Radha - Hatha yoga : the hidden language : symbols, secrets, and metaphor

HATHA YOGA

THE HIDDEN LANGUAGE

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Cover and interior photographs by Derek Shapton www.derekshapton.com

All photographs were taken at The Big Stretch Yoga Centre, Toronto, Ontario, Canada.

www.bigstretchyoga.com

eBook: ISBN-978-1-932018-49-3

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

TIMELESS BOOKS gratefully acknowledges the support of the Yasodhara Ashram Society, The Friends of Radha Foundation, the Association for the Development of Human Potential and the many individuals who have contributed to this publishing project.

Also, our special thanks to the models Bibi Hahn, Ante Pavlovic and Joanne Lowe who appear in the book.

DEDICATED

TO SWAMI SIVANANDA SARASWATI, my Guru and Spiritual Mother. Gurudev Sivanandas true greatness of character is a beacon of Light and compassion in an age of darkness. May his Light be a blessing to all.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

FOREWORD, PREFACE, A WORD FROM THE AUTHOR

FOREWORD BY SWAMI LALITANANDA

A STUDENT IN A HIDDEN LANGUAGE CLASS once said to me, I have done many kinds of yoga and learned how my body works. This is the first time Ive done yoga and learned how I work.

Hidden Language Hatha Yoga is both deeply personal and brilliantly universal. Through attention to the symbolism of the asanas, we can discover layers of meaning and make connections that change our lives. Because we are listening to the body, our reflections take on an honesty and reality that the mind cant deny. As we move into an asana, it becomes clear where we are holding tension, where we are protecting ourselves, where we are open. Starting from an attitude of acceptance, we can encourage movement and bring in curiosity. What is holding? How does it relate to the symbolism of the position?

Symbols resonate with meaning and allude to a richness that continues to be revealed as they are explored. They always hold further mystery. When we realize that the names of the asanas and the physical positions themselves are symbolic, we are standing at a doorway. Through the Hidden Language process, Swami Radha offers us a key.

Bringing reflection into our Hatha Yoga practice, we learn to listen not just to the body, but also to our thoughts, intuition and memories. We observe and acknowledge images that may arise in our minds, connected with the symbol. By being aware of the interactions between our body, our mind and the symbol, the pose deepens. Yoga is suddenly more than a workout at a certain time of day. It becomes relevant off the mat. The insights gathered in practice can be carried into action. Life starts to change. Yoga comes alive.

I began to study Hidden Language when I attended a workshop Swami Radha offered on spiritual practice in 1981. Instead of sitting and meditating, we were asked to reflect on the symbol Mountain. She gave us examples of the meaning of mountains in different cultures. I remember after class that evening I climbed the only high point in the prairie town where I lived. What is mountain? What is it to be high, to rise up? What is it like to see mountains in the distance? What do I feel when I stand still and just be? What is my experience of time? How do I endure through time? What lasts?

The workshop was a turning point for me. I already loved yoga, but now it was tantalizing. It was inviting me not only to understand myself, but to transcend my limitations. And there was more. Swami Radha suggested that each of the asanas has a mystical meaning. What could that be?

Years later I was offering a weekend workshop on the Mountain pose using the Hidden Language approach. Students repeated this one simple standing pose again and again, and yet by the end of the workshop, I could see that we were just beginning to tap into the endless possibilities for self-discovery. I learned that we all have power of choice, and we can choose to go to a higher, more elevated place within ourselves. It became evident that Hidden Language Hatha Yoga can take us to higher levels of consciousness.

Although Swami Radha is no longer alive, her teachings survive through time. She was a Mountain solid in her wisdom, willing to take a stand for what she knew was valuable. Her training began in Rishikesh, India, in 195556 when her guru, Swami Sivananda, asked her to discover the mystical meaning of six asanas before she returned to North America. She first published Hatha Yoga: The Hidden Language in 1987 after she had expanded on her personal experience and wanted to share the potential and value of what she had discovered.

That year I was involved in the first teacher training course in Hidden Language Hatha Yoga at Yasodhara Ashram, using the first edition of this book as a guide. I was touched by how deeply the process could take me, and by the magical alchemical transformation that happens when the physical, symbolic, psychological and spiritual elements interact. I have been practising and teaching Hidden Language since then and am always humbled by how the same symbol mountain, tree, eagle, bow will elicit a different response each time I practise, reflecting exactly where I am, like a clear mirror.

Wherever Hidden Language Hatha Yoga is offered and practised, expect depth, reflection, clarity and support for the Light within. Expect support for your own authority and understanding. Expect to take yourself seriously and to live yoga as a union of your body, mind and speech. You may even discover that the mystical can be experienced now.

This revised edition of Hatha Yoga: The Hidden Language stays true to the original, but has additional material from Swami Radha at the end of each chapter that offers instruction for starting your own practice.

May all who read this book discover the benefits of the teachings.

PREFACE BY B.K.S. IYENGAR

It was kind of you to have sent me Hatha Yoga: The Hidden Language by your good self.

I went through the manuscript. It is a good way of explaining the asanas symbolically so that each asana prepares the sadhakas mind to see the asana in its true perspective.

Unfortunately, Hatha Yoga is often misunderstood, even by intellectuals, philosophers, saints, and many yogis. It is not just physical yoga. If Hatha is taken as a single word, it conveys the meaning of The Science of Will. If they are taken separately, then ha stands for Sun and tha stands for Moon. Many have given the physiological meaning as Suryanadi and Chandranadi Surya for sympathetic nerves, Chandra for parasympathetic nerves, and sushumna for the central or electrical nervous system.

If the word Hatha is considered psychologically and philosophically, it conveys that Sun which never fades and which stands for atma (soul). Atma is ever alert, divine and dynamic. The Chandra stands for the Moon. The Moon being the reflected light of the Sun, consciousness ( tha ) is the reflected light of the soul. Knowing and realizing it, is Hatha Yoga.

Hatha Yoga teaches us to use the body as the bow, asana as the arrow, and the soul as the target. It is a fact that not one has realized the soul without using the body, the mind, the intelligence and the consciousness (which are all parts of nature) as a means to realize it. When they are cultivated, they become refined and merge in the soul. This is divine absorption, the effect of Hatha Yoga.