Shatkarma: The Cleansing Practices Hatha Yoga Said You Had to Do First

Most yoga teachers have heard of at least one or two of the Shat Kriyas — maybe you've practiced jala neti, maybe you've taught kapalabhati. But the full picture of what these six techniques actually are, where they come from, and why the Hatha Yoga Pradipika places them before pranayama is a conversation the modern yoga world rarely has with any rigor. In this episode, Aru goes deep into the Shatkarma — the six cleansing practices of Hatha Yoga — drawing directly from the Hatha Yoga Pradipika and the Gheranda Samhita to unpack what these techniques were actually built to do, and why "yogic detox" is one of the least accurate ways to describe them.

This is not a beginner overview. This is the episode for teachers, trainees, and serious practitioners who want to understand the architecture of Hatha Yoga — why the body had to be cleared before the breath could be regulated, what the texts say about each technique specifically, and where modern science has quietly caught up to practices that are at least six hundred years old on paper, and likely much older.

Episode Highlights:

• What Shat Karma actually means — Sanskrit breakdown of the term and each of the six kriyas
• The historical context: Swatmarama's Hatha Yoga Pradipika (15th c.) vs. Gheranda Samhita (17th c.) and how they differ in their treatment of Shatkarma
• Why Swatmarama places the six kriyas before pranayama — and what that sequencing tells you about the entire logic of Hatha Yoga
• The difference between "cleansing for wellness" and "removing a specific obstruction so practice can go deeper"
• A full breakdown of all six — Neti, Dhauti, Basti, Trataka, Nauli, and Kapalabhati — with Sanskrit etymology, traditional technique, and purpose
• What modern research actually says (and where it goes quiet)
• Why Trataka is the only kriya that isn't physically invasive — and why that makes it the most misunderstood of the six
• Basti: why it's the most prerequisite-dependent kriya, and why almost no one can do it traditionally
• The two texts don't list the six in the same order — and why that sequencing difference matters more than it looks

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Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:00

Welcome to episode 228 of the Let's Talk Yoga Podcast. I'm your host, Arundadi, and we are taking another deep dive into a fascinating topic in this episode. But before I get nerdy about the special topic that we're doing a deep dive on today, I wanted to take a moment to remind you of two things. September 26th to October 3rd, I am running an international yoga retreat in southern Italy. Now we do have a few more spots available if you want to come in last minute and spend a whole week with us. It's called Prana and Presence, and it's going to be a wonderful week of being in Sangha with like-minded people, studying yoga. It's like going back to Yoga Shala, enjoying the Southern Italy sun, some organic food, and just feeling like we've hit this giant pause on everything to reconnect with ourselves. Now, I probably will not be doing this again, so I really hope that you will join me this year. It's September 26th to October 3rd. And even if you are not gonna join me, go ahead and explore the details. You might be pleasantly surprised to see how affordable this retreat is compared to some other retreats out there. And I've always said this I do some of my best work in person. So if you get a lot of value from our online trainings, from this podcast, from some other avenue like our blogs or YouTube channel, then know that in person is just a much deeper, richer, and personalized experience. And my second update is simply this. I hope you are on my monthly newsletter. Another one is going out at the start of this new month in July. And essentially, we just compile everything for you in one spot on the newsletter. So all the podcast episodes from this month, all the YouTube videos that I've released in the previous month, as well as any upcoming trainings. Sometimes we send out curated blog posts that are written. We've written some new blog posts. So instead of you going and searching everywhere on the internet for it, it lands in your inbox. Okay, I believe by the time you hear this, the July edition would have just dropped. But you can always join us for the next one. And the links for everything are in the podcast description. I have a very special topic for you on the podcast today. But before that, I want to share a quick story. About five and a half years ago, I went out into my backyard and I shot a YouTube video because honestly, I was running out of time and ideas, and I thought this would be a nice one to put out. Today, that video has made my channel viral. It has a million and a half views when I last checked. And that video is literally me pouring lukewarm saline water from one nostril out through the other. That video is titled Jala Neti Kriya for Beginners. And that video still gets me thousands of comments and engagement, and it changed the trajectory of my YouTube channel. And it was just a naive video I put out in my backyard with water dripping out of my nostrils. And the reason I'm telling you this story is because today you and I are diving deep into understanding the six cleansing techniques that exist in yoga. I'm gonna give you an overview as well as so many things from history, origin, context, which books these are found in. What are these six techniques? Which one should we reach for? Why do we need them? Where do they come in our yoga life? What about us as teachers? How do we reach out to these? And so much more. So let's jump in. Hi everyone, I'm Arundhati, and you've just tuned in to the Let's Talk Yoga Podcast, your ultimate online destination for learning about yoga. Whether you're a seasoned yoga teacher or a curious yoga student, there's something for you here. Let this podcast be your voice with yoga school. Through this podcast, I intend to create a space for you, the yoga student and yoga teacher, to learn about yoga. Think of this as your online yoga school free teacher training coming to you every week. So grab your cup of chai and let's jump in. Welcome to your introduction to the six cleansing techniques that exist in yoga. Now, these six cleansing techniques are actually called Shat kriya or Shat Karma. Shack means six, like the number six. There are six of these. Kriya or karma is action. So six actions that the yogis recommend you take when you are practicing yoga. Now remember this. There are these are six actions. They are not just mere techniques and they are not tips, they are not hacks, they are not a wellness detox. They are in fact a very integral part of a specific moment in practice, which I'll explain later. We can trace these six chskriyas all the way back to Swami Svatma Rama's Hata Yoga Pradipika. And it's not that Swami Swan Rama created this. Pretty much like Maharishi Patanjali, he codified practices that were already existing, practices that could be traced way back. So he essentially, like Maharishi Patanjali did for the Yoga Sutras, he codified them, put them in an order, gave some clarity, gave a little bit of context in the Hata Yoga Pradipika. So these six cleansing techniques belong to the Hata Yoga lineage and can be traced back to two main texts, the Hata Yoga Pradipika as well as the Gairanda Samhita. Okay. The Giranda Samhita was written about two centuries later and was attributed to Sage Gairanda, which kind of goes a little deeper into the mechanics of these cleansing techniques. Think of it as if the Hata Yoga Pradipika gave you a brief instruction and the philosophy of the cleansing. The Giranda Samhita gave you something closer to a deep manual of how to do some of these things. Okay, in the Giranda Samhita, the body is considered to be the vessel, the ghata, and it is about cleansing this vessel before you do more subtle practices. And Swami Rama places these cleansing techniques, these kriyas, right before pranayama. And that is a very important thing for you to know. And you know I am a pranayama nerd, I don't have to tell you that uh anymore. I think that's pretty established, but but Swami Swatma Rama places this after Asana and before pranayama. Okay. The premise being if you picked up an old water bottle, okay, and I'm just using a water bottle as an ex as an example, or you picked up an old vessel or a utensil, and you want to think of your body like that. Your body is this vessel, and you're not just going to put things into it. You would clean the vessel, you would remove any impurities. So that's what these cleansing techniques are doing. They're removing impurities before something very refined through pranayama is put into that container. I hope that makes sense. It's really potent. The reason why these cleansing techniques exist is because we want to remove excess kuffa, okay, excess mucus in the body. And that itself should tell you right there that not everybody needs to do cleansing practices. If you are someone who does not have excess mucus, excess kuffa in your body, chances are you probably do not need to do these practices regularly. Or on the other hand, if you are someone who has a lot of this excess kuffa in your body, then you probably will need to do some of these techniques more often than others. So these techniques are, and many things in yoga, they are not one size fits all. Just because you saw this YouTube video that is viral of somebody doing jalaniti doesn't mean you probably need jalaniti. It comes down to understanding what is going on in your constitution. That is why yoga and Ayurveda are sister sciences, and then reaching to certain practices, tools, and techniques. So the intention of these six cleansing techniques is simply this to remove excess mucus, to remove excess kaffa, to cleanse the vessel that is the body, so you can put in something very refined through pranayama. Now there are six cleansing techniques that I will explain to you in this episode. I have also done personally most of these cleansing techniques, if not all of them, and I will tell you a little bit of context, background, contraindications that you should know. If you hear any technique in here that you want me to do a solo episode, like a deeper dive, then just let me know and I am happy to create another deep dive. In fact, each of these cleansing techniques can become an entire episode by themselves. So let's start with how the Hata Yoga Pradipika has laid these out. In fact, there is a difference in the order between Hata Yoga Pradipika and Gheranda Samhita, and I'll tell you why after I finish explaining the six techniques. The first technique, the first cleansing practice that exists in the Hata Yoga tradition is the practice of neti. Neti means nasal cleansing. The word neti simply means leading or guiding. Make sure you hear that. The word neti means leading or guiding. There are two types of neti there is jalaneti and sutraneti. Okay. Under nasal cleansing, there are two types: jalaneti and sutraneti. Jalaneti is the more beginner-friendly, pretty much easily accessible to most people. And in English, jala means water. Okay. Neti is leading or guiding. Kriya is cleansing. So jala neti kriya is nasal passage cleansing or nasal irrigation. The one thing it is not is it is not netipot. In America, everybody calls jala neti kriya netipot. Netipot pretty much refers to the actual pot itself. Okay. So when you want to describe, explain, or name the practice, you say jalaneti kriya in any language, or you say nasal irrigation if you're using English language to convey this technique. Now, essentially, if I simplify this, it is lukewarm saline water that you pour through one nostril and it's supposed to cross over through the bridge of the nose and come out through the other nostril. It is as simple as that. Okay, and you do both sides several times till your nasal membranes and passages are clear of mucus. Now, there are many small things to talk about, Jalaneti. Okay, there is a specific temperature of the water, there is a proportion of salt, there is a number of repetitions you have to do based on who's practicing. There is also a pre-prep. Like how do you prep the body? Something that gets lost in modern yoga is there is for all these six kriyas, there is a protocol. There is a protocol before the practice and there is a protocol after the practice. It's and that's why you don't find some of these details in the textbooks. Because you've heard me say this before. Not all of yoga is captured in books. That's why the teacher is the medium, the teacher is the filter. So if we are yoga teachers who only read books and teach yoga, we have lost a lot of wisdom that exists in the tradition. So a teacher is meant to stand there and guide you through these techniques, take you through the pre-protocol, the post-practice protocol. So that way you are not just winging it with very little knowledge of how these are done. Okay. So lukewarm saline water, need a neti pot, and I recommend a regular neti pot, not one of those fancy squeezy bottles. You also need a little bit of salt. There is proportions for the water and the salt, the temperature of the water, and so on. Okay. So jalaneti has to be done in a certain way. We often do this at Aham Yoga. We do a summer Jalaneti Kriya class every year. But if you do not live near Aham Yoga, then we do have the YouTube video, a detailed blog post, and we'll link all of that in our show notes so you can actually watch this. But if you are in my courses, this is something we talk about often. It is an easy practice. The first time you do it, it feels like it's a little intimidating, which is why you have to do it with a teacher who can take you through that protocol, who can explain the technique, the head position, the twist of the body, the tilt of the elbow, the tilt of the head, how high the elbow should go, what happens if the water is coming out through the mouth, what happens if the water goes towards the head? All of these things are things that the teacher can guide you. So Jalanethikria is one of those practices that has crossed over into modern medicine. In fact, a lot of doctors will now recommend nasal irrigation as a way to combat allergies, sinuses, and excess mucus. So there is tremendous research about Jala Nethikriya, and I'm not going to spend time here reading out research papers for you, but you can just simply look up the research that exists about Jala Neti kriya. It's something the yogis knew for hundreds of years before modern science caught up. The second type of neti cleansing is sutra neti. Now the word sutra is a thread. Okay. And in this particular cleansing in Hata Yoga, you're referring to a rubber catheter in modern times, a rubber catheter. Back in the day, a thick string with coating of wax. Okay. But in modern day, rubber catheter. And you know how we have dental flossing? The easiest way for me to explain this to you is to call it nasal flossing. Now, I'm hoping you will not cringe when you hear this because a lot of these are very deep practices and something that you and I are not used to. So essentially, you take the rubber catheter, and I do not recommend you do this at home. And I do not recommend you learn any of these kriyas without a teacher, okay? Without a teacher who has done them many times over and has learnt it in person from another teacher from the tradition because they know how to course correct. Now, in Sutra Neti, you take a rubber catheter, and I hope you're watching me do this on YouTube, but you take a rubber catheter, you insert it through one nostril, and they'll even tell you which nostril a skilled teacher will. You take it through one nostril, it goes all the way to the back of the nose, and then it goes down into the throat and mouth cavity, and then you reach. Again, I'm doing this and I'm hoping you're seeing this on YouTube. You reach with your fingers of the other hand and you reach the back of your mouth and you grab the catheter with the other hand, and then you guide it out of your mouth. And then you're now holding the two strings. And I do have a picture of me doing Sutraneti. I will make sure you never see that. But and then you just, and I'm hoping you see this motion that I'm doing on YouTube, you go back and forth, and essentially essentially you are cleaning that entire passage. Okay, it's like plumbing for your pipes in many ways. Okay. And the hardest part of this practice is the mental barrier that you will encounter. But the other hard part of this practice is just the gag reflex. When you have to stick your hand down into your mouth, okay, that's that gag reflex. Okay. I have I have done jalaneti many times, and I have done sutraneti a couple of times. I do not recommend you do this on your own. It is something that must be learned in the presence and guidance of a very skilled Sutraneti teacher. It is harder than Jalaneti, but once you understand how to do it, it is a wonderful practice. Now, you do these practices based on how much you need them. Okay. Jalaneti depends on how much mucus you have. Same thing with Sutraneti. You would never do both of these practices at the same time. You would do either or. Sutraneti is more complex, more involved, and I would not do it as often as I would do Jalaneti. Okay. Now, needless to say, there are contraindications, and you would always check in with a teacher before doing some of this. For example, pregnancy, menstruation, high blood pressure, migraines, headaches, eye and ear pressure issues, heart conditions, okay, GI tract issues, all of these things are things we consider, and then some others when we look at these conditions. So that is the first cleansing practice. It is called neti, nasal cleansing, and can be done with jala or sutra, with water or with rubber catheter. There are a few other substitutes for jala neti, but if you are interested, I'll do another deep dive someday and explain more nuances of these two practices. Now, the second cleansing technique that exists in yoga is called dhauti. Okay. Dhoti literally means internal cleansing. The yogis did not think any part of us was gross. There was no bias, okay, for all our own excretions, for all the things that leave our body, they did not think anything was unclean. It was all a part of you. So they cleansed every opening in different ways in these kriyas. So dhauti comes from the root word dhaw, which means to wash or to shake clean. Okay. And in the root sense, we're using a washing cloth. Okay. Now don't think of it as a regular modern-day washing cloth. I there are there's context to this, but let me explain what dhauti is. Okay, Vaman Dhawti is essentially where you take a very thin muslin cloth. Again, I do not recommend you do this. Okay, this is the only cleansing technique that I have not practiced. You you take this thin muslin cloth and then you put it into your mouth, and then you take it down into your throat. Again, if you're seeing this on YouTube, it'll make sense to you. You take it down into your throat and it goes down and you cleanse your digestive tract, your upper digestive tract. Okay. So essentially you take this down, and it's very i I've I've seen some people do this when I lived in India, but you take it down, down, down, down, down, all the way down into your upper digestive tract. Okay. And then you gotta pull it out. And I I wish I could see the faces you are making at this point, but you gotta pull it out. And it's supposed to clean your, it's like those drain things we use to clean our drains here to get clogged hair and other gunk out of the drainage. It's similar, okay? It's just it sounds gross and intimidating for some of us because it is intimidating to do things like this, which is why it's not recommended you practice this on your own. Okay. So that is digestive tract cleansing. It's the upper digestive tract cleansing. There is another cleansing which is for lower digestive tract cleansing, and I will talk about that later. Okay. So that is dhauti. Okay. I believe it is one of the harder ones in the six cleansing techniques that exist in uh yoga. So I would suggest you leave that aside. Not everything in yoga needs to be meddled with. So you can just know some things and put them aside. And this it is one of those practices. The third cleansing technique is basti. Okay, bhasti is the English word I can think of is a yoga, a yogic anima. Okay, let's call it that. A yogic anima. Basti literally means bladder, and historically it is referring to the animal bladder, like from a goat or from a cow that was used to contain water for irrigation and agriculture. And somehow that word has migrated both into yoga and Ayurveda vocabulary, and it's kind of used to indicate the lower abdomen. There are two types of bhasti that are available jala bhasti and another dry form of bhasti. Now, essentially, this according to the original text, this was you going to uh and remember yoga is very old. This was you going to a river and squatting in the river and drawing up water, clean water, through your colon without any external pressure. Okay, so remember I said dhauti was to cleanse the upper digestive tract, bhasti is to cleanse the lower digestive tract. Okay, and you would be using a combination of Udhyana Bandha and a few other things, and you would draw that water up because the yogis didn't think any of our openings were impure. You draw the water up, you cleanse the lower digestive tract, okay, and you do that till that entire lower digestive tract is cleansed. In fact, till today, if you go to some Ayurveda shalas or some of these Uber luxury spas, they will do an enema for you, okay, which is nothing but basti. You will also notice this exists in some medical practices, but it is basti, is that yogic anima? There's another basti which is thula basti, if I'm not wrong, and that is the dry basti. It's considered to be more of um an advanced practice, and I won't be going too much into it because I myself have not uh I do not have experience with thula basti, so I cannot speak to it. But it is essentially where abdominal muscles are used to draw up air instead of water, and there's no immersion involved, and it is considered. Considerably more advanced and more nuanced. Okay. And I have only read about it. I haven't met anybody who has done Sthulabasti. The Hata Yoga Pradipika gives the instruction in a single verse. It will say, sit in Utkatasana in navel deep water, insert a tube into your behind and contract. And a bamboo tube was used back in the day. I'm sure today, with our medical advances, things have evolved since then. Okay. Now, the the Hata Yoga Pradipika is very direct. If you just heard the way I read it, that's how it is in the Hata Yoga Pradipika. Okay. So it's just an indication, it's just a marker on a map. It is not the entire direction. Because I believe, I believe, Swami Swatmarama thought that you are learning yoga always with the guidance of a skilled teacher. Okay. So think of it this way Dhauti, which was the upper tract cleansing, it starts something and bhasti finishes it. Okay. So that's how you get the full digestive tract fully cleansed. So we get to remove undigested material, trapped gas, residual toxins that exist or arma that exists in the body. Okay. And when you do it this way, your body feels so live, so, so replenished, rejuvenated. I cannot explain to you if you have not done these cleansing techniques. You you probably will not understand. It is, it is not like how you feel after a yoga practice or how you feel after a massage. It is much more. And it is a kind of it is a kind of replenishment that lasts for a couple of days after you finish the practice. So if these practices are done well, they're extremely potent and they can really change how you experience your body and your awareness of that body. So those are the first three cleansing practices: Jalaneti Sutraneti, Dhawti, upper tract cleansing, upper digestive tract cleansing, and bhasti, which is lower digestive tract cleansing. The fourth cleansing practice is called Trataka. Trataka is another simple yogic practice that exists in the Shakriyas. Trataka is, it seems like it's eye exercise, but it's not. Okay. The practice of Trataka is simply gazing at one point, and usually a candle flame is used, and teachers will tell you to look at different points in the candle flame for certain outcomes. But you have to look at that candle flame without blinking your eyes till you have tears coming out of your eyes. Okay. So that's like the beginner thrataka. The the external gaze is to keep that focus and concentration. Okay. The second, second part of it is where the tears flow. It's think of it as a metaphor for impurities leaving your body. And then the third and more advanced one is you close your eyes after a long period of gazing at that candle flame and you create the mental image at your eyebrow center. So it's not just a physiological clearing or or purification, but that internal image of that candle flame is supposed to be your practice of dharana, okay, your practice of concentration. So this particular practice involves a kriya, okay, where you're taking out your mental impurities, you are going from being scattered and and and restless in your mind to going into a state of ekagrata, which is that one-pointed focus which will help you in dharana. Dharana is the sixth limb of yoga, which takes you towards dhyana, which is meditation. Dhyana is a state, dharana is a practice. So the Giranda Samhita names the object of gaze as Sukshama Lakshya. Okay, Sukshma Lakshya. Sukshma, subtle lakshya, either to look or target. Okay, and while the candle flame is the most practiced form, the Gheranda Samhita, which is centuries old, will also tell you to look at the moon, the rising sun on the horizon, a black dot against a white surface. This is also used in many yogashalas, a yantra or even a space between your eyebrow center, your third eye. The last one, the Bru Madhya Trataka, gazing at the Agna point, is described as stimulating both the optic and olfactory nerves simultaneously, activating autonomic nervous system directly. There is also subpranic logic to this. Now you know we've discussed the panchapranas, the pancha vayus before. Okay, the five vayus. Go listen to the episode on the subtle body if you are unfamiliar with that. There are also lesser known pranas in the body. And one of them is this. What you see me doing right here on this YouTube channel is blinking the eyes. The blink of the eyes is kurma vayu. Okay, the energy that makes you blink your eyes. And I really hope I'm not losing you on this episode because I'm going pretty deep into some of these things. The blinking of the eye, when you control that, you're controlling a prana called the kurma vayu. Okay. And the practice produces doing this stillness of not blinking your eyes, produces stillness in the nervous system, not just stillness in the eyes. The eyes and the mind say share the same restlessness. At least according to Swatma Rama, the eyes and the mind share the same restlessness. So when one stops moving, so does the other. Swatma Rama says Trataka eradicates eye diseases, fatigue, and just inertia, tamas. Okay, that quality of heaviness. And he tells you, and and it shows you what your real obstruction is, and usually that is the mind, whatever is behind your eyes. So that is the fourth kriya, and that is called Trataka. It's a very common one. If you've gone to like traditional yoga schools, you would have learned some amount of Trataka. If not, maybe you and I will sit in Italy one day and practice a little bit of Trataka. The fifth cleansing technique I want to talk about is nauli. Nauli means abdomen churning or abdominal churning. The word nao means boat, okay? And the image embedded here is the rolling and the churning motion of the boat on water that is rocked by waves. So, which is exactly what this practice is. If you've ever watched somebody practice nauli, and I hope you have, you have this person bent over, standing kneel with their hands on their thighs, and they move the muscles in their abdomen. So it looks like waves moving or this snake moving, and they have different movements that they do, and it's meant to massage all the abdominal organs. Okay, it looks positively magical the first time you see it. And when you try to do it, it takes months and years to learn because it is a very deep practice. The practitioner essentially exhales completely, you lock the breath out, you isolate and roll your rectus abdominis around in a certain way, okay? Left, right, center, and in that churning motion, which kind of makes it it look like it should not be anatomically possible, but it is okay. It's quite a wonder. And I have I have done Nauli back in the days when I practiced Tashtanga Vinyasa type of asana practice. I have practiced Naoli, but it's not something I have kept up with. Okay. But the context was simply this internal massage, internal massage of your organs, stimulating digestive fire, your jatara agni, and also according to some lineages, awakening the energy at the naval center. Okay. But we don't have too much literature on Nauli. So, and and there is no, it's probably one of the least studied cleansing practices, from my understanding. And it's also something that is really hard to learn on your own, and you need to learn it with a teacher. Okay. My only reservation with Naoli is on a woman's body, sometimes with our how our reproductive organs are, how our hormones work. This is a practice that I would question how much anyone with a woman's body would need. Okay. And lastly, the sixth cleansing technique is kapala bhati. Kapala bhati is a pranayama and a kriya. Does that make sense? Kapala Bhati has double duty. Okay, pranayama as well as a kriya. Now the word kapala literally means skull, the bone on the front of the forehead. Okay, so in many ways, it is referring to the forehead or at least the front of the skull. And bhati means shining, illuminating. So in English, Kapala Bhati is often in Indian English is referred to as shining skull breath. And while that sounds odd, I just like to use all the original names for these practices. So I call it Kapala Bhati in any class, anywhere in the world. Kapala Bhati is also one of the more researched cleansing practices as well as a pranyama practice. And it is something most people have tried in some capacity if they've done deeper yoga practices. Okay, the research on this is pretty substantial, right? From the Vanaras Hindu University to many other people have done multiple studies on the effects of Kapala Bhati, and there are many different layers to it. Okay, but I'm not going to go into the medical side of Kapala Bhati. What I want you to understand is simply this the practice of Kapala Bhati is meant to cleanse the front of the uh the frontal lobe of the brain. Okay, and when you cleanse that, you have certain outcomes like better concentration, better focus. You don't have that midday crash. You feel like your eyes are brighter, you feel lighter, you have less sinuses, you feel more alert throughout the day. There is more enhanced clarity. Some people say you even look more youthful when you do a lot of kapalabhati. So if none of the other benefits entice you, maybe the youthfulness and the glow of that is something that draws us in, whatever it takes. Okay. So Kapala Bhati is the final cleansing practice. And as always, this practice does have contraindications as well. If you are a pranayama nerd and you're in my pranayama training, we'll be talking about Kapala Bhati shortly. But these are the six cleansing techniques that exist in the world of Hata Yoga. I wanted this episode to be a little shorter than what it turned out to be, but I want to say one last thing before we end this episode. The order, okay? So these techniques you can find them in the Gairanda Samhita, you can find them in the Hata Yoga Pradipika. And they are just turned around a little bit. For example, in the Hata Yoga, Swami Swatmarama puts it as dhawti first, basti next, neti, drataka, nauli, kapalabhati. Whereas in the Gairanda Samhita, you will notice dhati first, bhasti, neti, nawli, thrataka, and kapalabhati. So essentially, the only difference is between nauli and thrataka. Okay, they switch positions. It's a very small nuance in case you are interested. But Hata Yoga Pradipika treats uh Trataka as preceding advanced abdominal work, whereas Giranda Samhita puts the abdominal work first, preceding the concentrated gaze. So that's the only difference, okay, if you are a yoga nerd like I am. So that those are your six cleansing techniques that exist inside of Hata Yoga tradition. I would once again like to remind you that these have to be learned in the presence of a teacher who knows them, not somebody who heard this podcast and decided to teach them, but somebody who has practiced them, learned them from another person, and is able to handle anything that comes up as a result of these practices. Okay, so once again, I hope you enjoyed this deep dive of the six cleansing practices in yoga. I would love to know if you have practiced any of these before, what your experience was, what your questions are. And come find me. Come find me on Instagram at Let's Talk Yoga Podcast. I hope you are following that handle. We've been uh creating a separate podcast handle so we can directly interact with you. So when we drop the reel for this particular topic, I would love to hear it. Have you done Jala Neti, Sutraneti, Vamandhauti, Bhasti, Trataka, Kapalabhati? Where are you at in your cleansing journey? And remember, these are meant to be done before pranayama. There's more context. I wish I could tell you everything there is to know about all these cleansing techniques, but this would become a three-hour podcast at least. Okay, but please remember bringing you such nerdy yoga involves a lot of time on our end. Okay, this is a free resource. We do a lot of research. Like if you're seeing the YouTube video, you'll see me showing you the papers where with our notes, we spend a lot of time and put in a lot of thought on how this podcast shows up in your practice in your life. So please remember something as simple as a rating, a review, and sharing this with somebody else and rating it on multiple platforms. Apple, Spotify, YouTube. Wherever you can show us your love, it means a lot. Okay? This is episode 228. And I'm Arutati, signing off. I will see you next week. Until then, enjoy your practice. Bye bye.