The peculiarity of hatha yoga as a path of spiritual self-realization consists in carefully developed methods of influencing one’s own consciousness through improvement and complete transformation of the physical body. Within this direction, several traditions have long been established, within which many schools are developing that use original methods of working with the body and mind. However, before the publication of this book, not a single work had appeared in world science where the main schools were systematized and, what is much more significant, their philosophical foundations were revealed. Hatha yoga is not just a part of yoga, but a completely self-sufficient means of realizing the main goal of yoga, that is, yoga itself. Yoga is not just a system of Indian philosophy, but a universal means of working with consciousness, introduced in one form or another into any system of Indian philosophy, that is, philosophy in itself. Thus, hatha yoga in the Western sense is closer to practical philosophy, where the will dominates the mind, or “philosophy of the body,” where self-awareness is mediated by the transformation of bodily functions. “The Basic Schools of Hatha Yoga” is the first book that opens the author’s series of Maria Nikolaeva in publishing group "Tradition". Previously, the book was published by the publishing house "Petersburg Oriental Studies" (2007), and was also published on liters under the original title of the author's thesis "Philosophical foundations of modern schools of hatha yoga."