The Siddha Kaula Jog is the renunciation system of Siddha Dharma, the Himalayan tradition of Kaulantak Peeth. As per Siddha Dharma, Jog (जोग) is the ancient name for sanyas, the renunciation, and one who takes it is a jogi (जोगी). The system descends from the indigenous Himalayan religion Kopokhojaa, which became the Siddha Dharma, and it is organized today in three kramas (क्रम, “krama”, sequence or motion): srishti (सृष्टि, “sṛṣṭi”, creation), sthiti (स्थिति, “sthiti”, sustenance) and sanhar (संहार, “saṁhāra”, dissolution). The diksha (दीक्षा, “dīkṣā”, initiation) of Jog is bestowed only under the authority of the Kaulantak Nath, and since the system lives in the guru-disciple tradition rather than in written scripture, the final authority on Siddha Kaula Jog rests with His Holiness Kaulantak Peethadhishwara Mahasiddha Ishaputra.
Etymology
As per Siddha Dharma, jog in that ancient speech meant virakt (विरक्त, “virakta”): the one who is detached, the one who goes out. Only the one who lived outside, in the forests, was held entitled to it at all. Jogi named its holder, and the words yog and yogi are the later forms, arriving with the refinement of the language long after the thing itself was alive. The old word never left the speech of these mountains: in the Pahadi tongue a renunciate is a jogi to this day, and the old shrines of the Joginis across these valleys carry that name, not the polished one.
Sanyas (सन्यास, “sannyāsa”) is the still later word, and the tradition honors its own meaning: sama plus nyasa (न्यास, “nyāsa”), where sama stands for equality, surrender and patience, and nyasa is the tantric establishing of a thing within the body. To take sanyas is to set those within oneself, so that a person stands outside the whole apparatus of caste and rank. As per Siddha Dharma, that meaning is true, and yet the word reached the Himalaya late, together with the organized renunciant orders that carry it now, the Giri, Puri and Bharati lines and the Naga categories, all formed after Adi Shankaracharya. The Siddha tradition is older than all of them, and for the system’s own antiquity the tradition also speaks of Kaal Sanyas (काल सन्यास, “kāla sannyāsa”, the sanyas of time itself): since Shiva has existed, Kaal Sanyas has existed.
Origin in Kopokhojaa
As per Siddha Dharma, the dispute that gave rise to Jog arose within Kopokhojaa, over the worship of its own Ishta.
Shiva, or the Ishta deity of that time, was the Kal Purush (काल पुरुष, “kāla puruṣa”, the Being of Time), called Shikhi Bhairav and called Ishanak. And he would not stay in one place. He gave darshan above the clouds, and in the sun, and on the moon; in the cremation ground and in the wilderness; at the top of a tall tree, and hanging upside down from the highest branches; among the animals, seated beside a tiger, shining amid buffalo and the great horned bulls. Sometimes black, sometimes smeared with ash, sometimes wearing a garland of skulls, sometimes standing avadhut (अवधूत, “avadhūta”, the one who has shaken off every convention) and entirely naked. Every time, another form.
So the question arose: those who follow him, how should they live, and how should they look?
One side had always been householders, and they held that wherever one lives, one should meditate on him in whatever form he shows, honor him as free and svacchanda (स्वच्छंद, “svacchanda”, moving by his own will alone), and make a place for him in the home. From that answer, in the Kopokhojaa period itself, came pratik upasana (प्रतीक उपासना, “pratīka upāsanā”), worship through the symbol, and it has never stopped.
The other side would not accept it. As the Ishta is, they held, so must the one who walks behind him be. He lives in the forests; then they would live in the forests. He wears no fixed form; then they would wear none either.
The Bunake
As per Siddha Dharma, those who left for the forests became a tradition with no dress code at all, because the one they copied had none. They took strange and changing forms, as he does.
People called them bunake (बुणके), the dwellers in the woods and in nature. The word was thrown at them, not given: in the speech of that time, monkeys were called bunake too, and bears as well, so the name said that these humans had gone like bears and monkeys from living out there. The forebears of the tradition carried the name anyway. Before they were jogis, they were bunake.
The one who declared the pattern on behalf of the Jaa current, one of the four currents of Kopokhojaa (Ko, Po, Kho and Jaa), was Gana Agadha Ja (गण अगध जा); gana (गण, “gaṇa”) was the title of the principal gurus of Kopokhojaa. Siddha Dharma does not write Mahasiddha before his name, because the Siddha Dharma parampara, which names its perfected ones Mahasiddha, had not yet begun in his time. What he settled included the rites that come after death, and this is where a jogi parts from the householder in a way that cannot be undone: the body given to water, or left in the forests, or set in samadhi in the earth, or burned and the ashes buried in an urn. Not what is done for a householder.
The pattern traveled backwards through the four currents, from Jaa to Kho, then to Po, then to Ko. Two camps settled out of it, one worshipping the Ishta from inside society and one leaving for the heights, and the ones who left gained the upper hand, for the plain reason that they were doing it every hour of every day while the others had lives to run.
History: Founding of the Siddha Jog Parampara
As per Siddha Dharma, the organizing came later, from Mahasiddha Koshira Nath, after his digvijay (दिग्विजय, “digvijaya”), the conquest of all the directions, in which he defeated the thousand ganas. He gathered all the bunake together and told them a special pattern had to be chosen, and what he founded is the Siddha Jog Parampara.
It began under two names, and the tradition still writes both:
Siddha Dev Jog, called in modern speech Siddha Dev Sanyas.
Siddha Kula Jog, called Siddha Kula Sanyas. This is the name of the lifelong path: the sanhar initiate follows Siddha Kula Jog for the whole of his life.
These two are the oldest divisions of the system, older than the three kramas that organize it now. They hold a practice in common, the Rishitva Siddhi (ऋषित्व सिद्धि, “ṛṣitva siddhi”, the attainment of rishi-hood), a rigorous seven-year discipline in which each year is given to mastering the qualities of one of the Saptarishis, drawn from meditation on their seven gunbandhas. It remains one of the primary sadhanas of Kaulantak Peeth.
The Concealment and Return
As per the tradition, the lineages of the Kaulacharyas did not remain visible to society through every era. Around the fourteenth century, in the dark period of Indian history, they judged that human consciousness was not ready, covered themselves with maya, and withdrew from the public record. What has survived publicly under the name sanyas since then largely follows other models, while the Shaiva renunciation of the Siddhas passed into obscurity. The present emergence of the tradition is by the guru’s adesh (आदेश, “ādeśa”, command), unfolding link by link through the guru-disciple line, and the teaching of Siddha Kaula Jog in public belongs to that unfolding.
Who Can Bestow Jog Diksha
As per Siddha Dharma, two disputes settled this, separated by a long stretch of time, and taken in order they read as one rule finding its shape.
The dispute of Mahasiddha Kula Pakshi Nath. After Koshira Nath, some Mahasiddhas opened gurukuls, three or four of them living in one place, teaching the children and giving diksha. Kula Pakshi Nath was named for the bird, because a bird is clever and quick and flies high, and so was his knowledge. He was also married, and he gave jog to a great many people, against the standing rule that only one who holds it may give it. Some could not accept this, and the matter went to the Ashtamandala (अष्टमंडल, “aṣṭamaṇḍala”), the eight groups of Mahasiddhas of that time, five Mahasiddhas in each. Their ruling gave the tradition a new system: the Kaulantak Nath holds the final authority in this matter, whatever his own condition, whether he is a householder, a sanyasi, a kula jogi, whether he lives in fearful ravines or walks through civilization with his form changed. He holds it because he is supreme, and because he is himself the very form of Shikhi Bhairav. Kula Pakshi Nath was told he would give it no more, and what he had given was declared invalid; everyone who had taken it from him took it again from the Kaulantak Naths. From that ruling comes the standing rule: one who is himself in household life cannot give jog. Jog is given by a jogi, or by the lord of jogis, the Mahajogi, the Kaulantak Nath and Kulant Nath, the Panchapithadhishwar.
The precedent of Mahasiddha Matsyendra Nath. He married while holding the seat of Peethadhishwara, and most of his disciples were brahmachari, so the question was put whether a grihastha (गृहस्थ, “gṛhastha”, the householder) could impart sanhar jog to them at all. It went to the Gurumandala and the Nyaya Mandala, and they let him keep the seat, holding that his work in recovering lost wisdom outweighed the marriage, and remembering that Shiva, the first Peethadhishwara, was himself married, and that Ma Parvati is the eternal Peethadhishwari. He then ruled for all who would come after him: a Peethadhishwara may marry and still do the work of dharma, and may still give, because a Siddha who has reached the state of Mahayoga does not lose it. He is a nitya yogi (नित्य योगी, “nitya yogī”, a permanent yogi), and the attained state does not perish.
The two rulings together teach that being a householder does not qualify a person, that the right belongs to the Kaulantak Nath, and that the Kaulantak Nath’s own marriage does not disqualify him. The right lives in the seat and in the mandala around it.
As per Kaula Siddha Dharma, those who may bestow the diksha are accordingly: the Kaulantak Peethadhishwar, bound by nothing except the traditional rules prescribed by the Gurumandala; the Kaulantak Peethadhishwari, if she has herself taken and completed the diksha; the head of the Nyaya Mandala, under the same condition; and the Mahatpati, under the same condition.
The Three Kramas
As per Siddha Dharma, the universe creates, sustains and dissolves, and Jog is cut along the same three motions: srishti (सृष्टि, “sṛṣṭi”), sthiti (स्थिति, “sthiti”) and sanhar (संहार, “saṁhāra”). The tradition also derives the three from the three orders of the Shri Yantra, Hadi, Kadi and Sadi, one of which is the Kaula-margiya Shri Yantra. All three are conferred together, and the one taking accepts one.
Siddha Srishti Jog
Srishti is creation, that which has just come into being, and this krama belongs to those who stand inside creation. Two kinds of people take it. The householder is one: a person may hold jog and keep the household, and husband and wife may take it together and go on with the marriage, the work, the land, the business; in one sense the whole family enters it with them. The other is the newly arrived sadhak, who has only just been born into this and cannot yet hold a long vow. The term runs from sixteen days to one year. The srishti jogi carries the heaviest share of the ordinary work of dharma, because he lives where people live.
Siddha Sthiti Jog
This is the krama taken for a fixed term, which is why it also carries the name kala sanyas, time-bound. One month is the minimum; beyond that it may be one year, three, five, fourteen, thirty two, up to forty years, for as long as the person has resolved to hold it. When the term ends, the person returns to household life, and there is no shame in the returning: the term was the vow, and the vow was kept.
Siddha Sanhar Jog
Lifelong, with the full rules, and marked by the Himalayan dress in the stone color. The one who takes it wanders the forests, stays on the Himalaya, eats that food and lives in that setting. He does not come back to household life, and if he does, the Mahasiddhas said it plainly: it is a very great sin, and terrible hells wait for him to see. As per the tradition, sanhar has two ways: remaining in the ashrams while cut off from society, or full vanaprastha (वानप्रस्थ, “vānaprastha”, the departure to the forest), going to the Himalaya forever. The sanhar jogi undergoes a civil death: his last rites pass to the tradition of Kaulantak Peeth, and he carries an identification letter issued by the sect for the administration. Certain duties survive even this renunciation: if the country is attacked, he goes to fight, and in medical emergency he serves.
Movement between the kramas runs one way. A person may begin at srishti and come to sthiti, and from sthiti move toward sanhar; downward the path is closed, and sanhar cannot be walked out of. The counsel of the tradition is to begin low, for sanhar asks for merit gathered across many lives.
Siddha Shringaar Jog
Within sthiti sits Siddha Shringaar Jog (श्रृंगार, “śṛṅgāra”, adornment, the ornament), taken for the seva (सेवा, “sevā”, service) of the Mahasiddhas. The shringaar jogi does not marry, and that is the one rule that binds; even that lifts if the guru gives the order to marry. Beyond it the rules do not reach: modern dress is allowed, modern society is allowed, and so is the Himalaya.
As per Siddha Dharma, the reason is practical. The Mahasiddhas hold their knowledge on the Himalaya, and they do not themselves walk the seven continents. So they choose such jogis, who serve the guru and the parampara with body and with wealth, receive the knowledge, and carry it into every corner of the world. The kalas the guru gives them go the same way: one is taught dance and gives a life to dance; one is given a singing tradition; one is given Ayurveda, and does not marry unless the guru says so.
They are called shringaar because they are the ornament of the Siddha Dharma parampara. Mahasiddha Ishaputra calls them its blood line and its heartbeat: without them the tradition does not survive. The sanhar jogi picks up his danda and walks off, and who then knows whether he is alive or dead; the householder has his own life to manage. What remains is the shringaar jogi, and the dharma moves forward on his back.
Eligibility
As per Siddha Dharma, there is a standing system for the greater sanyas. The lesser sanyas, the srishti sanyas, presents no difficulty and is given without it. But sthiti and shringaar sanyas are ordinarily given only when a Bhairav or Bhairavi has been tested for a minimum of seven years, sometimes ten years, at most fourteen. For seven years no approval for sanyas is granted at all. And the sanyas diksha, when it is given, is itself a learning period: only when the seven years are completed does the full sanskar (संस्कार, “saṁskāra”, the consecrating rite) take place, and the mahadiksha (महादीक्षा, “mahādīkṣā”, the great initiation) is completed with the full rite and procedure.
This must be said plainly, because some are carried away by enthusiasm, and some believe they will manage it. It is not so easy. Most people fail the test in these matters and are put out. And those who took diksha and were put out are never regarded as having ever been Kaula sanyasis, or Dev sanyasis, or Siddha jogis. One whose seven years are not complete cannot in any way call himself a Siddha Kula jogi, nor, in the deva dharma, a sanyasi. That is his minimum, his probation period, and only after it does he become a yogi entitled to carry out further activities.
Around this stand the entry conditions the tradition has always kept: one to two years in the Peeth, more than twenty dikshas, the request made to the guru in person, the purpose being siddhatva (सिद्धत्व, “siddhatva”, the state of a Siddha) and never a title, a name or fame, allegiance to the guru-disciple line, knowledge of the Peeth and its rules, and recognition as Bhairav or Bhairavi by the Kaulantak Nath, though carrying that name does not by itself make anyone eligible.
The Diksha and Its Karmakand
As per Siddha Dharma, the karmakand (कर्मकांड, “karmakāṇḍa”, the ritual procedure) differs across the three kramas: the pujan paddhati differ, and so do the yantras.
A yantra is made in circular form and hung above the rite; it stands for akash and vayu. A second yantra is placed behind the one taking jog, and that one declares which of the three is being taken: the yantra behind a person tells what he has come for. In front stands the vessel of water, and the diksha itself happens in the jal patra.
The diksha is not given indoors. The site is surveyed beforehand so that no defect arises in the place, and the tradition looks for a spot by a river, facing a mountain, near forest. A Maha Snan (महा स्नान, “mahā snāna”, the great bath) in the river belongs to the same sequence.
On the day of jog a mashaal is lit, and this has run unbroken since Kopokhojaa, when a tall torch burned in the middle of the forests and the shamanic rituals were completed around it. The jogis of Kaulachar keep it once a year: a high wooden torch, fire set upon it, leaves placed before it, and the worship carried through Mrikulachar, the worship of nature. In that symbolic worship there is the dhirch, the local word for the dhuni, the smoke offering of herbs and incense, and there is the bell, and the mantras particular to it. The tradition’s own deshaj raags and raaginis belong here too, sung at the time of the agni karma, when the homa is done.
Then there are the pancha chakras, and this is a greatly guarded vidhan. Most people have never seen them. They are five, made large, in the shape of the spinning top a child plays with. Each is set on a wooden mount and spun, and kept spinning while the mantras are recited, and on the face of each, worked in metal or in color, are its own mantras. One chakra is completed with its own vidhi, the devatas are asked and satisfied, and only then does the next begin. The diksha runs through all five.
Alongside all of this the general Kaula sequence holds: worship of the Guru Mandal first, then the yantra, then the mantra, then the yantra puja, and the practice advanced step by step from there. The sanskaras belong to the same body of work: bhasma, suddhi, snana, tapana, namdana, mantra, and the shakti diksha at the end, where the oath is taken and the name is given.
Siddha Kula Jog
The Deity of the Diksha
The deity of the original system is Shikhi Bhairav, also called Shikhi Dev, and Ishanak, and Ishanak Bhairav, the one known in the present day as Swachhand Bhairav. As Kopokhojaa practiced the rite, the whole of it stayed with him, and the Goddess had no part in this particular diksha. How the tradition worships now is another subject, and the presiding deity of Kaulantak Peeth belongs to that subject, not to this one.
The deity of the original system is Shikhi Bhairav, also called Shikhi Dev, and Ishanak, and Ishanak Bhairav, the one known in the present day as Swachhand Bhairav. As Kopokhojaa practiced the rite, the whole of it stayed with him, and the Goddess had no part in this particular diksha. How the tradition worships now is another subject, and the presiding deity of Kaulantak Peeth belongs to that subject, not to this one.
In tantra, Shikhi Bhairav is also a padvi (पदवी, “padavī”), a station: a sadhak who reaches the state of siddhatva (सिद्धत्व, “siddhatva”, the state of a Siddha) and mahasiddhatva becomes equal to Shikhi Bhairav, and the gurus give him that upadhi (उपाधि, “upādhi”, title). The Kaulantak Nath is himself the very form of Shikhi Bhairav, and until one has reached the Shikhi Bhairav pad, he cannot give the kula sanyas. This is why the deity of the diksha and the authority over the diksha are one subject and not two.
Conduct and Protocols
As per Siddha Dharma, one thing stands before all the protocols: the Siddha Dharma tradition is strictly based on the guru-shishya tradition. If it appears of some disciple that he is putting on a show of loving the guru, or of following the tradition, while in his heart there is no reverence, then the guru asks the disciple nothing, and gives no reason. When the gurus feel that this one is not worthy, they find some way or another and show him the way out.
Under that foundation, the standing protocols hold. The whole of the discipline is named in two things to avoid, alasya (आलस्य, “ālasya”, laziness) and pramad (प्रमाद, “pramāda”, negligence), the only real causes of failure in practice. The center of the jogi’s life is the guru, Shiva, the Kaulantak Nath and the Kaula tradition, with everything else in orbit around that center. The jogi’s seat sits a little raised, marking seniority; there is a strict etiquette at food; the head is covered before the guru, before the deities, and while eating; there is bathing early on the festivals; practice and knowledge are kept confidential, and the vidya is taken from the guru’s mouth, for a thing picked up from a book becomes accomplished in no one.
The Dress Code
As per Siddha Dharma, the dress of the jogi follows his progress, and the progression runs by color.
The ordinary sanyasi is first given a simple dress of the kind other renunciates also wear: robes of maroon color. As the jogi reaches a certain level, the guru may grant dresses of other colors: yellow, and after it black, with three or four color codes standing in the progression. At the very end, when the seven years are complete, the jogi is given the Himalayan dress, which in this tradition is the cement color, the stone color, and dresses matching that color remain his main attire from then on.
The standing rules of dress told elsewhere continue to hold around this progression: the Kaulachari vastra, the shringaar jogi’s liberty of modern dress, and the easing granted by the Gurumandala in 2004 for the protection of ascetics in this era.
Difference From Other Sanyas Systems
As per Siddha Dharma, the renunciation of the other traditions is taken once and is then final: once you have taken it, that is it. In Siddha Kaula Jog there are three or four differences within this alone.
First, the probation is long. No other system tests an aspirant for seven years before the full rite.
Second, and greatest: in this system the guru can also break the sanyas. If the guru feels of one whom he has made a kula jogi that after some years his way is not right, that his mind is turning, that his conduct has gone wrong, then even without informing him the guru holds the special privilege: a small karmakand is performed, and the sanyas is broken. In the other sanyas systems this does not happen.
The reason lies in what is actually given. As per Siddha Dharma, the guru does not give sanyas; he gives kula jog, he gives jog, and with it he gives the power of that jog. The sanyas continues forward only on the guru’s power, on the power of the Guru Mandala. So if the Kaulantak Nath, or any such great power, dismisses it, nothing further needs to be done: it stands dismissed. This is why the steps in this path are taken with extreme care, why the Siddhas who endured stayed always within protocol and maryada (मर्यादा, “maryādā”, the bounds of conduct), and why they attained; and why those who deviated were put out of the tradition.
Beyond these, the differences already told stand: this renunciation rests on Shree Vidya rather than the four purusharthas, it descends from the Shaiva side while what commonly passes as sannyasa today follows the Vaishnava model, and its end is society, to which the perfected wisdom returns.
The Parva of the Jogis
As per Siddha Dharma, the jogis have their own parva (पर्व, “parva”, festival), and the Kaulantak Nath celebrates it every year. Across the world, wherever the Siddha jogis and Siddha Kula jogis live, they celebrate that day in their own ways. Some travel for the darshan of Mahasiddha Ishaputra; the jogis gather on that day and go to the sadhus and sanyasis for darshan, or to the Kurukulla Temple, or to whatever place the parva is being celebrated.
The parva has two forms. One is public, celebrated amidst the people, and its outline is a little different: when it is displayed publicly, with a great many sanyasis, a gigantic torch is made. The other is secret: in the forests, or in a solitary place, or in one’s own private place, the jogi installs a torch and worships it symbolically. When Ishaputra keeps it alone, a small torch is made. But in both forms it revolves around the mashaal, the torch, and that is its way and its method, running unbroken from the Kopokhojaa period.
How Kaulantak Nath Received Jog
As per Siddha Dharma, there is nothing hidden in this account.
Mahasiddha Ishaputra was born in 1983, and received his first initiation from his Gurudev in 1986. The guru of Mahasiddha Ishaputra, Mahasiddha Siddha Siddhanta Nath ji Maharaj, granted him the diksha of this sanyas when he was around twelve years of age. As the rule stands written, a minimum of seven years must then be completed, and only after it is the authority given. To become Kaulantak Nath it was further necessary to remain a brahmachari (ब्रह्मचारी, “brahmacārī”, celibate) and to fulfil the rule of Shailvasi, and this remains compulsory until one becomes Kaulantak Nath. He became Kaulantak Peethadhishwara at seventeen years of age, in the year 2000. Upon becoming Kaulantak Nath these rules cease to apply: the accounting of all the kulas then rests on him, and a separate training, given only to the Kaulantak Nath, governs what he must do and how he must live. For this reason the tradition warns: what the Kaulantak Nath says should be done, but what the Kaulantak Nath himself does, no sadhak should try to copy without asking, for his training was his alone, and copying it can be dangerous.
The diksha was bestowed at the old Kurukulla Temple, at the very place where the Kurukulla Temple stands today. That temple was made of mud and stone, plastered with mud, with a roof laid over it, and it had two segments, one to the left and one to the right: one side for sleeping and the activities of life, one side for sadhana and worship.
For the diksha, two pieces of wood were cut in circular shapes and joined with wooden pieces between them, and a yantra was made of it. From the central beam of the A-shaped roof it was hung down by rope into the room, at least five feet above the seated boy, and it was decorated with beautiful cloths. The ancient stone pindis of Kurukulla, Vikula, Sukula and Swachhand Bhairav, which Mahasiddha Siddha Siddhanta Nath ji Maharaj had brought there, were kept as witness. A special havan kund was made, the kachchhap kund (कच्छप, “kacchapa”, tortoise), so called because it is shaped as a tortoise. Near it four mandalas were laid, which are compulsory in this tradition when full diksha is given: one of the 64 Yoginis, established and worshipped; the Veer mandala of the 52 Bhairavs, the Upa Bhairavs; the mandala of the 60 Kaal Purushas, called in the tradition’s Pali speech the Shatkalaya, the sixty ganas of Kaal; and a fourth mandala on which all the gods and goddesses are given place. The mandalas are made round, and at their center stands the vessel of water. Before the water vessel are placed the iron Shankars and tridents, and the small weapon of the Siddhas named the Kulankush, ceremonial, of ashtadhatu (अष्टधातु, “aṣṭadhātu”, the eight metals) or of wood, is established there.
The gurus then put on the initiate a garland of skulls made of wood, and wooden rings on the ears, set on from outside without piercing, symbolic only. A damaru is given into the hands and a khappar into one hand. A special mud is applied to the body, or bhasma; and where bhasma is not available, the mud is prepared from what has settled at the banks of the Himalayan rivers and lakes. Then the gurus recite the tradition’s deshaj mantra styles, and the sequence of diksha begins. The dhoomra patra, the smoke vessel, is given into one hand, and the bell is taken in the other.
Then the directions are gathered. As per Siddha Dharma this is not a binding but a gathering of the directions: the guru sends the disciple out in one direction to bring some material from it, a stone; in a second direction, to bring earth; in a third, water; in a fourth, grass. Whether the materials are to be brought from seven directions or from ten, the guru decides, and what is brought is placed on the worship altar. Flowers are heaped on it, the gods and goddesses of all the mandalas are invoked, and the abhishek is done: drops of water sprinkled with mantra and song, and the whole body bathed.
After the abhishek come the mudras of Jog, which together are called the Siddha Jog Mudra Mala: first the 14 deh mudras, performed with the body so that they appear like yogasanas, and then the 12 hasta mudras, performed with the fingers of the hands. Then, through pranayama and the bandhs, the guru has one dharana performed. Then the guru pours water into his own hand, pours it from his hand into the hand of the disciple, and speaks, and the disciple repeats after him: 12 sankalps (संकल्प, “saṅkalpa”, resolve), and the 12 sankalps are repeated 18 times. Then the guru gives the gift of garments, hands the mala, and has the new jogi wear them. Into one hand is given a kamandal or a khappar, and into the other the Kulankush. The kula deities are worshipped, and the ancestors: the divine ancestors are invoked from the realm of the souls, and prayer is made to the kula deities that they bring all the gods and goddesses with them and become participants in that divine moment.
As per Siddha Dharma, this method never stays fixed: it varies a little each time, because much of it is done after asking the deities and the Guru Mandala through the shamanic tradition: they ask for some karmakand to be added, and some to be removed, and the diksha then takes place accordingly. The age of the one receiving also weighs: for one whose age is already advanced, the diksha is made longer still, so that more strength and power may be obtained.