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Types of yoga

This is an excerpt from Instructing Hatha Yoga 3rd Edition With HKPropel Access by Diane M. Ambrosini.

While yoga practices are oftentimes an amalgamation of various philosophies and practices, their main objective is generally the same—to seek out and attain some degree of connection to one’s true nature (samadhi), leading toward blissful enlightenment. There are four primary types of yoga practiced today: karma, bhakti, jnana, and raja.

• Karma [KAR-muh] yoga is the path of service through selfless action for the good of others without any attachment to the outcomes. Acts of karma yoga can include simple deeds, such as volunteerism and community service—offerings given with grace and kindness without any expectation of outcome or recognition. President Jimmy Carter and his wife Rosalynn are contemporary examples of karma yogis because they spent a considerable amount of time working tirelessly for the benefit of others all over the world. Unconditional service is a tradition in Hindu monasteries or ashrams [AAHSH-ruhms], where participants work to support the community by cooking, cleaning, and performing other essential tasks. Numerous yoga teacher training programs require candidates to practice karma yoga by providing free classes and other voluntary services to underprivileged populations.
• Bhakti [b-HUHK-tee] yoga cultivates the expression of love and devotion to the Divine through ritual. Forms of this path include prayer, chanting, singing, dancing, poetry, ceremony, and celebration. Bhakti yoga expresses a deep reverence and joy for life and the inherent divinity attached to it. As an example, bhakti yoga is practiced and shared in the uplifting music of renowned kirtan (devotional chant) vocalists Krishna Das, Snatam Kaur Khalsa, Benjy Wertheimer, and Wah!, to name but a few.
• Jnana [YAAH-nuh] yoga is the path of intellect and wisdom, and its components include the study of sacred texts, intellectual debates, philosophical discussion, and introspection. Socrates was a jnana yogi, as are modern-day yoga scholars such as David Frawley, Georg Feuerstein, Mark Singleton, and Professor Ravi Ravindra.
• Raja [RAAH-juh] yoga, also referred to as the royal path, is a journey of learning to transcend attachments to the body, ego, and intellect. This path is based on the teachings of Patanjali [pa-TAHN-jah-lee], a second-century Indian philosopher who is believed to have compiled the Yoga Sutras. Raja yoga integrates the three main yoga types just described—karma, bhakti, and jnana—together with the eight limbs, or stages, of yoga (for further discussion, see the sidebar titled The Eight Limbs of the Royal Path).

Hatha [HUH-tuh] yoga is a combination of two of the eight limbs of raja yoga, specifically, asana [AAH-suh-nuh], or physical movement, and pranayama [praah-naah-YAAH-muh], or breathwork, the third and fourth limbs, respectively (see figure 1.1 and the sidebar on the eight limbs). The limbs of hatha are what most modern yoga participants practice, particularly in Western society. The word hatha has two translations. The first is “sun and moon,” with ha meaning “sun energy” and tha meaning “moon energy.” Balancing the active ha and the more calming tha is the ultimate aim of hatha yoga practice. Hatha is also literally translated from Sanskrit as “forceful” (see figure 1.2) and can be found in the Hatha Yoga Pradipika [praah-DEE-PEE-kuh], which is thought to be the oldest text focused on the physical practices of hatha yoga. On a symbolic as well as a physical level, hatha refers to a balancing of energies or forces.

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