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Originally Posted by KP_Nepal
Guys, what is your perception towards yoga. is it just doing postures and breathing.
kaulantak peeth nepal
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Namaste and welcome to the forums. _/\_
My perception is there are
many branches of Yoga, with Hatha Yoga just being one minor variation.
There is Karma Yoga, Raja Yoga, Bhakti Yoga, Jnana Yoga and quite a few others.
Yoga means 'to yoke', 'to join' or to seek unity with our inner being/awareness through various physical, mental and emotional disciplines relating to our temperament, character and persuasion.
In many instances these branches of yoga can be combined and we can practice more than one.
For example, I practice Bhakti Yoga, Mantra Yoga and Laya Yoga combined.
As for pure Hatha Yoga, there are the postures (asanas) and also the breathing (pranayama) but there's also meditation (dhyan), concentration (dharana) and various purification rituals or kriyas (Yamas and Niyamas).
We can pretty much ascribe Patanjali's eight limbs to the whole practice of it:
https://www.yogajournal.com/practice/the-eight-limbs
With each asana (posture) there is the breathing into it, the holding of that posture for a specified time, the awareness/focus of how that posture affects the body, the breathing out and the releasing of that posture.
For each posture there needs to be a corresponding one in the opposite direction. For example, after doing a forward bending pose like paschimotanasana, a backward bending one like bhujangasana needs to take place.
There's a lot to go into about what Hatha Yoga entails in regards to the kriyas such as dhauti, neti, shankh prakshalana, nauli and various breathing techniques such as bhastrika, kapala bhati and anuloma viloma as well as all of the different physical postures involved.
I could go on about it all night, but I have given you enough to start off with.
All the best and again, welcome.
Om Namah Shivay