder naths are called naths of binda tradition where the son of a nath is born as a nath. matsyendra nath ji was of binda tradition ( nemi nath and paras nath, two of 24 tirthankars of jainism were his sons, and gorakh nath ji is of nada tradition.
Read more about this topic: Nath
Famous quotes containing the word initiation:
“The difficult and risky task of meeting and mastering the new—whether it be the settlement of new lands or the initiation of new ways of life—is not undertaken by the vanguard of society but by its rear. It is the misfits, failures, fugitives, outcasts and their like who are among the first to grapple with the new.”
—Eric Hoffer (1902–1983)
“Until the end of the Middle Ages, and in many cases afterwards too, in order to obtain initiation in a trade of any sort whatever—whether that of courtier, soldier, administrator, merchant or workman—a boy did not amass the knowledge necessary to ply that trade before entering it, but threw himself into it; he then acquired the necessary knowledge.”
—Philippe Ariés (20th century)