Introduction

THE BOOK you are about to read, a manual of Yoga taught by the sage Gheranda to his student Chanda, is the most comprehensive of all the foundational texts of Hatha Yoga original: Haṭha Yoga; a system of physical techniques designed to prepare the body for spiritual awakening. At the beginning of the book, Chanda asks Gheranda to tell him about the Yoga of the body, which is the cause of knowledge of the Ultimate Reality original: Tattva-jñāna; the realization of the essential nature of existence. Gheranda agrees, and the book is thus called the Collection of Gheranda original: Gheranda Saṃhitā.

It sets itself apart from other books on Hatha Yoga in two notable ways. Firstly, it calls its Yoga ghata Yoga original: ghaṭa-yoga or Yoga based in the vessel original: ghaṭastha-yoga and not Hatha Yoga. The usual meaning of ghata is “pot” or “vessel,” but here it refers to the body—or rather, the whole person—since the techniques taught by Gheranda work on both the body and the mind.

Secondly, it is unique in teaching a sevenfold path to perfection of the person. A few Hatha Yoga texts replicate the classical description of Yoga provided by the sage Patanjali as eight-limbed original: aṣṭāṅga; the traditional eight stages of yoga practice including ethics, posture, and meditation, but there are numerous other classifications. For example, the Light on Hatha Yoga original: Haṭha Yoga Pradīpikā consists of four chapters corresponding to the four stages of its Yoga, while the Collection of Goraksha original: Gorakṣa Saṃhitā, echoing several earlier Tantric referring to a diverse range of esoteric traditions that utilize the body and ritual to achieve spiritual liberation texts, describes its Yoga as six-limbed.