Hatha Yoga

hatha yoga

There are many forms of yoga, so many, in fact, that the volume of variations and styles can be a little bewildering to people in the west. It's just not a part of our culture like it is in India. It's a bit like trying to describe to someone from Russia (or even New York for that matter) the difference between tacos and chalupas, or one musical style from another. But when you think of yoga, more than likely what you would generally recognize as "yoga" would be Hatha yoga.

Hatha yoga dates back to around the 15th century in India and Swatmahara. The Yogi Swatmahara wrote his treatise on yoga propounding the two main components he felt must be necessary in order to prepare the body vigorously for higher meditation. These two, the Praana and Apaana are referenced by the words Ha (meaning sun) and Tha (meaning moon). Thus the term Hatha was born.

While most of us in western cultures tend to look more at the physical activities of yoga, dissecting everything to its working parts, as it were, hatha yoga asanas (which are the poses) are only one part of a larger system of ten more major topics, plus many minor ones. In other words, all true yoga systems, including Hatha, have a physical component, but the physical component is just a small part of an entire system of meditation and spiritual pursuits with the ultimate goal of enlightenment.

Regardless of how you feel about all of that, it is pretty difficult to completely sever the asanas from the rest of the components of yoga. Many people have no wish to do so either. But for those who find the spiritual components of Hatha and other yoga types incongruent with their belief systems, it is at least possible to take the more aggressive bits of the asanas and use them as a form of exercise. Hatha lends itself fairly well to this, since it is one of the more physically demanding styles, although not the most athletic among it's peers.

In part two we will look more at some of the other aspects of Hatha Yoga.