History of Hatha Yoga: The history of hatha yoga goes back in the fifteenth century India when Yogi Swatmarama, a sage during those times, introduced it as a form of “a stairway to the heights” of Raja Yoga which is the preparatory stage of physical purification that makes the body fit for the practice of higher form of meditation. Hatha yoga is also known to be called as “hatha vidya” and the word “hatha” is a combination of the words, “ha” which means sun “tha” that means moon and they are said to refer to the prinicipal “nadis” or the energy channels of the body and must be fully operational to attain the state of “dhyana” or a certain aspect of meditation.

Some people may link that the origins of hatha yoga which dates back in the tenth or eleventh century with Goraknath, a yogin during those times. However, the oldest surviving text about hatha yoga is the Hatha Yoga Pradipika by yogin, Yogi Swatmarama. The text is said to be taken from old Sanskrit writings and personal yogin experiences of the yogin himself. The text relates about shatkarma, asana, pranayama, chakras, kundalini, bandhas, kriyas, shakti, nadis, and mudras among others.

Concept of Hatha yoga: The total concept of the traditional hatha yoga is a holistic yogic path comprising of moral disciplines, physical exercises, breath control, and meditation. The hatha yoga that is widely practiced and popular in the western countries mainly composed of the “asanas” or postures and other exercises.

Hatha yoga is only one of the two concepts of yoga that concentrates on the physical culture and the other yoga is the Raja yoga but both of these are referred to as Ashtanga yoga. The main difference is that the Raja yoga concentrates more on the “asanas” or postures to get the body ready for a prolonged meditation that concentrates mainly on the meditative “asana” poses. The hatha yoga on the other hand concentrates on balancing the mind and body through physical exercises, controlled breathing, and calming the mind through meditation and sheer relaxation.

Different positions or postures are recommended by practitioners to help lessen or avoid health problems ranging from constipation through cancer. It was said that it helps to reduce stress, pressure, and other mental worries that people today are frequently exposed to.

History of Karma Yoga

Karma yoga also known as Buddhi Yoga or the “discipline of action” is centered on the teachings of the Bhagavad Gita, a sacred Sanskrit scripture of Hinduism. One of the four pillars of yoga, Karma yoga concentrates on the adherence to duty (dharma) while remaining detached from the reward. It states that one can attain Moksha (salvation) or love of God (bhakti) by performing their duties in a selfless manner for the pleasure of the Supreme. Karma Yoga is an inherent part of many derivative types of yoga, such as Natya Yoga.

Concept Of Karma Yoga

The word Karma is mentioned from the Sanskrit Kri, meaning ‘to do’, in its most basic sense karma simply means action, and yoga translates to union. Therefore, Karma yoga literally translates to the path of union through action. It is described as a way of acting, thinking and willing by which one acts in accordance with one’s duty (dharma) with no consideration of personal selfish desires, likes or dislikes, i.e. acting without being emotionally involved to the fruits of one’s deeds.

In the case of Arjuna in the Gita, this translated to his fighting in the oncoming war to uphold the righteous cause in accordance with his duty as a warrior; even if out of compassion, he did not want to battle with his relatives and teachers on the other side.

Krishna then goes on to tell how Arjuna should surrender the fruits of his actions (good or bad) to himself (as the Supreme Person or avatara) :

Krishna describes that allocated work done without expectations, motives, or anticipation of its outcome purifies one’s mind and slowly makes an individual fit to see the value of reason. He states that it is not necessary to remain in external solitude, or actionless, in order to practice a spiritual life, with the state of action or inaction is solely determined in the mind.

In order to attain the perfection of life, Krishna describes it is important to control all mental desires and tendencies to enjoy pleasures of the senses. The practice of Karma Yoga in everyday life makes an individual fit through action, meditation and devotion to sharpen his reasoning, develop intuitive power of acquiring knowledge and to transcend the mind itself.

History Of Raja Yoga

Raja Yoga also known as Classical Yoga or simply Yoga is one of the six orthodox (astika) schools of Hindu philosophy, being described Patanjali in his Yoga Sutras. It is also occasionally referred to as A??anga (eight-limbed) yoga because there are eight aspects to the path to which one must attend. Raja yoga is concerned primarily with the cultivation of the mind using meditation (dhyana) to further one’s acquaintance with reality and finally achieve liberation.

The term Raja Yoga is a retronym, introduced in the 15th century Hatha Yoga Pradipika to differentiate the school based on the Yoga Sutras from the new current of Hatha Yoga.

Concept of Raja Yoga

Raja-Yoga is principally concerned with the mind. The mind is traditionally perceived as the ‘king’ of the psycho-physical structure which does its bidding (whether or not one has realized this). Because of the relationship between the mind and the body, the body must be ‘tamed’ first through self-discipline and purified by various means (see Hatha Yoga). A good level of overall health and psychological integration must be achieved before the deeper aspects of yoga can be pursued. Humans have all sorts of addictions and temptations and these preclude the attainment of tranquil abiding (meditation). Through restraint (yama) such as celibacy, abstaining from drugs and alcohol and careful attention to one’s actions of body, speech and mind, the human being becomes well to practise meditation. This yoke that one puts upon oneself is the alternate meaning of the word yoga.

Patanjali’s Yoga Sutras start with the statement yogas citta-vtti-nirodha (1.2), “yoga limits the oscillations of the mind”. They proceed on to detailing the ways in which mind can create false ideations and advocate meditation on real objects, which process, it is said, will lead to a spontaneous state of quiet mind, the “Nirbija” or “seedless state”, in which there is no mental object of focus. Practices that serve to maintain for the individual the ability to check this state may be considered Raja Yoga practices. Thus Raja Yoga encompasses and differentiates itself from other forms of Yoga by encouraging the mind to avoid the sort of absorption in obsessional practice (including other traditional yogic practices) that can generate false mental objects. In this angle, Raja Yoga is “king of yogas”: all yogic practices are seen as potential tools for obtaining the seedless state, itself considered to be the first point in the quest to cleanse Karma and obtain Moksha or Nirvana. Traditionally, schools of yoga that label themselves “Raja” offer students a mix of yogic practices and (hopefully) this philosophical viewpoint.

The best way to understand what Yoga Nidra is to understand who is practicing it.

The one who practices Yoga Nidra is a yogi and the clearest definition of what a yogi is comes from the Bagavad Gita 4:18 as follows: “One who sees inaction in action, and action in inaction, is intelligent among men, he is a yogi  and has accomplished everything (he is in the transcendental position although engaged in all sorts of activities).”

This definition evokes the obvious questions, “What does inaction in action and action in inaction mean?”

Inaction in action and action in inaction means that your very being is doing . For example in deep sleep you are not consciously active yet there is no discontinuity to life.

The practice of Yoga Nidra approximates deep sleep. In the practice ‘you’ are inactive yet you are awake, alert and active as your true nature – thus you experientially understand ‘inaction in action’, ‘action in inaction’ and you also then know what it means to be a yogi who has accomplished everything.

In this light Yoga Nidra is the practice of inaction is action and action in inaction.

Yoga Nidra is a yoga practice and it is the result of that practice such that the journey is the destination.

Patanjali’s Yoga Sutra 1.2 states ‘Yoga is the cessation of the modifications of the mind’. This sutra denotes both the process of dissolving mental modifications (i.e. modes of perception, sensations, psycho-emotional states, etc.) into the ‘mind-field’ (citta) and the result as mental treanquility wherein Awareness is pure and unmodified.

In this light it is clear that the practice of Yoga Nidra is Yoga as the union that is Presence when the ‘doer’ is relaxed-absent. In other words the mind is silent yet nothing has been lost; instead there is a clarity as seeing without the distortions or modifications that come from seeing through the lens of knowledge, memory and experience.

Thus Yoga Nidra is the practice of ‘yogic sleep’ as a means of being awake as your true nature.

(click the image above for the animation)

Yoga Nidra is a means to see that cause and effect are two sides of the same coin. This is because what relaxes in the practice of Yoga Nidra is your thinking mind  or what I call the ‘hamster mind’.

When  your mind is silent you haven’t lost your mind – it is simply silent. Life continues while your mind is silent; what is different is that there is no distortion of what is seen as you no longer see things through the lens of knowledge, memory and experience. In this way there is an innocence in seeing as in infancy.

And it is patently obvious that you are not an infant. Thus you have the best of both – the innocence of the infant and the understanding of the adult. In this case what is seeing and acting is your fundamental nature which is awareness and here seeing and acting are not separate.

Lastly, this is not something that you are being asked to believe because it is self-evident when it is unfolding.

In this light it is clear that seeing is doing and that cause and effect are not separate; as stated above, they are two sides/phases of the same thing – like a wave.

Imagine what it would be like to wake up inside a dream where the physical limitations that you are familiar with during the waking state are absent. In their place you find an unbounded territory that you can explore any way you wish.

What makes this so beautiful and so awesomely powerful is that this is not difficult as everyone has had dream experiences like the situation described above; what is not commonly understood is that in addition to consciously dreaming, the seeds that you plant while doing so flower across all states of consciousness including the waking state. In other words yoga nidra is a means for you apply synergistic principles like ‘energy follows awareness’ and what is popularly called the ‘Law of Attraction’.

Lastly what is most incredible about this process is that you access it by being at ease and deliberately relax out of the conscious waking state and awake aware and alert in the boundryless realms of alpha, theta and delta where you can explore without limitations.

Yoga Nidra is a blend of deep sleep, self-hypnosis and profound relaxation. What makes Yoga Nidra distinct is that although you appear to be doing noting there is action involved.

This paradox of appearing to do nothing yet being active evokes the question ‘how is this so?’

Like all yoga practice and life itself the answer to that question is experiential. And in this case the experience is the understanding of your true nature.

What is your true nature? Why has every sage in some way or another directed you to ‘Know Thyself’?

Again the answer to these questions is experiential as to know yourself is to be aware. This is self-evident once seen and what sees this is awareness.

In the light of understanding your true nature as awareness the Yoga Nidra paradox of being active while appearing to do nothing is also resolved because Awareness is active. In short Awareness acts and its action arises simultaneously with its seeeing as awareness; in other words seeing is doing.

Still another way that this can be stated is that your true nature is mind with the experiential understanding that mind really means ‘minding’ wherein there is the activity of being aware and the simultaneous action that arises with it.

In this light your are mind or Awareness as the openness where everything is seen and what is seen is the content as your experience of life. And like breathing and all other things in the universe ‘minding’ is fourfold as four degrees or wave levels that correspond to your four brainwave patterns.

The awesome power of this understanding is that by being what you already are, which means awareness, you can remain alert through all four degrees of your mental activity and because you are aware you can command energy to take form by using the principle of ‘energy follows awareness’ and what is called the ‘Law of Attraction’.

It is often said that knowledge is power. This is simply not true because true power lies in the relationship of know how and acting out the how in the now. The relationship, like everything else, is a wave.

Most folks know what to do yet not everybody does what they know. For example most folks in what are called ‘first world’ countries know how important it is to eat healthily and stay fit yet vast numbers of people in these countries have health problems that are directly related to obesity and lack of proper exercise.

Some other examples: 1) most educated folks know that when they an iceberg at sea against the backdrop of a partially cloudy sky  that they are really observing four different forms of water as ice, liquid water, water vapor and ionized water; 2) when folks see an active volcano like Kilauea they know that they are seeing four different forms of the same thing as solid rock, liquid lava, gas vapors and plasma (fire; ionized materials); 3) people know that breathing is wave process of breathing air from outside your body, extracting the life-giving energy and expelling the wastes, (breathing earth, water and fire happens in the same manner – see Breathing Waves); and 4) modern scientists have demonstrated that the human brain has four basic brainwave patterns that correspond to four degrees or planes of consciousness … yet few folks act in ways that are in harmony with these examples of common knowledge.

Why?

The examples listed above and others like them are true yet folks have not made this knowledge their own by acting on it. Thus the energy wave breaks down. It is like a man who has a container of medication with a label on it that says ‘take two pills in the morning and two pills in the evening’ yet the man only ever reads the label and wonders why the medication does not have any impact on his health situation.

In this light the energy or power associated with knowledge is the energy wave of having the know how and acting out the how in the now such that the wave is complete and in order with the nature of things.

Yoga Nidra, the process of deep yoga relaxation, is a direct means for you to apply what you know by guiding you to breathe, relax and be aware through all four brainwave patterns.

_

It is self-evident that breathing unfolds as waves; what is not usually seen is that just as you breathe the gaseous-air element air, you also breathe the solid-earth element as food, you breathe the liquid-water element as liquid water and you breathe the plasma-fire element as things like heat, light and Vitamin D that we get from our sun.

In all cases you breathe these fundamental elements in the same manner that you breathe air. In all cases you take the fundamental element in from somewhere outside your body, you body’s inherent intelligence extracts the life-giving energies (see resonance) and it expels the wastes.

In other words you literally breathe earth, water, air and fire!