Navnath
Shri Samartha Sadaguru Bhausaheb Maharaj
Shri Samartha Sadaguru Siddharameshwar Maharaj
Sri Samartha Sadaguru Ganapatrao Maharaj Kannur
Shri Smarth Sadguru Muppin Kadsiddheshwar Maharaj
Nisargadatta Maharaj
Shri Ramakant Maharaj

The Inchegeri Sampradaya is a lineage of Hindu Shaivite teachers which was started by Shri Bhausaheb Maharaj.[web 1] Sri Siddharameshwar Maharaj, Sri Ganapatrao Maharaj Kannur , Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj and Shri Ramakant Maharaj[1][2] belong to this Sampradaya.

History

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The Inchegeri Sampradaya traces it's sampradaya to the Navanath Sampraday.[web 2][3]

The mythological origins of the Inchegeri Sampradaya are ascribed to Adiguru Shri Dattatreya. He initiated the Navanaths, the Holy Nine Gurus.[3]

Revananath - Siddhagiri Math (Kaneri Math)

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One of those Navnaths was Revanatah, the 7th[3] or 8th[4] Navnath. Revantah initiated Sant Dnyaneshwar.[web 3]

Revananath is considered to have established the Kaadsiddheshwar temple and math at Kanheri village.[citation needed] According to the Gurudev Renade website, there is a temple of Kada Siddha located on a hill Siddhagiri[web 4] in Kanheri village, Karveer tehsil, Kolhapur district, Maharashtra state, India.[citation needed] It is also called "Kaneri Math" and "Siddhagiri Math"[web 5] The Siddhagiri Math was established around the Moola-Kaadsiddheswar Shiva temple in the Shaiva-Lingayat tradition. It is a vast campus with the central Shiva temple.[citation needed]

Dnyaneshwar

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One of those Navnaths was Revanatah, the 7th[3] or 8th[4] Navnath. Revantah initiated Sant Dnyaneshwar[web 3] (1275–1296), also known as Sant Jñāneshwar or Jñanadeva[web 3] and as Kadasiddha[3] or Kad-Siddheshwar Maharaj.[4]

Dnyaneshwar was a 13th-century Maharashtrian Hindu saint (Sant - a title by which he is often referred), poet, philosopher and yogi of the Nath tradition whose works Bhavartha Deepika (a commentary on Bhagavad Gita, popularly known as "Dnyaneshwari"), and Amrutanubhav are considered to be milestones in Marathi literature.

According to Shirvaikar, Dnyaneshwar was initiated into the Nath by his older brother Nivrutti, who was born in 1273.[web 6] When Nivrutti was seven and had to the undergo the thread ceremony to be inducted as a Brahmin, the Brahmins of Alandi refused to perform the ceremony:

In a state of extreme distress Vithalpant went to Triambakeshwar (near Nasik) with his family for performing worship at the Shiva temple. Triambakeshwar is one of the twelve Jyotirlingas or luminary lingas of Lord Shiva. While they had gone for performing pradakshina (circumambulation) of the temple one night they encountered a ferocious tiger (in thirteenth century the area was a deep forest) The members of the family ran helter skelter and were dispersed. Nivrutti wandered into a cave in the Anjani mountain where Gahininath, one of the nine Naths was staying for some time. He was attracted towards Nivrutti and in spite of his young age initiated him into Nath sect assigning him the mantra "Ramakrishna Hari" instructing him to propagate devotion to Shri Krishna. That is how Nivrutti became Nivruttinath. The matter of excommunication did not affect this because the Nath sect does not bother about caste system and though socially it may be observed it is ignored in spiritual matters.[web 6]

In 1287 Nivrutti initiated his younger brother:

Nivrutinath initiated Dnyanadeo into the Nath sect and instructed him to write a commentary on Gita. Thus we have a unique situation of a fourteen year old Guru instructing his twelve year old disciple to write something which has become the hope of humanity.[web 6]

Dnyaneshwar died at the young age of 21.[web 6]

Nimbargi Maharaj (Lingajangam Maharaj) - Nimbargi Sampradaya

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In 1820[5] Kadasiddha,[3] or "Almighty "Kadsiddeshwar" who appeared as a vision to Sri Gurulingajangam Maharaj",[5] or the 22nd Shri Samarth Muppin Kaadsiddheswar Maharaj in the Kaadasiddheshwar Sampradaya[citation needed][note 1], initiated Gurulingajangam Maharaj (1789-1875), also known as "Nimbargi Maharaj".[web 3] Nimbargi founded the Nimbargi sampraday, and initiated Shri Raghunathpriya Sadhu Maharaj.[citation needed]

According to Frydman, Kadasiddha initiated both Lingajangam Maharaj and Bhausahib Maharaj, and "entrusted to their care his Ashram".[3]

Nimbargi belonged to a Nellawai sub-caste of the Lingayat caste.[6][4] According to Boucher,

It is significant that some of the founders of the Navnath Sampradaya are Lingayat or Virasaiva because this was a revolutionary movement, allowing people of all walks of life, and both sexes to find Shiva immanent within themselves. Part of this democratizing movement, I believe, is a reaction of Western India's contact with Islam, which embraces people of all class, creed and gender. The iconoclasm, which is at the heart of Virasaivism actually comes down to us in the twentieth and twenty-first centuries as something we can easily relate to. The breaking down of taboos, of certain parts of India's spiritual structure makes it possible for us as modern people to partake of these teachings. We do not even have to be practicing Hindus, in the traditional sense, in order to hear it. This attitude was most evident in the Satsang room of Sri Nisargaddatta Maharaj.[4]

Nimbargi practiced for 36 years, meanwhile living as a householder, and was finally awakened when he was 67. Until his death, at the age of 95, he "initiated people and lived the life of a Jivanmukta".[4]

Bhausaheb Maharaj - Inchegeri Sampradaya

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Nimbargi initiated Shri Raghunathpriya Sadhu Maharaj,[citation needed] who in turn initiated Bhausaheb Maharaj Deshpande[4] (1843 Umdi - 1914 Inchgiri,[web 7] who was an ardent follower and a devoted disciple of Shri Gurulingajangam Maharaj.[7]

Shri Bhausaheb Maharaj established the Inchegeri Sampraday.[3] He preached the principle of nondualness, Advait tatva, and used to give discourses on Srimad Dasbodh.

Sri Bhausaheb Maharaj had many students, among which were Sri Amburao Maharaj of Jigjivani (1857 Jigajevani - 1933 Inchgiri),[web 8][3] Sri Gurudev Ranade of Nimbal,[web 8][web 9][3][web 10] Girimalleshwar Maharaj[3] and Sri Siddharameshwar Maharaj (1875-1936)[4][3]

Siddharameshwar Maharaj

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Sri Siddharameshwar Maharaj initiated several well-known teachers:

Shri Muppin Kaadsiddheshwar Maharaj

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Shri Muppin Kaadsiddheshwar Maharaj was formally adopted by the 25th Virupaksha Kaadeshwar of the Kaneri Math, Lingayat Parampara, and invested as the 26th Mathadheepati of the (Siddhagiri) Kaneri Math, Lingayat Parampara, in 1922 at the age of 17.[web 12]

The Kaadsiddheshwar Peeth is also the main Kuldaivat (dynastic Gods/Teachers) of the Lingayat Shaiva community.[citation needed][clarification needed]

Nisargadatta Maharaj

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Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj attracted a broad following in the western world. He never appointed any successor, because

[...] he wasn't allowed to appoint a successor. You have to remember that Nisargadatta wasn't realised himself when Siddharameshwar passed away.[web 13]

Only a few persons were acknowledged as jnani by Sri Nisargadatta.[web 13][note 2] Nevertheless several western teachers regard Sri nIsargadatta to be their guru.[9]

Nisargadatta narrates the following about the history of the Inchegeri Sampradaya:

I sit here every day answering your questions, but this is not the way that the teachers of my lineage used to do their work. A few hundred years ago there were no questions and answers at all. Ours is a householder lineage, which means everyone had to go out and earn his living. There were no meetings like this where disciples met in large numbers with the Guru and asked him questions. Travel was difficult. There were no buses, trains and planes. In the old days the Guru did the traveling on foot, while the disciples stayed at home and looked after their families. The Guru walked from village to village to meet the disciples. If he met someone he thought was ready to be included in the sampradaya, he would initiate him with mantra of the lineage. That was the only teaching given out. The disciple would repeat the mantra and periodically the Guru would come to the village to see what progress was being made. When the Guru knew that he was about to pass away, he would appoint one of the householder-devotees to be the new Guru, and that new Guru would then take on the teaching duties: walking from village to village, initiating new devotees and supervising the progress of the old ones.[web 13]

Shri Ramakant Maharaj

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Shri Ramakant Maharaj received the naam mantra in 1962 from his master Nisargadatta Maharaj and spent the next 19 years with the Master until Nisargadatta Maharaj's Mahasamadhi in 1981 [2]. Ramakant Maharaj currently initiates and teaches from Nashik Road Ashram[10], and is the present day holder of this lineage.


"Siddhi" is a Sanskrit noun that can be translated as "perfection", "accomplishment", "attainment", or "success".[11] In the Pancatantra, a siddhi may be any unusual skill or faculty or capability. As a term in the Manusmriti, it refers to the settlement of a debt. In the Samkhya Karika and Tattva Samasa, it refers to the attainment of eight siddhis that make one become rid of pain-causing ignorance, to gain knowledge, and experience bliss. In Tantric Buddhism, it specifically refers to the acquisition of supernatural powers by psychic or magical means or the supposed faculty so acquired.

"Eshwar" is another name for the Hindu god Shiva.[web 14]

Overview of the Inchegiri Sampradaya

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See also

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Notes

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  1. ^ How Gurulingajangam Maharaj and Bhausahib Maharaj were initiated is not being narrated, but given the span of time between the 13th century and the 19th century and the early dismiss of Dnyaneshwar, a physical initiation seems unlikely.
  2. ^ David Godman mentions Maurice Frydman and a Canadian called "Rudi".[web 13]

References

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  1. ^ "Ramakant Maharaj Website". http://www.ramakantmaharaj.net/. {{cite web}}: External link in |website= (help)
  2. ^ a b "Interview with Ramakant Maharaj".
  3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Frydman 1987.
  4. ^ a b c d e f g h Boucher & year unknown.
  5. ^ a b Sadguru Shri Ranjit Maharaj, History
  6. ^ Dabade 1998, p. 49.
  7. ^ R.D. Ranade (1982), Mysticism In Maharashtra
  8. ^ Prior to Consciousness, pp. 1-2, April 4, 1980
  9. ^ nisargadatta.org, Navnath Sampradaya
  10. ^ "Ramakant Maharaj Information". www.ramakantmaharaj.net.
  11. ^ Apte, A Practical Sanskrit Dictionary, p. 986.

Sources

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Published sources=

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Web-sources

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General

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Category:Hinduism