Kriyas and Cleansing Practices Overview

Kriyā is a broad Sanskrit term for action, while ṣaṭkarma or ṣaṭkriyā can identify grouped cleansing actions in particular Haṭha-yoga sources. Those categories, item lists, eligibility rules, and methods vary. At YTT-200 level, this is a classification-and-scope lesson: recognize source contexts and risk without turning a diagram or short description into a personal cleansing prescription.

Classification Depends on the Source

The early history is not a single unchanging six-practice system. Research summarized by the Hatha Yoga Project notes that the Haṭhapradīpikā groups dhauti, basti, neti, trāṭaka, nauli, and kapālabhāti, while earlier Haṭha texts do not all contain that group and later sources expand or reorganize practices. A modern school's list is therefore one curricular choice, not proof of universal tradition.

Neti: One Category, Different Risk Profiles

• Neti is an umbrella term in this curriculum. A source must identify the material, method, prerequisite, and purpose rather than assuming one generic practice.
• Jala Neti is commonly used for water-based nasal cleansing. Contemporary nasal irrigation adds public-health, device, water, and clinician guidance that a premodern classification does not supply.
• Sūtra Neti uses a thread-like or catheter-like implement in some systems. It is invasive and is recorded for recognition only, with no insertion steps.

Kapalabhati: Keep Classification and Technique Separate

Kapālabhāti appears among cleansing actions in the Haṭhapradīpikā and is placed under prāṇāyāma or breathwork in some modern systems. The label does not tell you the taught mechanics, force, pace, dose, or student suitability. M07.05 owns the comparison with Bhastrikā, the risk of force and overbreathing, and the kriyā/prāṇāyāma classification difference.

Other Named Actions Stay at Recognition Level

Dhauti, basti, trāṭaka, and nauli require their own textual, anatomical, hygienic, and supervision context. Listing a name for exam recognition is not authorization to teach internal washing, pressure, abdominal manipulation, prolonged staring, or any device-based practice. YogaScenes does not break these into thin how-to pages.

Teacher Scope and Referral

• Do not present any kriyā as required, universally safe, spiritually superior, or medically curative.
• Do not teach nasal devices, inserted materials, internal washing, forceful breathing, or abdominal manipulation in a general class from a manual summary.
• Do not use detox or purification language to shame bodies, food, digestion, menstruation, emotions, disability, or lifestyle.
• Name your training and its limits. Refer hygiene, infection, sinus, respiratory, cardiovascular, neurological, gastrointestinal, pregnancy, surgical, or other health questions to an appropriately qualified professional.
• A referral does not certify that a practice is necessary or safe for a particular person; individualized health decisions stay with the relevant clinician and student.

A Five-Question Classification Check

1. Which exact source or lineage includes this practice, and under what category?
2. What does its traditional purpose language mean inside that source rather than in modern medicine?
3. What material, pressure, speed, retention, hygiene, internal action, or sensory demand raises risk?
4. Which current public-health, device, professional, or qualified-teacher guidance is also required?
5. What can a YTT-200 teacher accurately explain without demonstrating, diagnosing, prescribing, or promising an outcome?

Reflection and Exam Connection

Take one cleansing claim from a class, book, or social post. Record the named practice, source, claimed mechanism, current safety source, teacher competence required, and what evidence would be needed for any medical statement. Rewrite the claim as a bounded cultural-literacy statement.

• Kriyā is broad; ṣaṭkarma or ṣaṭkriyā lists are source-dependent rather than universal.
• Jala Neti requires current nasal-irrigation water and device safety; Sūtra Neti is supervision-only context here.
• Kapālabhāti classification varies, and M07—not this lesson—owns force, pace, overbreathing, and stop decisions.
• Traditional purification language does not establish detoxification or treatment, and exam recognition is not practice authorization.