The Hatha Yoga Pradipika, chapter by chapter

What the title means

Haṭha means "force" in Monier-Williams' dictionary, and pradīpa a lamp; in book titles it means an explanation, a light thrown on a subject. The Haṭhapradīpikā, as its chapter endings call it, is "the little lamp on haṭha". Svātmārāma says why he lit it: people wander in "the darkness of too many opinions" and no longer know rāja yoga (1.3).

The popular explanation that ha is the sun and ṭha the moon does not come from this text. Jason Birch traces it to the Yogabīja, and notes that the "force" of haṭha refers to the forceful effect of its techniques, not to straining: the Pradīpikā itself warns against forcing the breath (2.15).

Who wrote it, and when

The author calls himself Svātmārāma and opens with a lineage of "great siddhas" beginning with Ādinātha (Śiva), Matsyendra and Gorakṣa (1.4-1.9). Scholars date the text to the fifteenth century; Birch gives this date as approximate, after Christian Bouy. It is a compilation: Svātmārāma drew on older works on several yogas, among them the Amṛtasiddhi, the Amanaskayoga and the Vivekamārtaṇḍa, and gathered them under the single name haṭha yoga. Judging by its many manuscripts and commentaries, Birch writes, his haṭha yoga grew in prominence and eclipsed many earlier yogas.

श्रीआदिनाथाय नमोऽस्तु तस्मै येनोपदिष्टा हठयोगविद्या । विभ्राजते प्रोन्नतराजयोगमारोढुमिच्छोरधिरोहिणीव ॥

śrī-ādi-nāthāya namo 'stu tasmai yenopadiṣṭā haṭha-yoga-vidyā | vibhrājate pronnata-rāja-yogam āroḍhum icchor adhirohiṇīva ||

Salutation to the glorious Ādinātha, who taught the science of haṭha yoga: it shines like a stairway for one who wishes to climb to the heights of rāja yoga.

Two numberings: GRETIL and Pancham Sinh

Most English readers meet the text through Pancham Sinh's translation (Allahabad; his introduction is dated January 1915). The Sanskrit e-text most scholars and websites quote is GRETIL's. The two editions do not always count verses the same way. All the verses quoted on this page carry the same number in both.

A longer version in ten chapters, with the Yogaprakāśikā commentary, was edited at Lonavla in 2001. On this site, a verse number without an edition is GRETIL's.

Chapter 1: the place, the rules and fifteen postures

The first teaching (upadeśa) sets the scene: a small hut in a solitary place, in a well-governed and peaceful land, with a small door and no holes or crevices (1.12-1.13). Six things ruin yoga: overeating, overexertion, too much talk, clinging to rules, the company of people and fickleness; six bring success: enthusiasm, boldness, perseverance, true knowledge, determination and leaving company (1.15-1.16). Then come ten restraints and ten observances, a longer list than Patañjali's five and five:

अहिंसा सत्यमस्तेयं ब्रह्मचर्यं क्षमा धृतिः । दयार्जवं मिताहारः शौचं चैव यमा दश ॥

ahiṃsā satyam asteyaṃ brahmacaryaṃ kṣamā dhṛtiḥ | dayārjavaṃ mitāhāraḥ śaucaṃ caiva yamā daśa ||

Non-harming, truthfulness, not stealing, chastity, patience, steadfastness, compassion, straightforwardness, moderate eating and purity: these are the ten restraints.

Āsana comes first "because it is the first limb of haṭha" and gives steadiness, health and lightness (1.19). Fifteen postures follow, most of them seated:

चतुरशीत्यासनानि शिवेन कथितानि च । तेभ्यश्चतुष्कमादाय सारभूतं ब्रवीम्यहम् ॥

caturaśīty āsanāni śivena kathitāni ca | tebhyaś catuṣkam ādāya sārabhūtaṃ bravīmy aham ||

Eighty-four postures were taught by Śiva. Of these I take four, the essential ones, and describe them.

The four are siddha, padma, siṃha and bhadra, and siddhāsana is the best of all (1.36-1.45). The chapter ends with moderate eating, food leaving a quarter of the stomach empty (1.60), a list of foods to avoid and to favour, and a promise addressed to everyone: young, old or very old, sick or weak, whoever practises succeeds (1.67). Several of these postures have their own page in our āsana chapter, with the verse that describes them.

Chapter 2: breath and the six cleansing acts

अथासने दृढे योगी वशी हितमिताशनः । गुरूपदिष्टमार्गेण प्राणायामान्समभ्यसेत् ॥

athāsane dṛḍhe yogī vaśī hita-mitāśanaḥ | gurūpadiṣṭa-mārgeṇa prāṇāyāmān samabhyaset ||

Once posture is firm, the yogi, master of himself, eating wholesome food in moderation, should practise prāṇāyāma along the path taught by the guru.

चले वाते चलं चित्तं निश्चले निश्चलं भवेत् । योगी स्थाणुत्वमाप्नोति ततो वायुं निरोधयेत् ॥

cale vāte calaṃ cittaṃ niścale niścalaṃ bhavet | yogī sthāṇutvam āpnoti tato vāyuṃ nirodhayet ||

When the breath moves, the mind moves; when the breath is still, the mind is still, and the yogi becomes as steady as a post. So one should restrain the breath.

यावद्वायुः स्थितो देहे तावज्जीवनमुच्यते । मरणं तस्य निष्क्रान्तिस्ततो वायुं निरोधयेत् ॥

yāvad vāyuḥ sthito dehe tāvaj jīvanam ucyate | maraṇaṃ tasya niṣkrāntis tato vāyuṃ nirodhayet ||

As long as the breath stays in the body, that is called life; death is its going out. So one should restrain the breath.

The first technique is the purification of the channels: in through one nostril, hold, out through the other, then the reverse, until "after three months" the channels are clean (2.7-2.10; see nāḍī śodhana). The text then lists the six cleansing acts, dhauti, basti, neti, trāṭaka, nauli, kapālabhāti (2.22), but only for people with an excess of fat or phlegm; others need not do them (2.21), and some teachers held that prāṇāyāma alone is enough (2.37). Our ṣaṭkarma page gives each one with its precautions. Then come the eight retentions:

सूर्यभेदनमुज्जायी सीत्कारी शीतली तथा । भस्त्रिका भ्रामरी मूर्च्छा प्लाविनीत्यष्टकुम्भकाः ॥

sūrya-bhedanam ujjāyī sītkārī śītalī tathā | bhastrikā bhrāmarī mūrcchā plāvinīty aṣṭa-kumbhakāḥ ||

Sūrya-bhedana, ujjāyī, sītkārī, śītalī, bhastrikā, bhrāmarī, mūrcchā and plāvinī: these are the eight kumbhakas.

The chapter closes on the bond between the two yogas that structures the whole book:

हठं विना राजयोगो राजयोगं विना हठः । न सिध्यति ततो युग्ममानिष्पत्तेः समभ्यसेत् ॥

haṭhaṃ vinā rāja-yogo rāja-yogaṃ vinā haṭhaḥ | na sidhyati tato yugmam āniṣpatteḥ samabhyaset ||

Without haṭha, rāja yoga does not succeed; without rāja yoga, haṭha does not succeed. So practise the two together until completion.

कुम्भकप्राणरोधान्ते कुर्याच्चित्तं निराश्रयम् । एवमभ्यासयोगेन राजयोगपदं व्रजेत् ॥

kumbhaka-prāṇa-rodhānte kuryāc cittaṃ nirāśrayam | evam abhyāsa-yogena rāja-yoga-padaṃ vrajet ||

At the end of the breath held in kumbhaka, let the mind rest on no support. Practising in this way, one reaches the state of rāja yoga.

Chapter 3: kuṇḍalinī and the ten mudrās

सशैलवनधात्रीणां यथाधारोऽहिनायकः । सर्वेषां योगतन्त्राणां तथाधारो हि कुण्डली ॥

sa-śaila-vana-dhātrīṇāṃ yathādhāro 'hi-nāyakaḥ | sarveṣāṃ yoga-tantrāṇāṃ tathādhāro hi kuṇḍalī ||

As the lord of serpents is the support of the earth with its mountains and forests, so Kuṇḍalī is the support of all the teachings of yoga.

When the sleeping goddess wakes "by the grace of the guru", the knots are pierced and the breath takes the central channel, which the text calls by seven names, from suṣumṇā to madhya-mārga, the middle path (3.2-3.4). To wake her, it teaches ten seals:

करणी विपरीताख्या वज्रोली शक्तिचालनम् । इदं हि मुद्रादशकं जरामरणनाशनम् ॥

karaṇī viparītākhyā vajrolī śakti-cālanam | idaṃ hi mudrā-daśakaṃ jarā-maraṇa-nāśanam ||

The practice called viparīta-karaṇī, vajrolī and śakti-cālana: this set of ten mudrās destroys old age and death.

The verse before (3.6) names the first seven: mahāmudrā, mahābandha, mahāvedha, khecarī, uḍḍīyāna, mūla-bandha and jālandhara. Read the promises as the claims of a fifteenth-century text, not as medicine. Some of these techniques are frankly radical: khecarī lengthens the tongue by cutting its frenum little by little (3.33-3.36), and vajrolī works on the urogenital tract. The text insists that the mudrās are learned from a teacher in the line of transmission, who is "the Lord himself in person" (3.129).

Chapter 4: samādhi and the inner sound

The last teaching gives sixteen names for one state: rāja yoga, samādhi, unmanī, manonmanī, laya, amanaska (no-mind), sahaja (the natural state), turyā, the fourth, and others (4.3-4.4). Its image is simple:

सलिले सैन्धवं यद्वत्साम्यं भजति योगतः । तथात्ममनसोरैक्यं समाधिरभिधीयते ॥

salile saindhavaṃ yadvat sāmyaṃ bhajati yogataḥ | tathātma-manasor aikyaṃ samādhir abhidhīyate ||

As salt dissolved in water becomes one with it, so the oneness of the self and the mind is called samādhi.

It then teaches śāmbhavī mudrā, attention turned inward while the open eyes look outward without blinking (4.36), and, at length, nādānusandhāna, following the inner sound, a method attributed to Gorakṣa for those who cannot grasp the truth by thought (4.65). Seated, the yogi listens in the right ear (4.67); the sound passes through four stages, ārambha, ghaṭa, paricaya, niṣpatti (4.69-4.77), from the ocean, thunder and kettledrums, through drums, conch and bell, to tinkling bells, the flute, the vīṇā and the humming of bees (4.85-4.86).

इन्द्रियाणां मनो नाथो मनोनाथस्तु मारुतः । मारुतस्य लयो नाथः स लयो नादमाश्रितः ॥

indriyāṇāṃ mano nātho manonāthas tu mārutaḥ | mārutasya layo nāthaḥ sa layo nādam āśritaḥ ||

The mind is lord of the senses; the breath is lord of the mind; absorption is lord of the breath, and that absorption rests on the inner sound.

The book ends sharply: as long as the breath has not entered the middle path, the vital essence (bindu) is not steady and reality does not arise in meditation as the natural state, "all talk of knowledge is hypocrisy and idle chatter" (4.114). The method is laid out on our nāda yoga page.

How to read it today

1. Read it as a historical manual. It promises the end of disease, old age and death; these are the claims of its time, not results tested by anyone.
2. Practise what is safe, with a teacher for the rest. Seated postures, nāḍī śodhana without long retentions, gentle bhrāmarī and listening to inner sound are within reach of most people.
3. Keep the order the text gives (1.58): āsana, then kumbhaka, then mudrā, then the inner sound.
4. Compare it with its neighbours: the Gheraṇḍa Saṃhitā has seven limbs and 32 postures, and hatha yoga today is a long way from both.

Free editions

• Sanskrit: GRETIL (Göttingen), plain text and HTML, four chapters. It has a few typing errors (for example dṛdhe for dṛḍhe in 2.1, yuvo for yuvā in 1.67; our quotations give the corrected reading), so check a printed edition for close study.
• English, public domain: Pancham Sinh's translation, on the Internet Archive (Digital Library of India scan and a later reprint).
• Protected: the Kaivalyadhama edition (Lonavla), Brahmānanda's Jyotsnā commentary edited at the Adyar Library (1972), and Swami Muktibodhananda's Light on Hatha Yoga (Bihar School of Yoga). Buy them; do not download pirated copies.

Our edition

Our book explains the Pradīpikā chapter by chapter, with 66 key verses in Devanāgarī, transliteration and our own translation, what the text teaches and what it only claims, and a gentle routine drawn from it that you can practise today.

Questions people ask

Sources

1. Svātmārāma, Haṭhayogapradīpikā, Sanskrit text, 4 upadeśas (GRETIL, University of Göttingen) checked October 17, 2026
2. The Hatha Yoga Pradipika, translated by Pancham Sinh (Allahabad; introduction dated 31 January 1915), Digital Library of India scan, Internet Archive checked October 17, 2026
3. The Hatha Yoga Pradipika, translated by Pancham Sinh (reprint), Internet Archive checked October 17, 2026
4. Jason Birch, The Meaning of haṭha in Early Haṭhayoga, Journal of the American Oriental Society 131.4 (2011), p. 527-554 checked October 17, 2026
5. Monier-Williams, Sanskrit-English Dictionary (1899), entries haṭha and pradīpa, Cologne Digital Sanskrit Dictionaries checked October 17, 2026

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