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When I started my fieldwork in Varanasi last October as ethnographer for the Hatṭha Yoga
Project, one of the first questions I asked saā dhus was what was hatṭha yoga according to them.
This quite simple question opened up an interesting issue: the emic understanding of hatṭha
yoga, which is the main topic of this paper.
Here, I will use the data collected during my first six months fieldwork to outline the ascetic
approach towards hatṭha yoga and yoga practices. Obviously this is a preliminary analysis as I
have just came back from the fieldwork, however I think that it can already provide interesting
information because it represents the opinion of ascetics belonging to the main sampradaā yas
connected with yoga practice: Dasś anaā mīās, Raā maā nandīās, Naā ths and also some vairaā gīā from the
Raā maā nuā jīā sampradaā ya.
Retention of breath
The idea of hatṭha yoga as manipulation of the vayus and their retention was mentioned by 5
ascetics out of 48. Ā strong position about this understanding of hatṭha yoga was that of
Mahant Garudṭ Daā s jīā Mahaā raā jjīā, a guru and expert yogi from the Raā maā nujīā sampradaā ya. He
stressed that the aim of hatṭha yoga is to reach keval kumbhak (unaccompanied breath
retention) and then to go into samaā dhi. But this means that the hatṭha yogi reaches a stage
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where he is not going to breathe again if he does not want to and, in so doing, he can push his
body into death. Therefore for him the final stage of hatṭha yoga is the death of the yogi who
remains in samaā dhi. For this reason he does not appreciate hatṭha yoga.
Strict intention
Āccording to the majority of the ascetics that I have interviewed, hatṭha yoga is not a
yoga system, rather it represents a mental attitude, that has been defined by Raā m Priye Daā s (a
female ascetic of the Raā maā nandīā sampradaā ya) as a dṛḍh sankalpa: a firm intention to
accomplish or reach an aim.
Ā Naā th told me that hatṭha yoga in his sampradaā ya also means to follow the rules and
behaviours of the sampradaā ya all life long. (therefore a strict intention to be committed to the
ascetic life).
Therefore the label hatṭha yoga can refer to practices and behaviours, and it is also understood
in this way by common people.
I will give another simple example from my fieldwork.
When I was in Varanasi I met Narayan Daā s a sadhu who for the last 10 years sits all day
long in padmāsan in Lalitaā Ghaā tṭ . “He always walks bare foot, he does his pilgrimages bare foot,
he sits in that position all day long, this is hatṭha yoga madam”. I was told by one of the lay
people who was with him.
Talking with other sadhus, this understanding of hatṭha yoga was always stressed and what
arose is that hatṭha yoga is strictly connected with tapasyaā .
I had a further proof of this when in Ujjain I went to meet a uā rdhva baā hu sadhu (a sadhu who
keeps his arm up), Bholaā Girīā, of the aā vaā han akhaā rṭ aā, because on the board outside his camp he
was named as “hatṭha yogi”. I went to him to ask about his tapasyaā and the title of hatṭha yogi
and he replied that because he does tapasyaā (for the last 35 years), he is considered a hatṭha
yogi. Āccording to him, those who do tapasyaā are hatṭha yogis, because hatṭha yoga is to take a
decision and be strict on it until it brings results. He does not care about aā sanas, praā nṭ aā yaā m
and he has never done one of these practices in his life.
Several yogis told me that once they are able to make the aā sanas “siddh”, that means
perfected/accomplished, (siddh ho gaya), then they abandon the practice of aā sanas. There is
no need to continue doing it.
It is interesting to notice that those ascetics that in their young age have focused their practice
on “physical yoga” are called yogi raā ja; those who are tapasvins are called hatṭha yogīā. Those
instead who practiced intense dhyaā n yoga without completely mastering physical yoga
practices can have added to their name yogi, as a saā dhvīā that I met in Ujjain whose name is
Yogīā Durgaā Bhaā rtīā, because she meditated in the jungle for 5 years.
The general attitude towards aā sanas is that they are necessary at the beginning, but they do
not have to be confounded with the main practice of yoga: the practice of dhyaā na.
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sadhus , rather it has to be “experienced” through practice.
Yoga in general
For them, the experience of dhyaā na and of the union of ĀĀ tmaā and Parmaā tmaā that can derive
from its practice leads to a different form of knowledge and to be in the world with a different
attitude. I will give some examples here of the result of yoga, in the sense of joṛnā.
Rādhe Purī (Dasś anaā mīā sampradaā ya) describes it in: “Sitting in padmaā san with the mind fixed
and eyes opened, you visualize Parmaā tmaā in front of you, slowly this visualization becomes
internalized. Parmaā tmaā enters from the eyes, then all the visions are in front of you, then you
do not have to go in the jungle, God is there wherever you are. When this union happens the
eyes close and the saā dhu goes in samaā dhi. Then the body is like a box, you can move it but the
sadhu does not feel anything”.
Sumit Nāth (Naā th sampradaā ya) uses similar words. He told me that the aim of yoga is to
acquire a status of inner awareness that is constantly maintained. “When this is reached, then
the body is only a container of the soul, therefore nothing is more necessary for the body, not
to eat, not to sleep. Nothing has to be awakened, because that reality is always present”.
Similarly, Garuḍ Dās (Raā maā nuā jīā sampradaā ya) said: “The yogi’s body becomes a body of
emptiness. He is present in the body but his ĀĀ tmaā can go far away. Āfter he has felt and
understood completely his body, he is not sensitive anymore to what happens to it”.
However, what is clear among ascetics it that to be successful in this purpose two variables are
of fundamental importance: brahmacarya and the guru.
Conclusion
physical yoga has a very relative and subsidiary importance in the life of ascetics. For
many of them it is just an initial stage that has to be abandoned as soon as it is
perfected, to go towards more important practices.
difference between hatṭha yoga as understood by common ascetics and educated
ascetics brings doubts about the purpose of works on hatṭha yoga and especially their
audience, opening room to different interpretation of past and present realities.
what is commonly called hatṭha yoga among ascetics is not a physical practice, but a
mental attitude that means following a spiritual path and a religious discipline, often
supported by a strong faith in God.