YOGA HATHA YOGA

HATHA YOGA

Hatha yoga is a system of physical exercises that render the body fit to receive the high-voltage cosmic or universal 

energy that is god. Given its deep religious background, Hatha yoga must not be understood as a mere harmless 

physical training as is often claimed. The foremost writing of this school, the Hatha Yoga Pradipika [HYP] clearly states 

that it has to be taught only in order to reach the Raja yoga level [1,2] which is “the integration of mind in a state where 

the subject-object duality does not exist” [4,77], in other words, only for merging the self with the impersonal Absolute.

The attention given to the body in the asanas has a single purpose with a spiritual goal: for getting total control over the

mind and thus liberating itself, uniting one’s individual consciousness to the ‘cosmic consciousness’.

The steps to be followed to attain liberation are similar to the Ashtanga yoga of Patanjali. 

They are dhauti (cleansing practices), asanas, and pranayama [HYP 1 & 2]; bandha (locks) which temporarily restrict 

local flows of prana, and mudra (hand gestures) which regulate the flow of prana [HYP 3]. [The khecari mudra requires 

a progressive sectioning of the tongue fraenum until the tongue is able to get down the throat and block breathing]. 

They combine body postures, breath control and concentration. And samadhi [HYP 4] that combines the last four 

stages of Patanjali’s yoga. “When the sleeping kundalini awakens by favour of a guru,then all the chakras are pierced.” 

[HYP 3,2]