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YOGA AS A PATH OF KNOWLEDGE

What exactly is Hatha Yoga?

According to the philosopher and yoga historian Georg Feuerstein, there are at least 40 forms of yoga, 39 of which have nothing to do with physical exercises. So the question arises, what is the real significance of the yoga form that mainly consists of physical exercises, namely hatha yoga?

In one of the classical texts on hatha yoga, “Hathapradīpikā” (sometimes called “Hathayoga Pradīpikā”), (dated approx. 1350 - 1550), the author and Yogi Svātmārāma writes that the body is Svātmārāma prepared by purifying and preparing the body through various techniques (pranayama, kriyas, mudras, bandhas). These include postures (so-called asanas). However, according to Svātmārāma the aim of these asanas is to prepare the body for the practice of raja yoga (the royal path).

According to Svātmārāma, raja yoga is the way inwards through meditation and the union with the Universal Spirit - from a yogic point of view our true nature, our Self.

In the words of Svātmārāma:

“Neither can Haṭha (Yoga) be perfected without Rājayoga nor Rājayoga be attained without practicing Hatha (Yoga).

Hence one should practise both until the stage of Nispatti (is reached).”¹

He goes even further and says:

“Those who do not aim at success in Rājayoga are mere practitioners of Hatha. I believe the labour of these striving aspirants to be fruitless.”²

Hatha yoga is a spiritual path and joins the countless spiritual paths that humanity has developed in its long history to reunite with the Universal Spirit. It is especially suitable for people who understand work on the body as a possibility of devotion to the Universal Spirit and want to practise it as such.

How relevant is Hatha Yoga nowadays?

To answer this question, we must distinguish between hatha yoga as a form of recreational sport and hatha yoga as a spiritual discipline.

In our modern, noisy and hectic world, hatha yoga is an excellent way to achieve equilibrium. It helps to soothe tired limbs, to get the cardiovascular system going, and provides relaxation and recuperation. For almost every person there is now an individual style and flavour, from power yoga to kundalini yoga to aerial yoga. The variety on offer increases almost daily.

But this has very little to do with hatha yoga as it has developed over the centuries. Thanks to recent research by Mark Singleton in his book, "Yoga Body - The Origins of Modern Posture Practice", we now know that there is no unbroken tradition from the mythical beginnings of hatha yoga with Goraksa Nātha and his teacher Matsyendra Natha (9th or 10th century) to the present day. On the contrary. Hatha yoga has been exposed to new influences over the centuries and has changed constantly. Especially in the 19th and 20th century it was strongly influenced by the fitness culture imported to India from the USA and Germany, by bodybuilding and by the physical exercise systems used to train parts of the European military.

In the two classical texts of hatha yoga, Hathayoga Pradīpikāand Gheraṇḍa Saṁhitā, only 16 and 32 asanas respectively are mentioned. The idea that hatha yoga had hundreds, if not thousands of asanas is as unimaginable as the absurd claim that the salutation to the sun (sūryanamaskār) is mentioned in the Vedic scriptures thousands of years ago. According to the research of Mark Singleton³, the salutation to the sun is an invention around the beginning of the 20th century by the Rajah of Aundh, Pratinidhi Pant, who was himself a passionate bodybuilder. The vast majority of asanas practiced today are most likely 100 to 150 years old and are largely the result of a fusion with the above-mentioned systems of fitness and physical training.

Although modern postural hatha yoga is more of an eclectic collection from diverse sources, it is clearly very helpful as a relaxing and beneficial balance to our performance-oriented society of the 21st century.

But if we seek a spiritual discipline in hatha yoga, we are faced with many questions. For example, how was hatha yoga practised in the past? What exactly is kundalini and how is it activated? Why do the various schools differ in the number and location of the chakras? How is pranayama correctly performed? We will probably never be able to answer these and similar questions correctly since the hatha- yogic scriptures handed down are written in a highly cryptic and enigmatic language. They allow countless possibilities of interpretation. Furthermore, as already mentioned, there is no uninterrupted tradition from that age that could elucidate for us the true meaning of the scriptures.

Even though we may have no direct access to the original practice of hatha yoga, we can read indirectly from the scriptures how intense the practice must have been. For example, just practising pañcadhāraṇā, as described in Gheraṇḍa Saṁhitā⁴, would take 10 hours. In addition, there are the dietary and various ascetic requirements. The yogis of that time had no children to look after, no profession to pursue, no aging parents to care for. They were full-time yogis who had set themselves the goal of making the breakthrough to their divine nature in this incarnation, come what may. It is not without reason that the Sanskrit word "hatha" can be translated as "powerful", "energetic", "aggressive", even "violent".⁵

Taking all of this into account with regard to our modern world, we quickly come to the conclusion that hatha yoga raises more questions than it provides answers, and as a practicable spiritual discipline is rather unsuitable for a person of the 21st century.

But this does not necessarily mean that the hathayogic practices, done in moderation, must completely disappear from our spiritual discipline. It is more important that these practices, especially the body and breath work, serve the original purpose, namely, to open the body from within as a preparation for meditation. We can also draw on the insights of Western pioneers such as Wilhelm Reich, Gerda Boysen and Paul Brunton to complement and deepen our spiritual practice.

But before we turn to the subject of practice and these pioneers, it is worthwhile to give a brief overview of spirituality from a yogic perspective, so that we can better understand the overall context in which our physical practice takes place.

“The most valuable metaphysical fruit of the quantum theory is its finding that the processes of the universe which occur in space and time, emanate from what is fundamentally not in space and time.”

Paul Brunton