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→What is Hathayoga?
The enjoyment of our liberated being which brings us into unity or union with the Supreme, is the consummation; it is that for which Yoga is done. <ref>https://incarnateword.in/cwsa/23/hathayoga#p2,p4,p5,p6,p7,p12</ref>
Asana deals more directly with the more material part of the physical totality, though here too it needs the aid of the other; Pranayama, starting from the physical immobility and self-holding which is secured by Asana, deals more directly with the subtler vital parts, the nervous system. This is done by various regulations of the breathing, starting from equality of respiration and inspiration and extending to the most diverse rhythmic regulations of both with an interval of inholding of the breath. In the end the keeping in of the breath, which has first to be done with some effort, and even its cessation become as easy and seem as natural as the constant taking in and throwing out which is its normal action. . <ref>https://incarnateword.in/cwsa/23/hathayoga#p10</ref>
All the power of the body is stilled, collected, purified, heightened, concentrated to its utmost limits or beyond any limits by Asana and other physical processes; the power of the life too is similarly purified, heightened, concentrated. This concentration of powers is then directed towards that physical centre in which the divine consciousness sits concealed in the human body. <ref>https://incarnateword.in/cwsa/24/the-principle-of-the-integral-yoga#p3</ref>