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A yogi is a practitioner of Yoga, including a Sannyasa or practitioner of meditation in Indian religions.A. K. Banerjea (2014), Philosophy of Gorakhnath with Goraksha-Vacana-Sangraha, Motilal Banarsidass, , pp. xxiii, 297–299, 331 The feminine form, sometimes used in English, is yogini.
Yogi has since the 12th century Common era also denoted members of the Nath siddha tradition of Hinduism, and in Hinduism, Buddhism and Jainism, a practitioner of tantra.Rita Gross (1993), Buddhism After Patriarchy, SUNY Press, , pages 85–88David Gordon White (2013), Tantra in Practice, Motilal Banarsidass, , pp. xiii–xv In Hindu mythology, the god Shiva and the goddess Parvati are depicted as an emblematic yogi–yogini pair.Stella Kramrisch (1994), The Presence of Siva, Princeton University Press, , pp. 305–309, 356
The term yogini is also used for divine goddesses and enlightened mothers, all revered as aspects of the mother goddess, Devi.Vidya Dehejia and Thomas B. Coburn (1999), Devi: The Great Goddess, Smithsonian Institution, , p. 386
A yogi should not be confused with someone practicing asceticism and excessive self-mortification.
The term yogin appears in Katyayana Shrauta-sutra and chapter 6 of Maitri Upanishad, where the implied context and meaning is "a follower of the Yoga system, a contemplative saint". yogin , Monier Williams Sanskrit-English Dictionary (2008 revision), Cologne Digital Sanskrit Lexicon, Germany
The term sometimes refers to a person who belongs to the Natha tradition. They usually belong to Shaivism tradition, but some Natha belong to the Vaishnavism tradition. In both cases, states David Lorenzen, they practice yoga and their principal god tends to be Nirguna, that is a god that is without form and semi-Monism, influenced in the medieval era by the Advaita Vedanta school of Hinduism, Madhyamaka school of Buddhism, as well as Tantra and Yogic practices.David Lorenzen (2004), Religious Movements in South Asia, 600–1800, Oxford University Press, , pp. 310–311David N. Lorenzen and Adrián Muñoz (2012), Yogi Heroes and Poets: Histories and Legends of the Naths, SUNY Press, , pp. 24–25
The Yoga-Bhashya (400 CE), the oldest extant commentary on the Yoga-Sutra offers the following fourfold classification of yogis:SH Aranya (1983), Yoga Philosophy of Patanjali, SUNY Press, , pp. 334–337
There have been two parallel views, in Hindu texts, on sexuality for a yogi and yogini. One view asserts restraint in sexual activity, towards monk- and nun-like asexuality, as transmutation away from worldly desires and onto a spiritual path. It is not considered, states Stuart Sovatsky, as a form of moralistic repression but a personal choice that empowers the yoga practitioner to redirect his or her energies.Stuart Sovatsky (1987), "The pleasures of celibacy", Yoga Journal, March/April Issue, pp. 41–47 The second view, found particularly in Tantra traditions according to David Gordon White, asserts that sexuality is an additional means for a yogi or yogini to journey towards and experience the bliss of "one realized god-consciousness for oneself". In the second view, sexuality is a yogic practice,Machelle Seibel and Hari Kaur Khalsa (2002), A Woman's Book of Yoga, Penguin, , pp. 108–109 and one broadly revered through the lingam– yoni iconography of Shiva–Parvati, the divine yogi–yogini in Hindu mythology.Wendy Doniger O'Flaherty (1981), Siva: The Erotic Ascetic, Oxford University Press, , pp. 262–263
David Lorenzen states that the Nath yogis have been very popular with the rural population in South Asia, with medieval era "tales and stories about Nath yogis such as Gorakhnath, Matsyendra, Jalandhar, Gopichand, Bharthari, Kanhapa and Chaurangi" continuing to be remembered in contemporary times, in the Deccan, western and northern states of India and in Nepal.David N. Lorenzen and Adrián Muñoz (2012), Yogi Heroes and Poets: Histories and Legends of the Naths, SUNY Press, , pp. x–xi
According to White, the term yogi, has "for at least eight hundred years, been an all-purpose term employed to designate those Saiva specialists whom orthodox Hindus have considered suspect, heterodox, and even heretical in their doctrine and practice". The yoga as practiced by these Yogis, states White, is more closely identified in the eyes of those critics with black magic, sorcery and sexual perversions than with yoga in the conventional sense of the word.
The Nath Yogis were targets of Islamic persecution in the Mughal Empire. The texts of Yogi traditions from this period, state Shail Mayaram, refer to oppressions by Mughal officials such as governor. The Mughal documents confirm the existence of Nath Yogis in each pargana (household neighborhoods), and their persecution wherein Nath Yogis were beheaded by Aurangzeb.Shail Mayaram (2003), Against History, Against State, Columbia University Press, , pp. 40–41, 39
The warrior were institutionalized as a religious order by Gorakhnath and were expanding in the 13th century, after the establishment of the first Islamic Sultanate in India. They interacted and cooperated with of Sufi Muslims.David Gordon White (2011), Sinister Yogis, University of Chicago Press, , pp. 198–207 The yogis feature prominently in Delhi Sultanate and Mughal Empire period official documents, states David White, both in terms of impressing the ruling elite in the Muslim administration and awards of receiving land grants in some cases such as by Akbar, as well as those yogis who targeted the elite merchants and disrupted the business of administrative Islamic elites in urban areas.William Pinch (2012), Warrior Ascetics and Indian Empires, Cambridge University Press, , pp. 4–9, 28–34, 61–65, 150–151, 189–191, 194–207 In other cases, yogis from the Shaivism, Vaishnavism and Shaktism traditions of Hinduism marshaled armed resistance against the Mughal and British colonial armies.
Ethical duties
A yogi or yogini lives by other voluntary ethical precepts called Yamas and .K. N. Aiyar (1914), Thirty Minor Upanishads, Kessinger Publishing, , chapter 22, pp. 173–176 These include:" योगयाज्ञवल्क्य प्रथमोऽध्याय " (Sanskrit text of "Yoga Yajnavalkya"), SanskritDocuments Archives (2009)
Nath siddha
According to David White,
Respect
Archeological evidence suggests that in some contexts and regions, yogi of the Nath Siddha tradition were respected and recognized in India. For example, inscriptions suggest a general of the Yadava king Ramacandra donated a village to a yogi in 13th-century. Near Mangalore, that later became a hub of Nath yogis, a monastery and temple was dedicated to yogis in the 10th century.
Persecution
In some contexts, adds White, the term yogi has also been a pejorative term used in medieval India for a Nath siddha, particularly on the part of India's social, cultural and religious elites. The term siddha has become a broad sectarian appellation, applying to Saiva-devotees in the Deccan Plateau ( Maheśvara siddhas), alchemists in Tamil Nadu (Siddhar), a group of early Buddhist Tantra from Bengal ( , siddhacaryas), the alchemists of medieval India ( rasa siddha), and a mainly north Indian group known as the Nath siddhas. The Nath siddhas are the only still existing representatives of the medieval Tantric tradition, which had disappeared due to its excesses. While the Nath siddhas enjoyed persistent popular success, they attracted the scorn of the elite classes.
Resistance to persecution
According to David Lorenzen, the religious groups in Hinduism that militarized and took up arms following the Muslim conquest of India, to resist persecution, appeared among the Nath or Kanphata yogis, often called simply yogis or jogis.David Lorenzen (2006), Who Invented Hinduism?, Yoda Press, , pp. 51–63
Cultural contributions: founding Hindu temples
The history of Nath yogis has been diverse, such as in the 11th and 12th centuries, when Buddhists in South India converted to Nath siddha traditions and helped establish Shiva Hindu temples and monasteries.
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