Yoga and Tantra

Yoga and Tantra have much in common. Both believe in the primary divide between human consciousness (Purusha) and nature (Prakriti). While Yoga seeks Prakriti as inanimate, Tantra considers Prakriti to be animate with a will of its own, which is why in Tantra, nature is addressed as Shakti, or goddess, while in Yoga, nature is Maya or delusion whose spell has to be broken. While a follower of Tantra seeks power over nature, the follower of Yoga seeks liberation from nature. This makes the Tantrik a sorcerer and the Yogi a mystic. The lines are often blurred.

The man who made the secrets of Tantra and Yoga accessible to the common man is Gorakh-nath. Until his arrival, this was a secret doctrine that was revealed only to those who had been initiated into the Nath-panthi order. Not much is known about the Nath-Panthis and their doctrine. What is known comes from folk legends, as the Nath-Panthis preferred the oral to the written tradition.

Nath-panthis were also known for their very loud salutation, “Alakh Niranjan,” which basically means “One who is without attributes (lakshan) or goal (laksha) or blemish (anjan),” in other words, God without form. The Nath-Jogis were clearly hermits who held the householder’s life in disdain and refused to give divinity a form. Naturally, section of Hindus such as Vaishnavas, Shaivas and Shaktas who believed in temple rituals, food taboos and caste system, viewed them with suspicion.