Hatha Yoga - Fifth Basic Yoga

Each basic form of yoga serves as the way to attain enlightenment.  These are the five basic yogas:

Bhakti Yoga  -  stresses love and devotion
Karma Yoga - selfless work
Jnana Yoga -  knowledge and discernment
Raja Yoga - eight-limbed system of disciplines emphasizing meditation.
Hatha Yoga - purification of the physical to attain purification of the mind.

Hatha yoga has come to our attention as the yoga necessary to attain health and vitality.  Hatha Yoga exercises, stretches and liberates the body to make it healthy and essential tool for the mind and soul.  Hatha yoga practitioner also notices extreme clarity of the mind and concentration.  Some yogis use hatha yoga as the primary means to attain spiritual realization.  Clear minds and healthy bodies make it easier to go into meditation.

Hatha literally means sun and moon, being ha as the word for sun in Sanskrit and tha means moon. Hatha yoga emphasizes the need to unite the body's inner currents specifically Feeling, Thinking, Willing, and Acting until they are in perfect harmony.

Generally, the hatha yogi directs energy at the ajna or around half an inch above the point between the eyebrows to attain a calm mind then moves the awareness into a super-conscious state. The individual life, the temporary state meets, touches and combines momentarily with the infinite.

Hatha yoga meditation is not as popular today as it was then.  It also demands that the practitioner strives for the purity of life which demands a lot of time and energy. However, those who become hatha yogis attain health and universal unity.