Alakh Niranjan

Alakh Niranjan

the characteristics of God and the Self, known as the Atman. Alakh means "sightless" and niranjan means "spotfree". Niranjan is another name of Lord Shiva.

Alakh Niranjan

Traditionally, Lord Shiva (आदिनाथ) is credited with propounding hatha yoga. It is said that on a lonely island, assuming nobody else would hear him, he gave the knowledge of hatha yoga to Goddess Parvati, but a fish heard the entire discour...se, remaining still throughout. Lord Shiva took mercy on the fish (Matsya) and made him a siddha, who came to be known as Matsyendranaatha. Matsyendranaatha taught hatha yoga to Chaurangi, a limbless man who was given hands and feet by Matsyendranaatha just by looking at him. Hatha Yoga Pradipika mentions Adi Natha, Matsyendranath, Gorakshanath and many other yogis who became famous hatha yogis.

Hatha yoga, pronounced [ˈɦəʈʰə] in Hindi, is also known as hatha vidya or the "science of hatha" yoga. The word hatha comes from combining the two Sanskrit terms "ha" meaning sun and "tha" meaning moon. The word "ha" refers to the solar nad...i (pingala) in the subtle body and "tha" the lunar channel (ida). However, when the two components of the word are placed together, "hatha" means "forceful", implying that powerful work must be done to purify the body. Yoga means to yoke, or to join two things together, hence hatha yoga is meant to join together sun (masculine, active) energy with the moon (feminine, receptive) energy, thus producing balance and greater power in an individual