Hatha Yoga Benefits

Hatha yoga Teacher Training in India

Hatha Yoga in India

Hatha Yoga Definition :

The word Hatha is a combination of two words: Ha and Tha. Ha represents prana or vital force, and Tha represents the mind or mental energy. So, Hatha yoga means the union of pranic and mental forces. When the union of pranic and mental forces takes place, a great event occurs in a human being.

This event is the awakening of higher consciousness. Today however, the real purpose of this great science has been forgotten altogether by many yoga practitioners. The original Hatha yoga practices, which were designed by the rishis and sages for the evolution of mankind, are now being understood and utilized in a very limited sense. The Hatha yoga that is practiced today is often only physical yoga. Now, the time has come to correct the worldwide understanding of yoga and return to traditional yoga. Traditional Hatha yoga is a very important practice for humanity today.

Chakra asana- a Hatha Yoga posture

Why Hatha Yoga Teacher Training

Balance of physical body, mind, and energy fields

Hatha yoga aims to generate balance of all interrelated activities in the physical body, mind, and energy fields. The impulses generated in the body and mind start to awaken Sushumna Nadi, the central force responsible for the evolution of human consciousness.

Hatha yoga is therapeutic

Hatha yoga practices are worthwhile as a form of therapy which can save enormous expenditures on medicines and save side effects. The yogic principles of harmony and unification are what makes yoga therapy so powerful and effective.

Maximum scientific research done on Hatha yoga

Substantial research has been conducted on the health benefits of Hatha yoga. These benefits arise in combination from asanas, pranayamas, and meditation on a physiological, psychological, and biochemical level.

Hatha yoga has more ancient texts than any other yoga style

These authentic and ancient texts are Hatha Yoga Pradipika by Yogi Swatmarama, Goraksha Samhita by Yogi Gorakhnath, Gherand Samhita by great sage Gherand, and Hatharatnavali by Srinivasabhatta Mahayogindra. These texts are must-reads for any dedicated yoga practitioner.

Hatha yoga is the most popular form of yoga

Many popular styles of yoga like Yin Yoga, Bikram Yoga, Iyengar Yoga, Ashtanga Vinyasa etc. are simply modifications of Hatha yoga. Yoga practitioners of any style can improve their practice through a better understanding of Hatha yoga in its original form.

Natraj asana- HathaYoga posture

Origin of the word “yoga”

The word yoga comes from Sanskrit, an ancient Indian language. It is a derivation of the word yuj, which means yoking as in a term of oxen. In contemporary practice, this is often interpreted as union. Yoga is said to be for the purpose of uniting the mind, body and spirit. In this sense, yoga is the conscious connection of the limited little egoic self with the unlimited, eternal, higher Self. Yoga is a loaded term and has been understood differently across time and cultures. Yoga is about knowing yourself in practical terms, it’s an awareness and connectedness vehicle in day-to-day life. It’s your bridge to uniting with everything outside. It’s a self-fulfillment, self-unraveling, self-expressing, self-harmonizing, self-empowering and self-realizing mechanism. At Kaivalya yoga, we believe that Yoga is no dogma or belief. It’s a science.

Yoga Definitions

Raja Yoga system: The great sage Patanjali said, ‘Yoga is the blocking (nirodha) of mental modifications (chittavritti) so that the seer (drashta) re-identifies with the (higher) Self. Patanjali Yoga Sutra has become to be the epitome of Classical Yoga Philosophy and is one of the 6  major philosophies of India.

The Hatha yoga tradition


Kundalini Yoga

Yoga is the union of the mental current (ida) and the pranic current (pingala) in the third eye (ajna chakra) or at the base chakra (muladhara chakra). This unifies duality in us by connecting body and mind and leads to the awakening of spiritual consciousness.

Bhagavad Gita

Yoga is achieved with equanimity and oneness and a yogi is skilled in every action. You have been a mineral, you have been a plant; you have been a reptile, you have been a bird; you have been an animal, you have been human…you will be divine! At any time, you contain it all! This is the way we look at it at Kaivalya. We see the human being as a summation of all sentience and non-sentience and therefore yoga, which enables transcendence understands, reconciles and transcends both.