The living teacher
Guru Sanjay Nath
Yogi of the Nath Sampradaya
Thirty years of practice, some of them in the Himalaya, and now a small mandir in Katraj where Kriya Yoga is given to whoever comes and asks for it.
His life
The journey
Sanjay Nath is a yogi of the Nath Sampradaya, the order founded by Machindranath and given its form by Gorakhnath. He has practised yoga, meditation, mantra and tantra for thirty years, including a long period living in the Himalayan mountains perfecting the techniques he now teaches.
The Nath order
The Nath sampradaya is one of the oldest continuous yogic orders in India, and one of the least interested in institutional grandeur. Its masters have historically been wanderers rather than abbots; its literature is small and its transmission is oral. What it preserves, it preserves in people.
To be a Nath is to stand in that line and to be answerable to it. It is not a title one adopts.
Years in the Himalaya
The practices that Kriya Yoga is built from are not learned quickly, and they are not learned in a city. The years in the mountains were spent on exactly that — establishing in practice what had been received in instruction, until the technique was no longer something being attempted.
The mandir
Om Siddhivinayak Machindra Dutt Mandir stands in Katraj, in the south of Pune. It is not large. A havan is lit there twice a week, the aarti is performed twice daily, and on Sunday evenings Guru Sanjay Nath speaks and then answers whatever is asked.
Kriya Yoga is given there, in person, at diksha. There is no course to enrol in, no monthly fee, and no certificate at the end. What there is, is a teacher who will watch your practice and correct it for as long as you keep coming.
What he teaches
Kriya Yoga first, and around it the practices that make Kriya possible: meditation, asana, mudra and mantra. The advanced practices of the Nath order — khechari among them — are given to students who have been under his instruction long enough for him to judge them ready, and to no one else.
Step by step
A life in sadhana
The turning points, in the order they happened.
Early years
Entry into the Nath Sampradaya
Initiation into the order founded by Machindranath and shaped by Gorakhnath, and the beginning of thirty years of unbroken practice.
The Himalayan years
Sadhana in the mountains
A long period living in the Himalaya, establishing in practice the techniques of yoga, meditation, mantra and tantra that had been received in instruction.
Return
Coming back to Pune
The return to Maharashtra, and the decision to make the practice available to householders rather than to keep it among renunciates.
Today
Om Siddhivinayak Machindra Dutt Mandir, Katraj
The mandir where the fire is lit, the aarti is performed, and Kriya Yoga is given at diksha to those who come and ask.
“Kriya is not something you learn. It is something you do, every day, until it begins to do something to you.”
Guru Sanjay Nath, at satsang
“Come and sit. If nothing happens, you have lost an hour. If something happens, you will know what to do next.”
To a visitor asking what would be expected of them
What he teaches
The practices given here
Kriya Yoga is given in person. Reading about it is preparation, not initiation.
Kriya Yoga
The central practice of this mandir — a discipline of breath and attention that works directly on the energy of the spine.
Meditation
Sitting still and paying attention. Simple to describe, and the ground everything else is built on.
Kundalini
The coiled energy at the base of the spine, and what it means for it to rise. The emblem of this mandir depicts exactly this.
Khechari Mudra
An advanced mudra of the Nath tradition, given only in person and only after long preparation.
Mudra & Asana
The gestures and postures that make the body a fit place to practise in.
Mantra
Sound used as a practice — repeated until the repetition does the work.
Meeting the Guru
Come and ask
Diksha is not booked online. Come to the mandir, sit through a session, and speak to him afterwards.