The Unbroken Transmission of A Living Spiritual Energy
The most significant gurus of the lineage from which Khecaranatha received his training are Bhagavan Nityananda and Swami Rudrananda (Rudi).
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Bhagavan Nityananda, whose name means, "bliss of the eternal," lived in southwest India from around the turn of the 20th century until 1961. Nityananda was well known in the major districts of Maharashtra and Karnataka, where he is revered to this day as a great saint. In its essence, Nityananda’s teaching was profoundly simple—to live within the heart of God. Nityananda demonstrated the goal of spiritual work—which is to merge the individual into the universal. |
| At the age of 30, after many years of spiritual practice, Rudi became a devout student of Nityananda. Even after Nityananda’s mahasamadhi in 1961, Rudi traveled regularly to India to visit his shrine and to study with Swami Muktananda—–one of Nityananda’s primary students. In 1966, Swami Muktananda initiated Rudi as a Swami into the Saraswati monastic order, naming him Rudrananda, or "bliss of Rudra". One of the first Americans to be recognized as a Swami, Rudi established many ashrams across North America and Europe. He continued to teach until his passing in 1973. |
The
practice of Kundalini MahaYoga has always been an inner practice, carefully
passed from teacher to student through oral and energetic transmission.
While the focus on inner practice remained, the philosophical aspects
as a written tradition emerged in the 5th and 6th century. The inspired
writings and commentaries arose from the personal inner experience of
these practitioners, based on their ardent study of the early tantric
practices.
The most significant philosophical expositions that arose from the practice
of Kundalini MahaYoga are Tantric Shaivism and Tantric Buddhism. Both
are non-dualistic schools of thought that emerged from the inner practice
of Kundalini. These practices and traditions blossomed from the hearts
of many great tantric masters of early times, called Mahasiddhas. The
word Mahasiddha comes from "maha" which means great and "siddha"
which means perfection of inner awareness and energy. These Mahasiddhas
were the preceptors for the earliest tantric practices, profoundly influencing
both the Tantric Shaivite and Buddhist traditions. All of them were adepts
in the practice of Kundalini.
  Some the most important tantric practitioners of early times were Abhinavagupta of Kashmir Shaivism, Matsyendranatha & Goraksanatha of the Shiva/Nath Tradition, & Varupa, Naropa, and Guru Padmasambhava of the Tantric Buddhist Tradition |
Bhagavan Nityananda and Swami Rudrananda (Rudi) were modern
day Mahasiddhas, and the wellspring of this particular expression of the
ancient practice of Kundalini MahaYoga. Throughout history there has been
an intrinsic current of spiritual wisdom and energy that has manifested
in different ways in many different times and places. Such a current is
conceived as preserving an unbroken connection with the divine source
of living spiritual energy. The preceptors of that divine energy in the
tantric tradition are the Mahasiddhas. A profound expression of that spiritual
energy in this time and place emerged through Nityananda and Rudrananda.
Rudi was profoundly connected to the inner practice of kundalini evident
in both Tantric Buddhism and Tantric Shaivism. He transmitted that teaching
to Swami Khecaranatha (Nathaji). Nathaji has spent the past 33 years fully
mastering that practice and teaching. As well, he has continued with Rudi’s
effort to extract the essence of the inner practices of those ancient
tantric traditions.
From Matsyendranatha and Gorakshanatha, the siddhas who founded the Natha
tradition, we recognize Rudi‚s practice of the double breath and
particular form of shaktipat. From Padmasambhava, the Buddhist Mahasiddha
who founded the Tibetan Tantric tradition, Rudi received transmission
of the Mind Treasure (gong ter) class. From Tirumular, the Tamil siddha
who was a founder of the Sri Vidya tradition, we draw our practice of
the Shree Chakra Puja and Lalita Mantra. Each of these great Mahasiddhas
emphasized kundalini as the quintessential element of their practice and
presented realization as the result of the ascent of kundalini through
the cakras. Each viewed the transmission from teacher to student (shaktipat)
as the principal means of awakening that process within the student. Each
of them expressed these truths in a different way. In our practice we
have chosen to draw from the teachings of these tantric masters.
The Significant Canons of the Tantric Traditions
- Focus on the rising of the kundalini—the power of the divine within
each of us—from the chakra (awareness/energy centers) in the base
of the spine to the chakra in the crown of the head as the means to spiritual
awakening and union with God.
-The fundamental philosophical assertion that our existence is an expression
of the inseparable Consciousness and Creative Energy of the Divine. Tantric
masters described their experience of the Divine as conscious energy.
It is, they went on to say, a pure awareness that is utterly still and
yet a conscious energy that is completely dynamic.
- Inclusion of both men and women (many practices exclude women) and accepting
householders into sannyas (renunciation).
- Not rejecting alcohol, meat, and sex as impure.
- The elegant explanation of the process of manifestation asserting that,
from the simplest to the most complex levels of life, the same fundamental
process repeats itself over and over again. The same process that manifests
the universe is the same process that occurs in our individual lives and
experience. Thus, we are not different from or separate from the Divine.
The practice of Kundalini MahaYoga is how we
come
to experience and become immersed in that Divinity.