Within Siddha Yoga, Bhagwan Nityananda is revered as the root source of the lineage’s shaktipat, the divine energy that awakens seekers. He is regarded as the avadhūta siddha whose own realization and awakened śakti empowered his disciple Swami Muktananda, from whom the formal Siddha Yoga path and its initiatory stream emerged. In this sense, all authentic Siddha Yoga initiations are understood to be extensions of Nityananda’s original transmission. The grace and authority to bestow shaktipat-dīkṣā are seen as flowing from Nityananda through Muktananda and onward in the guru-paramparā. Thus, his role is both historical, as the one who set the current of this lineage in motion, and theological, as the foundational source of its spiritual power.

Although no longer physically present, Nityananda is held to be an active, subtle participant in the initiation process. During shaktipat and related practices, practitioners understand his presence and śakti to support and intensify the awakening of kundalinī within the disciple. His image, mantra, and stories are used as means to attune to this living current of grace, and his photograph is often placed in meditation halls and ashrams as a focal point for remembrance and inner connection. In this way, the initiation is not seen as the act of a single individual alone, but as the working of a living lineage whose source is Nityananda.

At a deeper level, Siddha Yoga teachings present Nityananda as an embodiment of the eternal guru principle, the Guru Tattva that transcends any single form. The awakened energy experienced in shaktipat is understood as the activity of this principle within the seeker’s own being. Recognizing Nityananda as the root guru of the lineage thus becomes a way of recognizing the universal guru operating through the specific channel of Siddha Yoga. His role in initiation, therefore, is not merely that of a historical figure remembered with reverence, but of an ongoing, subtle presence whose realization and grace continue to animate every genuine act of spiritual transmission in this tradition.