The Significance of Hath Yoga

Introduction

Hath Yoga is one of the most ancient practices set up by Adinath/ Adiyogi himself. If we look deeply into Upanishads, we find that Hathyoga has been existing before Vedas were compiled but spoken. In Vedas too there are instances which talk about Rudra and Yog.

स धी॒नां योग॑मिन्वति || Rigveda 1.18.07

He (sah) promotes (invati) the yoga (yogam) of thoughts (dhinam)

In Srimad Bhagwatam, the story of Krishna, there are several chapters that talk about Yoga in detail. Similarly, Bhagwat Gita gives us a glimpse of yoga. The main aim of these traditions is to retain the youthful body, psychic powers and immense awareness. But it is not be advised to have greed any of these. Today, we all have forgotten the greater science of this and limit ourselves to some basic things related to health or physicality. I am not saying these things are not achieved

but this is not the entire purpose of this.

In Mahabharat (Bhisma parv) states the glory of Bharatvarsha by it is peoples' greatness and spiritual practices. India even after many troubles in the past 800 years has preserved these traditions as is.

Purification of body

Hath Yoga is designed to freely channelise energy through the spine (Sushumna) and other body parts. Yama and Niyama rendered by Patanjali, referred to as Ashtanga Yoga (eight limb yoga), are the first two aspects to reach the final result. What are Yama and Niyama?

The five Yamas are truthfulness, non-violence, celibacy, non-stealing, non-attachment, wasting energy on exaggerating things either decreasing or increasing something's reputation. The five Niyama are embracing cleanliness, self-purification, self-discipline, self-study, self-surrender. All of these 5 Niyamas lead to contentment. Yama and Niyama is an inherent nature of Sanatan Dharma. But these things can not be embraced in one day or a few weeks. "Let me try this" doesn't work here.

To prepare for this, one must have to prepare the body physically and mentally. You should try your best to follow these aspects of yoga. These are important and indivisible from Sanatan Dharma which assists us to stand strong in harsh storms of life and evolve the condition of mind and body to reach the highest consciousness.

The mind is a powerful thing. It wants to take control of the entire body with the help of five senses. This is because of the rising capability of Atman which starts to take control of the body. How can someone practice that? It can be practised by Pranayam (and other nasal purification methods), Asanas, Mudra, Dhyana and other methods. The main aim is to balance the body and mind so that the kundalini rises to the top through Sushumna Nadi. If Yoga is not used for this purpose than the objective of this practice is null.

The coordination of polarity

Hatha is derived as HA meaning prana (life force) and THA meaning mind and energy. Pranic force is associated with Shakti (devi) and mental energy are the two creators. Everything in this universe, from the largest stars or realms to tiny atoms has polarities. These polarities occur due to Maya's power. Everything in this universe that is matter consist of polarities. Because of this, there is a higher potential for humans to gain consciousness after combining the polarities (yoga). After this, there is no boundary left between the universe and humans. The body becomes no burden and only thing remains is Atman and source of the universe (Isha) which leads to Kaivalya. According to Dwaita Vedanta Life and consciousness can also be referred to as Purusha and Prakriti; In tantra, it is known as Shiva and Shakti; in Taoism, yin and yang; in modern science, positive and negative energy; in computer language, 0 and 1.

Notice the image of Sri Yantra. The triangles going up is masculine energy and the downward if feminine energy. This is a perfect example which shows balanced polarities represented by a dot in the middle. Masculine and Feminine energy has nothing to do with gender as it is present in each human being.

The balance between two different creations is important. If a person has higher mental power but lower pranic power, the person can go insane and would have to admit to a mental asylum. Aggression will increase in a person when Pranic shakti is dominant and mental shakti is not equal to it. This creates a space for a quarrel, wars, murders, sexual assault and all sort of violent behaviour.

Yoga helps a person getting away from these sort of issues and balancing life and maintaining the mechanism of the body. Many of us think that the body, mind and Atman are different. it is not the truth. Body, mind and Atman are one. At one level we see the body at another level we carry thoughts and another level we experience the Atman. This experiencing Atman is known as higher consciousness. Atman itself is not separately poured in each body. When the source of universe vibrates, the outer energy is what Maya takes and creates physical life from it.

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