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Gorakhnath, revered founder of UP CM Adityanath's monastery, fought for Hindu-Muslim unity

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Gorakhnath, revered founder of UP CM Adityanath's monastery, fought for Hindu-Muslim unity Empty Gorakhnath, revered founder of UP CM Adityanath's monastery, fought for Hindu-Muslim unity

Post by Guest Thu Jun 15, 2017 9:51 pm

The collection of vernacular poetry attributed to Gorakhnāth (dating perhaps from the 13th/14th century, although the oldest manuscript found dates from the 17th century8), and called Gorakhbānī, contains several verses alluding to the peculiar status of Nāth Yogīs as neither Hindu nor Muslim, but different and superior, closer to the ultimate truth that the two other creeds are vainly seeking. Take, for instance, these well-known passages:
sabdī 14: ‘By birth a Hindu, in mature age a Yogī and by intellect a Muslim’ (quoted in Lorenzen (2011: 21), who sees ‘a clear recognition of three separate religious traditions’ here);

- sabdī 68: ‘The Hindu meditates in the temple, the Muslim in the Mosque // The Yogī meditates on the supreme goal, where there is neither temple nor mosque’ (Lorenzen 2011: 22);

sabdī 69: ‘The Hindu calls on Rām, the Muslim on Khudā, the Yogī calls on the Invisible One, in whom there is neither Rām nor Khudā’ (Barthwal 1994:25);

sabdī 4: ‘Neither the Vedas nor the [Muslim] books, neither the khānīs nor the bānīs. All these appear as a cover [of the truth] // The [true] word is manifest in the mountain peak in the sky [i.e. the Brahmarandhra]. There one perceives knowledge of the Ineffable’ (Lorenzen 2011: 23);

sabdī 6: ‘Neither the Vedas nor the Shastras, neither the books, not the Koran, [the goal] is not read about in books. // Only the exceptional Yogī knows that goal. All others are absorbed in their daily tasks’ (Lorenzen 2011: 23).

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Other verses of the Gorakhbānī praise the glory of Mohammad and recognise the accuracy of his message, such as sabdīs 9 to 11. Sabdī 9 alludes to the pure message of Mohammad, who revealed the proper way to love God, who never caused any violence as his weapons were the power of the divine words of love (Barthwal’s commentary). Sabdī 10 elaborates further: ‘By the sabad he killed, by the sabad he revived: / Such a pīr was Mohammad. / O qāzī, stop pretending / Such a power is not in your body /’ (in Djurdjevic 2008: 92). Sabdī 11 mentions the kalmā as the eternal, immortal words of Mohammad.
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According to Agrawal (2011), 20th century literary critics discovering the Hindi works of the Nāths, and especially the Gorakhbānī, were quite conscious of the religious position of the Nāth Yogīs. Agrawal quotes Ramchandra Shukla, claiming that ‘Gorakhnāth’s theistic pursuit (sādhanā) had some attraction for the Muslims as well. He could clearly see that God-oriented Yoga can be proposed as a common sadhana for both Hindus and Muslims’ (Agrawal 2011: 9). Barthwal is also quoted as operating an ‘enthusiastic reconstruction of Gorakhnāth as ‘an instrument of Hindu-Muslim unity’’ (Agrawal 2011: 12).

  • 9 Their legendary encounter leads to the dialogue entitled Kabīr-Gorakh kī gosht (Lorenzen; Thukral 2 (...)
  • 10 Whatever we might think regarding the difficult question of historical influence (Lorenzen 2011). A (...)




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Lorenzen, drawing a comparison between Gorakhnāth’s and Kabīr’s writings and positions, stresses: ‘In the Gorakh-bānī, Gorakh […] claims the possibility of maintaining a composite religious identity’ (Lorenzen 2011: 49). He states: ‘It is clear that Gorakh and Kabīr rejected both Islam and Hinduism, as commonly practiced, and sought to construct a religious identity that allowed them to straddle both religious traditions—to somehow be both Hindu and Muslim and neither, all at the same time’ (Lorenzen 2011: 20). The relationships between Gorakh and Kabīr have been extensively commented upon (Vaudeville 1974, Offredi 2002, Lorenzen; Thukral 2005, Lorenzen 2011).9 Their ambivalence (Pauwels 2010) manifests itself in the parallels drawn between some verses of the Gorakhbānī and the Kabīr-Granthāvalī,10or is expressed ironically in the way the Granthāvalī parallels the śabdī 69 of the Gorakhbānī, but includes the Yogīs in his rejection: ‘The Jogi cries: ‘Gorakh, Gorakh!’ // The Hindu invokes the name of Rām, // The Musulmān cries: ‘Khudā is One!’// But the Lord of Kabīr pervades all” (Kabīr-Granthāvalī, Pada 128, 7-8, quoted in Vaudeville 1974: 88).

https://samaj.revues.org/3878#text

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Post by Guest Thu Jun 15, 2017 9:52 pm

Nāth Yogīs contributed to this undermining of fixed categories; they blurred the borders in a dialogical process where they combined elements borrowed from both traditions. Their mixed references are made explicit in the description given in the Dabistān (around 1655), which considers Yogīs as able to integrate both groups: ‘When among Muslims, they are scrupulous about fasting and ritual prayer, but when with Hindus, they practice the religion of this group. None of the forbidden things are prohibited in their sect, whether they eat pork according to the custom of Hindus and Christians, or beef according to the religion of Muslims and others’ (translation provided in Ernst 2005: 40).
7
They even went so far as to claim in some of their sayings—as we shall see—that they were ‘neither Muslims nor Hindus, but Yogīs.’ An anecdote related by Badā’ūnī (towards the end of 16th century) makes a similar suggestion and shows how this specificity was inscribed in space: ‘His Majesty [Akbar] [had] built outside the town [of Agra] two places for feeding poor Hindus and Musulmans, one of them being called Khairpura, and the other Dharmpurah. [...] As an immense number of Jogīs also flocked to this establishment, a third place was built, which got the name of Jogipurah’ (quoted in Pinch 2006: 51).

https://samaj.revues.org/3878#text

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Post by SomeProfile Thu Jun 15, 2017 10:49 pm

DOGGY-NAAYI UNITY:

Gorakhnath, revered founder of UP CM Adityanath's monastery, fought for Hindu-Muslim unity Digvijay-singh-praises-mumbai-based-islamic-preacher-zakir-naik-in-video_1467879472

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Gorakhnath, revered founder of UP CM Adityanath's monastery, fought for Hindu-Muslim unity Empty Re: Gorakhnath, revered founder of UP CM Adityanath's monastery, fought for Hindu-Muslim unity

Post by Guest Thu Jun 15, 2017 10:55 pm

A text like the Mohammad Bodh, and the widespread popularity of figures such as Gūgā or Ratan, reveal the proximity and easy concordance between Nāths and Muslims. They shared common references and they could inhabit the same universe. We may even think that fluid boundaries with Islam were part of the religious identity of the Nāth Yogīs: firstly, their religious identity was not homogenous, and secondly, they were not seeking homogeneity, but rather deliberately cultivating their composite nature. Claiming to be above sectarian divisions—even superior to them in a sense—they were open-minded and inclusive.

  • 55 From Sanātana dharma: eternal dharma, the modern designation of what is defined as orthodox Hinduis (...)




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Over the past few decades, there has been a growing distrust in India with regard to such fluidity and mixity. Nāth Yogīs are not immune to this trend: the Gūgā’s story has been modified (cf. note 51); the writer of the Śiva Gorakṣa, who is the inheritor of the mixed tradition of the Har Śrī Nāth, now claims a sanātan[size=11]55 identity; the Muslim Jogīs have abandoned their song tradition and are no longer welcome at the Gorakhpur monastery; and of course the same Gorakhpur monastery has attempted to take the leadership of the sampradāy and enlist it in joining the ranks of Hindu fundamentalism. However, I do hope that the regrettable conclusion expressed by Shashank Chaturvedi—‘The language of emancipation and liberation is alien to this world, of which these Jogis are vestiges’ (2014: 165)—will remain limited. Nāth Yogīs do not easily submit to common directives or institutions. Each of their locales has its own tradition, and each Yogī his own opinions. The heroic figures of Nāth lore, with their fluid identity, are still the common ground on which the sense of belonging in the sampradāy rests, and even the publications of the Gorakhpur maṭh continue to narrate the stories of Hanḍī Bhaṛang and Ratan. And both versions of the Mohammad Bodh (edited by Yogī Vilāsnāth (2005) and by Yogī Sawāī Nāth (n.d.) have been included in books published under the patronage of the leaders of the Yogī Mahāsabhā (the pan-Indian association of Nāth Yogīs).

https://samaj.revues.org/3878#text
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Gorakhnath, revered founder of UP CM Adityanath's monastery, fought for Hindu-Muslim unity Empty Re: Gorakhnath, revered founder of UP CM Adityanath's monastery, fought for Hindu-Muslim unity

Post by Guest Thu Jun 15, 2017 10:58 pm

Muslim Jogis associate themselves with Baba Gorakhnath of Nath sect still reside in Gorakhpur, Deoria, Kushinagar, Sant Kabir, Balrampur and Azamgarh. Many families of Jogi cult live in Sahjanwa at Bargo village, but very few among them practice their old tradition.



"My husband, Ali Raj, is a Jogi and I also belong to a Jogi family," said Munni. "He's journeying and will probably return in two weeks. We believe in Baba Gorakhnath and also practise Islam with five times namaz. We see no difference between Hindus and Muslims or any other religion because Daata (God) is one and we all take birth and die."



Munni never went to school and learnt the philosophy of life from songs her father and husband sing. Asked about the decreasing number of Sufi Jogis, Munni said, "We are facing pressure from within and outside. Muslims don't accept us as Muslim and maulvis ask us to quit singing Ramayana and saffron attire.

"On the other hand, Hindus also don't like us and many of them ask us to either leave Islam or leave Jogi garb and sarangi. We live in fear and to save us from such people, most young Jogis have left the tradition. We still follow both religions but I'm not sure of my children. No one asked religion from our forefathers but now people ask."

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/varanasi/vanishing-tribe-of-muslim-jogis-of-east-up/articleshow/58019722.cms


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