Hatha yoga does not begin with postures.
Open the Hatha Yoga Pradipika and the first chapter gives fifteen asanas, most of them seated. Open the Gheranda Samhita and asana does not appear until chapter two. What comes first, in Gheranda's text, is cleaning.
This ordering is easy to miss, because almost nothing in modern yoga reflects it. A student today typically meets asana in week one, pranayama somewhere in year two, and the cleansing practices either never or as a curiosity mentioned during teacher training. The classical sequence runs the other way round.
The Shatkarmas are those cleansing practices: six groups of techniques for clearing the physical body before the subtler work of breath and concentration begins. Some are simple enough to learn in an afternoon. Others should not be attempted without an experienced teacher standing next to you, and one or two are best left alone entirely.
This guide covers what they are, where they come from, what the texts actually say about who should practise them, and how to approach them sensibly.
What Shatkarma Means
Shat means six. Karma means action. Together, the six actions.
You will also see shatkriya, which is used interchangeably; kriya means action or process, and the two terms point to the same set of practices. Neither word contains any sense of "cleansing" in itself. The cleansing is what the six actions happen to do.
The individual practices are: dhauti (washing), basti (which takes its name from the bladder or from the vessel used), neti (nasal cleansing), trataka (steady gazing), nauli (abdominal churning), and kapalabhati (skull shining).
Each of these is a category rather than a single technique. Dhauti alone contains more than a dozen distinct practices in the classical sources. Calling them "the six cleansing techniques" undercounts them considerably.
Two Texts, Two Lists
The Shatkarmas appear in both of Hatha yoga's principal manuals, and comparing them is instructive.
The Hatha Yoga Pradipika, compiled by Svatmarama around the fifteenth century, lists them in chapter two, verse 22: dhauti, basti, neti, trataka, nauli, kapalabhati. They sit inside the chapter on pranayama, before the pranayama techniques themselves.
The Gheranda Samhita, a later text likely compiled in Bengal around 1700, gives the same six in a slightly different order at verse 1.12: dhauti, basti, neti, lauliki, trataka, kapalabhati. Lauliki is Gheranda's word for what the Pradipika calls nauli.
The more significant difference is structural. Gheranda builds his system on seven limbs rather than Patanjali's eight, and shatkarma is the first of them, followed by asana, mudra, pratyahara, pranayama, dhyana and samadhi. Purification is not preliminary to the system in Gheranda's presentation. It is the system's first stage.
Gheranda also goes much further into detail, elaborating the six categories into around twenty-one individual practices: thirteen forms of dhauti, two of basti, one each of neti, trataka and nauli, and three of kapalabhati. The Pradipika treats them far more briefly.
The Body as a Vessel
Gheranda's system is often called ghatastha yoga, from ghata, meaning pot or vessel.
The image is that the body is a container carrying something of value, and that a container is cleaned before it is filled. Gheranda's term for the shatkarma stage is ghata shuddhi — purification of the vessel.
The Pradipika uses the same metaphor. Verse 2.23 describes the six actions as effecting the purification of the ghata, the water-jar, meaning the body.
This is worth holding onto, because it frames the practices correctly. They are maintenance of an instrument, not a therapy and not a spiritual achievement in themselves. Nothing in either text suggests that cleansing the body is the point. It is what you do so that the point becomes reachable.
Who the Shatkarmas Are Actually For
Here is the verse that most modern writing on this subject leaves out.
Hatha Yoga Pradipika 2.21 states that when fat or mucus is excessive, the six actions should be practised before pranayama, and that others, in whom the doshas are already balanced, need not practise them.
Read that again, because it directly contradicts how the shatkarmas are usually presented. Svatmarama is not prescribing a universal cleansing routine. He is describing an indicated intervention: something you do when there is an identifiable imbalance, and something you can reasonably skip when there isn't.
The traditional commentaries extend the logic. If the doshas are in balance, cleansing practices are unnecessary, and practising them habitually when they are not needed makes them less effective on the occasions they genuinely are. The comparison sometimes drawn is to removing a healthy organ because you have heard that organs can cause trouble.
There is a sensible qualification to make here. Most people reading this are not living the diet and daily routine that Svatmarama's readers were, and it is fair to say that some degree of kapha excess is common enough now that the condition in 2.21 is met more often than not. Plenty of respected teachers make exactly that argument.
But the argument has to be made, not assumed. There is a real difference between "I practise neti because my sinuses are congested and it helps" and "I practise all six every morning because cleansing is good." The first follows the text. The second is a modern habit wearing traditional clothing.
Why Cleansing Comes Before Pranayama
The reasoning in the Pradipika is direct. Verse 2.36 says that once the excesses of the doshas have been removed by the six actions, pranayama is practised and success comes without strain.
Two claims are packed into that.
The first is mechanical and easy to verify yourself. Breath work through obstructed passages does not go well. A blocked nostril makes alternate nostril breathing impossible to do properly. A heavy, sluggish digestive system makes seated practice uncomfortable. These are not subtle obstacles; they are the ordinary reasons a practice session goes badly.
The second claim is subtler and belongs to the tradition's own framework. Prana is understood to move through the nadis, the channels of the subtle body, and obstruction in those channels is understood to prevent pranayama from doing what it is supposed to do. Cleansing clears the channels so that the breath can act on them.
You do not have to accept the second claim to benefit from the first. But you should know which one you are being offered when a teacher explains why you are being asked to do this.
For the fuller picture of what pranayama itself involves once the ground is cleared, see our complete guide to pranayama.
The Six Practices
What follows is an overview of each category: what it addresses, its main variants, and how realistic it is to learn without direct supervision. Detailed instruction for the accessible practices belongs in dedicated articles; detailed instruction for the advanced ones does not belong in writing at all.
1. Dhauti — Cleansing the Digestive Tract
What it addresses: The alimentary canal, from mouth to rectum, plus the eyes, ears and tongue in some classifications.
Level: Ranges from trivially safe to genuinely hazardous.
Dhauti is by far the largest of the six categories. The Gheranda Samhita divides it into four groups: antar dhauti (internal cleansing), danta dhauti (cleansing of the teeth, tongue, ears and eyes), hrid dhauti (cleansing of the throat and chest region), and mula shodhana (cleansing of the rectum).
Within these sit practices as different as scraping the tongue and swallowing a strip of cloth.
Danta dhauti is the accessible end. It includes cleaning the teeth and gums, scraping the tongue, and washing the eyes and outer ears. Tongue scraping in particular survives in everyday Ayurvedic practice and requires nothing more than a scraper and thirty seconds each morning.
Hrid dhauti includes vastra dhauti, in which a long strip of cloth is swallowed and withdrawn, and danda dhauti, which uses a soft stem or tube. The Pradipika describes vastra dhauti at verse 2.24, specifying a cloth about four fingers wide and fifteen hand-spans long. Both practices carry real risk of injury to the oesophagus and should only ever be attempted under direct, in-person supervision from someone who practises them. No written description is adequate preparation.
Vaman dhauti, also called kunjal kriya, involves drinking salt water and then expelling it by inducing vomiting. It is worth being frank about this one. Regardless of its traditional standing, deliberate induced vomiting is a practice that can be genuinely harmful for anyone with a history of disordered eating, and it is sometimes marketed for weight loss, which is a misuse of it. If you have any such history, this practice is not for you, and no teacher who understands the issue will push you toward it. Repeated practice also exposes the teeth and oesophagus to stomach acid.
Shankhaprakshalana, the complete intestinal wash, is not one of the six but sits within this family and is often taught alongside them. It involves drinking large quantities of salt water and moving through a sequence of asanas until the digestive tract is fully flushed. It is traditionally done once or twice a year, under supervision, in a residential setting with a controlled diet before and after. Attempting it casually at home is a bad idea, and large-volume salt water intake carries real risks for anyone with cardiovascular or kidney conditions.
2. Basti — Colon Cleansing
What it addresses: The large intestine.
Level: Advanced. Requires supervision.
Classical jala basti involves drawing water into the colon under yogic control, traditionally while seated in water, using nauli to create the necessary suction. Sthala basti is the dry version, using air and abdominal manipulation rather than water. See our full guide to basti for both forms.
Basti is the practice with the least straightforward path into modern life. Doing it as described requires competence in nauli first, and doing it improperly risks bowel injury, electrolyte disturbance and infection.
Most contemporary teachers either skip it, teach only the dry variant, or point students toward the far gentler and better-established alternative of adequate hydration and fibre. There is no shame in that. A practice being ancient does not make it the best available option for the outcome it targets.
3. Neti — Nasal Cleansing
What it addresses: The nasal passages and sinuses.
Level: Beginner for the water method; advanced for the thread.
Neti is the most widely practised of the six and the easiest to learn properly.
Jala neti uses warm saline water poured through the nostrils from a spouted pot. Sutra neti passes a soft waxed thread or fine catheter through the nostril and out through the mouth.
Worth knowing: when the Pradipika describes neti at verses 2.29 and 2.30, it describes the thread method. Jala neti as practised today, with a pot and salt water, is a later systematisation of the same principle, popularised in the twentieth century. This does not make it less valid, but it does mean that citing the Pradipika as the source of neti pot instructions is loose.
The single most important thing about jala neti is not technique but water. Never use untreated tap water; use distilled, sterile, or previously boiled and cooled water. Rare but almost invariably fatal amoebic infections have been documented from nasal rinsing with tap water, and this is the one safety point in the whole shatkarma system that admits no flexibility.
4. Trataka — Steady Gazing
What it addresses: The eyes, and the wandering tendency of attention.
Level: Beginner.
Trataka means to gaze steadily. It is the one shatkarma that is unambiguously a concentration practice as much as a cleansing one, which is why it sits comfortably as a bridge between the physical practices and meditation.
Bahiranga trataka is external: the gaze is fixed on a small object, most often a candle flame at arm's length, without blinking, until the eyes water. Antaranga trataka is internal: the eyes close and attention rests on an inner object or afterimage.
The Pradipika says trataka frees one from eye diseases and from sloth. The plainer observation is that a mind given a single unmoving object to hold has fewer places to wander, and that the discipline of returning the gaze is the same discipline that later carries concentration practice.
Of the six, trataka is the one most people can adopt immediately and safely. Reasonable limits still apply: keep sessions short at first, don't strain, and if you have glaucoma, epilepsy, or a history of seizures, get medical advice before practising with a flame. See our full guide to trataka for the complete technique.
5. Nauli — Abdominal Churning
What it addresses: The abdominal organs and digestive fire.
Level: Advanced, but safely learnable in stages.
Nauli is the isolation and rolling movement of the rectus abdominis muscles, performed on an empty stomach after a full exhalation and abdominal lock.
It builds in stages. First uddiyana bandha, drawing the abdomen up and back after exhaling completely, often built up through agnisara kriya. Then madhyama nauli, isolating the central column of muscle. Then vama and dakshina nauli, isolating left and right. Then the rolling motion that gives the practice its name.
The Gheranda Samhita speaks of it in strong terms, and the traditional claim is that it stimulates digestion and massages the internal organs. The mechanical effect is real enough to feel.
Nauli is safe to work toward, and getting to uddiyana bandha alone is a worthwhile project. It is contraindicated in pregnancy, with hernia, ulcers, high blood pressure, heart conditions, or recent abdominal surgery, and it must be done on a genuinely empty stomach. See our full guide to nauli for the complete progression.
6. Kapalabhati — Skull Shining
What it addresses: The frontal region, the lungs and the nasal passages.
Level: Beginner with correct instruction; easy to do badly.
Kapala means skull; bhati means shining or illuminating. The practice is a rapid series of forceful exhalations driven by abdominal contraction, with passive inhalation between them.
The Gheranda Samhita gives three forms: vatakrama, the breath-based version almost everyone means when they say kapalabhati; vyutkrama, drawing water through the nostrils and expelling it through the mouth; and sheetkrama, drawing water through the mouth and expelling it through the nose.
Note that both texts classify kapalabhati as a cleansing action, not a pranayama. This distinction gets blurred constantly in modern classes, where it is taught as a breathing exercise alongside nadi shodhana and bhastrika. Its traditional job is clearing, not regulating. See our full guide to kapalabhati for the technique and the three classical forms.
Common errors: forcing the inhalation instead of letting it happen, moving the chest and shoulders rather than the abdomen, and going too fast for too long. Dizziness means stop, not push through.
Contraindicated in pregnancy, high blood pressure, heart conditions, hernia, epilepsy, recent abdominal surgery, and during menstruation for most practitioners.
What "Detox" Actually Means Here
The shatkarmas are almost always marketed with the language of detoxification, and this deserves a straight answer.
Your body already has organs dedicated to removing waste. The liver metabolises it, the kidneys filter it, the lungs and skin and bowel handle the rest. These systems work continuously and are not waiting for assistance from a yoga practice. There is no accumulated reservoir of "toxins" that a cleansing kriya releases.
What the shatkarmas actually do is more modest and more defensible.
They remove physical material from specific places: mucus from the nasal passages, residue from the tongue and mouth, contents from the stomach or bowel. That is mechanical, observable, and requires no special theory.
They stimulate. Kapalabhati moves the diaphragm rapidly. Nauli compresses and releases the abdominal organs. Trataka works the eye muscles and the attention. These produce real physiological effects.
And they prepare. A clear nose makes pranayama workable. An empty stomach makes seated practice comfortable. This is the function the texts themselves emphasise.
None of that requires the detox framing, and the framing does the practices a disservice by making a modest, useful thing sound like a medical intervention. It also does the reader a disservice, because it is exactly the language used to sell things that don't work.
Which of These You Can Reasonably Learn Alone
Safe to begin on your own, with reading and care:
- Danta dhauti — tongue scraping, mouth and teeth cleaning
- Jala neti — provided you follow water safety without exception
- Trataka — external, with a candle, short sessions
- Uddiyana bandha as preparation for nauli
Learn from a teacher, in person:
- Kapalabhati — simple in principle, and consistently done wrong from written instructions
- Nauli beyond uddiyana bandha
- Sutra neti
Do not attempt from written instruction under any circumstances:
- Vastra dhauti and danda dhauti
- Basti in any form
- Shankhaprakshalana
- Vaman dhauti, and not at all if you have any history of disordered eating
The Pradipika says at verse 2.23 that these practices should be kept secret. Whatever the original reason for that instruction, it has a practical reading now: these were transmitted person to person because several of them are unsafe to learn any other way.
Safety and Contraindications
Across the whole system, seek medical advice before practising if you have high blood pressure or heart disease, epilepsy, glaucoma or retinal problems, hernia, peptic ulcers, inflammatory bowel disease, kidney disease, or if you are pregnant.
If you have a history of disordered eating, avoid the practices involving induced vomiting or fasting entirely, and be cautious with any framing that presents cleansing as weight management. The shatkarmas are not weight-loss techniques, and any source that sells them as such is misrepresenting them.
Practise on an empty stomach, in the morning, and stop at any sign of dizziness, pain, or distress rather than working through it.
And a general principle worth stating plainly: none of these practices treats disease. They support a functioning body and prepare it for further practice. Where there is a medical problem, it needs medical attention, and a cleansing kriya is not a substitute for one.
A Sensible Order of Learning
If you want to work with the shatkarmas rather than merely read about them, a reasonable progression looks like this.
Begin with tongue scraping. It takes seconds, carries no risk, and is the one classical practice that fits into an ordinary morning without any adjustment.
Add jala neti next, two or three times a week, having sorted out your water supply first. Learn to dry the sinuses properly afterwards, which is the step people skip.
Add trataka once you want a concentration practice. Five minutes with a candle is enough to start.
Learn kapalabhati from a teacher rather than a video, and keep the rounds short until the abdominal action is genuinely correct.
Work toward uddiyana bandha over months rather than weeks, and treat nauli as a long project.
Leave everything else until you are studying with someone who practises it themselves and can watch you do it.
That progression will take most people a year or more, which is roughly the pace the tradition assumed.
Common Misunderstandings
1. That the shatkarmas are a daily routine for everyone. The Pradipika says the opposite at 2.21. They are indicated practices, not universal ones, and the classical view is that unnecessary practice reduces their usefulness when actually needed.
2. That they detoxify the body. They clean specific surfaces and cavities and they stimulate specific tissues. Detoxification is the job of the liver and kidneys, and no yoga practice adds to it.
3. That they are weight-loss practices. Excess medas appears in verse 2.21 as an indication for practice, not as a target outcome. Presenting kunjal kriya or shankhaprakshalana as slimming techniques is a modern distortion with real potential for harm.
4. That kapalabhati is a pranayama. Both classical texts place it among the cleansing actions. It clears; it does not regulate. Teaching it as breath control confuses two different aims.
5. That the intensity of a practice reflects its value. Vastra dhauti is more dramatic than tongue scraping and is not therefore more important. The dramatic practices are simply the ones with the narrowest indications and the highest risk.
6. That the classical texts can substitute for a teacher. The Pradipika's own instruction for dhauti begins by referring to what is taught by the guru. The texts were written as aides-memoire for people already receiving instruction, not as self-teaching manuals.
7. That older means better. Basti was a reasonable solution in a context without modern alternatives. Some of these practices remain the best available option for what they do; others have been superseded. Honest teaching distinguishes between the two.
Conclusion
The Shatkarmas are among the most misrepresented practices in yoga: oversold as detoxification, marketed for weight loss, and simultaneously either ignored or performed indiscriminately.
The texts themselves are more measured than any of that. Six categories of practice, prescribed for particular conditions, held to prepare the body for pranayama, and transmitted with enough caution that Svatmarama thought them worth keeping quiet about.
Approached that way, they remain genuinely useful. Some of them, particularly neti and trataka, are worth adopting for their own sake and cost almost nothing. Others belong to a serious practice under supervision. A few are better admired than attempted.
What connects them is the underlying assumption that the body is something to be prepared rather than assumed. Whatever you make of the rest of the system, that assumption holds up.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is shatkarma in yoga?
Shatkarma refers to the six cleansing practices of Hatha yoga: dhauti, basti, neti, trataka, nauli and kapalabhati. They are described in the Hatha Yoga Pradipika and the Gheranda Samhita as preparation for pranayama and the practices that follow it.
What is the difference between shatkarma and shatkriya?
None of substance. Karma and kriya both mean action or process, and the two terms are used interchangeably for the same set of six practices.
Are the shatkarmas suitable for everyone?
No, and the tradition says so directly. Hatha Yoga Pradipika 2.21 indicates them for practitioners with excess fat or mucus, and states that those whose doshas are balanced need not practise them.
Do the shatkarmas detoxify the body?
Not in the sense usually implied. They remove physical material from specific areas and stimulate specific tissues. Actual detoxification is performed continuously by the liver and kidneys and does not require assistance from a yoga practice.
Which shatkarma should a beginner start with?
Tongue scraping and jala neti are the most accessible and the safest, followed by trataka. Jala neti must be practised with distilled, sterile, or boiled and cooled water, never untreated tap water.
Is kapalabhati a pranayama?
Classically, no. Both the Hatha Yoga Pradipika and the Gheranda Samhita list it among the cleansing actions rather than the pranayamas, though it is very commonly taught as a breathing practice today.
Can shatkarma help with weight loss?
They should not be approached that way. Excess body fat appears in the classical texts as an indication for practice, not as an outcome to pursue, and practices involving induced vomiting or extended fasting carry real risks when used for this purpose.
How often should the shatkarmas be practised?
It depends entirely on the practice and the person. Tongue scraping is daily; jala neti suits two or three times a week or as conditions require; shankhaprakshalana is traditionally done once or twice a year. Practising any of them continuously out of habit runs against the classical instruction.
Are the shatkarmas taught in yoga teacher training?
They should be in any Hatha-based programme. A thorough course covers all six, teaches the accessible ones practically, explains the contraindications, and is honest about which practices require further study before a graduate should teach them.
Do I need a teacher to learn shatkarma?
For some of them, yes, absolutely. Tongue scraping, jala neti and trataka can be learned carefully from good written instruction. Vastra dhauti, danda dhauti, basti and shankhaprakshalana should never be attempted without direct supervision from someone experienced in them.