From saṃyama on strengths, the strength of an elephant and others arise.

Bala is strength. Hasti is elephant. Ādi means “and others.”

By applying saṃyama to strength as a principle, or to the strengths of powerful animals like the elephant, the yogī can acquire those strengths.

The elephant was the symbol of supreme strength in ancient India. Its power was proverbial.

But ādi suggests it is not limited to physical strength. It includes other strengths: mental, emotional, spiritual.

The mechanism is the same: the yogī becomes completely absorbed in the quality desired, until that quality manifests in them.

Some commentators interpret this as inner strength rather than muscular. Others take it literally.

What is certain is that advanced practitioners often demonstrate surprising physical capacities, not through muscle but through mastery of prāṇa.

The body is more malleable than we believe when the mind is trained.