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Hatha and raja yoga

I recently spent some time reading Hatha Yoga Pradipika, one of the most respected and comprehensive books on hatha yoga, and it prompted some thoughts about hatha and raja yoga.

Hatha and raja are two different yoga paths - not the only two, but two major ones. Most of the schools and branches of yoga that we have in the west today fall under hatha or raja traditions.

As is often the case with "competing" or rival schools of thought, they each have a sort of cartoon caricature view of the other side.

Hatha is caricatured as yoga that is purely physical, only caring about physical purification, postures, and breathing, not caring about meditation or ethical living until the body is "perfected" first (yeah, right...)

Raja is caricatured as yoga that starts beginners out with the first principle of "do no harm" and won't let them progress to do a single asana until they have "mastered" living without causing harm (yeah, right...)

After going through teacher training in a raja tradition, and then reading this extensive book about the hatha tradition, I have the impression that the two schools have a lot more in common than they have differences.

Hatha does start beginners out with physical purification and postures. But the main concern is that they do not want students "battling" or struggling with their thoughts while trying to sit in meditation. Focusing on the physical is (I think) meant to be more accessible as a starting point. Unfortunately the Pradipika book is not very consistent about telling you exactly where to start. It gives some purification exercises (shatkarmas) that are supposed to be the starting point, but several of them are very very scary (I am NOT going to swallow a strip of cloth and then vomit it back up... thanks anyway) and the book recommends those "for advanced practitioners," so are you supposed to do just the ones that don't scare you? But even for some of those there are caveats and warnings. I'm not scared of nauli, which seems to me like a good workout for the abs. But the book says before doing it, you must learn to do uddiyana bandha. But it also says that all the bandhas are things you learn AFTER you master the earlier stages. In general it's pretty confusing as to what the earliest stages are supposed to be, which makes the whole project seem confusing and overwhelming. Of course you are meant to be studying the book under the supervision of a hatha yoga guru.

Raja does place a lot of importance on the first principle of non-harming, but the way you practice that principle is by keeping it in mind *while* you go about practicing asanas, breathing, meditation, and whatever. As my teacher said, raja practitioners do "everything all the time" - there is no progression of "mastering" asanas before you even try meditating. Good thing, too, because the idea of perfecting *any* aspect of yoga before trying any other aspect is just loopy.

Since you are supposed to do all the aspects all the time, the beginner at raja yoga can start wherever she or he is drawn to start. Want to do postures? learn to meditate? Great. Don't have time for a daily practice? You could start by living with the ethical guidelines for a while - see if you can live your daily life while doing less harm, telling more truth, and so on.

In the advanced stages of practice, hatha and raja yoga have the same goal. The Pradipika acknowledges this towards the end. The idea is to attain a mental state of oneness, where you no longer perceive a difference between yourself and the rest of the universe.

Labels: yoga

posted by Jaime_sama @ 2:57 PM