January 16, 2026
Hatha yoga is often confused with the practice of yoga asanas, which forms a small part of it. The very word 'hatha' alludes to the two main nadis - the ida and pingala - the lunar and the solar forces that operate in the body. Nadis are not nerves but 'movements' of energy. The energy is prana.
Prana is cosmic. Energy cannot be divided. Prana is the energy inherent in consciousness. It is Cit-Shakti. Motion is natural to energy. The notion of space arises in consciousness on account of this notion of energy.
Motion is movement from a certain point to another. There are then two possibilities: the movement might form a neat circle (a mere vibration) or the movement might miss the original starting point (the centre) and gyrate in a spiral. In the case of the latter, there is movement away from the centre. If you look at a conventional picture of the chakras 'in the body' and if you describe a spiral with the 'crown of the head' as the starting point, with the uncompleted circle expanding as a concentric circle, you immediately realize that every one of these segments of the spiral passes through the body (at points corresponding to the chakras) and it includes spheres farther away from the 'centre' - outside the body, too. Thus, these chakras are microcosmic representatives of the macrocosmic elements.
The spiraling away from the centre is not running away forever. There is a constant pull from the centre which is consciousness. Hatha yoga arrests this spiral movement so that prana may flow back to its source - which is cosmic consciousness - in a single stream. Movement in a single stream is non-movement, since it is natural to energy; it is what is hinted at as 'movement in a circle' which is at once complete and perfect all the time.
Watch your breath. You see that it flows on - your thought is not relevant to it - you do not grasp it with your thought. Similarly it is possible to live - to let the stream of life flow along without the interference of thought.