![]() ![]() ![]() It was also due to ascetics who travelled to other lands themselves. ![]() This was partly due to the introduction by less extreme-minded tourists in India, of gymnastics, contortionism and body building. When India faced colonialism, many Westerners were able to see and experience Hatha yoga practices for themselves. You might say that this echoes modern day Instagram photos of difficult yoga postures earning ‘likes’ and sponsorship deals… They created a ‘buzz’, attracted audiences and earned the Hatha yogis money. In a strange way, these extreme postures were a sort of performance. Subsequently, the yoga postures and pranayama practices that developed in the years following are thought to originate from this. These extreme bodily challenges and breathing techniques gradually became more accepted by society. Extreme breath control was essentially considered the ability to control prana or one’s own ‘life force’, and therefore the ability to control life. This way of practising has now come to represent just one of the branches of Hatha yoga – Pranayama. Originally, Hatha yoga practices were entirely focussed upon the breath and the means of controlling it. He tried extreme breath control and fasting, as did Jain monks, who would sit and fast until death in order to ‘burn up’ their karma and escape the wheel of rebirth entirely, or return to a more desirable life. However, what many texts omit, is that he found no benefit in the practices, and eventually rejected them. The Buddha practised asceticism for a number of years. However, these practices are still happening today, and there’s no sign of them becoming extinct any time soon. They’d stand on one leg, or carry out the ‘bat penance’ (hanging upside down). We may think these are part of an obscure and long-lost tradition. They would submerge themselves in cold water, never sitting down (not even to sleep). They would hold their arms in the air for hours on end. In order to perfect the body and senses, these Hatha yogis would perform extraordinary feats. These were the original Hatha yogis – and Tapas, translated as ‘heat’, ‘glow’, ‘austerity’ or ‘discipline’ and referring to a sense of ‘burning’ off past karma and refining the body and mind – was their practice. Aspects that came to be a part of Hindu tradition, like reincarnation and karma, were central to their thinking. The ascetic tradition emerged on the borders of India and Nepal. That is, they renounced their lives, families, jobs and worldly responsibilities in favour of a life as an ascetic. Whilst the majority of us ‘fit in’ a morning practice, or ‘pause’ to switch on a five minute meditation app, the ancient Hatha Yogis were renunciates. But it came from something that was the complete opposite, and was viewed very differently to how we view yoga now”. No matter what one does, isn’t it all physical?”.Īt the same London lecture, Jim Mallinson – author of the title ‘Roots of Yoga’ – observed “ Yoga has been turned into something you can ‘fit in’ to a busy modern lifestyle. He remarked “what’s physical and what’s not is up for question. Mark Singleton – author of ‘Yoga Body’, and a Senior Research Fellow at SOAS London University – spoke at a lecture I attended. ![]()
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