Who are the Nath Yogis?
This Hindu group doesn't cremate their dead, pierces their ears, and cheats death by using their tongues. I'm talking about the Nath Sampradaya & here's the tea!
During the 8th-12th centuries, Bharat was going through major cultural chaos & upheaval - Islamic invaders coming in, caste problems arising within Vedic society, and Buddhism mixing with Tantra to create Vajrayana.
From the ashes arose the Nath Yogis, blending Yoga, Tantra, Advaita, Sankhya, Buddhist & Shaiva philosophies. We find the earliest evidences of them in Abhinavgupta’s magnum opus Tantraloka, dated 9th-10th century CE.
That said, they also have routes in Kaula/Tantra, with some proponents arguing that hundreds of Naths have existed since time immemorial, centuries before the formal tribes started forming.
They follow 9 main gurus, the Nav Naths, & 84 Siddhas, and for our context, the line starts from Adinath - Lord Shiva himself - followed by Matsyendranath & Gorakhnath.
These guys aim for jivan-mukti, liberation while still alive in the physical body, and push further toward literal bodily immortality.
They believe the body is a vehicle for liberation, not an obstacle, so they spend their lives perfecting it via kaya-sadhana.
In fact, the body is Pinde Brahmande - a miniature mirroring the universe. They do intense Hatha Yoga to master the body through various locks or bandhas & awaken the sleeping Kundalini energy.
To cheat death, they train the tongue backward into the skull - Khechari Mudra - said to unlock the nectar of immortality.
They also practiced alchemy - treating the metal mercury as Shiva's own seed & processing it with compounds with a science called Rasayana.
You can enter this sect only through guru-shishya transmission, get your ears split - hence the name “Kaanphata” - and then wander with your Kamandalu water pot.
Nathas worship a Nirguna, formless Shiva-consciousness, chanting Shabar Mantras in local languages instead of gate-kept Vedic Sanskrit.
And they bury their dead in meditative samadhi, believing that the initiation already freed the soul, so cremation isn't needed.
Nath Yogis faced a lot of torture in the British era but continue to be a living example of hybrid, mixed Bharatiya heritage, so they deserve to be respected.
You can visit their strongholds in Gorakhpur, UP, Nepal & Uttarakhand.