[Advaita-l] Guru - Sishya relationship of Sri j~nAnEshvara and Sri nivrittinAtha

[Venkata sriram P]

Namaste,
 
They belonged to the nAtha sampradAya and the origin of their guru-parampara starts
from matsyEndranAtha (mInanAtha).  They are also called nAtha siddhAs.
 
The disciple of matsyEndranAtha is gOrakh(sha)nAtha.  The disciple of gOrakshanAtha is gai(gaha)ninAtha.  The discple of gaininAtha is nivrittinAtha. 
 
This is a typical yOga sampradAya with a slight tinge of kauLa (not the one which the common layman thinks of !).  A perfect kauLAchAri is one who could raise his kuNDalini from mUlAdhAra to sahasrAra and then bring it back to the mUlAdhAra.  The one who is 
adept in such a type of kuNDalini utthAna prakriya and pierces the 6 chakrAs (the 6 chakras are called a *kula*) is called kauLAchAri. 
 
However, with nirvrittinAtha, things took a different turn with gaininAtha initiating him into 
kriSNOpAsana.  Thus, later on, the yOga sampradAya coupled with bhAgavata dharma
anuSTAna became their AchAra.  And this mantle fell on jnaneshwar maharaj.  
 
Nivrittinatha attained samadhi at Trayambakeshwar.  The adi guru Sri Matsyendranatha's samadhi is near sapta-shringi shrine which is in the village called *vaNi* near nashik of Maharashtra.  He sang several abhangs dedicated to Sri Vittala of Pandaripur.  The vArkari sampradAya of Maharashtra, even today, sing those bhajans during the Pandaripur yAtra.
 
regs,
sriram