Anyone looking for one of the most pure and traditional forms of yoga will find it with hatha yoga, Times Online reports. The ancient practice of hatha yoga uses three different elements to combine opposites and achieve balance. These elements are the poses, also known as postures or asanas, meditation, and breathing exercises, also known as pranayama.
Definition
The term hatha comes from the two letters "ha" and "tha," "Yoga Journal" and Yoga Mag explain, with the former representing the moon and the latter representing the sun. Both sun and moon are in the figurative sense in relation to the body, with the sun as prana, or the life force, and the mind as your mental energy, or your mind. Thus Hatha yoga is the combining of the opposites to create perfect balance. The term hatha also means forceful or willful, "Yoga Journal" adds.
Poses
Hatha yoga asanas serve to align your bones, skin and muscles, as well as open up a number of channels throughout the body to create the free flow of energy, "Yoga Journal" says. One of the most vital channels is that of the spine, the body's main channel. The asanas consist of a number of poses named for and by hatha yoga's two founders, Matsyendra and Goraksha. Hatha yoga poses have remained consistent and untouched for centuries.
Prana vs. Mind
Another purpose of hatha yoga is self-transformation through use of the prana, or life force, to quell and control the mind, Yoga Mag and "Yoga Journal" point out. Hatha yoga thus has a heavy focus on the breath, both as a way to quiet the mind and to remember to live in the moment and pay attention to the here and now, "Yoga Journal" adds.
Origin
Various ancient texts that date back to the 6th century A.D. as well as the even older Upanishads, created prior to the 6th century B.C., all reference hatha yoga, Yoga Mag notes. Hatha yoga came from two founders, the teacher Matsyendra and Goraksha, his student, "Yoga Journal" explains. Myth has it that right after Matsyendra is born under a bad sign, he ends up thrown in the ocean and eaten by a giant fish. For 12 years he sits in the fish's stomach, but also has the good fortune of overhearing all the secrets of yoga being taught in a secret lair on the ocean floor. He gets out of the fish belly and meets up with Goraksha at a garbage dump. Matsyendra pays a visit to Goraksha's mother, who was supposed to have eaten magic ashes 12 years before that would have given her a son. Misunderstanding, she instead threw the ashes in the dump. Matsyendra walks over the dump, only to find 12-year-old Goraksha, who becomes his devoted, and somewhat magical, student.
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