“Hatha Yoga — the physical aspect of Yoga practice, including postures (āsanas), breathing techniques (prāṇāyāma), seals (mudras), locks (bandhas) and cleansing practices (kriyas)” - The Yoga Sutras of Patanjali

The word “[[Yoga]]” literally means “union.” When you experience everything as one in your consciousness, then you are in yoga. To attain to that unity within you, there are many ways. For example, there is  hatha yoga . Hatha yoga means you start with the body. The body itself has its own attitudes, its own ego, its own nature. Apart from your mind, do you see, your body has its own ego? Suppose you say, “From tomorrow, I want to get up at five in the morning and walk on the beach.” You set the alarm. The alarm rings. You want to get up but your body says, “Shut up and sleep.” It has its own way.

So we start with the body. Hatha yoga is a way of working with the body, disciplining the body, purifying the body, and preparing the body for higher levels of energy. All of us are alive, all of us are human beings. But all of us do not experience life to the same intensity because our pranic energies are not the same. Different people experience life in different levels of intensity. Sadhguru

Hatha In Islam

According to the work of Carl W. Ernst, perhaps today’s single leading specialist in the academic study of pre-modern and early modern Sufism in the Indian subcontinent, the earliest reliable surviving sources on Sufis’ reactions to the practices and teachings of Yogis date from the 1300s, though the actual contact began much earlier.[2] These sources show a range of reactions from Sufis, from “sceptical criticism to frank admiration.”[3] Some Sufis, such as Sharaf al-Din Maneri (d. 1381) expressed more admiration for the ancient Yogis who initiated teachings than for the contemporary Yogis who practiced them, believing that their understanding of the full meaning had dwindled. Sufi criticisms of Yogis, like those by Burhan al-Din Gharib (d. 1337), resembled their criticisms of other Sufis – accusations of fraudulent miracles, illicit drug use, consorting with spirits. Some Sufis, particularly those who emphasized Islamic doctrine, preached that Yogic meditation and ascetic exercises were devoid of spiritual grace because they did not follow the prescribed Islamic religious duties. Nonetheless, many other Sufis engaged enthusiastically with Yoga.[4] The most common Sufi mentions of Yogis were more pragmatic than religious (though on matters that may seem religious to modern sensibilities): they regarded Yogis first and foremost as alchemists and skilled physicians with advanced knowledge and experience of medicine and the human body, possessing secret remedies and powers like the ability to eat and digest anything.[5]

Of the several major Sufi orders of South Asia, some were more open than others to contact and intermingling with unconverted Hindus (the Chishti order of Sufism, perhaps the largest in South Asia, was especially open in this respect, freely welcoming Hindu members). Many Sufi groups are well known to have adopted Yogic practices for their own use. Sufi interest in Yoga and Hindu mysticism was primarily in practices and the experiences they facilitated, and only secondarily in religious doctrine, which was both less emphasized in Yoga and also harder to reconcile with Islam. It is “abundantly clear that in certain Sufi circles there was an awareness and use of particular practices that can be considered yogic.”[6] Perhaps the most common such practices are particular techniques of breath control, which Sufis have clearly recognized as being associated with Indian Yogis since at least the early 1300s, and continuing throughout the following centuries.[7] Indeed some Sufis seemed to regard Yogis as the reigning adepts at such practices, like Muhammad al-Husayni Gisu Daraz, successor to a long direct chain of Chishti masters who expressed interest in Yoga. Gisu Daraz wrote in an official manual of Sufi discipline in 1404, “Following the habit of stopping the breath, as is done among the yogis, is necessary for the disciple, but not everyone can do it to the extent that those people can… Breath control [is] the specialty and support of the yogis.”[8] Scholars such as Jurgen Paul have recently also attributed the Naqshbandi Sufi order’s adoption of vegetarianism, celibacy, and breath control to Yogic influence.[9]