Hatha Yoga (asana) was developed over thousands of years by the yogis as a way to build and enhance the vajra (indestructible) body. The practice of Hatha Yoga purifies and strengthens the physical form, focuses the mind, and opens the energetic pathways of the body that have been obstructed by the effects of physical or emotional trauma. As these blockages are dissolved through sustained practice, stress, fear, disease and dysfunction are released from the many layers of body and mind. This allows for a revealing of the natural state of health, wholeness, connection and clarity from which the vajra body arises. When the Hatha yoga practice is interwoven with the divine vibrations of mantra, the body and mind are attuned to the nadam, the all-encompassing sound or the "music of the spheres." It is this sensitization of energy that calibrates the body to non-duality, strenghtening it to hold energetic movement toward enlightenment.

The weaving of asana and mantra in a specific way opens the koshas, or layers of the body/mind, to fully experience or taste the "rasa" or essence of emotional moods. Each of the 16 rasas is a divine play enacted through love, pleasure and beauty. Touching each rasa is deeply personal and needs to be experienced directly and fully to elevate consciousness. The practitioner chooses to move toward a higher level of energy and understanding by fully experiencing the rasas. As different realms of play are explored through each rasa, samsaras are deconstructed in a very practical and beautiful way. Each rasa awakens something different in us, and lures us to open more deeply to this deconstruction.

The vibrations of the sixteen rasas are held by the vowels of the Sanskrit alphabet. The movement, or Shakti, in the universe manifests in the sounds of the vowels. The consonants of the alphabet hold the space of Shiva, through which this movement of Shakti dances. Together, the sonic vibration of the sanskrit alphabet holds the totality of consciousness; the differentiated and undifferentiated, knowledge and action, movement and light. This dance of totality brings deep stillness to great light, then brings light back to stillness. This love play between emptiness and fullness brings the union or experience of "oneness" that is totality.

When we integrate and explore the rasas in the asana practice, we choose to follow the movements of Shakti back to their sources in our body. As we do this, we liberate particular energies that are obstructed in each of these flows or movements of consciousness, returning form to the formless. The way the energies come together in Sanskrit sound causes the world of form to manifest, resulting in experience. And it is desire that holds the world of form and formless together.

The use of mantra and sanskrit during asana opens the energetic field of the body and manifests the form. When the rasa is introduced, a resonance is created in the practitioner's brain. The practitioner lets whatever arises during the flow of asana, rasa, and mantra to arise. Blocked energies, hidden places, and identities will all be brought to light through the vibrations and movements of these practices if the rasa is to be experienced fully. Patterns of thoughts or reactivities are mostly held in (a)specific kosha or koshas for each rasa, so energy is directed specifically to the kosha/s that resonate wth that rasa through the choice of asana and mantra. This clears distortions that do not allow for complete immersion in each rasa. The aim of the practice is to develop a relationship or taste of each specific rasa, and therefore be enticed to explore and open more deeply to each rasa and its revealing of the essence of that particular aspect of self.