Supreme Reality & Liberation – May Reflections

Many striking images are associated with the Nath way of life by both historical and traditional reference. Of these images, the haunting specter of the lone Nath quietly tending his or her Dhuni stands supreme.

The Nath Dhuni of antiquity is perhaps no different than those of today. A simple and shallow cleft in the ground in which suitable materials are incinerated.

The Dhuni is not a simple camp fire. It was viewed by the Nath as a living deity, emblematic as the womb of the Earth Goddess from which all manifestation was generated, sustained, and destroyed.

Although many cultures have sustained a tradition of fire worship, it remains a unique feature of the Naths that it was the site or dwelling place of the holy flame which was considered sacred.

The ancient but graphic iconography of such a scene is simple. The cleft in the earth represents the womb of the Mother Goddess. This was the sacred ground upon which the Nath way of life was brought into being, transformed and regenerated.

Nath teachings propose that the entire Cosmos, both perceived and hidden is a divine manifestation of ingenious integration and unity.

While this may be true, humanity throughout the passage of time has often chosen to fragment the divine puzzle into separate pieces for easy digestion. Presumably, it was thought that few had the capacity or illumination to grasp the whole.

Thus, it was with a nod and a wink that humanity acknowledged its own ignorance and began to designate and create a man made wonderland of divine and really cool stuff. Divine temples were instituted, as well as sects, cults, religions and paths of purported divine origin. Some caught on and flourished, while others died behind the pulpit or withered like leaves on a tree.

For reasons hard to explain or perhaps speculative, individuals found some paths or fragments of the divine puzzle to suit their individual tastes. Some, only get a headache when considering their true feelings on the subject.

The Naths of antiquity and today are practical thinking individuals and often able to vaporize puzzles and many types of confusion.

While perceiving the Cosmos as a divine manifestation of integration and unity, Naths also perceived that most people lived in a personal reality of fragmentation and disassociation from the divine.

The Naths encouraged patterns of mantra , meditation and regulated breathing as a means to Awakening but some clamored for greater diversity and means of expression.

If the question was simple, so must be the answer. The Naths built from the ground up.