Siddha Siddhanta Paddhati (SSP) – About The Book and Author

Guru Gorakhnath, the Mahayogi, wrote this book as a guide to seekers of the Supreme Truth. It is based on his own transcendental experience and is a work which does not get into dialectics, logic, arguments in support of or against viewpoints.

While, the credit for writing the Siddha Siddhanta Paddhati (SSP) is attributed to Guru Gorakhnath, however, like all ancient texts there are many views on who authored the text with some researchers propounding names of other nath yogis. There is a broad agreement that SSP was written by Guru Gorakhnath or at least presents his teachings.

Guru Gorakhnath is believed to have lived and taught somewhere in 9 or 10th century AD and is known and revered as a mystical figure. He was a disciple of Guru Matsyendranath. There are several stories associated with his birth and the most popular local story attributes his birth to ashes given by Guru Matsyendranath to a childless woman who asked for his blessings to have a child. It is believed that she threw away the ashes in a mound of dirt. When after 12 years Guru Matsyendranath once again visited her and asked to see the child she would have been blessed with, she acknowledged that she did not heed his advice and threw away the ashes. Guru Matsyendranath is believed to have asked her to take him to the place where she threw away the ashes. Upon reaching a heap of dirt, he called out and a child answered from under the heap. Guru Matsyendranath took the child out, who was now a young boy, and took him under his umbrage and guided Guru Gorakshnath on his path to being a Maha Siddha.

Dr. Mohan Singh in his book, Gorakhnath and Medieval Hindu Mystics notes that Kabir mentions Guru Gorakhnath in a very complimentary way. As per the Kabir Granthavali, Kabir said that – greatly revered and recognized spiritual masters in India like Sanat, Sanandan, Jaidev, Namdev, Narad, were very evolved and learned individuals but did not understand the workings of the mind fully, it is only Gorakhnath who understands it completely.

He also gets referred and mentioned several times in the poetry of Kabir and Guru Nanak.

Kabir – Gorakhnath soi gyan gami gahe….He is Gorakh who realizes the manifest knowledge
Guru Nanak – Upari gaganu gagan pari Gorakhnath ta ka agamu guru punivasi….the sky is above and above that is Gorakhnath, whose guru is the unknowable.

Guru Gorakhnath is universally understood to have had ‘a very powerful personality’, as mentioned by Dr Sampurnananda in his introductory remarks in the book Philosophy of Gorakhnath by Akshaya Kumar Bannerjea. We can also safely say that he represents the Gold standard for spiritual attainments in the spiritual history of India. This is evident from the fact that for centuries disciples of several attained gurus have compared their masters to him to prove the worthiness of their guru/master.

The philosophy of Guru Gorakhnath aims at attainment of Moksha or final liberation. The yogic practices focus on physical, mental and spiritual perfection.

While I read through his philosophy, I was struck by the powerful intellect and spiritual ability of this great master. As we unfold his philosophy in this blog, I am sure you will also begin to feel the power of his thoughts. This is the perfect place to start for a truth seeker. This Mahayogi’s philosophy will surely guide the seeker and satisfy both his/her intellectual and spiritual curiosity along the way.

We are grateful to Guru Gorakhnath for his blessing us with his guidance in the form of SSP and to all in the Nath Sampradaya for keeping the traditions and practices alive for centuries so that the knowledge remains available in books as well as practice.

SSP is a phenomenal work of literature, and is evidence of the writer’s evolved intellect and deep personal insights gained during his own Samadhi or transcendental state. The book explains a reality which is tough to express in words…as you read the book either in original or as explained through this blog you will come to better appreciate what I mean.

The book is ideal for seekers, to first get an intellectual understanding and then understand methods to rise to a higher mental and spiritual plane, free from limited and narrow and purely intellectual perspectives.

Among the Nath sampradaya and the world of spiritual literature, this book is regarded as an authority on the subject it deals with. It remained as a manuscript for many centuries which was accessible to only members of the sampradaya. Then in the early 1900s, Sanskrit scholars brought out a printed form in Sanskrit and Hindi. In the 1960s, work on the interpretations of this book were done by Dr Kalyani Mullick of Kolkata University and Dr Akshaya Kumar Banerjea Principal, Maharana Pratap College, Gorakhpur and was published by the Mahant Digvijay Trust of Gorakhnath Temple. For this blog, I am using Dr Banerjea’s translation and interpretation from his book called ‘The Philosophy of Gorakhnath’.

If you are interested to read the original translation of Dr Banerjea, a free copy of the same can be obtained from  https://archive.org/details/in.ernet.dli.2015.49702/page/n5

SSP is structured as 6 Upadesas or Lessons:

1. Pindotpatti – It details the origin of the body, defines & differentiates the cosmic and physical bodies. It also provides a detailed understanding of the Brahmanda or Samasti Pinda or the Supreme Spirit and how everything emerges from this Supreme Reality
2. Pinda-Vicara – This lesson gives details of the constitution of the body, not as a physical organism, but about the subtle elements like the Chakras, Adharas, Lakshya and Vyoma. It teaches how to deeply contemplate on these and use the deep insights to evolve the physical body from a purely physical to a more dematerialized, spiritualized form or what is called Kaya Siddhi. It emphasizes the role of the guru being critical and irreplaceable on this path.
3. Pinda Sambitti – The linkage of the individual body with the cosmic body, relationship between the microcosm and macrocosm is explained. The path to the yogic objective of attaining perfect freedom & bliss and experiencing oneness with the Universe is explained here.
4. Pindadhara – Herein, Guru Gorakhnath, talks about the role of Shakti, the Supreme Spiritual power within which all life is contained and which also sustains life. It also explains the siva-sakti relationship
5. Samarasa Karana – This lesson is dedicated to perfect unification of the individual body with the cosmic body and the way to attain the same. The Guru says that it is in this stage that the difference between the finite and infinite disappears. The practitioner now gets an illumine consciousness which experiences bliss and unity with the Supreme
6. Avadhuta Yogi – The 6th lesson is dedicated to the individual who has attained Samarasa Karana and is this called the Avadhuta Yogi. It explains the character and conduct of such an attained being. This Avadhuta lives in in a state of elevated consciousness / super consciousness and becomes a master of himself and his circumstances. In this attained person, have awakened all the latent spiritual and mental powers which lie completely dormant in normal people. It is through these powers that he/she is able to take complete control of his life and all its circumstances. Hence, quite often these yogis were seen to have magical powers by ordinary people.

As each of these key spiritual ideas unfold, it will provide us with deeper knowledge and better understanding of what spiritual masters have for centuries, been conveying to us.

SSP introduces us to sacred knowledge which remains unknown to most and has till recently remained accessible to only select spiritual seekers.

By gaining an intellectual understanding of this knowledge, I hope the fire is kindled in you, to pursue your own own journey of deeper reflection to gain wisdom and peace.

Before each chapter of the SSP is detailed, I have first attempted to uncover the following key concepts :

Sat-Chit-Ananda (Existence-Consciousness-Bliss)

Para Sambit (Supreme Consciousness)

Siva – Sakti (Transcendent and Phenomenal aspects of the Perfect One)

Kula-Akula

The chapters covered are as follows :

Chapter 1 – Who is Sakti and how does She Appear?

Chapter 2 – Manifestation of Siva as Cosmic Purusha

Chapter 3 – Evolution Of the Cosmos From The Para Pinda

Chapter 4 – Evolution of the Eight Divine Consciousnesses of Siva

Chapter 5 – The Seven Dimensions of the Individual Person

Chapter 6 – Discovering the Spiritual Body

Chapter 7 – Siddha Siddhanta Paddhati (SSP) – The Conclusion