A fascinating introduction to the Haṭha Yoga Pradīpikā
A painting of hatha yogis in medieval India. Notice them sitting on animal skins, and their huts (referred to in one of the sample sutras below)
Fixing misconceptions, revolutionary research, āsana evolution and sample sūtras
The Haṭhayogapradīpikā (‘light on haṭha yoga’) is the most widely-known traditional text on haṭha yoga. This 15th-century Sanskrit work contains the science of haṭha yoga: namely, six methods used to cleanse and purify the body. Āsana is one of those methods, but haṭha yoga is not all about the physical postures, as we will see.
Despite its fame and its endurance for 600 years, the book was not original. It’s a compilation of earlier haṭha texts, written by Swami Svātmārāma. It is a practical, instructive manual. Chapter 1 covers āsana. Chapter 2 contains six types of cleansing practices (ṣaṭkarma, pron. shatkarma) and prānāyāma. Chapter 3 is about mudrā and bandha and chapter 4 is about samādhi (meditation). It included elements of Ayurveda and tantra. Often the book’s instructions are deliberately vague, because a student had to learn the techniques from an experienced guru.
Myths & misconceptions
The yoga postures we do go back hundreds of years.
Haṭha yoga as a system dates back to medieval India, and some of the postures we do today come from those texts. But most of them came later, particularly the 19th century. That’s another story, which I’ll write about in a future issue. Although the book mentions 84 āsanas it only describes the 15 that Svātmārāma considered most important. We still do some of these, but some have evolved and others fallen out of favour.
Haṭha yoga is about physical postures.
Yes and no. They’re the primary focus but not the only focus. In this book they’re just one of six groups of practices. However, these are the method but not the ultimate purpose. The ultimate purpose of haṭha yoga is as a prelude to meditation.
These purifications are designed to be the steps a student takes in order to reach the path of Raja yoga. Raja is the yoga of discipline and self-control for the purpose of samādhi, total absorption in the nature of reality. Haṭha was considered to be the foundation of all higher yogas (meditative systems). This essential point is frequently lost in today’s commercial yoga scene. But we can be the change.
As for the postures, while each has its specific effects on the physical body, they were designed to contain prana in the central nāḍī (energy channel) to prepare the body for the goal of yoga: release from illusion and transformation into immortal beings.
Alongside āsana, other practices have endured. Mudra, bandha and prānāyāmas such as nāḍī shodhana are common today. We still do some of the ṣaṭkarmas, such as kapālabhāti breath and basti (an Ayurvedic colon cleanse). Others, not so much. Inserting a long cloth through the mouth and down to the stomach? No thanks! Now you see why a guru was needed.
Haṭha yoga doesn’t involve god.
Wrong. There is a misunderstanding that haṭha, unlike the earlier yoga traditions, was secular. However, the very first verse attributes hatha to Śiva: “Salutation to Adinatha (Śiva), who expounded the knowledge of haṭha yoga, which like a staircase leads the aspirant to the high pinnacled Raja Yoga.” Verse 18 in chapter one lists, among ten observances such as patience, “belief in god” and “adoration of god”. Verse 1 in chapter 2 states: “In yoga and tantra there is an eternal truth: the basis of existence depends on Śiva and Shakti, or consciousness and energy.”
For centuries, this is what hatha yoga looked like: male, Indian, almost naked, and in sweltering heat! This is a modern-day practitioner in India, in Peacock Pose
Revolutionary research
The HYP is the main text of haṭha yoga.
Another myth. It’s true that this is one of three classic haṭha texts that have most informed our practice today: the HYP (also referred to as the Haṭhapradīpikā), the Gheranda Samhita and the Śiva Samhita. But they’re not the only three. A landmark research project has been taking place at SOAS University in London and several early texts have been uncovered by scholars on fieldwork in India. These were just as important, contributed to haṭha yoga in different ways, and show other systems within the tradition.
The team at SOAS finished this five-year project in 2020 and will be publishing translations of ten texts from early and late medieval India. The importance of this work to our understanding of haṭha yoga and of its historical development cannot be overstated.
The 15 āsana of the Haṭhapradīpikā
See how many of the book’s 15 postures you recognise:
Svastikāsana Sitting cross-legged (called Sukhāsana today)
Gomukhasana Cow-Facing Pose
Vīrāsana Hero’s Pose (but like Half-Lotus, rather than the kneeling pose we call Vīrāsana)
Kurmāsana Tortoise Pose (a kneeling āsana, rather than the forward fold we call Kurmāsana)
Kukkutāsana Sitting in Lotus with hands on floor between knees and thighs, lifting the torso off the ground
Uttanakurmāsana The above but lying on the back
Dhanurāsana Bow Pose (but an extreme version: “Bring the toes as far as the ears with both hands as if drawing a bow”)
Matsyendrāsana Seated twist (the version we now call Ardha Matseyendrāsana)
Paschimottanāsana Seated Forward Fold
Mayurāsana Peacock Pose
Savāsana Corpse Pose
Siddhāsana Sage Pose (like today’s, and gazing between the eyebrows)
Padmāsana Lotus Pose, two variations, one with hands behind the back holding opposite feet and chin to chest
Simhāsana Kneeling, with ankles crossed under the groin, mouth open, gaze at tip of nose. Generally no longer practised
Bhadrāsana Like Badha Konāsana, but with ankles pressed into groin
In Svātmārāma’s own words
Sanskrit yoga texts were written as a series of either sūtras (concise, precise aphorisms) or ślokas (concise verses). These sample sūtras from the Haṭhapradīpikā give a flavour of its language.
The yogi should practice haṭha yoga in a small room, situated in a solitary place, being four cubits square, and free from stones, fire, water, disturbances of all kinds and in a country where justice is properly administered, where good people live, and food can be obtained easily and plentifully. 1:12
Overeating, exertion, talkativeness and unsteadiness are among the factors that can cause you to fail in yoga. 1:15
The following six bring speedy success: courage, daring, perseverance, discriminative knowledge, faith and avoiding the company of common people. 1:16
As said by Goraksa, one should keep aloof from the society of the evil-minded, fire, women, travelling, early morning bath, fasting and all kinds of bodily exertion. 1:63
When the breath is disturbed, the mind becomes disturbed. By restraining respiration, the yogi achieves steadiness of mind. 2:2
When the body becomes lean, the face glows with delight, anahata-nada (sound of the heart) manifests, and eyes are clear, the body is healthy, bindu (essence of life) under control and appetite increases, then one should know that the nāḍīs are purified and success in hatha yoga is approaching. 2:78
As salt being dissolved in water becomes one with it, so when Atma (soul) and mind become one, it is called samādhi. 4:5
Indifference to worldly enjoyments is very difficult to obtain, and equally difficult is the knowledge of the Realities [ultimate reality/truth] to obtain. It is very difficult to get the condition of samādhi [meditative absorption] without the favour of a true guru. 4:9
What do you think? Even though I picked less obscure instructions some are rather amusing or archaic to us today. Avoiding the company of women?! But these reflect the culture of the time. It seems even the enlightened yogis were, to some extent, still seeing through the lens of their own conditioning.
Recommended reading
Hatha Yoga Pradipika translation and commentary by Swamis Muktibodhananda and Satyananda