Son et semence. Nâda et Bindu
Continuities: Shrine and Land; Sound and Seed

 

Daniel Gold, Nath Yogis as Established Alternatives: Householders and Ascetics Today, in Ascetic culture: renunciation and worldly engagement, Edited by Karigoudar Ishwaran, Leiden-Boston-Köln, Brill, 1999.

Continuities: Shrine and Land; Sound and Seed

Members of the Nath caste in Rajasthan regularly tell stories of their descent from Nath sadhus. These legends reflect not only an historical reality, but also the householder's view of their continuing relationship with the sadhus.

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And the one item of attire most crucial to Nath sectarian identity is the same for both householders and sadhus, and is regularly worn by both. This is a black string worn around the neck on which three items are hung: a rudrâksa bead, said to symbolize Shiva; a ring, said to symbolize the Goddess; and a small whistle ideally fashioned from animal horn, said to symbolize divine sound.(20)[The thread and whistle are described by Briggs, pp. 11-12, who lists some common ceremonial occasions at which the whistle may be blown.] Sometimes itself referred to as a janeu, the term used for the sacred thread of twice-born Hindus, the string and the items hung on it are more often spoken of together as the sîngî nâd, “the horned sound”—after the whistle. This name emphasizes the nâd, divine sound, which yogis are said to hear in meditation and householders sing about in their esoteric hymns.

The concept of nâd that is enshrined symbolically in the whistle worn by sadhus and householders alike reveals contrasts between the two groups as well as continuities—presenting earthly distinctions against some mystically conceived equivalencies. In North Indian religious lineages nâd as an adjective becomes one of a pair of terms used to distinguish the normal modes of succession of sadhus from that of householders. Succession from guru to chosen disciple is frequently referred to as nâd paramparâ, “succession (paramparâ) through “sound”—a mantra or divine name given by the guru to the disciple. By contrast, hereditary succession is called alternatively bindu paramparâ or bîj paramparâ. Both bindu and bîj by extension refer to semen, but both are also technical terms of yoga. Bîj is a common word for “seed,” and as such can be used for certain basic, one syllable mantras (bîja mantra).(21) [Woodroffe] Bindu is a word for “point” that in yoga can refer technically to a point of concentration in the body. Especially when reference is to bindu paramparâ we can see a deep equivalence between the two kinds of succession. For in yoga bindu is sometimes paired with nâd as a localized point at which yogis in meditation hear the eternal sound power of the universe. In this sense bindu indicates an experience of selfhood concentrated so densely that it implodes into the eternal substrate beyond the finite self. Bindu and nâd are thus polar opposites that eventually converge. Used primarily to present a contrast, the terms also point to an ultimate continuity.(22) [For the semantic ranges of bîja, bindu, and nâd, see Feuerstein [Encyclopedic Dictionary of Yoga] (1990, pp. 59, 60, 226-28). The Nada Bindu Upanishad (Shastri 1968, pp. 214-226), a short yogic treatise, presents concentration of sound (particularly the sound represented by the syllable “om”) as a path to liberation.]

This continuity between bindu and nâd worldly density and the renunciate's otherworldly identity, appears more evident among the Naths than in many other traditions using bindu and nâd to mark types of succession.