Shifting Priorities

Modern studies in the history of haṭha yoga have been a giant area of fascination for me. At this time in my life, as a yoga practitioner and as a human, I feel like what I’m experiencing on the mat finds corroboration in what I’m learning about the various texts that are considered authoritative in a haṭha-focused time.

What I am learning is that many past notions about the priorities of yoga practitioners are quite different during various time periods. In the Vedic age, the closest thing to yoga is the performance of rituals in a way that is “just right” so that the gods would bestow blessings. In the Upanishads, it was the quest for liberation through meditative insight. Karma yoga, Bhakti yoga, and Jnana yoga come from the time of the Bhagavad-Gita. Patanjali’s Yoga Sutras teach meditative absorption. All of these practices lack a practical connection to not only haṭha yoga practices but also largely to each other. In the largest sense, the liberation from suffering is the ultimate goal of yoga, but that’s religion in general, really.

I feel like there’s a discrepancy between the priorities of a haṭha yoga practitioner and the priorities of a yoga practitioner that uses Patanjali’s Yoga Sutras as a guide.

Don’t get me wrong, Patanjali’s Yoga Sutras belong in the pantheon of texts that inform the practice of yoga. Patanjali existed for only a moment in yoga’s historical record. At that time, philosophical inquiry was such that Patanjali constructed his sutras for an intended audience that was definitely shaped quite differently than those who are now reading his text.

What does this mean? It means that we need to be clear that while many find resonance in pay teachings, the objectives that shape the priorities in modern haṭha practices need to be reconsidered as our understanding becomes clearer.