Namaste,
Welcome to today's podcast.
My name is Teresa and I am the founder of NPM Studio.
In this podcast we will talk about what is Hatha Yoga,
What is the meaning and the purpose behind it.
Hatha Yoga is a very famous school and this practice is almost everywhere.
The goal and the purpose of Hatha Yoga is not only the physical exercise and the physical yoga,
It is only the one step in yoga practice.
Hatha Yoga is designed for everyone who are not ready yet for meditation.
Ancient masters have developed a systematic way how to prepare the body and the mind so the person will spend more time in meditation.
So Hatha Yoga is the way how to develop and prepare your body,
Mind as well as your breath.
When we look into the meaning of Hatha Yoga its basic meaning is a gentle force.
The main force in your body is your breath.
It is the vehicle of life and of the energy.
Breath affect your body,
Mind and your emotions as well.
We can observe at any time which breath we take in and out because it does not flow with the same nostril,
It always change.
It is because we have got two hemispheres left and right hemisphere and we also have two energy center flows.
Our nostrils represent sun and moon.
Surya Nadi and Chandranadi.
In Sanskrit Surya means sun which always give positive energy and strong energy.
And Chandranadi is the moon.
So in human life you can see some people are more energized,
More enthusiastic and dynamic and active people and they also like dynamic practices and movements and some people like simple and gentle slow movements and I would say that all of those people need some kind of balance.
And Hatha Yoga is about balancing your solar and lunar energy.
In our body we have got many nadis and among those thousands of nadis three nadis are the main.
First nadi is called Ida Nadi,
Second is called Pinjala Nadi and the third one is called Sushumna Nadi.
The three nadis are associated with our nostril and they are the gateways of the energy.
The Ida Nadi is associated with the left nostril and Pingala Nadi is associated with the right nostril and the Sushumna Nadi is associated with the center nostril in the nasal way from where the nose begins.
Hatha Yoga is a physical step first training physically to do something.
You cannot meditate and practice pranayama because physically you are not ready.
So everyone needs to first prepare body and if you are interested in spiritual yoga,
If you are interested in meditation and go deeper in the practice.
So in Hatha Yoga the first step is asana practice or the pastures.
There are thousands types of asanas and according to textbooks there are dead many asanas how many people are alive on this planet.
But for a meditation practice we only need to master one asana.
Asanas are taught for the purpose to sit in a comfortable position where we can maintain the head,
Neck and also spine aligned for enjoying the meditation.
And goal of asanas is not to become flexible.
The goal of asanas is also not to perform all of those postures.
The goal of asanas is only to prepare your joints and muscles to get flexible that much that you are able to sit comfortably for hours and hours and enjoying your meditation.
Hatha yoga is the practice how to train your mind through your body and it is designed for everyone.
Original Hatha yoga includes five different practices.
The first practice is asana practice,
The second one is pranayama,
Third are mudra,
Fourth is bandha and the fifth is shatkriyam.
When we master all of those practices we can say that we are a Hatha yogi or we are Hatha yoga teacher or practitioner and nowadays people are doing just asanas the physical practice and they say I am a Hatha yogi,
I am a Hatha yoga teacher and of course people can say that without any problems but according to the tradition you need to master all of those five practices to become a real Hatha yogi.
Hatha yoga is the tool to prepare your body and the mind and the result of practicing Hatha yoga is that your body weight is balanced.
You feel more energized and you experience real happiness.
That's it.
Thank you.
Om Hariyom.
