Hatha yoga

Hatha yoga (Sanskrit haṭhayoga, IPA: [ɦəʈʰəˈjoːɡə]), also called Haṭhavidyā , is a branch of yoga. The word haṭha (lit. "force") denotes a system of physical techniques supplementary to a broad conception of yoga.[1] [2]

Hindu tradition believes that the deity Shiva himself is the founder of hatha yoga.[3][4][5]

In the 20th century, hatha yoga, particularly asanas (the physical postures), became popular throughout the world as a form of physical exercise, and is now colloquially termed as simply "yoga".

Origins

Legendary

According to legend, Shiva is credited with propounding hatha yoga.[3] It is said that on a lonely island, assuming nobody else would hear him, he gave the knowledge of hatha yoga to Parvati, but a fish heard the entire discourse, remaining still throughout. The fish (matsya) later became a siddha and came to be known as Matsyendranath. Matsyendranath taught hatha yoga to his disciple Gorakshanath and to a limbless man, Chaurangi. Hatha Yoga Pradipika mentions many other famous hatha yogis. Hatha yoga was thus passed down in disciplic succession.

Earliest textual references

Hatha Yoga textual relationship[6][7][8]

According to Mallinson, some Hatha Yoga techniques can be traced back to the epics and the Pali canon.[1] The Pali canon contains three passages in which the Buddha describes pressing the tongue against the palate for the purposes of controlling hunger or the mind, depending on the passage.[9] However there is no mention of the tongue being inserted into the nasopharynx as in true khecarī mudrā. The Buddha used a posture where pressure is put on the perineum with the heel, similar to even modern postures used to stimulate Kundalini.[10]

Medieval systematization

In medieval times, teachings on Yoga were systematized in several texts:

The practices of the Amṛtasiddhi and Dattātreyayogaśāstra are used to raise bindu or prevent it from falling.[1] The mudrās of the Vivekamārtaṇḍa work on bindu, not kuṇḍalinī, even though raising it is an important part of the yoga it teaches.[1] The mudras of the Goraksaśatakạ and Khecarīvidyā are used to raise kuṇḍalinī (they mention bindu only in passing).[1]

The only other texts older than the Hathapradīpikạ̄ to teach Hatha Yoga ̣ mudrās are the Shiva Samhita, Yogabīja, Amaraughaprabodha, and Śārṅgadharapaddhati.[1]

Goraksha Samhita

The Goraksha Samhita was authored by Yogi Gorakshanath of the 11th century. Gorakshanath is widely considered to have been responsible for popularizing hatha yoga as we know it today.[11][12][13] He authored several texts on the practice of yoga, such as the Goraksha Samhita, Siddha Siddhanta Paddhati, Gorakshataka, Yoga Martanda and Yoga Chinatamani.[14]

Classical Hatha Yoga

Hathapradīpikạ̄

The Hathapradīpikạ was composed by Svātmārāma in the 15th century CE as a compilation of the earlier hatha yoga texts.[1]

The Hatha Yoga Pradipika and the Gheranda samhita are derived from older Sanskrit texts. In Hatha Yoga Pradipika, Swatmarama introduces his system as preparatory stage for physical purification that the body practices for higher meditation or Yoga. It is based on asanas (postures) and pranayama (breathing techniques).

Hatha Yoga Pradipika lists 35 great Hatha Yoga siddhas or masters; Adi Natha, Matsyendranath and Gorakshanath. It includes information about shatkarma (purification), asana (postures), pranayama (subtle energy control), chakras (centers of energy), kundalini (instinct), bandhas (muscle force), kriyas (techniques; manifestations of kundalini), shakti (sacred force), nadis (channels), and mudras (symbolic gestures) among other topics.

Post-Hathapradīpikạ̄ Texts

Post-Hathaprakipika texts include Hathasaṃ̣ ketacandrikā, the Yogacintāmaṇi, the Hathatattvakaumudị̄, the Yogabīja anthologies, the Yoga Upanisads, and ̣ Brahmānanda’s Jyotsnā commentary on the Hathapradīpikạ̄', the Amaraughaśāsana, the Hatharatnāvalī, the Bṛhatkhecarīprakāśa, the Hathapradīpikạ̄ Siddhāntamuktāvalī, the Gorakhbāṇī, the Gheranda Samhita and the Jogpradīpakā.[1]

Modern popularization

Many modern schools of hatha yoga in the West derive from the school of Tirumalai Krishnamacharya, who taught from 1924 until his death in 1989. Among his students prominent in popularizing yoga in the West were K. Pattabhi Jois famous for popularizing the vigorous Ashtanga Vinyasa Yoga style, B. K. S. Iyengar who emphasized alignment and the use of props, Indra Devi and Krishnamacharya's son T. K. V. Desikachar.

Another major stream of influence within and outside India has been Swami Sivananda of Rishikesh (1887–1963) and his many disciples including, among others, Swami Vishnu-devananda – founder of International Sivananda Yoga Vedanta Centres; Swami Satyananda – of the Bihar School of Yoga; and Swami Satchidananda of Integral Yoga. In India, Baba Ramdev of Haridwar has popularized yoga among the masses in the 21st century.

In Sierra Leone, the "Yoga Strength" organization headed by Tamba Fayia, a former child soldier who has become "the country's first qualified yoga teacher", focuses on "taking yoga to the people who need it ... on the streets, in the slums, in the schools."[15]

Practice

Hatha yoga has some important principles and practices that are shared with other methods of yoga, such as subtle physiology, dhāraṇā (fixation of the elements), and nādānusandhāna (concentration on the internal sound).[1]

Eight limbs

Hatha yoga consists of eight limbs focused on attaining samādhi. In this scheme, the six limbs of hatha yoga are defined as asana, pranayama, pratyahara, dharana, dhyana and samādhi. It includes disciplines, postures (asanas), purification procedures (shatkriya), gestures (mudras), breathing (pranayama), and meditation. The hatha yoga predominantly practiced in the West consists of mostly asanas understood as physical exercises. It is also recognized as a stress-reducing practice.

Preservation of life force

In its earliest formulations, hathạ was used to raise and conserve the physical essence of life, identified in men as bindu (semen), which is otherwise constantly dripping downward from a store in the head and being expended.[1] The female equivalent, mentioned only occasionally in our sources, is rajas, menstrual fluid.[1] The preservation and sublimation of semen was associated with tapas (asceticism) from at least the time of the epics, and some of the techniques of early Hatha Yoga are likely to have developed as part of ascetic practice.[1] The techniques of early Hatha Yoga work in two ways: mechanically, in practices such as viparītakaraṇī, “the reverser,” in which by standing on one’s head one uses gravity to keep bindu in the head; or by making the breath enter the central channel of the body (sushumna), which runs from the base of the spine to the top of the head, thereby forcing bindu upward.[1]

Kundalini

In later formulations of Hatha Yoga, the Kaula system of the visualization of the serpent goddess Kuṇḍalini rising as kuṇḍalinī energy through a system of chakras, usually six or seven, is overlaid onto the bindu-oriented system.[1] The same techniques, together with some specifically kuṇḍalinī-oriented ones, are said to effect kuṇḍalinī’s rise up the central channel (which is called the sushumnạ̄ in these traditions) to a store of amṛta (the nectar of immortality) situated in the head, with which kuṇḍalinī then floods the body, rejuvenating it and rendering it immortal.[1]

Siddhis

The aims and results of Hatha Yoga are the same as those of other varieties of yoga practice: siddhis (both mundane benefits and magical powers) and moksha, the latter often understood as being attained in a body immortalized by Hatha Yoga practices.[1] In keeping with the physical orientation of Hatha Yoga practices, its siddhis are predominantly physical, ranging from the loss of wrinkles and grey hair to divine sight or the ability to levitate.[1] In common with earlier formulations of yoga, in particular Kaula ones, the techniques of Hatha Yoga can be used to effect kālavañcana (cheating death), utkrānti (yogic suicide), or parakāyapraveśa (entering another’s body).[1] As in the Yoga Sutras of Patanjali, siddhis are usually said to be a hindrance to or distraction from Hatha Yoga’s ultimate aim – liberation – but in some Kaula-influenced texts, the pursuit of specific siddhis through specific techniques is taught.[16]

Health benefits ascribed to yogāsana practice

Students in a Hatha Yoga class practising the reclining bound angle pose, sometimes called bound butterfly pose

Yoga's combined focus on mindfulness, breathing and physical movements brings health benefits with regular participation. Yoga participants report better sleep, increased energy levels and muscle tone, relief from muscle pain and stiffness, improved circulation and overall better general health. The breathing aspect of yoga can benefit heart rate and blood pressure.[17]

The 2012 "Yoga in America" survey, conducted by Harris Interactive on behalf of Yoga Journal, shows that the number of adult practitioners in the US is 20.4 million, or 8.7 percent. The survey reported that 44 percent of those not practicing yoga said they are interested in trying it.[18]

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 James Mallinson, Hatha Yoga (accessed 6 January 2014)
  2. ↑ http://www.academia.edu/1539699/Meaning_of_ha%E1%B9%ADha_in_Early_Ha%E1%B9%ADhayoga, "The Meaning of Haṭha in Early Haṭhayoga" (accessed 11 January 2015)
  3. 1 2 See Burley, page 73.
  4. ↑ See Ganga White, pages 28–29.
  5. ↑ See Introduction of Daniélou, pp 16–17.
  6. ↑ Mallinson, James. "Siddhi and Mahāsiddhi in Early Haṭhayoga." In: Yoga Powers,edited by Jacobsen, Knut A. Leiden: Brill, 2012. pp. 327-344.
  7. ↑ Sanderson, Alexis. "The Śaiva Age: The Rise and Dominance of Śaivism during the Early Medieval Period." In: Genesis and Development of Tantrism,edited by Shingo Einoo. Tokyo: Institute of Oriental Culture, University of Tokyo, 2009. Institute of Oriental Culture Special Series, 23, pp. 124.
  8. ↑ Sanderson, Alexis. "The Śaiva Literature." Journal of Indological Studies (Kyoto), Nos. 24 & 25 (2012–2013), 2014, pp. 1–113.
  9. ↑ Mallinson, James. 2007. The Khecarīvidyā of Adinathā. London: Routledge. pg.17-19.
  10. ↑ Mallinson, James. "Śāktism and Haṭhayoga." In: Goddess Traditions in Tantric Hinduism: History, Practice and Doctrine, edited by Bjarne Wernicke Olesen London: Routledge, 2016. pp. 109-140. pg.120:"The Buddha himself is said to have tried both pressing his tongue to the back of his mouth, in a manner similar to that of the hathayogic khecarīmudrā, and ukkutikappadhāna, a squatting posture which may be related to hathayogic techniques such as mahāmudrā, mahābandha, mahāvedha, mūlabandha, and vajrāsana in which pressure is put on the perineum with the heel, in order to force upwards the breath or Kundalinī."
  11. ↑ On page 140, David Gordon White says of Gorakshanath: "... hatha yoga, in which field he was India's major systematizer and innovator."
  12. ↑ Bajpai writes on page 524: "Nobody can dispute about the top ranking position of Sage Gorakshanath in the philosophy of Yoga."
  13. ↑ Eliade writes of Gorakshanath on page 303: "...he accomplished a new synthesis among certain Shaivist traditions (Pashupata), tantrism, and the doctrines (unfortunately, so imperfectly known) of the siddhas – that is, of the perfect yogis."
  14. ↑ See Maehle, page 45.
  15. ↑ "Yoga in Sierra Leone". BBC News - In pictures. 2014-06-10. Retrieved 2014-07-04.
  16. ↑ Mallinson, J., “Siddhi and Mahāsiddhi in Early Hathayoga,” in: K.A. Jacobsen, ed., Yoga Powers, Leiden, 2011a, 327–344.
  17. ↑ Jaloba, A. Nursing Standard. 2011. Vol 25, Iss. 48, pp. 20–21.
  18. ↑ "Yoga in America Study 2012". Yoga Journal. Retrieved March 3, 2014.

Sources

  • Mikel Burley, Haṭha-Yoga: Its Context, Theory, and Practice, Delhi: Motilal Banarsidass Publ., (Jan 1, 2000)
  • Mallinson, James, The Shiva Samhita, A critical edition and English translation by James Mallinson. Woodstock, NY: YogVidya (2007), ISBN 9780971646650.
  • Alain Daniélou, Yoga: The Method of Re-integration, London:Johnson Publications (1949), ISBN 0892813016.
  • Bajpai, R.S. The Splendours And Dimensions Of Yoga 2 Vols. Set, New Delhi: Atlantic Publishers & Distri (2002), ISBN 9788171569649
  • Eliade, Mircea. Yoga: Immortality and Freedom, translated edition. Translated by Willard Ropes Trask, Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press (2009), ISBN 9780691142036.
  • Fernando Tola, Carmen Dragonetti, K. Dad Prithipaul, The Yogasūtras of Patañjali on concentration of mind. Delhi: Motilal Banarsidass (1987).
  • Maehle, Gregor. Ashtanga Yoga The Intermediate Series: Mythology, Anatomy, and Practice, Novato, CA: New World Library (2012), ISBN 9781577319870.
  • White, Ganga. Yoga Beyond Belief: Insights to Awaken and Deepen Your Practice, Berkeley, CA: North Atlantic Books (2007), ISBN 9781556436468.
  • Richard Rosen, Original Yoga: Rediscovering Traditional Practices of Hatha Yoga, Boston, MA: Shambhala Publications (2012), ISBN 9781590308134.
  • Swami Sivananda Radha, Hatha Yoga: The Hidden Language, Secrets and Metaphors, Timeless Books (May 1, 2006), ISBN 1-932018-13-1.
  • White, David Gordon. The Alchemical Body: Siddha Traditions in Medieval India, Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press (1998 reprint), ISBN 9780226894997.

External links


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