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Hatha Yoga is not a separate
form of yoga. It is the physical branch of Raja Yoga (raja
means "royal"), the ancient , systematic, and scientific,
method of reaching superconsciousness or Self-Realization
Raja Yoga is the overall science under which all the yoga
techniques, disciplines, and philosophies fall. Its central
technique is the practice of meditation.
The Yoga-Sutras of Patanjali's
(Eightfold Path to Enlightenment) is also known as Raja-Yoga.
This Sanskrit text is composed of just under 200 aphorisms.
The word sutra means literally "thread," and which is used as
an aide to knowledge and wisdom through the discipline
meditation.
The Yoga-Sutra was probably
written some time in the second century B.C. The earliest
available Sanskrit commentary on it is the Yoga-Bhashya
attributed to Sage Vyasa. It was authored in the fifth century
B.C. and explains the fundamental meaning of Patanjali's
aphorisms.
Beyond a few legends very little is known about either
Patanjali or Vyasa. Patanjali believed that each individual is
a composite of matter (prakriti) and spirit (purusha). The
yoga students goal was to restore the spirit back to absolute
purity.
Hatha yoga
is the physical branch of the meditative science of raja
yoga. Patanjali, the great ancient exponent of raja
yoga, wrote that the path to enlightenment embraces eight
stages, also known as ashtanga, or "eight-limbed,"
yoga.)
The first two stages of Patanjali’s eightfold path are known
as yama and niyama. Yama means control;
niyama, non-control. Literally, these two stages mean the
don’ts and the do’s on the spiritual path. They are, one might
say, the Ten Commandments of yoga.
The third stage on the eightfold path
is known as asana, which means, simply, posture.
Posture means no particular set of postures, but only the
ability to hold the body still as a prerequisite for deep
meditation. Any comfortable posture will do, as long as the
spine is kept erect and the body relaxed. A sign of perfection
in asana is said to be the ability to sit still,
without moving a muscle, for three hours. Many people meditate
for years without achieving any notable results, simply
because they have never trained their bodies to sit still.
Until the body can be mastered, higher perceptions, so subtle
that they blossom only in perfect quiet, can never be
achieved.
The fourth stage of Patanjali’s path is
pranayama. Prana means breath, but only because of the close
connection that exists between the breath and the causative flow
of energy in the body. The word prana refers primarily to
the energy itself. Pranayama, then, means energy control.
This energy control is often effected with the aid of breathing
exercises. Hence, breathing exercises have also come to be known
as pranayamas.
Patanjali’s reference is to the energy control that is
achieved as a result of various techniques, and not to
the techniques themselves. His word signifies a state in which
the energy in the body is harmonized to the point where its
flow is reversed—no longer outward toward the senses, but
inward toward the Divine Self that lies in the hearts of all
beings. Only when all the energy in the body can be directed
toward this Self can one’s awareness be intense enough to
penetrate the veils of delusion and enter superconsciousness.
The fifth stage on
Patanjali’s journey is known as pratyahara, the
interiorization of the mind. Once the energy has been
redirected towards its source in the brain, one must then
interiorize one’s consciousness, so that his thoughts, too,
will not wander in endless by-paths of restlessness and
delusion, but will be focused one-pointedly on the deeper
mysteries of the indwelling soul. It is necessary to
concentrate one’s thoughts as well as one’s energies, if he
would hope to penetrate the narrow tunnel that leads to divine
awakening.
Patanjali’s sixth stage is
known as dharana, contemplation, or fixed inner
awareness. One may have been aware of inner spiritual
realities—the inner light, for instance, or the inner sound,
or deep mystical feelings—before reaching this stage, but it
is only after reaching it that one can give himself completely
to deep concentration on those realities.
The seventh stage is known as
dhyana, meditation, absorption. By prolonged concentration
on any stage of consciousness, one begins to assume to himself
its qualities. By meditating on sense pleasures, the Inner
Self comes to identify its happiness with the gratification of
those pleasures; the individual loses sight of the indwelling
Self as the real source of his pleasures. By
concentrating on the inner light, then, or upon any other
divine reality that one actually perceives when the mind is
calm, one gradually takes on the qualities of that inner
reality. The mind loses its ego identification, and begins to
merge in the great ocean of consciousness of which it is a
part.
The eighth step on
Patanjali’s eightfold journey is known as samadhi,
oneness. Samadhi comes after one learns to dissolve his
ego consciousness in the calm inner light. Once the grip of
ego has really been broken, and one discovers that he is
that light, there is nothing to prevent him from expanding his
consciousness to infinity. The devotee in deep samadhi
realizes the truth of Christ’s words, "I and my Father are
one." The little wave of light, losing its delusion of
separate existence from the ocean of light, becomes itself the
vast ocean.
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