Ghosh's 84 Asanas &
Tony's Yoga Challenge^® series

Physical culture hatha yoga originates from a system codified around the 10th century AD, by Yogi Matsyendranath, founder of the Nath cult.

Yogi Matsyendranath is regarded as the first human teacher of hatha yoga. His chief disciple, Gorakhnath, was guru to Yogi Swatmarama, author of the Hatha Yoga Pradipikas.

Unlike Buddhist and Jain scriptures, and Pantanjali’s Yoga Sutras, the Hatha Yoga Pradipika does not impose yamas and niyamas (self-control, rules of conduct and observances). Yogi Swatmarama considered them to be more religious than spiritual. He believed that trying to follow yamas and niyamas created more mental stress than peace of mind. The Hatha Yoga Pradipika advocates discipline and purification of the body through hatha yoga, which will develop self-discipline and self-control and, ultimately, induce natural spiritual development.

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Tony's teacher, Bikram Choudhury, trained at Ghosh’s College of Physical Education in the 1950's and 60's, then was sent to Japan and the United States where he established the Yoga College of India.

Bishnu Ghosh, youngest brother of Paramhansa Yogananda, founded Ghosh's College of Physical Education in 1923, while attending college. In 1917, he was one of the first seven students enrolled in Yogananda's Ranchi School for boys where he learned the Yogoda system, including the 84 hatha yoga asanas that would become the foundation of his physical culture program. The system, codified by Yogananda for the health and fitness of his young students, "combines the basic laws utilized by the ancient Yogis with the discoveries of modern physiological science." More about Bishnu HERE.

Yogananda’s teacher, Sri Yukteswar, author of The Holy Science, was a disciple of Lahiri Mahasaya, his parents' guru, the first non-sadhu initiated by Babaji Nagaraj, a “sadhu” who rediscoverd and clarified the technique after it had been lost in the Dark Ages.” It was a revival of the same science Krishna passed to Arjuna millenniums ago and, later, known to Patanjali who wrote, “Kriya Yoga consists of body discipline, mental control and meditating on Aum”.