Swami Muktananda Paramahamsa, born Krishna Rai, was a yoga guru and the founder of Siddha Yoga. He was a disciple of Bhagavan Nityananda. He wrote books on the subjects of Kundalini Shakti, Vedanta, and Kashmir Shaivism, including a spiritual autobiography entitled The Play of Consciousness. In honorific style, he is often referred to as Swami Muktananda, or Baba Muktananda, or in a familiar way just Baba.
Nath, also called Natha, are a Shaiva sub-tradition within Hinduism in India and Nepal. A medieval movement, it combined ideas from Buddhism, Shaivism and Yoga traditions of the Indian subcontinent. The Naths have been a confederation of devotees who consider Shiva as their first lord or guru, with varying lists of additional gurus. Of these, the 9th or 10th century Matsyendranatha and the ideas and organization mainly developed by Gorakhnath are particularly important. Gorakhnath is considered the originator of the Nath Panth.
Dāsbodh, loosely meaning "advice to the disciple" in Marathi, is a 17th-century bhakti (devotion) and jnana (insight) spiritual text. It was orally narrated by the saint Samarth Ramdas to his disciple, Kalyan Swami. The Dāsbodh provides readers with spiritual guidance on matters such as devotion and acquiring knowledge. Besides this, it also helps in answering queries related to day-to-day life and how to find solutions to it.
Maurice Frydman, aka Swami Bharatananda, was an engineer and humanitarian who spent the later part of his life in India. He lived at the ashram of Mahatma Gandhi and took an active part in India's fight for independence—notably in helping to draft a new constitution for the State of Aundh that became the Aundh Experiment. He was a Polish Jew who subsequently converted to Hinduism.
Self-enquiry, also spelled self-inquiry, is the constant attention to the inner awareness of "I" or "I am" recommended by Ramana Maharshi as the most efficient and direct way of discovering the unreality of the "I"-thought.
Sri Siddharameshwar Maharaj (1888–1936) was a guru in the Inchagiri Sampradaya founded by his guru Bhausaheb Maharaj, a branch of the Navnath Sampradaya, the 'Nine Masters' tradition in India. His disciples included Nath teachers Nisargadatta Maharaj, Ranjit Maharaj, Kaadsiddheshwar, and Ganapatrao Maharaj Kannur.
The Navnath, also spelt as Navnatha in vernacular languages, are the nine saints, Masters or Naths on whom the Navnath Sampradaya, the lineage of the nine gurus, is based. They are worshipped collectively as well as individually.
Shri Shivabalayogi Maharaj was a yogi who claimed to have attained self-realization through twelve years of arduous tapas, meditating in samādhi for an average of twenty hours a day.
Shri Samartha Sadaguru Ganapatrao Maharaj Kannur (1909–2004) was an Indian guru in the Inchegeri Sampradaya.
Shri Samarth Muppin Kaadsiddheswar Maharaj was a guru in the Navnath tradition of Hindu philosophy. He was a disciple of Shri Samarth Siddharameshwar Maharaj, disciple of Shri Samarth Bhausaheb Maharaj, disciple of Shri Gurulingajangam Maharaj, disciple of the 22nd Shri Samarth Muppin Kaadsiddheswar Maharaj.
Jangama dhyana is a meditation technique which has been practiced by various sages over the centuries. In recent times, this technique was widely taught in India and around the world by Shri Shivabalayogi Maharaj, who experienced a spiritual vision in which the manifestation of a Jangama sage instructed him in this technique of meditation to achieve self-realization. Jangama means 'eternal existence' and dhyana means 'meditation.' Hence Jangama dhyana is 'Meditation on the Eternal Existence .'
Bhava Samadhi is a state of ecstatic consciousness that can sometimes be a seemingly spontaneous experience, but is recognized generally to be the culmination of long periods of devotional practices. It is believed by some groups to be evoked through the presence of "higher beings." "Bhava" means "feeling", "emotion", "mood", "mental attitude" or "devotional state of mind." "Samadhi" is a state of consciousness in which the mind becomes completely still and the consciousness of the experiencing subject becomes one with the experienced object. Thus, "bhava samadhi" denotes an advanced spiritual state in which the emotions of the mind are channelled into one-pointed concentration and the practitioner experiences devotional ecstasy. Bhava samadhi has been experienced by notable figures in Indian spiritual history, including Sri Ramakrishna Paramahamsa and some of his disciples, Chaitanya Mahaprabhu and his chief disciple Nityananda, Mirabai, Kundalini Guru Shri Anandi Ma, and numerous saints in the bhakti tradition.
The Advaita Guru-Paramparā is the traditional lineage (parampara) of divine, Vedic and historical teachers of Advaita Vedanta. It begins with the Daiva-paramparā, the gods; followed by the Ṛṣi-paramparā, the Vedic seers; and then the Mānava-paramparā, with the historical teachers Gaudapada and Adi Shankara, and four of Shankara's pupils. Of the five contemporary acharyas, the heads of the five Advaita mathas, four acharyas trace their lineage to those four pupils and one to Adi Shankara himself.
I Am That is a compilation of talks on Shiva Advaita (Nondualism) philosophy by Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj, a Hindu spiritual teacher who lived in Mumbai. The English translation of the book from the original Marathi recordings was done by Maurice Frydman, edited by Sudhakar S. Dixit and first published in 1973 by Chetana Publications. The book was revised and reedited in July 1981. These publications led to the spread of Nisargadatta's teachings to the West, especially North America and Europe. Excerpts of the book were published in Yoga Journal in September 1981, the month Nisargadatta died at age 84.
According to Sarira Traya, the Doctrine of the Three bodies in Hinduism, the human being is composed of three shariras or "bodies" emanating from Brahman by avidya, "ignorance" or "nescience". They are often equated with the five koshas (sheaths), which cover the atman. The Three Bodies Doctrine is an essential doctrine in Indian philosophy and religion, especially Yoga, Advaita Vedanta, Tantra and Shaivism.
The Inchagiri Sampradaya, also known as Nimbargi Sampradaya, is a lineage of Hindu Navnath and Lingayat teachers from Maharashtra and Karnataka.which was started by Bhausaheb Maharaj. It is inspired by Sant Mat teachers as Namdev, Raidas and Kabir. The Inchagiri Sampradaya has become well known throughout the western world due to the popularity of Nisargadatta Maharaj.
Shri Revan Natha, also known as Revan Siddh, Kada Siddha, and, Kaadhsiddheshwar Siddharaj was the 7th or 8th Navnath. He is especially worshipped in western India, where several temples are dedicated to him, and several sampradayas trace their origin to him, the best-known being the Inchegeri Sampradaya.
Sri Ranjit Maharaj was an Indian spiritual teacher in the Navnath Inchegeri Sampradaya tradition, and disciple of Siddharameshwar Maharaj.
Bhausaheb Maharaj was the founder of the Inchegeri Sampradaya, to which the well-known Indian guru Nisargadatta Maharaj belonged.
David Godman has written on the life, teachings and disciples of Ramana Maharshi, an Indian sage who lived and taught for more than fifty years at Arunachala, a sacred mountain in Tamil Nadu, India. In the last 30 years Godman has written or edited 16 books on topics related to Sri Ramana, his teachings and his followers.
Hindu philosophy 
