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Hatha-Yoga is a relatively late arrival in the evolution of Yoga, dating back little more than one thousand years. Hatha-Yoga entered the Western hemisphere in the 1920s and today it is the most widely practiced branch of Hindu Yoga, with tens of millions of practitioners who are primarily interested in health and fitness and know little about its traditional goals of self-transcendence, self-transformation, and Self-realization. In its voyage from medieval India to the modern West, Hatha-Yoga has undergone a number of transmutations. The most significant adaptations were made during the past several decades in order to serve the needs of Western students.
Hatha-Yoga, as practiced so widely today, goes back to just a handful of contemporary teachers—Swami Kuvalayananda (1883–1966) of the Kaivalyadhama Institute in Lonavla (South India), Swami Sivananda (1887–1963) of Rishikesh (North India), T. S. Krishnamacharya (1887–1998) of Mysore, Swami Shyam Sundar Goswami (1891–1978) of Bengal and then Sweden, Shri Yogendra (1897–1989) of Bombay, the American Yoga pioneer Theos Bernard (1908–1947), Selvarajan Yesudian (1916–1998), Swami Dev Murti (dates not known), Swami Gitananda Giri (1907–1993) of South India, and controversial Dhirendra Brahmachari (1924–1994), who taught Indian Prime Minister Indira Gandhi.
Easily the most influential of these adepts was Krishnamacharya, a Yoga master and pundit, who taught his son T. K. V. Desikachar (Viniyoga style), brother-in-law B. K. S. Iyengar (Iyengar Yoga style), brother-in-law Pattabhi Jois (Ashtanga Yoga style), and also Indra Devi (1899–2002), the “First Lady of Yoga” in America—all of whom came to represent different styles of Hatha-Yoga. Krishnamacharya can be said to have launched a veritable Hatha-Yoga renaissance in modern times that is still sweeping the world.
The second most influential source of contemporary Hatha-Yoga was Swami Sivananda, a physician turned renouncer, who trained numerous disciples. Foremost among those whose teaching includes Hatha-Yoga are Swami Satyananda (1923– ), founder of the Bihar School of Yoga; Swami Sivananda Radha (1911–1995), who created Hidden Language Hatha-Yoga; Swami Vishnudevananda (1927–1993) and Swami Satchidananda (1914–2002), one of the spiritual heroes of the Woodstock era and creator of the Integral Yoga style.
Of the many styles of Hatha-Yoga available today, the following are the best known (roughly in order of their popularity):
Iyengar Yoga, which is the most widely recognized approach to Hatha-Yoga, was created by B. K. S. Iyengar (1918– ), the younger brother-in-law and disciple of Shri Krishnamacharya. This style is characterized by precision performance and the aid of various props, such as cushions, stuffed bags, benches, wood blocks, and straps, and hence is sometimes called “furniture Yoga.” Iyengar has trained thousands of teachers, many of whom are in the United States. His Ramamani Iyengar Memorial Yoga Institute, founded in 1974 and dedicated to his late wife Ramamani, is located in Pune, India, and serves many of his Western students as the destination of an annual pilgrimage.
Ashtanga (or Power) Yoga originated with K. Pattabhi Jois (1915– ), who studied with Shri Krishnamacharya for twenty-five years and whose Ashtanga Yoga Institute is located in Mysore, India. Ashtanga Yoga, though based on the Yoga-Sūtra, differs from Patanjali’s eight-limbed path.
Bikram Yoga is the style taught by Bikram Choudhury (1944– ). Bikram Choudhury, who studied with Bishnu Gosh (the brother of famous Paramahansa Yoganananda, author of Autobiography of a Yogi), won a gold medal in weightlifting at the 1964 Olympics. His system features 26 postures performed in a standard sequence in a room heated to 100–110 degrees Fahrenheit (hence also “Hot Yoga.”). This approach is fairly vigorous and requires a certain level of fitness on the part of students.
Integral Yoga was developed by Swami Satchidananda, a disciple of the famous Swami Sivananda of Rishikesh, India. Swami Satchidananda made his debut at the Woodstock festival in 1969, where he taught the Baby Boomers to chant om, and over the years has attracted thousands of students. As the name suggests, this style aims to integrate the various aspects of the body-mind through a combination of postures, breathing techniques, deep relaxation, and meditation. Function is given preeminence over form. Integral Yoga is taught at Integral Yoga International, headquartered at Satchidananda (or Yogaville) Ashram in Buckingham, Virginia, and its over forty branches worldwide.
Kripalu Yoga, inspired by Swami Kripalvananda (1913–1981) and developed by his disciple Yogi Amrit Desai (1932– ), is a three-stage Yoga tailored for the needs of Western students. In the first stage, postural alignment and coordination of breath and movement are emphasized, and the postures are held for a short duration only. In the second stage, meditation is included into the practice and postures are held for prolonged periods. In the final stage, the practice of postures becomes a spontaneous “meditation in motion.” Kripalu Yoga is taught by numerous teachers around the world, and the Kripalu Center in Lenox, Massachusetts, offers a battery of classes, workshops, and retreats for beginners and advanced students. Every year, some 12,000 individuals go through the “Kripalu experience” at the Center’s 300-acre property.
Viniyoga is one of the approaches developed by Shri Krishnamacharya and continued by his son T. K. V. Desikachar (1938– ), whose school is located in Madras, India. Viniyoga works with what is called “sequential process,” or vinyasa-krama. The emphasis is not on achieving an external ideal form but on practicing a posture according to one’s individual needs and capacity. Regulated breathing is an important aspect of Viniyoga, and the breath is carefully coordinated with the postural movements.
Sivananda Yoga is the creation of the late Swami Vishnudevananda, also a disciple of Swami Sivananda, who established his Sivananda Yoga Vedanta Center in Montreal in 1959. He trained over 6,000 teachers, and there are numerous Sivananda centers around the world. This style includes a series of twelve postures, the Sun Salutation sequence, breathing exercises, relaxation, and mantra chanting.
Ananda Yoga is anchored in the teachings of Paramahansa Yogananda (1893–1952; author of Autobiography of a Yogi) and was developed by Swami Kriyananda (1926– ), one of Yogananda’s direct disciples. This is a gentle style designed to prepare the student for meditation, and its distinguishing features are the affirmations associated with postures. It includes Yogananda’s unique energization exercises (kriya), first developed in 1917, which involve consciously directing the body’s energy (life force or prana) to different organs and limbs. The center for Ananda Yoga is the Ananda World Brotherhood Village situated in Nevada City, California, and has around 300 residents.
Kundalini-Yoga is not only an independent approach of Yoga but is also the name of a style of Hatha-Yoga, originated by the Sikh master Yogi Bhajan (1929– ), a disciple of Sant Hazara Singh, Swami Dev Murti, and Dhirendra Brahmachari. Its purpose is to awaken the serpent power (kundalini) by means of postures, breath control, chanting, and meditation. Yogi Bhajan, who came to the United States in 1969, is the founder and spiritual head of the Healthy, Happy, Holy Organization (3HO), which is headquartered in Los Angeles but has numerous branches around the world.
Hidden Language Yoga was developed by Swami Sivananda Radha (1911–1995), a German-born woman student of Swami Sivananda. This style seeks to promote not only physical well-being but also self-understanding by exploring the symbolism inherent in the postures. Hidden Language Yoga is taught by the teachers of Yasodhara Ashram in Kootenay Bay, British Columbia, and its various branches.
Somatic Yoga is the creation of Eleanor Criswell-Hanna, a professor of psychology at Sonoma State University in California who has taught Yoga since the early 1960s. She is managing editor of Somatics journal, which was launched by her late husband, Thomas Hanna, inventor of Somatics. Somatic Yoga is an integrated approach to the harmonious development of body and mind, based both on traditional yogic principles and modern psychophysiological research. This gentle approach—which is explained in Criswell-Hanna’s book How Yoga Works—emphasizes visualization, very slow movement into and out of postures, conscious breathing, mindfulness, and frequent relaxation between postures.
Other prominent styles of Hatha-Yoga are Anusara Yoga (developed by John Friend), Tri Yoga (developed by Kali Ray), White Lotus Yoga (developed by Ganga White and Tracey Rich), Jivamukti (developed by Sharon Gannon and David Life), and Ishta Yoga (developed by Mani Finger and made popular in the United states by his son Alan).
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