Yoga and mantras

[Polarbear]

Is there any reason to combine postural yoga with chanting a mantra?

[Shuddhasattva]

Yes, very much so.

We receive asana yoga (postural yoga) through two main streams:

Raja Yoga - The Yoga Darshana (school of thought/practice, one of six original Indian philosophical strains which are all now subsumed into Vedanta, the school which became dominant)). Yoga draws on the earlier school of Samkhya for its ontology, most particular the 24 tattvas (elements). It adds to it the Ishvara (God) tattva. Yoga takes this philosophy and puts it into action, delineating various practices which are divided 8 fold:

1. Yama - Do-s
2. Niyama - Don't-s
3. Asana - Postural yoga
4. Pranayama - Control of breath/mind
5. Pratyahara - Withdrawal of senses
6. Dharana - Focusing/balancing of mind
7. Dhyana - Concentration
8. Samadhi - Absorption into Ishvara/Self

For this reason, Raja yoga is often called Ashtanga yoga - the yoga of 8 limbs.

Hatha Yoga - Hatha distilled raja yoga, and re-presented it as a companion to laya yoga (the yoga of the subtle body cosmology). Hatha also has limbs, listed as 7 in the Gheranda Samhita:

1. Shatkarma (bodily purification)
2. Asana
3. Mudra (mudra has several meanings, here it refers to internal, physical locks, often also called bandhas - for example, tucking one's chin into one neck, with the neck itself held back)
4. Pratyahara
5. Pranayama
6. Dhyana (Dharana condensed here and with Pratyahara)
7. Samadhi

Hatha yoga places much emphasis on asana and pranayama aspects.

It should be noted that worship, upasana, shares the same etymology - and etymology is very important in Hinduism, being one of the Vedangas (limbs of Vedic knowledge, needed to understand and enact the Vedas). Upasana is to invite the deity to take a seat, especially a seat within oneself, where they truly already are. Yogasanas are the same, each asana is a vehicle for tapas and pratyahara/dhyan.

The body, arranged just so, also arranges the mandalas of the deities. And Hatha yoga, because of its laya root, is fundamentally about deities and their arrangement within the subtle body. There are 3 principle mandalas (assemblies of deities); that of the Sun, that of the Moon, and that of the Fire.

The fire is kindled by the Sun and the Moon. The sun and the moon are the opposing breaths of pranayama brought into equilibrium, they're the opposing bodily/subtle channels (Ida & Pingala

Ha = Sun
Tha = Moon

Hatha is the yoga of forcing the two opposing breaths, unified, into the central channel - the Fire, which is Kundalini. This is all openly expressed in the Hatha source texts, and still taught in the lineages to which Hatha was passed - not just the Nath lineages in which it was founded.

Asana (beyond the narrow physical pose meaning) is the foundation of all yoga and sadhana. When one is seated in meditation, this is the quintessence of asana. When one has drawn out a ritual area, if given to external worship, and is worshiping with the different auspices substances, this ritual area is asana.

Unfortunately, what is packaged as hatha yoga today in both the West and in India, is incredibly watered down. Even the poses in their bare physicality are not taught properly.

[Polarbear]

Thanks for your response! However I am wondering if the two oppsing breathes (sun and moon)are inhale and exhale? Which is which?

[Shuddhasattva]

Bingo.

Puraka - inhalation = Sun
Kumbhaka - retention = Fire
Rechaka - exhalation = Moon

Note that there are two retentions for each inhalation.

[Polarbear]

Is this found in the vedas or does it come from another source?

[Shuddhasattva]

Yoga sutra, yoga yajnavalkya, gherand samhita, hatha yoga pradipika, shiva samhita, and the agamas, plus commentaries.

The Sun, the Moon, and the Fire, and the mandalas thereof, is a thoroughly Vedic idea, direct from the Vedas. Pranayama is not openly expressed in the Vedas, but some discussion made in the Vedic Upanishads, along with dhyan, mantra, etc.'

Do you mean a source specifically for that correspondence? I don't recall.