1.01 - Hatha Yoga

1.01 - Hatha Yoga, #Amrita Gita, #Swami Sivananda Saraswati, #Hinduism
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Hatha Yoga
1. Hatha means any tenacious practice till the object or end is achieved. Ha and tha mean the union of the Sun and the Moon, union of Prana and Apana Vayus.
2. Hatha Yoga concerns with the body and the Prana. It helps to control the body and the Prana, through Asanas and Pranayama.
3. Hatha Yoga itself is not the goal. Meditation helps you to attain Samadhi or Superconscious State.
4. The practice of Hatha Yoga awakens the Kundalini Sakti that lies dormant in the Muladhara Chakra.
5. There are Six Chakras or lotuses in the body. They are Muladhara (near the anus), Svadhisthana (midway between Muladhara and Manipura which is in the navel). Anahata Chakra in the heart, Vishuddha in the neck and Ajna in the space between the two eyebrows and Sahasrara or the thousand-petalled lotus (Chakra) in the crown of the head.
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14. Be moderate in eating and sleeping. Then alone can you have success in Hatha Yoga.
15. Be regular in your practice. Regularity is of paramount importance.
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20. Dhauti (cleansing of stomach with a piece of cloth), Basti (drawing up of water through anus), Neti (cleansing of nostrils with the help of a thread), Nauli (manipulation of the abdominal muscles), Trataka (gazing on an object), Kapalabhati (a kind of Pranayama)are the Shad Kriyas of Hatha Yoga.
21. Sirshasana is the king of all Asanas. It streng thens the brain and the brain-centres and improves memory, and helps Brahmacharya.
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THUS ENDS Hatha Yoga

1.02 - The Eternal Law, #Sri Aurobindo or the Adventure of Consciousness, #Satprem, #Integral Yoga
Depending on the level we choose, we undertake one kind of yoga or another: Hatha Yoga, raja yoga, mantra yoga, and many others,
countless others, like so many stages of our effort. We won't discuss here the great value of these methods, or the remarkable intermediate results they can lead to; we will examine only their goal, their final destination. The truth is, this "poise above" seems to have no relation with real life whatsoever; first, because all these disciplines are extremely demanding, requiring hours and hours of work every day, if not complete solitude; secondly, because their ultimate result is a state of trance or yogic ecstasy, samadhi, perfect equilibrium, ineffable bliss, in which one's awareness of the world is dissolved, annihilated.

1.03 - Meeting the Master - Meeting with others, #Evening Talks With Sri Aurobindo, #unset, #Hinduism
Raghunath P. Thakar, a Brahmin from Virpur near Rajkot, came on 1 January to see Sri Aurobindo. He had been to some saint at Rupal (near Kalol), had practised Raja Yoga, also some Hatha Yoga, and met Nathuram Sharma in Kathiawad. The appointment was given for today.
Sri Aurobindo: What is the aim of the Yoga you want to practise, that is to say, what do you expect from this Yoga?
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In the meantime it was brought to Sri Aurobindo's notice that this man had tried to practise Hatha Yoga without a Guru and had begun with Khechari Mudra, Trataka and Uddiyana accompanied by Kapalabhati Pranayama and ended by being sick. Raghunath was all along thinking that Sri Aurobindo was a great Hathayogi, because he meditated with open eyes and was able to do Utthapana, levitation.
Disciple: Raghunath says that he has made up his mind.

1.04 - THE APPEARANCE OF ANOMALY - CHALLENGE TO THE SHARED MAP, #Maps of Meaning, #Jordan Peterson, #Psychology
spirits). According to the adepts of Hatha Yoga:
...the feet, firmly placed on the ground, correspond to the roots of the tree, its foundation and source of

1.04 - The Silent Mind, #Sri Aurobindo or the Adventure of Consciousness, #Satprem, #Integral Yoga
the asanas of Hatha Yoga, the concentrations of raja yoga, the breathing exercises of pranayama, etc. aim at arousing that ascending Force; they can be dangerous and cause profound perturbations, which make the presence and protection of an enlightened Master indispensable. We will return to this later. The difference in the direction of the current, ascending vs. descending,
has to do with a difference in goals which cannot be overemphasized.

1.05 - Adam Kadmon, #A Garden of Pomegranates - An Outline of the Qabalah, #Israel Regardie, #Occultism
Hatha Yoga
Egyptian

1.06 - Raja Yoga, #Amrita Gita, #Swami Sivananda Saraswati, #Hinduism
2. Where Hatha Yoga ends, there Raja Yoga begins.
3. Hatha Yogi starts his Sadhana with his body and Prana. He practises Asanas and Pranayama and through control of Prana, tries to control the mind.

1.08 - Independence from the Physical, #Sri Aurobindo or the Adventure of Consciousness, #Satprem, #Integral Yoga
submerged in Matter, has grown accustomed to depending upon outer organs and antennas to perceive the world; and since we have seen the antennas appear before the master of the antennas, we have childishly concluded that the antennas have created the master, and that without antennas there is no master, no perception of the world. But this is an illusion. Our dependence upon the senses is merely a habit true, a millenary one, but no more inescapable than the flintstone implements of the Chellean man: It is possible for the mind and it would be natural for it, if it could be persuaded to liberate itself from its consent to the domination of matter, to take direct cognizance of the objects of sense without the aid of the sense-organs.91 We can see and feel across continents as if distances did not exist, because distance is an obstacle only to the body and its organs, not to consciousness, which can reach anywhere it wishes in a second, provided it has learned to expand itself; there is another, lighter space where all is together in a flash point. Here we might expect to receive some "recipe" for clairvoyance or ubiquity, but recipes are just another kind of machinery, which is why we are so fond of them. True, Hatha Yoga can be effective, as can many other kinds of yogic exercises, such as concentrating on a lighted candle (tratak), evolving infallible diets,
doing breathing exercises and choking scientifically (pranayama).

1.17 - The Transformation, #Sri Aurobindo or the Adventure of Consciousness, #Satprem, #Integral Yoga
Some disciples kept the habit, from the days when the Mother used to talk to the Ashram children, of assembling twice a week for a collective meditation. But it was especially for sports that the disciples would get together. (There was a common dining room, too, although many chose to eat at home with their families, or alone.) There were all kinds of sports, from the traditional Hatha Yoga to tennis to boxing,
and almost every disciple devoted an hour or two each day to sports.

1.200-1.224 Talks, #Talks, #Sri Ramana Maharshi, #Hinduism
A sad-looking Punjabi gentleman announced himself to Maharshi as having been directed to him by Sri Sankaracharya of Kamakotipeetam, from Jalesvar near Puri, Jagannath. He is a world tourist. He has practised Hatha Yoga and some contemplation along the lines of I am
Brahman. In a few moments a blank prevails, his brain gets heated and he gets afraid of death. He wants guidance from Maharshi.

1.240 - Talks 2, #Talks, #Sri Ramana Maharshi, #Hinduism
The asanas (postures) help pranayama, which helps dhyana in its turn, and peace of mind results. Here is the purpose of Hatha Yoga.
Later Sri Bhagavan continued:

1.300 - 1.400 Talks, #Talks, #Sri Ramana Maharshi, #Hinduism
The asanas (postures) help pranayama, which helps dhyana in its turn, and peace of mind results. Here is the purpose of Hatha Yoga.
Later Sri Bhagavan continued:

1.439, #Talks, #Sri Ramana Maharshi, #Hinduism
M.: It is according to ones samskaras (predispositions). One man will practise Hatha Yoga for curing his bodily ills; another man will trust to God to cure them; a third man will use his will-power for it and a fourth man may be totally indifferent to them. But all of them will persist in meditation. The quest for the Self is the essential factor and all the rest are mere accessories.
A man may have mastered the Vedanta philosophy and yet remain unable to control his thoughts. He may have a predisposition
(purva samskara) which takes him to practise Hatha Yoga. He will believe that the mind can be controlled only by yoga and so he will practise it.
D.: What is most suitable for gaining facilities for steady dhyana?
M.: It depends on ones samskara. One may find Hatha Yoga suitable and another man nama japa, and so on. The essential point is the atma-vichara - enquiry into the Self.
D.: Is it enough if I spend some time in the mornings and some time in the evenings for this atma-vichara? Or should I do it always
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D.: Is not Hatha Yoga necessary for the inquiry into the Self?
M.: Each one finds some one method suitable to himself, because of
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D.: Can Hatha Yoga be accomplished at my age?
M.: Why do you think of all that? Because you think it exterior to
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D.: It is said in Aparoksha-anubhuti that Hatha Yoga is a necessary
aid for inquiry into the Self.
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D.: But Hatha Yoga is so much spoken of as an aid.
M.: Yes. Even great pandits well versed in the Vedanta continue the

1.49 - Thelemic Morality, #Magick Without Tears, #Aleister Crowley, #Occultism
In practice, we most of us do act upon Nephesch a great deal. All learning, training, discipline, tend to modify our physiological reactions in a thousand minor manners. A complete branch of Yoga, Hatha Yoga, is occupied with nothing else. And you can have your face "lifted." Apart from this, we nearly all of us attend to matters like our waistline, our hours of sleep, our digestion, or our muscular development. Some men have even taught themselves to reduce the pulse-beat both in rate and in volume: so much so that they have sometimes been credited with the power to stop the heart altogether at will. (Wasn't it Colonel Somebody not Blimp who used to show off to his friends, after dinner? Did it once too often, in any case!)
Neschamah is an entirely different proposition. One of Tiphareth's prime assets is the influence, through the path of "The Lovers," from Binah. The son's milk from the Great Mother. (From his Father, Chiah, Chokmah, he inherits the infinite possibilities of Nuit, through the path of H, "The Star;" and from his "God," Kether, the Divine Consciousness, the direct inspiration, guidance, and ward of his Holy Guardian Angel, through the path of Gimel, the Moon, "The Priestess.")[94]

1.550 - 1.600 Talks, #Talks, #Sri Ramana Maharshi, #Hinduism
M.: It is according to one's samskaras (predispositions). One man will practise Hatha Yoga for curing his bodily ills; another man will trust to God to cure them; a third man will use his will-power for it and a fourth man may be totally indifferent to them. But all of them will persist in meditation. The quest for the Self is the essential factor and all the rest are mere accessories.
A man may have mastered the Vedanta philosophy and yet remain unable to control his thoughts. He may have a predisposition
(purva samskara) which takes him to practise Hatha Yoga. He will believe that the mind can be controlled only by yoga and so he will practise it.
D.: What is most suitable for gaining facilities for steady dhyana?
M.: It depends on one's samskara. One may find Hatha Yoga suitable and another man nama japa, and so on. The essential point is the atma-vichara - enquiry into the Self.
D.: Is it enough if I spend some time in the mornings and some time in the evenings for this atma-vichara? Or should I do it always

1929-04-21 - Visions, seeing and interpretation - Dreams and dreaml and - Dreamless sleep - Visions and formulation - Surrender, passive and of the will - Meditation and progress - Entering the spiritual life, a plunge into the Divine, #Questions And Answers 1929-1931, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
There are disciplines such as Hatha Yoga and Raja Yoga that one can practise and yet have nothing to do with the spiritual life; the former arrives mostly at body control, the latter at mind control. But to enter the spiritual life means to take a plunge into the Divine, as you would jump into the sea. And that is not the end but the very beginning; for after you have taken the plunge, you must learn to live in the Divine. How are you to do it? You have simply to jump straight in and not to think, Where shall I fall? What will happen to me? It is the hesitation of your mind that prevents you. You must simply let yourself go. If you wish to dive into the sea and are thinking all the time, Ah, but there may be a stone here or a stone there, you cannot dive.
But you see the sea and so you can jump straight into it. But how are you to jump into the spiritual life?

1961-05-19, #Agenda Vol 02, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
There are successive curves, each second of which would have to be noted down; and in the course of one of these curves, something is suddenly found. For example, at the beginning of The Yoga of Self-Perfection, Sri Aurobindo reviews other yogas, beginning with Hatha Yoga. I had just translated this when I remembered Sri Aurobindo saying that Hatha Yoga was very effective but that it amounted to spending your whole life training your body, which is an enormous time and effort spent on something not essentially very interesting. Then I looked at it and said to myself, But after all, (I was looking at life as it is, as people ordinarily live it) one spends at least 90% of ones life merely to PRESERVE ones body, to keep it going! All this attention and concentration on an instrument which is put to hardly any use. Anyway, I was looking at it with that attitude, when suddenly all the cells of my body responded, in such a spontaneous and WARM way. How to say it? Something so so moving. They told me, But its the Lord who is looking after Himself in us! Each one was saying: But its the Lord who is looking after Himself in us!
It was truly lovely. Then I gave my reason a good poke: How stupid can you be! You always forget the essential.

1962-07-04, #Agenda Vol 03, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
People say, He has lost consciousness. They made this assumption in N.S.s case because there were no vital signs and the consciousness in the body was reduced to a minimum; there was still some left (because it did react!), but it was a bare minimum, without much reacting powerhe wasnt an accomplished yogi, after all, only an apprentice yogi. It would have been entirely different, for instance, and far more serious, for someone who had practiced Hatha Yoga. But I mean to say that N.S. was here beside me, fully conscious, and could have moved on to another mode of manifestation without having to go through the throes of death thats not at all indispensable! Such is my experience, and I find it very important, tremendously important.
Besides, this is the first time it has happened. All those (like I.B., for example) who were hurled violently out of their bodies through an accident have, after a time, become conscious again the consciousness gathers itself back together. But N.S.s consciousness never scattered, he never lost consciousness.

2.01 - On Books, #Evening Talks With Sri Aurobindo, #unset, #Hinduism
Physico-vital processes depending on Pranayama and Asanas taken from Hatha Yoga.
Psycho-vital and psycho-mental processes in a gradually rising series: pratyhra, dhyna, dharaa and samdhi.

2.03 - On Medicine, #Evening Talks With Sri Aurobindo, #unset, #Hinduism
Sri Aurobindo: Yes. If you know Hatha Yoga you can keep the body safe against disease. You can also reduce the slow process of ageing by supplying the vital force. The difficulty is you can't be always in Samadhi.
Disciple: Tibbati Baba says that man can conquer death by taking a certain medicine.
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Sri Aurobindo was not disposed at first to talk this evening. Then a disciple put a question about immunity from physical diseases by Hatha Yoga.
Sri Aurobindo: In Hatha Yoga you are all right so long as you continue the practice. As soon as you leave it off you are liable to attacks.
In Raja Yoga also you have to continue Pranayama once you begin it. My own experience is that when I was practising Pranayama at Baroda I had excellent health. But when I went to Bengal and left Pranayama, I was attacked by all sorts of illness which nearly carried me off.
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Disciple: Perhaps Hatha Yoga can be taught that way.
Sri Aurobindo: Even that would be only the external part.

2.13 - On Psychology, #Evening Talks With Sri Aurobindo, #unset, #Hinduism
Sri Aurobindo: No. I had no knowledge. I did not know what God was. It was two years before I met Lele that I began Yoga seriously. Deshpande at that time was doing Hatha Yoga, Asanas and other practices and, as he had a great proselytising tendency, he wanted to convert me to his view. But I thought that a yoga which requires me to give up the world was not for me. I had to liberate my country. I took it up seriously when I learnt that the same Tapasya which one does to get away from the world can be turned to action. I learnt that Yoga gives power and I thought: Why should I not get power and use it to liberate my country?
Disciple: God very cleverly exploited your desire to liberate India.

2.14 - On Movements, #Evening Talks With Sri Aurobindo, #unset, #Hinduism
Sri Aurobindo: What the Hatha Yogi can achieve is to get the perfect control of the vital forces working in the body and also control over the physical functions. This also produces some indirect influence in the mind. But I do not think that by Hatha Yoga pure and simple, you can realise God.
Disciple: I know a Hatha Yogi who has done all the kriys movements and postures and he said that even though he knew everything of Hatha Yoga he had not seen God. He even said to me: "I don't believe there is any God because I could not succeed in seeing him even after so much trouble."
Sri Aurobindo: That is because he stopped short at Hatha Yoga; he should have gone further.
Disciple: What is the use of prolonging the life of the body?
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Disciple: But what is the idea behind Hatha Yoga?
Sri Aurobindo: Why should we not value achievement for its own sake? Even prolonging life everybody cannot do.

2.18 - January 1939, #Evening Talks With Sri Aurobindo, #unset, #Hinduism
Sri Aurobindo: These things may be steps to the Divine; for example Hatha Yoga and Raja Yoga.
Disciple: Our friend X finds that yogis have defects.

2.25 - List of Topics in Each Talk, #Evening Talks With Sri Aurobindo, #unset, #Hinduism
| 05-11-25 | Immunity: in Hatha Yoga and Pranayama; incorruptible body |
| 05-12-25 | Contacting the dead; Sadhana: external life, emotions, mental development |
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| 12-03-26 | Bhawanipore centre; Siddhi and effort; Bhakti Yoga; seeing Light; Hatha Yoga |
| 06-05-26 | Letter to Tirupari; this Yoga: vital being, asceticism; conditions for meditation |

3.2.4 - Sex, #Letters On Yoga IV, #Sri Aurobindo, #Integral Yoga
Celibacy means first not marryingit can be extended to not having sexual (physical) relations with any woman, though that is not its proper meaning. It is not equivalent to Brahmacharya. Brahmacharya is not binding in bhaktimrga or karmayoga, but it is necessary for ascetic jnayoga as well as for Raja and Hatha Yogas. It is also not demanded from Grihastha yogis. In this Yoga the position is that one must overcome sex, otherwise there can be no transformation of the lower vital and physical nature; all physical sexual connection should cease, otherwise one exposes oneself to serious dangers. The sex-push must also be overcome but it is not a fact that there can be no sadhana or no experience before it is entirely overcome, only without that conquest one cannot go to the end and it must be clearly recognised as one of the more serious obstacles and indulgence of it as a cause of considerable disturbance.
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BOOK I. -- PART I. COSMIC EVOLUTION, #The Secret Doctrine, #H P Blavatsky, #Theosophy
lower form of Yoga, Hatha Yoga, which was "little known" and yet so "common" in Gautama's time.
** It is even argued that all the Six Darsanas (Schools of philosophy) show traces of Buddha's

Liber 111 - The Book of Wisdom - LIBER ALEPH VEL CXI, #unset, #Vyasa, #Hinduism
Hatha Yoga for the Serpent. Yet mark thou well how all these interfuse,
so that thou mayst accomplish no one of the Works separately. As to

Talks 026-050, #Talks, #Sri Ramana Maharshi, #Hinduism
D.: Is Hatha Yoga necessary?
M.: It is one of the aids - not that it is always necessary. It depends upon the person. Vichara surpasses pranayama. In Yoga Vasishta
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Reality can be reached by holding on to prana or intellect. Hatha Yoga is the former; Vichara is the latter.
D.: Is there any individuality for the Jnani after Realization?

Talks 176-200, #Talks, #Sri Ramana Maharshi, #Hinduism
D.: What does Maharshi say about Hatha Yoga or Tantric practices?
M.: Maharshi does not criticise any of the existing methods. All are good for the purification of the mind. Because the purified mind alone is capable of grasping his method and sticking to its practice.
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(4) Hatha Yoga.
All methods are one and the same inasmuch as they all tend to the same goal.

Talks 600-652, #unset, #Vyasa, #Hinduism
D.: Is not Hatha Yoga necessary for the inquiry into the Self?
M.: Each one finds some one method suitable to himself, because of latent tendencies (purva samskara).
D.: Can Hatha Yoga be accomplished at my age?
M.: Why do you think of all that? Because you think it exterior to yourself you desire it and try for it. But do you not exist all along?
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D.: It is said in Aparoksha-anubhuti that Hatha Yoga is a necessary aid for inquiry into the Self.
M.: The hatha yogis claim to keep the body fit so that the enquiry may be effected without obstacles. They also say that life must be prolonged so that the enquiry may be carried to a successful end.
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D.: But Hatha Yoga is so much spoken of as an aid.
M.: Yes. Even great pandits well versed in the Vedanta continue the practice of it. Otherwise their minds will not subside. So you may say it is useful for those who cannot otherwise still the mind.

Talks With Sri Aurobindo 1, #unset, #Vyasa, #Hinduism
NIRODBARAN: Perhaps all this can be done with Hatha Yoga?
SRI AUROBINDO: Even that would be only the outer part.

The Act of Creation text, #The Act of Creation, #Arthur Koestler, #Psychology
The aim of certain mystic practices such as Hatha Yoga is to
permeate the self with awareness of itself by gaining voluntary control

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