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An Asana is a physical posture; it was initially and is still used to refer to a seated meditation stance. Hatha yoga and modern yoga as exercise subsequently expanded the definition of Asana to include any sort of position, including reclining, standing, inverted, twisting, and balancing postures. Since the 19th century, the word “Asana,” which means “sitting down,” has been used to refer to a sitting position or meditation seat in English.

The Hindu god Shiva, who along with the gods Brahma and Vishnu make up the holy Hindu trinity, is said to have taught 84 traditional yoga Asanas. In the yogic literature, certain of these Asanas are revered as being extremely significant.

For centuries, Asanas have been present in culture. In lotus posture and various meditation positions, religious Indian art displays images of the Buddha, Jain Tirthankaras, and Shiva. Fundamentally, the Asanas were created as a physical manifestation of Hindu deity devotion.

Achieving Samadhi, a deep level of meditational awareness, was the original spiritual goal of the Hatha yoga asanas in Hinduism. According to religion expert Andrea Jain, medieval Hatha Yoga was practiced by a variety of yoga traditions, including Shaivite Naths, Vaishnavas, Jains, and Sufis. However, in her opinion, its goals were too diverse, including spiritual ones involving the “tantric manipulation of the subtle body” and on a more physical level, eliminating poisons. The Gheranda Samhita uses the image of an earthenware pot that needs the fire of yoga to make it useful when describing the goal of Hatha Yoga as “the transmutation of the human body into a vessel immune from mortal decay.” According to Singleton, the goals of asana practice up until the fourteenth century were to stop the accumulation of Karma and instead acquire ascetic power, or Tapas, which was something that conferred “supernatural abilities,” and secondly to create a stable foundation for Pranayama, Mantra repetition (Japa), and meditation. These practices in turn had spiritual goals.

The physical poses used in yoga now represent a spiritual act: worshiping one of the numerous Hindu gods. However, many Muslims who practice yoga today are ignorant of this. Yoga is the physical manifestation of a profound spiritual belief to a Hindu. One cannot exist without the other. There is no such thing as “Non-religious yoga,” “Muslim yoga,” or “Safe yoga” since yoga is so closely associated with Hinduism.

Asana is a dangerous practice for Muslims and leads believers away from Allah rather than to Him. You may say, “Well, I’m not doing any of the meditation stuff. I just follow the poses without any religious intention.” It is impossible, however, to separate the subtleties of yoga the exercise from yoga the worship.

Subhas Tiwari, Professor of Yoga Philosophy and Meditation, said, “Efforts to separate yoga from its spiritual center reveal ignorance of the goal of yoga.”Subhas Tiwari, Professor of Yoga Philosophy and Meditation at the Hindu University of America in Orlando, FL (Hinduism Today – Sept. 2009).

Taken from the book:
Islam and Yoga