In this episode of “5 Minutes,” Dr. Robert Svoboda explores the Nava Naths and their traditional understanding as great yogis dedicated to benefiting all beings.

Groups of nine are very popular throughout South Asian culture, and the group of Naths has traditionally been fixed at nine, although there are different lists and different traditions regarding who those nine Naths are. According to Vimalananda, the Naths are a group of immortal yogis who are engaged in helping and benefiting all sentient beings.

As has happened with many other such groups, it appears that the individual stories of the different Naths developed in different places and were only later brought together. Over time, people began to understand these various figures as one group of nine.

Among the Nava Naths, the two most well-known are Matsyendranath, also called Machindranath, and Gorakhnath, also called Gorakshanath. Stories about them appear throughout different parts of India, often with small variations.

Originally, all of the Naths were regarded as devotees of Shiva. They were yogis, especially Hatha yogis, powerful practitioners performing difficult austerities and connected with the tradition of Shiva. Matsyendranath is generally considered the first of the Naths.

According to different versions of his story, Matsyendranath somehow ended up inside a fish, either in its womb or its belly. The fish happened to be positioned at the moment when Shiva was teaching Parvati about the nature of reality. Matsyendranath, while inside the fish, listened carefully and received this transmission, this diksha, from Shiva to Parvati.

Through hearing this teaching, he became enlightened. Shiva and Parvati then noticed that there was an enlightened being present in their field of awareness. Looking down, they discovered that this being was inside a fish.

Matsyendranath thanked them for enlightening him. He said that he did not even know where he was, that he had simply been inside the fish, and that through the workings of karma this extraordinary opportunity had come to him. Shiva told him that it was indeed a great blessing and instructed him to go and benefit all sentient beings.

The story of Gorakhnath’s birth also varies according to different traditions. The version I personally like is that Matsyendranath gave some activated ash, sometimes called vibhuti, to a pious woman who had been unable to have a child. He told her to consume the ash, saying that she would become pregnant and have a wonderful child. He said he would return after twelve years to see the child.

The woman was very excited, but when she spoke with her friends, they became fearful. They told her that perhaps this yogi was trying to control her or that something improper would happen. Because of their doubts, she took the ash and threw it into the corner of the cowshed, covering it with cow dung.

Twelve years later, Matsyendranath returned and asked about his child. The woman explained what had happened and admitted that she had not taken the ash herself. Matsyendranath said that the ash was meant to give birth to a child, so he went to the cowshed and found Gorakhnath, who was twelve years old, beneath a great pile of cow dung.

This may also relate to the connection in the name Gorakhnath, since go can mean both cow and sense organ.

Matsyendranath and Gorakhnath had many interactions, and Jalandharnath is also connected with these traditions. The version of the Nath stories that I personally appreciate most is the Navnath Bhaktisar, which was written in Maharashtra around two to two hundred and fifty years ago.

In this tradition, the nine Naths are not simply understood as Tantric yogis devoted to Shiva. They are described as yogis who are actually incarnations of Narayana, or Vishnu, who came to Earth specifically to become yogis devoted to Shiva and to benefit all sentient beings.

In this sense, they are like nine special avatars of Vishnu for the modern world.

The stories of the Nava Naths have guided and benefited people throughout South Asia for many generations. We offer respect to the Naths and pray that they continue to provide guidance and protection.

Alek Niranjan.