The following essay, Philosophy of Hatha Yoga, was submitted on November 13, 2011, to the Atmayaan Yoga Academy in Bangalore, India, as part of the requirements to fulfill as a teacher in International Power Yoga. May the following be useful for your practice, on and off the mat.

Namaste,
Nina

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Swami Veda Bharati writes in Philosophy of Hatha Yoga,

“A truth-seeker is one in whom mind, speech, and body all act together, in unison. In fact, in the ancient tradition, one of the definitions of personal truth, in terms of truthful speech and truthful acts, is that ‘What one thinks with the mind, that one utters with the speech; what one utters with the speech, that one puts into action; what one thus puts into action is accomplished and fulfilled.’ The entire personality is involved.”

Philosophy is Truth. The word philosophy is derived from the Greek word philosophia, which literally means “love of wisdom.”

There are many branches of philosophy, almost as many as there are languages in the world. And to every individual, each thing, activity, way of life, viewpoint, belief, attitude and value system can be construed as philosophy.

There are many academic branches of philosophy, but when one thinks of it, life itself is one continuous philosophy. We are searching. Until we know what we are searching for, and thus, pursue it without hesitation, we are in limbo. We are stagnant, in a state of flux. We remain suspended in time, in a perpetual state of inertia without actually going anywhere.

B.K.S. Iyengar in Light on Life, writes,

“Yoga allows you to achieve a sense of wholeness in your life, where you do not feel like you are constantly trying to fit the broken pieces together. Yoga allows you to find an inner peace that is not ruffled and riled by the endless stresses and struggles of life. Yoga allows you to find a new kind of freedom that you may not have known existed.”

Hatha yoga is but one means to awakening and discovery. What is it that we are awakening and discovering? Our true, divine selves.

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The raja yogis devised hatha yoga as a physiological and psychological purification for the practice of meditation. In order to meditate, we must concentrate. Without concentration, we cannot meditate. But how does one get to a place where one can concentrate in order to meditate? For the vast majority of people, we begin with the body, whereby the body is the primary self-identification vehicle people most associate with and find familiarity in.

The mind ought to be able to train the mind itself, but most people are not at this level of self-awareness yet. This is why in hatha yoga classes, what is ordinarily taught is the training of the mind will be achieved by first training the body. By placing the body in a certain position, we are training the mind to experience the position. The mind that is in the body experiences that shape in thought.

A simple personal example:

The first time I ever took a Yoga class was a vinyasa flow class taught at the local park district in West Dundee, Illinois, in the summer of 2009. I had been training my body, mind and spirit extensively for years in Shotokan Karate and thought Yoga should be no problem for me to transition into. Then, people started to do sirshasana near the end of class and my mind was quite confused. I knew about headstands intellectually, but did my body know what this was all about? My body was confused, thus, my mind became confused.

Fast-forward two years to June 2011 in Los Angeles. I attended an Ashtanga class, and again, near the end of class, the teacher had us do sirshasanas. This time, I refused the luxury of my mind to indulge in confusion, and thus, not allowing my body to give up by not even trying. I simply went into sirshasana without thinking, or nonthinking, and succeeded in seeing the world upside down, on my own, for the very first time. The body is powerful, but the mind is more so. When I allowed my mind to be free of thought, I allowed my body to be free from self-built restrictions.

The science of Yoga should remain a method of gaining the higher ground of awareness. When it comes to hatha yoga, the purpose is to lead to the heights of raja yoga, or the yoga practice of kings. Most who practice hatha yoga practice for the body, not for the mind. This degenerates Yoga into mere exercise and calisthenics for the body. But for most, this is already enough to satiate their desire for a happier, healthier life. A happier, healthier life as it pertains to the physical body, but what of the spiritual body? This is where the philosophy of hatha yoga enters.

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The movement of the body is nothing; the movement of the mind is everything. The mind governs the body’s movements, so that the mind moves first, and the body merely follows. This is how classical Indian dancing developed out of temple worship rituals; the people were taught to move with the awareness. The dancer watches the mind watch the body. In Western culture, this would be called visualization.

Swami Veda Bharati expounds upon this concept,

“Every day, creation of a mood, preservation of that mood, and removal of that mood to something else can be accomplished at your will. A dancer will tell you that true dance comes from the mood. You create the mood and then become that.”

Ernest Holmes has also said, “Where your mind goes, energy flows.” But the kind of energy certainly matters. Will it be positive, upward flowing, cosmic energy? Or will it be negative, downward flowing, self-destructive energy? Our perception of reality is reality. If we think we are financially poor, then our mind will gather clues and reasons to back up this thought of ours. We are looking for evidence to support our claim of ourselves. This is not only counter-productive, but highly destructive.

In Yoga, if a practitioner believes she cannot ever do chakrasana, then she will undoubtedly fulfill her own prophecy. Whether it’s by not trying enough, not trying at all, or allowing this “I can’t” mentality to infiltrate her entire self while in an asana class, she will succeed in never doing chakrasana. Never mind her anatomical components and her biological tendencies. She has already defeated herself in her own mind, thus defeating her body.

As a Yoga teacher, what we can do to aid practitioners in overcoming this mental block is by first, having sincere empathy. If the student feels we cannot even relate to her, she will not let her guard down and trust the teacher. Trust is highly important, if not a must, as a teacher. With trust, fluidity of class instruction is attained, and even more so, the development and deepening of the students’ practice is at its maximum potential. Teaching is merely an extension of our own Yoga practice. If we cannot have empathy and trust in ourselves, how can one expect to have others feel the same towards us?

Hatha yoga is, essentially, conquest of the body. Through conquest of the body, we are then free to liberate our soul. When everyone else wants to conquer the world, the greatest conquest of all is self-conquest. For the average yogi, this begins with the body. Tied in with aligning our selves cosmically, the whole of ourselves shall be made complete.

The movement of the arm, then, no longer remains a simple movement of the arm in order to build muscle. It becomes an offering to the Divine. An exhalation towards the center of gravity, or bending down towards Mother Earth, becomes a gesture of humility and modesty. We are in humble gratitude for being born of this earth. In the exhale, we breathe out fear, death, pain, expectations and attachments. An inhalation, looking upwards towards the sky and the universe, fills the self with the sun and the light. The sun gives us life and it is in the inhalation we breathe in life, beauty, love, hope and compassion.

When holding a pose, this no longer means we are holding still to build our muscles isometrically, such as in virabhadrasana, or warrior pose. This means we are maintaining what we have filled ourselves up with and symbolizes the lengthening of our life span as we physically lengthen our limbs.

When we open our arms, we are opening ourselves up to the universe. We invite in love and kindness for ourselves and others, confidence to face the world, strength to be One. When we close our arms, we are not selfishly drawing in and closing ourselves and others out, but rather, we are embracing and gathering. We embrace a humble approach to life, one in which we do not do things for ego’s sake but we do things for the health of our spirit.

Hatha yoga, then, no longer becomes an actor’s theatrical performance, whereby we do the poses on stage (or in this case, on the mat), then exit the stage and resume our “normal” lives. In fact, it is not the normal lives we are returning to. It is an abnormal life most are content in living. Normal, or what is true at the most fundamental core, is what we are doing in hatha yoga. Our bodies were made for Yoga, for Yoga is life. It is transcendental, it is experiential, it is intuitive to our divine selves, but through early conditioning and thought patterns ingrained into our daily living habits, we sit on our mats in sukhasana, close our eyes and chant Om three times, believing this is enough to align ourselves. It matters what we are aligning ourselves with. Is it with our genuine selves, the whole Self that we were made to be a part of this universe, or is it with the Self we have always projected to others in our minds through the thoughts that form our reality?

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The basic series of 84 asanas refer to karmic cycles with each one representing 100,000 species and subspecies through which the soul has made a journey to become a full human being. A tree is no longer a tree. A sphinx is no longer a sphinx. An eagle is no longer an eagle. A dog is no longer a dog. Each karmic cycle translates into everyday life applications, so that in a tree pose, we cannot grow our branches (our hands and arms stretched overhead) if we do not have strong roots (our equilateral balance in relation to the earth). As it applies to life, we cannot expand our viewpoints if we do not have a good sense of who we are to begin with. We’d end up grabbing at every philosophy around the corner, adapting every new religious movement, drinking in the latest yogic style created. We have lost ourselves, but more importantly, we never had ourselves to begin with.

We end a Yoga class with shavasana. We end life as we know it as a corpse. Both are inevitable, but one is ever lasting. In shavasana, we die daily. Only to the extent we are willing to die over and over again, will our new selves be awakened to the depths of our soul and to the heights of our cosmic magnificence. Like George Gurdjieff, spiritual teacher of the 20th century, once said, “A man may be born, but in order to be born he must first die, and in order to die he must first awake.” Without little daily deaths in our lives, how are we to ever face the largest death of them all?

“An ocean cannot be poured into a pint-sized bottle,” which means, our minds have to be expanded through self-purification, discipline and concentration (dharana). If we approach Yoga, either from the teacher’s perspective or as a student, our minds must be completely open to receive. We will not receive the full benefits of asana practice and teaching if we are limiting Yoga to pure physical motions, balances, twists and turns. Anyone can go to a fitness center or gym and move their bodies. But are we moving our minds? Are we transcending our minds beyond what we can smell, taste, see, touch and hear? From the most Gross to the most Subtle? That is the question all Yoga practitioners ought to ask themselves sincerely.

Of course, the body is indeed a primary tool for gaining virtue. If the body is not purified, this will have adverse effects upon the mental purification. The needs of our internal organs determine the positioning of our external physical body. If we suffer from peptic ulcer or a slipped disc, we wouldn’t physically feel comfortable doing poorna matsyendrasana, or full spinal twist pose. We need to be self-aware of our needs, so that asana is not hurting us, but rather, liberating our bodies. And as a teacher, the more information we gather from the students, the better we can aid them safely in asana, to help deepen their practice in an honest manner. It is not for the ego we forcedly put our bodies into crowd-pleasing poses, such as vrischikasana, or scorpion pose. We listen to our body’s needs and then act accordingly.

Hatha yogis follow a very wise principle: whatever we do not like, let us do voluntarily. Whatever we are running away from, let us stop, turn around and face the fear head on. If we do not pay the karma voluntarily, then it will be paid involuntarily. An example would include a bodybuilder who never bothered to take care of his entire self, and so, simply focused on his physical body. The more reps he could squeeze into a workout, the better, he thinks. But what of the mind? Is the mind at work as well? Has the mind been given reps to execute? What of the soul? Has he tapped into his inner divine nature while simultaneously staring at his build in the mirror? The body is merely a vehicle for the unity between the conscious and the subconscious. A yogi who merely does asanas may have a beautiful asana practice, but will they have a beautiful union of the Self and the Divine? What is he afraid of?

Once when I was a child, I was playing outside my best friend’s house in her backyard. The neighbors came by to play too and they had a large dog. For some reason, the dog took to chasing me, at full and rapid speed, around and around the house. I thought it was going to attack me so I ran, at full and rapid speed, too.

But soon, I couldn’t breathe and my little legs gave way to fatigue, so I had no choice but to stop running. The moment I stopped running, turned around to face the dog, possibly facing the impending attack I had envisioned, the dog stopped in its tracks and licked my hand.

Oh! It only wanted to play, so it chased me around, I thought.

Swami Veda Bharati continues,

“Whatever you are running away from, turn and face it squarely and say, ‘What is it that I am afraid of? Let me examine you. Let me analyze this fear, this horrible thing that I dread, this terrible thing I do not like coming to me, that I run away from.’”

This is considered to be one of the secrets of a happy life, a principle spoken of by all the schools of wisdom and philosophy.

Sometimes, that’s all we need to do in order to release fear in our lives. By releasing fear, fear actually becomes our friend. What we fear on the mat during our Yoga practice is implicitly evident of what we fear in our daily lives. Some people practice to punish themselves because of their self-image insecurities and the way they view their bodies. Some practice for ego, to be the star yogi who can do hanumanasana without a single prepatory stretch. Both are destructive, and as a teacher, we must remain mindful of the way we teach, the way we guide the class, the energy we bring and give to others, that it is not excluding some people while simultaneously highlighting others. The practice is for the individual; it always has been and always will be. The practice is not for the teacher to shine in front of everyone. When we practice and teach out of perceived self-worth and egoism, this is when we have lost sight of the why behind the what.

The ultimate aim of Yoga is for the total transformation of humanity into beings of pure divine energy. Hatha yoga is simply preparation for inner movement. We are all living energy currents. The question is, will we tap into this pool of cosmic power or will we simply practice Yoga because it’s fashionable, new age-y, and for our ego and vanity’s sake? The answer must be discovered through swadhaya, or self-inquiry, one of the highest levels of self-awareness. The moment we lose our egos and allow our thoughts to act as an extension through the body as a cyclical purification and meditative experience, we can finally face the person we’ve always run away from: ourselves.

References:

International Power Yoga Instructor Training Manual, Module 1 by Atmayaan Yoga Academy
Light on Life by B.K.S. Iyengar
Asana Pranayama Mudra Bandha by Swami Satyananda Saraswati
Philosophy of Hatha Yoga* by Swami Veda Bharati

* primary text used as a basis for this essay