GORAKHNATH

flourished 11th century, ?, India also called Goraksanatha Hindu master yogi, commonly regarded as the founder of the Kanphata yogis, an order of ascetics that stresses the physical and spiritual disciplines of Hatha Yoga. The details of his life are obscured by the numerous legends that have grown up around his supposedly miraculous powers. Apparently of a low-caste family, Gorakhnath either was born in, or spent a good part of his lifetime in, the Punjab, traveling widely. He was said to have met with such other religious teachers as Kabir and Nanak and popularized the practice of Yoga throughout India. Gorakhnath was the disciple of Matsyendranatha (commonly regarded as the first human guru, or spiritual teacher, of the yogis) and, according to a Bengali legend, rescued his guru from Kadali. Gorakhnath's work Goraksasataka is a fundamental text among Kanphata yogis. The most orthodox of his followers regarded him as an incarnation of the god Siva, and thus eternal, and he was said to reside in a cave in the Himalayas.