http://catling.livejournal.com/1044452.html

Is the new current acting head. This is a purely *ceremonial* role: the
Head has a bunch of extra magical powers which may or may not exist,
and is not, at any price, to be taken as a guru or a leader. They get
some extra toys and some extra responsibilities, and the post is moved
through consensus, timing, fatigue, or situationally, and furthermore,
the ANS could manifest a bunch of different Heads with different ideas
at any times.

In short, it's a chaocracy, as a good nath groups should be.

I have a feeling that the Lineage Wars are about to heat up the final
time, so here is my official statement on the issue.

1> I have a long standing working relationship with the Guru known as
Babaji. My earliest teacher, Bhavani Ma, to whom I owe a debt of
eternal gratitude, stayed with this being in the physical form of
Haidakhan Babaji, and retained intimate astral connection with him
after leaving India and after his apparent "death."

2> Some time around 2002 or 2003 I had a vision of Babaji, in a form
closely resembling that in Autobiography of a Yogi, telling me "go and
become a Nath."

3> In 2004, I wreaked havoc on the INO lists looking for the insightful
firmness that I expected to find in a Nath Guru. I did not find anybody
playing that role for me.

4> Around this time, I hear that Yogiraj Gurunath Siddhanath is coming
to Chicago. I take initiaion as a Nath from him.

5> In 2005, Yogiraj confirms to me in person two things:
  a> that he is a member and a guru of the Adi Nath Sampradaya (the
"shiva lineage of the naths" he says.)
  b> that I am a member of that lineage

This is controversial because Mahendranath, of the International Nath
Order, now in another sphere blessed be he, claimed he was the last Adi
Nath guru.

I started this, the American Nath Society, on orders from the being I
have always known as Babaji, and whom I now recognize as a continuation
of the mind stream of Guru Gorkashnath the Great Founder of many Nath
Lineages. This identification is based on my own experience and the
work of Yogiraj Gurunath Siddhanath.

http://hamsa-yoga.org/

The American Nath Society should not, at *any* price, be confused with
Yogiraj Siddhanath Gurunath's much more organized, presentable and well
governed efforts, and I can say without any shadow of a doubt that he's
a far wiser and more powerful teacher than I will ever be.

I simply set this thing up on my Guru's orders, and play it as it lies.
Babaji's the boss, and (at least for me) always has been. :-)

The American Nath Society consists of soley this social contract.

1> Members are made by an existing member inviting another person to
become a member, and that person gladly accepting the invitation.

2> All members are equally with respect to the running of the society.

People's natural roles emerge: temporary or permanent leadership or
service, to make fun or to make trouble, and so on. This stuff is not
enshrined in any documented hierarchy because it is *real* and
therefore does not need a title to function.

We have one piece of mythology (which I view as fact, of course!) -
that becoming a member of the American Nath Society allows you to make
contact with the Himalayan Masters who run the Nath Lineages in
general. In earlier times I somewhat tongue-in-cheekly stated this as
"it lets the Himalayan Yogis interfere in your life" and, while
accurate, that has an overtone of my own experiences which you should
not likely share :-)

Blessings and have fun,

Shivanath of the Adi Nath Sampradaya