In this episode of “5 Minutes”, Dr. Robert Svoboda explores Nath Yogis as masters of existence.

Now, there’s really two groups of not yogis. One are the human beings who identify as Naths, and there are many of these still existing, almost exclusively in India. But I’m focusing today on the original Neeva Nath, the original nine Naths and these nine naths There are different lists of the nine, but the three most important are Matsyendranath, Gorakhnath or Gorakshnath) and Jalandharnath. And the word nath in Sanskrit means a master. So these are individuals who have mastered existence.

They have mastered penance, they have mastered yoga. And their purpose in life is to make their mastery available to those who require it. And they have made a number of disciples who made disciples, and that’s why there’s so many, not yogis. That are humans out there. But in my opinion, it’s important to begin by understanding the nature of these original nine naths It is so far as we can tell these nine naths were originally human beings, but who went through transformations to become something much more than human.

Immortal in a sense, in the sense of being able to delay the deterioration of their body substantially. Machchindranath, some people say, was the first naths. Though, Other people say that Shiva was the first naths. There is definitely an opinion that the naths originally were worshipers of Shiva. Vimalananda was of the opinion. That Dattatreya was the original nath and was the guru of all the other naths There are some who say that particularly in North India and among academics, that this is impossible.

That re was never connected with the naths before, a much later time in Western India. But I follow what I was taught by Vimalananda. The Matsyendranath, the one that we think of as the original naths was originally a fish was born in the womb of a fish. And it is said that once, when Shiva was communicating a very, very secret knowledge to his wife, Parvati. They elected. He elected to do so down on earth in a secluded location.
But while he was communicating this Machchindra in the womb of the fish was listening also and gained that knowledge at the same time that Parvati did. And when Shiva. Said to Parvati, have you understood, Machchindra piped up and said, yes, I have understood. And Shiva said, what and then he looked down and he saw that he had a new disciple in the form of a fish. And he said, well, I see you have, because of the law of karma, become my disciple.

Therefore, I’m going to bless you that you will become a great disciple and we’re gonna have Lord Dere become your guru. And that will be good. And Machchindranath became a great immortal being and did all kinds of wonderful things. And different stories have different, details, but one story and the one Vimalananda endorsed was that Matra had some ash and he blessed the ash that whoever consumed it would. Give birth to a son and he gave it to a woman who listened to her girlfriends and they said, oh my God, don’t do that you’ll turn into a slave of this yogi.

They’re all magicians. And so she threw it on a heap of kung and when Machchindranath came back 12 years later and said, I’d like to see the son that you had From me giving you that ash in the past. She said, man, I didn’t do it. I threw it on the dung heap and Machchindra said, show me the dung heap because that ash cannot possibly have failed. And he said, okay, where are you? And Gorakhnath said, from down below, I am in the dung heap. And out came Gorakhnath And many of the naths had these miraculous type of births and they became miraculous yogis and they are worthy of our devotion.