The hatha yogi should live alone in a hermitage and practise in a place the length of a bow (one and a half meters), where there is no hazard from rocks, fire or water, and which is in a well-administered and virtuous kingdom (nation or town) where good alms can be easily attained.
- Hatha Yoga Pradipika 1.12 (Muktibhodananda)
The practical notion of this verse is that, for the spiritual aspirant or yoga practitioner, environment matters. One’s home should be simple and clean, with abundant access to silence and seclusion. The local community should be supportive of spiritual practice, and one should not have to work too arduously simply to be fed and housed. In the modern world, this can be tricky. Often times, the edge of cities are excellent places to deepen the practice of hatha yoga: the air is clean, the pollution and noise of the city is far away; and yet the city’s resources are not so far off as to make getting supplies and maintaining community overly burdensome.
- Hatha Yoga Pradipika 1.12 (Muktibhodananda)
The practical notion of this verse is that, for the spiritual aspirant or yoga practitioner, environment matters. One’s home should be simple and clean, with abundant access to silence and seclusion. The local community should be supportive of spiritual practice, and one should not have to work too arduously simply to be fed and housed. In the modern world, this can be tricky. Often times, the edge of cities are excellent places to deepen the practice of hatha yoga: the air is clean, the pollution and noise of the city is far away; and yet the city’s resources are not so far off as to make getting supplies and maintaining community overly burdensome.