Hello everyone,
Many yoga systems I’ve come across seem to agree that asana practice is supposed to be introduced to students before pranayama and (if you’re lucky) then meditation. AYPs take on this is completely different. Deep meditation forms the core of our yoga practice (pranayama being another very relevant part), and asanas are said to be not as important for spiritual progress. This has also been my take for some time now.
However, lately I have found like some serious texts on yoga do still insist on taking on asana as some sort of ‘prerequisite’ to pranayama. The first verse in the second chapter of the Hatha Yoga Pradipika is:
Thus being established in asana and having control (of the body), taking a balanced diet; pranayamas should be practiced according to the instructions of the guru.
To me, the message is clear: Take care of your body first, and then, and only then, move on to pranayama. And personally, I do feel like asana practice acts on my body in ways that I can’t really imitate with sitting practices. I feel like it really helps me really feel and inhabit my physical body in ways that I simply don’t in sitting practices. Perhaps it is related to being more stable/grounded in your meditation - but it does not seem like quite the same point.
Do you think that asana practice is not really important for yogis that have ecstatic conductivity already well-established? What do we make of the claim in the Hatha Yoga Pradipika as AYP yogis?
I’m curious on what you guys think all of this.
My take on this is that asana do seem to really help me remove obstructions stored in my physical body (my body gets tense pretty quickly depending on outer circumstances), but perhaps plays a smaller role in directly establishing inner silence and ecstatic conductivity.
I do have the hunch though, that for me personally asana are quite essential at the point where I am right now. My body very often feels very rigid and full of tension and daily asana practice seems to relieve this (even though as soon as I stop, I quickly go back to where I was).
Thank you for reading
Hi selfpaste,
Asanas are important, but not the most important practice in terms of cultivating abiding inner silence and ecstatic conductivity. If they were, the legions of asanas-only practitioners around the world would be advancing spiritually much more rapidly. What they are achieving mainly with long asana sessions is fitness (which is not lost on the trendy fitness industry), sometimes with some subtle neurological crossover, with some practitioners becoming more inclined to explore other limbs of yoga, like meditation and pranayama.
As you know, in AYP, we use a modest session of asanas as a warm-up for spinal breathing pranayama and deep meditation, which works very well. It is good that you are finding asanas to be a help to your sitting practices, and for your health in general.
Regarding the traditional emphasis on conduct and asanas before learning pranayama and meditation, that is how spiritual practices have been taught by closed guru systems for centuries, with the more transformative practices being offered much later, or not at all in this lifetime! See Christi’s auto-biographical post on that. I went through similar seeking in my formative years. The internet has made it so much easier for everyone.
It should be mentioned that the Hatha Yoga Pradipika covers only hatha yoga (pranayama, asanas, mudras and bandhas) with little to no emphasis on meditation or samyama. It is often considered to be a supplement to the eight limbs of the Yoga Sutras, which cover the full range of practices promoting human spiritual transformation. The Hatha Yoga Pradipika provides detail on pranayama (not spinal breathing though), traditional asanas, mudras and bandhas, as well as vajroli, amaroli and other useful aspects of hatha yoga. However, it does not represent the whole of yoga as delineated in the Yoga Sutras.
Hope that helps. All the best!
The guru is in you.
I also don’t think the order is all that important, if one is practicing any yoga they are moving along the path. Practices don’t need separation from each other, or ordering. In my daily life (mid 60s) asanas are essential in testing balance with a quiet and open body. It plays no part when, how, where I meditate. AYP is scaffolding for my daily yoga practices.
Hello yogani and Dogboy,
Thank you for the answers! Yogani, your answer puts the contents of the Hatha Yoga Pradipika a bit more into perspective for me. It also makes sense to me that a book about Hatha Yoga would put more importance on asanas 
I did buy a copy recently of a translation/commentary of the yoga sutras and I’m looking forward to reading it. Also, I did see Christi’s post a few days ago and thought it was interesting.
I think that generally pouring a bit more of my bhakti into sitting practices might not be a bad idea. While I definitely do want fitness to also play a role in my life, I have noticed that when I put a lot of my attention on something outside my sitting practice, the (perceived) intensity of meditation is reduced.
Hello all,
It’s been a couple months since I last posted on this topic and since then I’ve finished reading a translation and commentary of Patanjali’s Yoga Sutras.
One thing that has recently struck me, is that there is no mention of the subtle nervous system as described in the AYP lessons in there. There’s only a mention of the concept of tapas, which we could associate with the energetic symptom of heat. Generally however, one could say that the path described in the Yoga Sutras is through inner silence and through samyama (even though no structured practice is provided).
I believe that AYP was also quite heavily influenced by tantric concepts, such as the key duality between inner silence and ecstatic conductivity and unity as their merging in advanced stages. Am I correct in thinking that this idea is already contained in the original tantric literature?
I’ve been thinking that I also want to read a translation (and a commentary, if possible) of the Hatha Yoga Pradipika. I believe it will help me understand the source of some of the other aspects of AYP, which are not covered by the Yoga Sutras. However, I am not sure which specific translation to pick (English or German). I found that an author that you resonate with is actually quite important when reading this sort of book.
There is a commentary by Muktibodhananda the AYP TTC reading list, however, I would have to import it from the US since I can’t find it in Germany (at first sight). There is also a German commentary by Yoga Vidya founder Sukadev Bretz, but I have no idea if it would be suitable. Are other good candidates?
Thank you in advance!
Hi Adrian,
There is one by Swami Vishnudevananda, it was written in an ashram not far from where I live. It is full of practices that Patanjali prefereded to keep out of his teaching. They were still printing it in 2013.
Hi Adrian,
Yes, the concept of the merging of Shiva and Shakti leading to liberation is found in the early Tantric texts. It starts appearing as a concept in rudimentary form in the classical Upanishads several hundred years before the Common Era. Then it is further developed in the classical Tantric period between the 2nd C. AD and the 7th C. AD.
As for translations of the Hatha Yoga Pradipika the one by Swami Muktibodhananda is very good. It is the only one I have read.
Hi Alain and Tristan,
Thank you to both of you for your responses! I will try and see if I can find a cheaper copy of Swami Muktibodhananda’s book online. Also, I actually saw Swami Vishnudevananda’s translation in a store recently, so I will consider that one if I can’t find the other one.
All the best to both of you