The story of Matsyendra
The following story is from the Caturaśīti-Siddha-Pravṛitti or The Life Stories of the Eighty-Four Siddhas by Abhaya Datta.
At some distance from the land of Kāmarūpa, a fisherman names Minapa lived on the shores of Ita Ocean. One day he sailed out to the sea and cast his nets into the waters. An enormous fish was caught in his net. The fish, being far stronger than the fisherman, dragged him into the sea and swallowed him whole. Miraculously, the blessed fisherman survived in the belly of the fish waiting for his destiny to come…
At this time, the Goddess Pārvatī asked Śiva to teach her how to achieve freedom in this dark age – kaliyuga on earth. Śiva warned her that this knowledge is too secret to be taught indiscriminately among the people, so he asked her to descend to the ocean floor where they would be free from prying ears. There, in the ocean depths, the fish (and the fisherman within) swam close by the god and goddess.
When Śiva began teaching this knowledge of the way of Yoga, Pārvatī fell asleep, unable to listen to all the secrets. After a while Śiva asked her, ‘Are you still listening?’ The fisherman, hidden in the belly of the fish replied, ‘Yes, I am!’, so Śiva resumed his instruction on hatha yoga. When Śiva finally finished, Pārvatī awoke and apologized for having fallen asleep, to which Śiva replied, ‘If you haven’t heard the teaching, then there will be no hatha yoga in the world! He paused for a moment and then asked, ‘Who was it then who told me they were listening?’
Minapa emphatically replied, ‘I was listening!’ Śiva realized that he had taught a new disciple and that there would be hatha yoga in the world. However, Śiva was angry as the the knowlegde was meant for the Goddess and not for a mortal man. So he said: ‘That what is for the Gods demands mortality as a sacrifice’. ‘Therefore, you must practice in the belly of the fish till you reach immortality.’
For twelve long years, the fisherman diligently practiced his sādhanā in the belly of the fish as instructed by the primal guru. Years later, the fish was caught by local fishermen and cut open. The imprisoned former fisherman and yogi emerged shining.
He became the “Lord of the fish”, Matsyendra Nāth.
He taught the world the secrets of haṭha, and gave the blessing of the primal teacher.
One has to descend to the bottom of one’s inner sea, to listen to the secret voice of the primal guru residing there. Carried with power of persistence, one day, one will rise again from the darkness of the deep waters as a new master.
The lord of the fish
The story of Matsyendra is that of a man who must descend into the deep sea of the unconscious in order to find the part of himself that embodies the divine.
Matsyendra receives the knowledge that lies beyond normal life, it is “stolen” from the gods. This means that it takes the normal mortal from the realm of the individual into the universal. The price for this is mortality.
Thus the divine demands the tribute of the earthly. In this way, all true growth is a transformation, a burning of the old in the belly of the fish and a rebirth of the greater self.
Matsyendra sacrifices himself and gains eternal life. The fish is the vehicle of this transformation, it is the immersion into the depths of existence.