Wednesday27 Jun 03:50 PM

On Bhairava, Naths And Dunis (Oh My!)

The Dhuni is not a simple camp fire. It was viewed by the Nath as a living deity, emblematic as the womb of the Earth Goddess from which all manifestation was generated, sustained, and destroyed. Although many cultures have sustained a tradition of fire worship, it remains a unique feature of the Naths that it was the site or dwelling place of the Holy Fire which was considered sacred. The ancient but graphic iconography of such a scene is simple. The cleft in the earth represents the womb of the Mother Goddess.
"Awakening the Nath Dhuni" by Shri Kapilnath

Fire worship! Om Bhairava! This wonderful clip comes to us courtesy of the INO and appeared on a morning that I was discussing Bhairavasana and the fierce aspect of Shiva known as Bhairava, who carries around one of Brahma's heads. That's right, Bhairava decapitated Brahma. Talk about fierce...

Bhairava's image at Kathmandu's Darbar Square, circa 1972.

For further clues into the wealth of Bhairava worship, check out Phil Hine's amazing essay, Bhairava: The Wrathful. And for more on the Dhuni and fire worship, see Awakening the Nath Dhuni by Shri Kapilnath.

posted by
Spiros Antonopoulos

TAGS — Bhairava, Brahma, Dhuni, fire, Naths, tantra, video

Remarks

1 total remarks for this post. Add your own remarks below.

Thu 28 Jun 2007 at 12:32PM

Cliff

Great! Bhairava! Bhairavi! As soon as I ran the video a crow hopped by my window to sing along! In a good moment, it does feel as if the whole world is sharing in the celebration. Blessings!

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Foremost credit goes to my wife Erin for her tireless patience + support of this endeavor. Thanks to Barry Silver for the artwork in the above banner and for his friendship, to Robert Beer for the illustrations. Thanks to Eddie Stern for his ongoing support and for providing inspiration. Thanks to my fellow farmers at One Digital Farm for help growing this.

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