Why Hatha?

The confusion about Ashtanga and the relevance of Hatha

Yoga was handed over from one generation to the next for thousands of years without an organized text until Patanjali’s Yoga Sutra. It was mostly oral tradition and chains of guru to disciple handovers. There could have been many attempts to organize this wisdom into written form, but Patanjali was a realized being so what he wrote was not learnt theoretical knowledge, but experienced and experimented with truths.

He describes the eight steps (in Sanskrit eight is Ashta). The eight limbs are Yama, Niyama, Aasan, Pranayam, Pratyahara, Dharana, Dhyaan, and Samadhi.

Ashtanga vinyasa yoga is a style of yoga exercise popularized by K. Pattabhi Jois during the twentieth century. In India, we add the word "Vinyasa" and call it a single phrase in order to distinguish it from Patanjali's Ashtanga.

Remember, Patanjali introduced Ashtanga in 400 C.E and Pattabhi Jois popularized Ashtanga Vinyasa in about 1940.

In the 1900s Vinyasa yoga, and Ashtanga Vinyasa Yoga, all got popularity in the west as a form of exercise.

Now let's look at yoga in India before 1900!

There were many texts and masters in Indian yoga before the 1900s. At that time, Asanas (postures) were seen as just a step (important step!) in the spiritual process. Once they mastered it, they moved on to the next. It was not as a form of exercise for them, but a method to open up open the energy channels within the body in order to tune up their perception and receptivity. Asanas were not practiced on its own. It was done after a cleansing process of most internal organs, nerves, and pulmonary system, and many more aspects.

Yoga loses in many debates when compared to other exercise forms. Why is that? Simply because an apple is compared to an orange!

Any form of exercise needs to improve the strength or flexibility or stamina or something in that category. There you are training your animal-like capabilities. Train as much as you want but you never will match a tiger in strength or speed, also it will degrade as you age-old. Not discouraging it, but one who exercises should be aware of its limitations, or at least what will they get in life as a whole.

While exercise is important, humans are not purposed to strengthen their physical aspects, but to evolve into higher consciousness in the given lifetime and experience the grandeur of being human.

Yoga does improve strength and flexibility, but only to a limit. if you pay attention to a yogi who has been a practitioner for 10 years he or she will look as thin as when he or started, at the same time the practitioner of an exercise would have built huge muscles or made some physical transformation. The reason is every yoga- Asana is intentionally designed to keep the practitioner in that shape through precise breathing methods. Only in this natural shape, one can evolve consciousness. Many good practitioners of yoga have lived well over 100 years old. Not only walked with an erect spine but also mentally functioned like a young man or woman. By the way, many masters who turned into teaching and quit their practice won't belong to this category!

The reason is that ancients had lived long enough to know that the spinal cord and internal energy channels are far more important to one's health and longevity than mere muscles and joints.

Even if an exercise makes you feel good and stimulate your internal system, it is not the same as yoga. In exercise, the approach is from outside to inside. Yoga works just the opposite.

Not only longevity, but the quality of life was of paramount importance for a yogi.

If you can keep your idea of exercise, movement, and all modern versions of yoga (since the 1900s) aside for some time, we can explore what existed before all of these. Why is that for thousands of years many masters came, but none of them dared to change any aspect of Hatha Yoga? Because they didn't experience any exercise from it, rather found the possibility of an alignment with the cosmos.

Think about it, there are many layers to the human system. A fast-paced, strong movement will carry only a few of them to higher alignment. A slow and immersed movement that standstills for a period of time (Can be a very long time!) brings all your layers into this alignment. You are resting in an Asana. This is Hatha yoga.

That being said, all Hatha yoga teachers don't necessarily offer this authentic experience in a class or studio. If Hatha is taught in a studio in a 60-minute class, that is not real Hatha!

In order to experience the essence of Hatha, one has to dedicate a lot of time and effort.

In short, let's be aware of what is Hatha yoga in its full sense and why it should be kept away from all the other "exercise yoga" styles.

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