What is the purpose of asana?

This is the question that we considered this week in Yoga teacher training. Those things that come to mind usually are:
to build strength
to create flexibility
to cultivate endurance and stamina
to develop balance
to lose weight, etc. etc.

These things are true, but just a small portion of the more profound gifts of asana practice.

According to Swami Satchidananda, the asanas were created to make the body healthy enough and the mind calm enough to meditate. The asanas are a gateway technique to prepare one for the higher practices.

If we look at the name for the practice of asana, pranayama and conscious relaxation, Hatha Yoga, we see balance as the purpose of asana. Ha=Sun and Tha=Moon, so Hatha Yoga is to balance Sun and Moon energy physically, emotionally and energetically. As we balance the natural polarities of strength and flexibility, thinking and feeling, doing and nondoing, we set the stage for the greatest goal of Yoga to be experienced- enlightenment. Enlightenment is the realization of our greatest potential, the state of communion and grace. It is only by the balancing of the polarities that Kundalini Shakti, the great, dormant creative force, is awakened and begins Her evolutionary ascent through the chakras.

The master Patanjali also speaks of balance. In his Yoga Sutras, Patanjali tells us that mastery of asana results in the "pairs of opposites ceasing to have impact." As we practice asana, the outcome is steadiness and balance in the midst of change.