What Is Hatha Yoga?
The Yoga that is most popular today in The West are forms of Hatha Yoga. Ashtanga, Iyengar, Sivananda, Kundalini etc all come under the banner of Hatha Yoga. Hatha Yoga (pronounced ha-ta) is known as the science of purification. Ha-ta means sun and moon and represents the blending of right –left, male-female, and ida-pingala, positive-negative. Hatha Yoga is the art of achieving harmony between two forces and the subjection of these forces under the yoke -Yoga- of man. In order to purify the mind, it is necessary for the body as a whole to undergo a process of absolute purification. When you clear the body of its impurities the nadis (meridians, energy channels in the subtle body) function and energy blocks are released. These energies then move like wave frequencies throughout the channels within the physical structure, moving right up to the brain, to awaken consciousness as it sits dormant at the middle brain.

The main objective of Hatha Yoga is to create an absolute balance of the interacting activities and processes of the physical body, mind and energy. When this balance is created the impulses generated awaken the central force (sushumna nadi) which awakens human consciousness. If Hatha Yoga is not used for this purpose its true objective is lost. Hatha Yoga is the science of Yoga which purifies the whole body by means of asana, shatkarma, pranayama, mudra, bandha and concentration. It is a prelude to Raja Yoga (supreme Yoga, union),and Samadhi (oneness with the mind and the object of concentration, supernatural consciousness, bliss). And concentration depends on purification. The path of Yoga must be approached with no doubt in its truth. Yoga sadhana, (yoga practice) should be disciplined and practiced daily with utter resilience and faith.

The word Yoga means to yoke, union. Yoga is your true nature, union with the divine self. Yoga is the cessation of the fluctuations of the mind. Our goal as practitioners is to free ourselves from selfishness and strengthen our connection to the self. We do this by aiming our thoughts inwardly. The intention of the yoga practice must be clear, union with the divine self. Yoga practice should be challenging enough to bring up resistance to your essential nature so then to become dependent inwardly. Living the moment from profound understanding without egoist attachment to anything. That is Yoga.

‘’If we practice the science of yoga, which is useful to the entire human community and which yields happiness both here and here after. If we practice it without fail, we will then attain physical, mental and spiritual happiness and our minds will flood towards The Self.’’
Sri.K.Pattabhi Jois

A Brief History of Yoga
Despite more than a century of research we still don’t know enough about the early beginnings of Yoga. We do however know that it originated in India 5.000 or more years ago. Until recently many western scholars thought that Yoga originated much later around 500 B.C.E which is the time of Gautama the Buddha, the illustrious founder of Buddhism. But then in the early 1920’s archaeologists surprised the world with the discovery of The Indus Civilization. In the ruins of the big cities of MohenjoDaro and Harappa excavators found yogi like figures in yoga postures. So it is very possible yoga started much earlier.
The first person to bring yoga to the West was a man named Swami Vivekananda. His teacher was Ramakrishna. His various books are still useful and enjoyable to read today. He introduced the West to Yoga and at the same time opened the gates for other teachers, Gurus, and adepts to the West. So Yoga began to unfold piece by piece until finally it became as popular as it is today. The actual history of yoga can now be conveniently divided into the following broad categories. Vedic Yoga, pre-classical Yoga, classical Yoga, post-classical Yoga. These categories are like snapshots of history and are in continuous motion (Brian Cooper PHD).