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Hatha-Yoga

The word hatha means “force” or “forceful.” Thus Hatha-Yoga is the “forceful Yoga” or “Yoga of Force,” meaning the Yoga of the inner kundalini power. This branch of Yoga, which is particularly associated with Matsyendra Natha and Goraksha Natha, two perfected masters or siddhas, is a medieval development arising out of Tantra. It approaches Self-realization through the vehicle of the physical body and its energetic (pranic/etheric) template. In the first instance, Hatha-Yoga seeks to strengthen or “bake” the body so that practitioners have a chance to cultivate higher realizations. Secondly, it means to transubstantiate the body into a “divine body” (divya-deha) or “adamantine body” (vajra-deha), which is endowed with all kinds of paranormal capacities. Thus, the disciplines of Hatha-Yoga are designed to help manifest the ultimate Reality in the finite human body-mind. Sri Aurobindo put it this way:

The chief processes of Hathayoga are asana and pranayama. By its numerous Asanas or fixed postures it first cures the body of that restlessness which is a sign of its inability to contain without working them off in action and movement the vital forces poured into it from the universal Life-Ocean, gives to it an extraordinary health, force and suppleness and seeks to liberate it from the habits by which it is subjected to ordinary physical Nature and kept within the narrow bounds of her normal operations. . . . By various subsidiary but elaborate processes the Hathayogin next contrives to keep the body free from all impurities and the nervous system unclogged for those exercises of respiration which are his most important instruments.¹

In addition to posture, breath control, sensory inhibition, concentration, meditation, and ecstasy, the Gheranda-Samhita, a seventeenth-century manual, also recognizes the following preparatory practices:

• dhauti (cleansing), consisting of cleansing the teeth, tongue, ears, frontal sinuses, throat, stomach, intestinal tract, and rectum

• vasti (or basti, “bladder”), consisting in contracting and dilating the sphincter muscle to cure constipation, etc.

• neti (untranslatable word), consisting in inserting a thin thread or rubber tube into the nostrils to remove rheum

• lauli or nauli (“rolling”), a technique of rotating the abdominal muscles to massage the inner organs

• trataka (“rolling”), or steady, relaxed gazing at a small object, such as the flame of a candle, which is thought to stabilize the mind and cure certain eye diseases

• kapala-bhati (lit., “skull-luster”), consisting in a breathing technique and the practice of drawing up water through the nostrils and expelling it through the mouth or sipping it and then expelling it through the nasal passages, which is thought to rid the body of rheum

These practices are held to purify the subtle channels (nadi) through which the life force (prana) circulates. When the life force is mastered via the breath, the mind also is mastered, since breath and mind are most intimately associated. When the mind is subdued, the higher practices can be cultivated leading to ecstatic merger with the object of one’s contemplation.

It is evident from the above sequence of practices that Hatha-Yoga is a self-contained path to liberation, not merely an adjunct to Raja-Yoga, as some traditional authorities maintain.

Jnana-Yoga

The word jnana means “knowledge,” “insight,” or “wisdom,” and in spiritual contexts has the specific sense of what the ancient Greeks called gnosis, a special kind of liberating knowledge or intuition. Jnana-Yoga is the path of Self-realization through the exercise of gnostic understanding, that is, the discernment of the Real (sat) from the unreal (asat) or illusory (maya). Practitioners of this Yoga rely on the higher mind (buddhi) to guide them out of the thicket of ignorance (avidya), which fragments the One into the multiple beings and things of ordinary perception. In contrast to Raja-Yoga, which operates on the basis of a dualist (dvaita) metaphysics that distinguishes between the many transcendental Selves (purusha) and Nature (prakriti), the metaphysics of Jnana-Yoga is strictly nondualist (advaita). It is the path of the Vedanta tradition par excellence, as first taught in the Vedas and articulated more specifically in the Upanishads.

The path of Jnana-Yoga, which has been described as “a straight but steep course,”² is outlined with elegant conciseness by Sadananda in his Vedanta-Sara, a fifteenth-century text. Sadananda lists four principal means (sadhana) for attaining emancipation:

1. Discernment (viveka) between the permanent and the transient; that is, the constant practice of seeing the world for what it is—a finite and changeable realm that, even at its most enjoyable, must never be confused with the transcendental Bliss.
2. Renunciation (viraga) of the enjoyment of the fruit (phala) of one’s actions; this is the high ideal of Karma-Yoga, which asks students to engage in appropriate actions without expecting any personal reward.
3. The “six accomplishments” (shat-sampatti), which are detailed below.
4. The urge toward liberation (mumukshutva); that is, the cultivation of the spiritual impulse, or self-transcendence.

The six accomplishments are:

1. Tranquillity (shama), or the art of remaining serene even in the face of adversity.
2. Sense-restraint (dama), or the curbing of one’s senses, which are habitually hankering after stimulation.
3. Cessation (uparati), or abstention from actions that are not relevant either to the maintenance of the body or to the pursuit of enlightenment.
4. Endurance (titiksha), which is specifically understood as the stoic ability to be unruffled by the play of opposites (dvandva) in Nature, such as heat and cold, pleasure and pain, or praise and censure.
5. Mental collectedness (samadhana), or concentration, the discipline of single-mindedness in all situations but specifically during periods of formal education.
6. Faith (shraddha), a deeply inspired, heartfelt acceptance of the sacred and transcendental Reality. Faith, which is fundamental to all forms of spirituality, must not be confused with mere belief, which operates only on the level of the mind.

In some works a threefold path is expounded:

1. Listening (shravana), or reception of the sacred teachings
2. Considering (manana) the import of the teachings
3. Contemplation (nididhyasana) of the truth, which is the Self (atman)

Step by step, the practitioner peels away all the veils concealing the ultimate Truth, which is the singular Spirit. This realization brings peace, bliss, and inner freedom.

Bhakti-Yoga

Raja-Yoga and Jnana-Yoga approach Self-realization chiefly through the transcendence and transformation of the mind, whereas Hatha-Yoga aspires to the same goal through the transmutation of the body. In Bhakti-Yoga, the emotional force of the human being is purified and channeled toward the Divine. To the bhaktas, or devotees, the transcendental Reality is usually conceived as a supreme Person rather than as an impersonal Absolute. Many practitioners of this path even prefer to look upon the Divine as the Other. They speak of communion and partial merging with God rather than total identification, as in Jnana-Yoga.

The term bhakti, derived from the root bhaj (“to share” or “to participate in”), is generally rendered as “devotion” or “love.” Bhakti-Yoga is thus the Yoga of loving self-dedication to, and love-participation in, the divine Person. It is the way of the heart. Shandilya, the author of one of two extant Bhakti-Sutras (1.2), defines bhakti as “supreme attachment to the Lord.” It is the only kind of attachment that does not reinforce the egoic personality and its karmic destiny. Attachment is a combination of placing one’s attention on something and investing it with great emotional energy. It is such energized love-attachment (asakti) that bhakti-yogins consciously harness in their quest for communion or union with the Divine.

In Bhakti-Yoga, the practitioner is always a devotee (bhakta), a lover, and the Divine is the Beloved. There are different degrees of devotion, and the Bhagavata-Purana, composed in the ninth or tenth century CE, delineates nine stages. These have been formalized by Jiva Gosvamin, the great sixteenth-century preceptor of Gaudiya Vaishnavism, in his Shat-Sandarbha (Six Compositions) as follows:

1. Listening (shravana) to the names of the divine Person (purusha-uttama). Each of the hundreds of names highlights a distinct quality of God, and hearing them creates a devotional attitude in the receptive listener.
2. Chanting (kirtana) praise songs in honor of the Lord. Such songs generally have a simple melody and are accompanied by musical instruments. Again, the singing is a form of meditative remembrance of the Divine and can lead to ecstatic breakthroughs.
3. Remembrance (smarana) of God, the loving meditative recalling of the attributes of the divine Person, often in his human incarnation—for instance, as the beautiful cowherd Krishna.
4. “Service at the feet” (pada-sevana) of the Lord, which is a part of ceremonial worship. The feet are traditionally considered a terminal of magical and spiritual power (shakti) and grace. In the case of one’s living teacher, self-surrender is frequently expressed by bowing at the guru’s feet. Here service at the Lord’s feet is understood metaphorically, as one’s inner embrace of the Divine in all one’s activities.
5. Ritual (arcana), the performance of the prescribed religious rites, especially those involving the daily ceremony at the home altar on which the image of one’s chosen deity (ishta-devata) is installed.
6. Prostration (vandana) before the image of the Divine.
7. “Slavish devotion” (dasya) to God, which is expressed in the devotee’s intense yearning to be in the company or proximity of the Lord.
8. Feeling of friendship (sakhya) for the Divine, which is a more intimate, mystical form of associating with God.
9. “Self-offering” (atma-nivedana), or ecstatic self-transcendence, through which the worshiper enters into the immortal body of the divine Person.

These nine stages form part of a ladder of continuous ascent to ever more fervent devotion and thus, ultimately, to merging with the Divine.

Remarkably, the Bhagavata-Purana (7.1.30) acknowledges the liberating power of emotions other than love—such as fear, sexual desire, and even hatred—so long as their object is the Divine. The secret behind this is simple enough: In order to fear God (as did Kamsa), feel hatred for the Divine (as did Shishupala), or approach the Lord with burning sexual love (as did the cowgirls of Vrindavana in the case of the God-man Krishna), a person must place his or her attention on the Divine. This focus creates a bridge across which the eternally given grace can enter and transform that person’s life, even to the point of enlightenment, provided the emotion is intense enough.

The final moment of realization, when the devotee merges with the Divine, is described in the Bhagavad-Gita as supreme love-participation (para-bhakti). Prior to that event, devotion requires that God be faced as separate from oneself, so that He/She can be worshiped in song, ritual action, or meditation. After that moment, however, the Divine and the devotee are inseparably merged in love, though most schools of Bhakti-Yoga insist that this mystical merging is not one of total identification with God. The Divine is experienced as infinitely more comprehensive than the devotee, who is rather like a conscious cell within the incommensurable body of God.

¹ Sri Aurobindo, The Synthesis of Yoga (Pondicherry, India: Sri Aurobindo Ashram, 1976), p. 29.

² Swami Satprakashananda, Methods of Knowledge (London: Kegan Paul, Trench, Trubner, 1932), p. 137.