The three haṭha-yoga compendia stand in a kind of family relationship: they share a common aim—samādhi and liberation through the awakening of kuṇḍalinī—yet each text shapes that aim in a distinct way. All three present the core repertoire of āsana, prāṇāyāma, mudrā, and bandha, and all assume a subtle anatomy of nāḍīs, cakras, and prāṇa through which the yogin works toward the union of Śiva and Śakti. At the same time, they differ in tone and organization: one is compact and practice-driven, another more encyclopedic and systematizing, and the third more overtly philosophical and tantric in its presentation. Taken together, they offer complementary windows onto a single yogic vision rather than mutually exclusive systems.

Within this triad, the Haṭha Yoga Pradīpikā is often treated as the most concise and practically oriented manual. It is structured in four chapters that move from āsana to prāṇāyāma, then to mudrā and bandha, and finally to samādhi or rājayoga. Its treatment of āsana is selective, describing a limited number of postures and presenting them as a foundation rather than an end in themselves. Prāṇāyāma, the ṣaṭkarman purifications, and the classic mudrās and bandhas are given as tested means to purify the nāḍīs, awaken kuṇḍalinī, and bring prāṇa into suṣumṇā. Philosophical exposition is present but restrained; the text is more concerned with what the practitioner should actually do than with extensive metaphysical argument.

The Gheraṇḍa Saṁhitā, by contrast, expands this practical material into a more systematic curriculum. It organizes practice into a seven-limbed yoga, beginning with purification and proceeding through postures, mudrās, pratyāhāra, prāṇāyāma, dhyāna, and samādhi. Its descriptions of āsana are more numerous and detailed than those of the Haṭha Yoga Pradīpikā, and its treatment of cleansing techniques is especially elaborate, making śodhana a central concern. The same core tools—āsana, prāṇāyāma, mudrā, bandha—are present, but the emphasis falls on thorough physical and energetic purification as the way to stabilize the “pot” of body–mind for higher realization. Philosophically it is less expansive than some traditions, yet it clearly orients all this discipline toward liberation.

The Śiva Saṁhitā occupies a somewhat different place in this landscape, giving greater prominence to doctrine and subtle-body theory. It interweaves instruction in āsana, prāṇāyāma, mudrā, and mantra with discussions of cosmology, types of aspirants, and the non-dual nature of reality. Its concern with nāḍīs, cakras, kuṇḍalinī, and the inner ascent of prāṇa is pronounced, and these themes are framed in a strongly tantric and Vedāntic register. While it does present postures and other techniques, these are less tightly systematized than in the Gheraṇḍa Saṁhitā and are consistently subordinated to the recognition of the Self as Śiva or Brahman. In this way, haṭha practices are portrayed not as an isolated discipline but as supports for the direct realization of non-duality.