Ramnath Aghori

Anjou Durga Giri: Yogiraj Dr. Ramnath Aghori Baba was a very well known, feared and much admired Guru from the Nath Aghori lineage in India. He was born in the royal family of Pahur near Tarapith in West Bengal, who, later at the age of sixteen took sanyas or asceticism. Gambhirnath Baba initiated him under an ancient peepul tree, where he was incorporated into the Kanpatha segment of Gorakhnathis. He lived to a ripe age 117 years.

Yogiraj Dr Ramnath Baba as he was fondly known then and now was always interested in spirituality and for more than a century was the head of the Nath Akhara in Gorakhpur. And he always visited the Pashupatinath temple in Kathmandu, Nepal, every year, stayed on for a month to celebrate the festival of Shivaratri and was held in a great honor by the various types of Shaiva sadhus and by the Nepali devotees there.

As an adept, lineage holding master Yogiraj Dr Ramnath Baba was the senior Natha yogi with his 'seat' situated beside the Bagmati river, on the premier Natha 'dhuni' of the burning ghats. From the onset when he was known as just Ramnath Baba, he became an indispensable figure to the Nath sampradaya. Many yogis of the sampradaya were amazed to see the then young Ramnath Baba's courageous approach to sadhana ‘meditation’ and other yogic penances. Soon, Ramnath Baba was considered the star pupil of the Kanphata sadhus.

Shri. Mrityunjay Dey who was direct disciple of Ramnath Baba during late 1970's had the good fortune to have witnessed many supernatural and magical powers performed by his guru. Many of which are of such supernatural content that only Yogiraj Ramnath Baba could have manifested. Much later, Yogiraj Ramnath Baba gained access to the newly created Royal Library of Nepal. Here, he discovered the history of the Naths before the time of Gorakshnath in ancient, molded palm leaf manuscripts. Yogiraj Ramnath Baba investigated these manuscripts further as these findings contradicted the then Nath sampradaya’s guidelines and practices. Then he travelled to the Samye Monastery in Tibet. The Tibet’s first monastery which was made by Guru Swayambhunath who is also known as Guru Padmasambhava who took Buddhism to Tibet in 8th century AD.
However, Yogiraj Ramnath Baba was refused to entry to the monastery because he was a Kanphata Darshani Gorakhnathi. On the snowy slope of Himalayas while traveling back to Nepal, Yogiraj Ramnath Baba met the Tibbotinath Baba who was also known as Chakhtha Rinpoche who then took Yogiraj Ramnath Baba to Bakreshwar, West Bengal, where he had a life altering experience in meeting Byom Shankar Aghori Baba, who is said to be the last direct inheritor in lineage to Guru Padmasambhava. Byom Shankar Aghori Baba was over 200 years old, seven feet tall and blue eyed. Under his guidance, Yogiraj Ramnath Baba learned the Tantric Vajrayana Nath Aghori technologies of the earlier Naths under the guidance of Baba Byom Shankar Aghori and after completion Yogiraj Ramnath Baba retraced his steps to Samye Monastery and was then, welcomed to stay and study, he then lived here and also taught for a long time. Many original Naths texts and discourses were taken to Samye in Tibet by Buddhist teacher Atisha Dipankara from Nalanda University in Bihar, India.
Nalanda University was later destroyed by Muslim Turkish army in 1193 AD, it is said that the great library of the Nalanda University was so vast that it is reported to have burned for three months after the invaders set fire to it. This is when Vajrayana tradition was removed from India and today Vajrayana only survives in some rare Nath lineages and Buddhist practices. Yogiraj Ramnath Baba also discovered the true teachings of Nath Sampradaya which shed light about the false propaganda in teachings of the Gorakhnathis sampradaya.
 
Yogiraj Ramnath Baba then returned to Nepal, full of the knowledge he had acquired and was ready to overturn the heresy which had been inflicted on Nath sampradaya. He became the Raj Guru of Nepal and brought back the original old texts and discourses of Nath teachings here. Yogiraj Ramnath Baba created a storm of miracles to overrule the false orders and renew the old order, stripping the false and hypocritical so called Gorakhnathit eachings and that's how he restored the pure ancient order. Much later, Yogiraj Ramnath Baba who was also guru to late King Birendra of Nepal, one one occasion granted the King an extraordinary vision of Shiva and Kali on Yogiraj Ramnath Baba’s own palm.

Yogiraj Ramnath Baba initiated many reforms and brought about many changes both in the physical and spiritual life of Nepal which was very beneficial to Nepal. But after being disturbed by the King Birendra ‘s manipulation of spiritual powers and siddhis, Yogiraj Ramnath Baba left for Calcutta. King Birendra had displayed rampant irreverence to his guru Yogiraj Ramnath Baba who in essence was more than one’s own father. This apparently made the great yogi comment, “ Due to the karmic flow of the event, King Birendra’s head will roll in the hands of his own son crown Prince Dipendra no matter how he may so desire otherwise”. The vile destruction of the Nepal's royal family at the hand of Prince Dipendra in 2001 AD clearly displays the bad karmic consequence of King Birendra's actions.

As for the ancient traditional Naths, they had only two sects, one was Darshan Dhari or Darshani, a more modern term vs Kapaali or Kappaliks. There is a controversy regarding that those that wore large earrings, where some said, they originated from Gorakhsnath and some from Kanipha. According to the name, its more likely they originated from Kanipha Nathji, as the word kanphatta seems to be derived from this name. So, its better to use the name Darshani Sadhus then Nath panthi.
Around 1978 a westerner named Sadhu George seeking for spiritual understanding in Pashupatinath had the golden opportunity to meet Yogiraj Dr Ramnath Baba ( who by the had mastered the science of herbs and traditional Ayurvedic medicines and had got the title Doctor, using it to heal and cure diseases of the sick that visited him ) and has written about his experience of being with Yogiraj, “ Yogiraj Ramnath Baba did not have a high opinion of the then contemporary yogi/ascetic scene suggesting that yogis were often lazy and weak. Yogiraj Ramnath Baba said that modern ascetics were generally lazy because they had been seduced away from the required detached ascetic’s path by seeking name and fame; by relative materialistic goals; by their over-indulgence of drugs and the convenience of modern transport, electricity etc.”

Yogiraj Ramnath Baba thereby advised the Sadhu George against seeking to become an full time ascetic sadhu and especially emphasized the need to cultivate and awaken the coiled-up energy/ capability by way of the tantric approach of the householder/yogi. One quiet afternoon when no one was around Ramnath Baba, chose to ‘give’ Sadhu George prajna, ‘insight’ into the nature of Pashupatinath. He instructed Sadhu George to sit under a Bel tree, a tree associated with Shiva’s resonance, located in a courtyard on the other side of the Bagmati River some hundreds of yards away from his seat in the cremation ghat and to meditate there in an instructed manner. From Yogiraj Ramnath Baba’s grace and siddhi, Sadhu George enjoyed some hours of blissful meditation and gained some enduring ‘insights’ into the amazing potential offered by the finite physical body and mind.

On a daily basis of living Yogiraj Ramnath Baba was not at all impressed by conventional caste systems, social and religious prejudice. He often declared that caste conventions etc., had simply become a means to justify social inequalities. On occasions the Yogiraj intuited the relative nature of individuals entering or leaving Pashupatinath temple and bemoaned the fact that, "Good devotees including low caste Nepalese and other foreigners could not take ready 'sight’ of Pashupatinath’s image". He also spoke about the social order saying, "Caste systems act as a convenient means for a great many devotees to avoid coming to terms with the doctrinal and applied householder/yogı approach actually required for tantric emanation and yoga". Yogiraj Ramnath Baba also suggested that elaborate orthodox rituals were a ‘child’s game’, enacted to waste time and simply divert attention away from protracted effort and deliberation required for ‘true’ devotion and the application of system of self -emanation and yogic practices. Yogiraj Ramnath Baba suggested that if the time spent on Brahminical rituals was gainfully used on attempting to attain inner concentration, adepts would become more commonplace. He taught that even a little but appropriate effort spent every day towards attaining inner concentration eventually becomes a mountain of fruits.

Yogiraj Dr Ramnath Baba was an adept yogi whose mind was established within the divine quantum field and possessed the powers of energy/capability transference as well as the powers of clairvoyance and telepathy. Disciples of other gurus were sent to him to check if they correctly mentally recited mantras. Yogiraj Dr Ramnath Baba did not need to hear the spoken mantra but could readily intuitively correct their error and would then instruct on the correct pronunciation of particular syllables or words. Yogiraj also earned the title of Doctor as he was a master physician, botanical expert and an adept of Ayurvedic practices and herbs. Therefore the title of Doctor was addressed to him per his mastering this traditional healing methods to cure and heal many diseases of people that came to him for help.

According to Yogiraj Tyaginath Aghori, "Guruji Dr. Ramnath Baba was such a strict and disciplined teacher that he had no patience for those who wanted to gain name and favors in the name of being a spiritual adept. I have been so loved and beaten to seconds away from my life, because he wanted perfection in his chela or spiritual son. There could be no excuse of any kind, if I was to be his predecessor. Just to have been in his auspicious surrounding was a blessing that can never be repaid except with the same discipline and devotion to attaining spiritual moksha and compassion."
Of the many siddhis Yogiraj Dr Ramnath had, the one that most sadhus fondly remember especially, Yogiraj Dr Tyaginath Aghori is of using the invisible helps. It was his invisible servants.
"One day Baba Ramnath called all the local babas for a feast, a bhandara, he would prepare on Dashashwamedh Ghat, a half-mile downstream from us. Even the local shopkeepers and others laughed at him when he announced that he would feed his guests from the meager resources of his humble dhuni , with just a couple of small pots, and hundreds of babas arrived. The babas sat in a pangat, two pairs of long lines each facing another. Plates made of leaves sewn together with twigs, patals, were placed in front of them. They were served the traditional bhandara lunch of vegetables, dal, puris, and halwa, and of course, a one-rupee note was also given as dakshina. Everyone was amazed that Baba Ram Nath Aghori was able to feed so many people with such small pots. But the pots had no bottom. After the meal, he announced that his work was not yet finished. He had another hundred leaf plates laid out, and food served (but without the dakshina). A large crowd gathered to touch his feet but when he started barking like a dog, they all recoiled. Then, from every street and alleyway, an army of dogs raced to the ghat and devoured their prasad. 
 
Then he had the invisible servants lay out another hundred plates of food, this time with the one-rupee-note dakshina. “Ladies and gentlemen!” he announced. “This round is for my friends, the spirits and the ghosts!” and immediately, all the food and money vanished."


Yogiraj Dr Tyaginath Aghori also fondly remembers his guru Yogiraj Dr Ramnath as one who made him into the yogi that he is now, " I had to wake up by 3.30 a.m. in the morning and make sure that every sadhu or yogi in the premises of Pashupatinath Ghat and outskirts were served hot piping tea by 4.a.m. There could be no excuses or delay. I would be literally running around for that duration of half hour and on time to continue serving my Guruji." Albeit to say, that in the process of being a chela or spiritual son, the rigorous route to attaining even a singular guru mantra requires unflinching dedication and devotion.
Yogiraj Dr Ramnath Baba left his corporeal body on 6th of January, 1982 and his samadhi peeth or sepulchre is situated in Balurghat, North Bengal, India. On the day of his departure his disciple Sadhak Basudev Baba recollects, "It felt like Maha Bhairava/ Lord Shiva was returning to Mount Kailash accompanied by Nandi and other beloveds while playing sounds of sacred instruments to mark his journey”.
Many performs siddhis for their own enlightenment but Yogiraj Dr Ramnath Baba did it for spiritual progression of whole of humanity and not mere supernatural powers. Fetters of slavery and bondages were liberated by Yogiraj Dr Baba Ramnath by initiating numerous sadhus to spiritual understanding and practices without any discrimination. After parinirvana of Yogiraj Dr Ramnath Baba, Yogiraj Dr. Tyaginath Aghori Baba maintains Yogiraj Dr Baba Ramnath’s seat in Kathmandu, Nepal. Yogiraj Dr. Tyaginath Aghori Baba is constantly serving humanity and he is 106 years old and lives by the Bhasmeshwar Ghat of the Pashupatinath, at the Siddha temple of the clan and sometimes at Janakpur temple in Nepal, liberating and serving all sentient beings.

Hari Puri Baba: Baba Ram Nath Aghori also had invisible servants. One day he called all the local babas for a feast, a bhandara, he would prepare on Dashashwamedh Ghat, a half-mile downstream from us. Even though the local shopkeepers and others laughed at him when he announced that he would feed his guests from the meager resources of his humble dhuni, just a couple of small pots, hundreds of babas arrived.
The babas sat in a pangat, two pairs of long lines each facing another. Plates made of leaves sewn together with twigs, patals, were placed in front of them. They were served the traditional bhandara lunch of vegetables, dal, puris, and halwa, and of course, a one-rupee note as dakshina. Everyone was amazed that Ram Nath Aghori was able to feed so many people with such small pots. The pots had no bottom.
After the meal, he announced that his work was not yet finished. He had another hundred leaf plates laid out, and food served (but without dakshina). A large crowd gathered to touch his feet but when he started barking like a dog, they all recoiled. Then, from every street and alleyway, an army of dogs raced to the ghat and devoured their prasad.
Then he had them lay out another hundred plates of food, this time with the one-rupee-note dakshina. “Ladies and gentlemen!” he announced. “This round is for my friends, the spirits and the ghosts!” and immediately, all the food and money vanished.


Nava Nath: Among the Naths I knew in India, Dr. Ramnath Aghori was a well known, feared and much admired man. Dr Ramnath Aghori, was a very  famous Nath Aghori. He lived for 117 years and for much of a century he was the head of the Nath Akhara at Gorakhpur.  He gained access to the newly created Royal Library of Nepal. There he found the history of the Naths from before the time of Gorakshnath in ancient, mouldering, palm leaf manuscripts. Wanting to investigate further, he travelled to Samye Monastery in Tibet (Padmasambhava/Swambhunath made the building of Tibet’s first monastery possible)  but he was refused entry because he was a darshani Gorakshnathi Nath.

Traveling back to Nepal he encountered Tibbotinath or Chakhtha Rimpoche who took him to meet Baba Byom Shankar Aghori who was said to be the last direct inheritor of the lineage of Swayambunath. Baba Byom Shankar Aghori was also over 200 years old, seven feet tall and blue- eyed. Here he learned the Tantric Vajrayana Nath Aghori technologies of the earlier Naths. He retraced his steps to Samye Monastery and was then welcomed to stay and study. He returned to Nepal, full of the knowledge he had gained and ready to overturn the the Gorakshnathi heresy. He came into deep conflict with the late King Virendra and the religious hierarchies of Nepal. The Storm of Miracles ensued. Disheartened, Dr. Ramnath Aghori withdrew to Kolkata where he died in 1982. He left his legacy to Kulavadhut to renew the old order of Naths and to continue the research into that lost knowledge.

Ram Avatar das, a disciple: Ramnath Baba was a guru of the late King Mahendra of Nepal. Ramnath Baba became the king's master from granting the king’s request to have a vision of Shiva and Kali. To the amazed king Ramnatha Baba is widely reported to have granted this request by manifesting the dancing images of Shiva and Kali on his open palms. ­

I first came into contact with the late Ramnath Baba he was already a hail and hearty centurion plus. I had already heard that Ramnath Baba was a reputed siddha, adept lineage master of the Natha yogi tradition before I first met him face to face. But until that time I was quite leery of 'left-handed' Aghori sadhu-s, who had the reputation among Indian/Nepali devotees of wielding malicious mantra powers etc. I first met Ramnatha Baba at the '78 Shiva Ratri, the festival of the Night of Siva, held at Pasupatinath, Nepal just after the Prayagraj Kumbha Mela.

Ramnatha Baba came to Pasupatinath every year for a month to celibrate the festival of Shiva Ratri etc., and was held in great honor by the various types of Shaiva sadhu-s and by the Nepali devotees etc. As an adept, lineage holding master Ramnath was the senior Natha yogi with his 'seat' situated beside the Bagmati river, on the premier Natha 'dhuni' of the burning ghats,

As mentioned the '78 Shiva Ratri festival was held after the Kumbha Mela and was even more busy than usual with more sadhu-s and devotees attending. Ramnatha's 'seat' was situated on the river within the burning ghats just downwards from the main temple of Pasupatinati. As a foreigner I was not allowed to visit the main temple and this rule this was even more strictly enforced at the time of Shiva Ratri.

Normally at the time of Shiva Ratri etc., I would go to 'see' and smoke chillums with the more orthodox Shaiva Natha baba-s or the Udasi baba-s etc., who had 'dhuni-s' situated above the burning ghats. Or I went across the Bagmati river, to sit near the eka-lingam image, in order to watch the whole 'show'. I would always go up the hill to the Mrigasthali where the constantly burning 'dhuni' of the Great Adept Goraksa was situated. Here I would take some offered ashes from this 'dhuni' from the Nepali, Natha sadhu who was in charge of this 'dhuni'. But that year, and despite my reservations regarding 'left-hand' Aghori sadhu-s, I chose to go directly to the burning ghats where Ramnatha's 'seat' was located to take 'sight' of him.

But that whole location, including the two or three meter wide walkway between the building housing the Aghori sadhu-s 'dhuni' and the actual busy burning ghats together with this raised sadhu area was full to bursting with Nepali devotees and mourners. There were no foreigners around and then as I couldn't even get near the Natha/Aghori 'dhuni', let alone see the baba-s because of the crowd, I decided to go across the river to my usual siting area.

But as I going to do this a Nepali devotee caught hold of my arm and said that the 'Aghori' baba wanted to see me right now. I replied that I didn't know the 'Aghori' baba and this must be a mistake. But the devotee said that the 'Aghori' baba was very insistent and I, being the only foreigner around, should come straight away to answer his call.

 Within this mass of devotees etc., I squeezed my way throught them to finally arrive at Ramnatha's 'seat'. Already being leery of Aghori baba-s, I was on my best behavior, with my mind aware, concentrated and my with my hands folded etc., I offered my respect to this adept Natha tantric yoga master. At the same time to my astonishment, Basudev Baba, who had impressed me at the Prayagraj, Kumbha Mela, was also in this small company of sadhu-s seated before Ramnatha

Having been seated and having some very good Nepali charas I offered a good chunk to Ramnatha Baba. To my suprise Ramnatha said that he had given up smoking chillums and right off the bat said that I was a 'bad boy' by smoking chillums and that I should aslo do the same as him if I wanted to advance further on the path of yoga. But Ramnath Baba didn't stop me from offering this chunk of good charas to his disciples and then smoking chillums with them. During the evening and into the night etc., I more than once saw Ramnatha Baba closely observing me while I smoked chillums and afterwards when I was joking in 'sadhu style' with the other Natha baba-s etc. This was a little unnerving given that I was still somewhat leery of the mantric power held by adept Aghori baba-s.

Over the next few years, in my later conversations with Ramnath Baba he recounted that after he became a sadhu at the age of sixteen in the late 1890’s, he wandered for the next fifty odd years on foot and without possessions all over India and Asia. Initially Ramnath Baba traversed India on the ancient pilgrimage circuits placed in the five classical regions of India. As mentioned Ramnath Baba achieved this feat on foot etc., all the while applying himself to mantra recitation and yoga at the numerous temple sites located on these circuits.

Then upon leaving India Ramnath Baba Baba continued his foot borne journeys as far afield as Tibet into China and eastwards to Vladivostok in Siberia and back through China, Central Asia to Persia, Iraq even Arabia. This indomitable yogı eventually returned again to India from Persia via a pilgrimage to the temple of Hing Laj Devı revered by the Natha yogı lineage and located on the arid Makran coast of modern Pakistan.

Ramnath Baba was an adept yogi whose mind was certainly established within the divine quantum field and who possessed the powers of energy/capability transference as well as the powers of clairvoyance and telepathy. Disciples of other guru-s, including the author were sent to him to check if they correctly mentally recited mantra-s. Ramnath Baba did not need to hear the spoken mantra but could readily intuit error and would then instruct on the correct pronunciation of particular syllables or words.

Ramnath Baba did not have a high opinion of the then contemporary yogı/ascetic scene suggesting that today’s yogı-s were often lazy and weak. He said that modern ascetics were generally lazy etc., because they had been seduced away from the required detached ascetic’s path by seeking name and fame; by relative materialistic goals; by their over-indulgence of drugs and the convenience of modern transport, electricity etc. Ramnath Baba thereby advised the author against seeking to become an full time ascetic sadhu and especially emphasized to the author the need to cultivate and awaken the coiled-up energy/capability by way of the tantric approach of the householder/yogı.

He was also not at all impressed by conventional caste conventions and social/religious mores. He often declared that caste conventions etc., had simply become a means to justify social inequities. Further Ramnath Baba said that caste conventions acted as a convenient means for a great many of his devotees to avoid coming to terms with the doctrinal and applied, householder/yogı approach actually required for tantric emanation and yoga.

 Ramnath Baba also suggested to the author that elaborate orthodox rituals were a ‘child’s game’, acting to waste time and simply diverted attention away from protracted effort and deliberation required for ‘true’ devotion and the application of system of emanation and yoga. Ramnath Baba suggested that if the time spent on Brahminical rituals was gainfully used on attempting to attain inner concentration, adepts would become more commonplace. He taught that even a little but appropriate effort spent every day towards attaining inner concentration eventually becomes a mountain of fruits.

However, although Pashupatinatha is the premier Hindu tantric Shaiva temple of the Kathmandu Valley the author was considered as an impure foreigner, a mleccha, ‘barbarian’, by the South Indian priests of this temple. Thus he and all foreigners were/are barred from access to the sanctum of the inner temple. The blanket approach of this regime actually often irritated Ramnath Baba. On occasions Ramnath Baba apparently intuited the relative nature of individuals entering or leaving Pashupatinatha temple and bemoaned the fact that ‘good’ devotees including low/out-caste Nepali-s, even myself and other foreigners could not take ready 'sight’ of Pashupatı’s image.

 On one quiet afternoon when no one was around Ramnath Baba chose to ‘give’ the author prajna, ‘insight’ into the nature of Pashupatinath. He instructed the author to sit under a Bel tree, a tree associated with Shiva’s resonance, located in a courtyard on the other side of the Bagmati River some hundreds of yards away from his seat in the cremation ghat and to meditate there in an already instructed manner.

From Ramnath Baba’s grace and energy/capability I enjoyed some hours of blissful meditation and gained some enduring ‘insights’ into the amazing potential offered by the finite physical body/mind. From such insights offered by the grace and energy/capability of this adept and other adept masters I came to appreciate the benefit of a spontaneous oral mode of lineage transmission/instruction that has apparently existed within the tantric tradition since pre-history.