Tantra vs Hatha Yoga vs Modern Postural Yoga

As we study the Paramārthsāra of Abhinava Gupta, a wonderful introductory work on the foundational metaphysics of the Svatantrya Vada (Kashmir Shaivai) system, I felt it would be good to ground ourselves in the other schools of Indian philosophy like Nyāya, Vaisheshika, Sāmkhya, Yoga and Mimāmsa in Purva and Uttara forms as well as Buddhist and Jain schools which were popular at the time when Abhinava Gupta was composing his work so we could really feel into the context in which this profound spiritual tradition has its being. Having already studied Sāmkhya at some length in previous classes, I intended to take up the classical Yoga system of Patañjali in today's class.

But then I realized that when we say "yoga", these days, what comes to mind is "modern postural yoga" which has much more to do with the Post Classical Tantrik tradition known as Hatha Yoga founded by the Nath sampradaya than it does with Patañjali's tradition. So I took the opportunity to discuss just how Hatha Yoga fits into the Tantrik world and how it creates our modern understanding of yoga in an attempt to compare and contrast the two different uses of the word "yoga". We talk a little bit at the end about Swami Vivekananda's seminal "Raja Yoga" which I argue is, although certainly a commentary on the Yoga Sūtra, a more syncretic text dealing with Advaita Vedanta and Tantrik Shaivism than with Yoga proper, as per Patañjali's transmission. 

And also since today is the auspicious day of Varalakshmī Vratam, I thought it would be good to go over the Kamalā Devī Dhyāna mantra: 

न्त्या काञ्चनसन्निभां हिमगिरिप्रख्यैश्चतुर्भिर्गजैर्
हस्तोत्क्षिप्तहिरण्मयामृतघटैरासिच्यमानां श्रियम् ॥
विभ्राणं वरमब्जयुग्ममभयं हस्तैः किरीटोज्ज्वलां ।
क्षोमाबद्धनितम्बबिम्बललितां वन्देऽरविन्दस्थिताम् ॥

kāntyā kāñcanasannibhāṃ himagiriprakhyaiścaturbhirgajair
hastotkṣiptahiraṇmayāmṛtaghaṭairāsicyamānāṃ śriyam ॥
vibhrāṇaṃ varamabjayugmamabhayaṃ hastaiḥ kirīṭojjvalāṃ ।
kṣomābaddhanitambabimbalalitāṃ vande'ravindasthitām ॥

Beautiful like gold, bathed by the golden nectar poured from four pitchers from the four trunks of four elephants, she is the Goddess Srī who holds a pair of lotuses in her two hands and with her other two hands shows the vara (boon giving) and the abhaya (fearlessness) mūdras whose head is shining with the splendour of a bejeweled crown whose lovely round hips are raimented in linen/silk...I worship that Lalitā, that playful Goddess who abides in the lotus. 

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