What is Hatha yoga?
Recently one of my yoga students asked me, “What style of yoga do we practice in your class?”
I loved the question, because I love talking about yoga! When I answered, I gave a standard answer along the lines of, “I teach gentle Hatha yoga”. Then I said something about it being a traditional style that’s different to, say, a fast-paced, fitness-focused class. I may have mentioned ‘Ha’ and ‘Tha’ and the sun and moon metaphor. We continued to chat, but later I wondered if my answer came up short.
After investigating to find some clarity, I found that saying the style of yoga I teach as ‘Hatha’ is not technically correct.
So, let’s explore what Hatha means, and why it’s helpful to clarify the definition.
Is Hatha a ‘style’ of yoga?
Spoiler alert…
Nope!
Hatha is not a STYLE of yoga. It never was. And yet yoga classes these days are often described as ‘Hatha yoga’, which has come to imply a style of practicing postures or asanas. By extension, implying that it is a postural style ignores the other aspects of yoga that are just as important, like pranayama, bandhas, mudras and meditation.
So, what is Hatha?
Hatha is a marga, or path
Hatha is a yoga ‘marga’, which is Sanskrit for the path/passage/road/journey that a seeker or practitioner is on.
There are actually multiple paths or margas of yoga, including:
Bhakti yoga: the path of devotion. This is the path followed by Hari Krishnas, and one of my favourite teachers Ram Dass. It includes kirtan or devotional chanting.
Karma yoga: the path of action. This is the path of service and selfless acts that benefit others. This might include volunteering, or living in a commune.
Jnana yoga: the path of knowledge. This is a contemplative path which includes study of the scriptures to accumulate higher knowledge and wisdom.
Mantra yoga: the path of enlightenment through vibrations of voice and sound and repetition. This path suits people who like to sing!
Hatha yoga: one of the most physical approaches to a yogic path.
When you dig into the philosophical context of Hatha, what you find is that the practice of yoga, in the physical sense, means that ALL of us are actually practicing Hatha yoga, whether we know it or not.
Let’s dive into what Hatha means in more detail…
Definitions of Hatha: force
The definition of Hatha comes from the Sanskrit word meaning ‘force’. So Hatha yoga in this context means ‘forceful union’.
Force relates to being physical and active, along with the idea of prana or ‘life force’ energy.
Yoga relates to the ‘union’ of the body and mind to connect with the Universal Spirit.
The Hatha path is a way to work with, or open up, energetic blocks in the mind and body. We then go through or transcend the body. And the ultimate aim is to achieve self-realisation or ‘moksha’.
Using the definition of ‘force’, the Hatha path is one of the most physically oriented applications of yoga, especially when compared with other paths like Karma, Bhakti or Jnana yoga. It’s a path of yoga that uses practices, techniques, disciplines and austerities to experience being IN our body, to then learn more about ourselves BEYOND our body.
Definitions of Hatha: sun and moon
Another definition of Hatha relates to splitting the word into two syllables: ha and tha.
Ha is said to mean sun, and tha moon.
It builds on the idea of Hatha or ‘forceful yoga’ to describe how we can address the dualistic qualities within the subtle body, such as prana and apana, or sun and moon. Once we unite those dualities of life, like the sun and moon, we can then merge rather than be separate with self and ‘god’, or self and other.
In both of these descriptions we can see that the physical aspects of Hatha yoga helps us by directing, gathering, merging and uniting all aspects of ourselves, to transcend the body and move into deeper and more subtle practices and ultimately find liberation.
A path, not a style
Today, when you look at class descriptions, you’ll see lots of yoga styles with different names. Almost all of these styles incorporate physical or postural practices, along with a focus on breath or other yoga tools.
Yoga styles include:
Ashtanga: rigorous, fast-paced, fixed sequences of postures linked with breath
Iyengar: precise body alignment using props
Vinyasa: dynamic flow linking one posture to the next using the breath
Kundalini: spiritual practice using breath, dynamic movement and chanting
Yin: slow, quiet, long holds that use gentle, sustained stress to target deep connective tissues and joints
Restorative: supported, long holds that eliminate strain to target deep nervous system rest and stress relief
Hot: using a heated room to increase sweat and therefore flexibility.
These postural practices, like Vinyasa, Yin and Restorative, are styles of yoga that live under the umbrella of the Hatha path.
That’s why we could say that ALL physical styles of yoga are actually Hatha yoga.
A history of Hatha
In today’s world, Hatha is often used to describe a style of class (which we know now is a bit misleading). That’s quite different to how it originated centuries ago.
Hatha was informed by asceticism, Hinduism, Buddhism and Tantra. It was a system or tradition handed down by the Nath Yogis, members of a medieval monastic movement, who were devotees of Lord Shiva. Shiva was the Hindu guru considered to be the first yogi. He taught Matsyendranath, who then founded the Natha Sampradaya or tradition.
The three main texts on Hatha yoga include the Hatha Yoga Pradipika, which was written in the 15th century, then later the Shiva Samhita and Gheranda Samhita, written in the 17th century.
Hatha was most likely seen as a foundational branch or stairway to Raja yoga or ‘royal path’. It was a way to awaken the physical energy body, or ‘kundalini’, and it was used as a stepping stone to achieve the higher spiritual and meditative state of ‘samadhi’, pure consciousness or union with the divine.
Techniques
Nowadays, Hatha is used to describe a ‘style’ of yoga that is a way to practice asana or use postures and sequences that are gentle, slower-paced, or beginner-friendly. However, that description can be problematic. It isn’t quite right.
Sure, Hatha incorporates static postures, which often means a slower pace, but that doesn’t reflect the heart or core intent. It’s not about being slow, or gentle, or for beginners. And it’s not just about asana or the postural practice.
The Hatha path, in the traditional sense, is strong, dedicated and quite strict. There is an emphasis on the development, cultivation and understanding of subtle techniques that, in our contemporary yoga classes, are less common and quite austere.
Techniques you might see in a truly traditional Hatha class include the Shatkriyas or purification practices, asana, pranayama (including regular kumbhaka), bandha, mudra, japa, and dhyana (meditation).
These physical techniques are all applied with a specific pranic intent, which is to cultivate and prepare us for concentration, which then leads us to deep states of meditation.
The physical aspects of Hatha yoga help us prepare for those deeper states of meditation. We can cultivate intense tapas or inner heat to purify the physical body, which can become fit, strong and resilient (ie. a strong vessel). It can also help us create an environment for the subtle or energetic body, so we can consciously face our samskaras (conditionings, patterns or habits that can cause suffering).
Why it matters that we understand the true definition of Hatha
You can see now that using the word Hatha to describe an easy, gentle style of yoga really undersells the complexity of this ancient path.
Hatha yoga isn’t about moving and stretching and then having a nice lie down. It’s a way to help us use physical discipline to then channel vital energy or prana so that we can train ourselves to handle suffering and ultimately reach some level of inner liberation.
Reducing the entire tradition to describe a slow or beginner's fitness class disconnects us from this rich history and meaning.
Having said all that, while it would be great to honour the true definition and meaning of Hatha, we live in a world that appropriates the word Hatha as a shorthand way to delineate different styles of yoga.
At least now we know that the Hatha yoga path is more complex and nuanced.
The real definition of Hatha is so much more interesting, don’t you think?