Hatha Yoga gained popularity in India in the 15 th century when monks began to demonstrate asanas in public events. Many mystical stories were told about yoga practices. Therefore, common people thought of it as some secret magical practice. Only the monks and the male children of the priest cast could learn and practice it. In ancient times, Hatha Yoga was considered a secret and sacred practice. So the first two limbs of Raja Yoga Yamas & Niyamas are excluded in Hatha Yoga. Dharana – bringing the mind to one single point.Pratyahara – withdrawal from the sensory input.Pranayama – expansion of capacity to retain prana.Asana – steady comfortable state of body and mind.Hatha Yoga is the six-limb yoga (Shatanga Yoga). Being and staying healthy is a central goal in yoga because only then will you possess the best vehicle for your further spiritual development. The purification of the body and mind is essential also to be healthy. Hatha Yoga, therefore, focuses primarily on the purification of the body as a path that leads to purification of the mind. Swami Swatmarama advised starting with the physical practices at first because most people will find it easier to master the mind through the body, than purifying their character, habits, and mind directly through the observance of the Yamas and Niyamas. Hatha Yoga is also known as Shatanga Yoga (six limb yoga). Swami Swatmarama, a 15th-century sage compiled Hatha Yoga Pradipika and briefly described six limbs of yoga to achieve Samadhi without the long process of the first two steps of the Yamas and Niyamas. This way of practicing Raja Yoga, not following the strict order of first mastering Yamas and Niyamas, was named ‘ Hatha Yoga‘. These Natha Yogis kept practicing the asanas until they mastered them. They called it their ‘stubborn’ practice of Yoga. As the mind was not ready for further practice they had to work harder. Bandhas – to stimulate chakras (energy centers)Īround the early 15th century, some yogis from the Natha lineage did not want to wait so long and began practicing asanas before mastering Yama and Niyamas.Mudra – to manipulate and stimulate pranas (subtle energies).Pranayama – to gain control over the breath.It is interesting to know that some teachers explain Hatha as Ha (sun) + Tha (moon) yoga, because of the fact that Hatha Yoga helps to purify our solar (Pingla) and lunar (Ida) channels. So if you practice any yoga asanas or pranayama exercises you are practicing Hatha. In simple words, you can say all the yoga poses and pranayama exercises can be classified as Hatha Yoga. It is the simpler version (without Yamas and Niyamas) of Raja Yoga. Asana is just one of the six practices in this path. In samadhi the yogi becomes free from the illusion of form, time, and space. But it is the austere practice of asana, pranayama, dharana, and dhyana to achieve the sublime state of samadhi. Generally, people think of Hatha Yoga only as asana practice. So Hatha Yoga practice means the stubborn practice of yoga, without the interference of the five senses and the mind. Hatha in Sanskrit literally means ‘stubborn’. This blog will give you an overview of the underlying philosophy and the traditional principles of Hatha Yoga. In this blog, I aim to explain the principles of ancient Classical Hatha Yoga. When, in 2007, I came to Europe I was surprised to see that Hatha Yoga was considered to be a soft and easy style of yoga and in fact, there is a Western version of Hatha Yoga being taught as Classical Yoga. His classes were strict and challenging and followed the classical Hatha Yoga tradition and syllabus. Over the next eight years, I had lessons from him. Our Gur ji was a traditional teacher from a respected priest cast. Apart from Veda classes we also had Hatha Yoga asana classes every morning with our Guruji. I began my yoga journey at the age of eight years at my school.
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