We manage the energy and move the system in a particular way to help you arrive at the experience of yoga, which is one of union and boundlessness. One component of this is one’s physical posture. Hatha Yoga or yogasanas is about understanding the mechanics of the body, establishing a specific environment, and then using the body or body postures to direct your energy in particular directions. Yoga asanas are not exercises. An asana is a position. I can only sit in one asana at a time. If I sit differently, it is a different asana. Numerous asanas are thus feasible. Eighty-four essential postures—known as yogasanas—have been chosen from among the body’s countless possible positions.
The method of yoga preparation known as Hatha Yoga. “Ha” means the sun, and “ta” means the moon. “Hatha” refers to the yoga practised to balance the sun and moon, or the pingala and ida, within you. Hatha yoga can be explored in ways that push you past certain boundaries, but at its core, it is a form of physical preparation that gets the body ready for greater possibilities. There are more aspects to this, but to put it simply, you can practically guess what someone is going through just by looking at how they are sitting. If you’ve ever seen yourself, you’ll notice that you sit differently depending on your emotions: one way when you’re angry, another when you’re joyful, and yet another when you’re melancholy. Your body naturally prefers to adopt a particular posture for each single state of consciousness or mental and emotional circumstance that you go through. The science of asanas is the opposite of this. You can also raise your consciousness by purposefully changing the positions of your body. The mechanics of the practise as you currently see it in most places are only of the body.