Yoga

Yoga (Devanagari: योग) is a family of ancient spiritual practices originating in India. It is one of the six schools of Hindu philosophy, in which it is often paired with Samkhya, and they are referred together as the Samkhya-Yoga school. more...

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Today in India and across the World, Yoga is a vibrant living tradition and is seen as a means to both physical health and spiritual mastery. Karma Yoga (yoga of Action), Jnana Yoga (yoga of Knowledge), Bhakti Yoga (yoga of Devotion), and Raja Yoga (yoga of Meditation) are considered the four main paths of Yoga.

Outside India, Yoga has become primarily associated with the practice of asanas (postures) of Hatha Yoga, a system of Yoga that developed from - and in order to prepare students for the practice of - Raja Yoga.

Yoga as a means of spiritual attainment is central to Vedanta, Hinduism, Buddhism, and Jainism, and has influenced other religious and spiritual practices throughout the world. Hindu texts establishing the basis for yoga include the Upanishads, the Bhagavad Gita, the Yoga Sutras of Patanjali, the Hatha Yoga Pradipika and many others.

Roots of Yoga

Origins

The word "yoga" derives from the Sanskrit root yuj ("to yoke"); which is cognate to modern English "yoke", "jugal" and "jugum" in Latin. All derive from the Proto-Indo-European root *yeug- meaning "to join" or "unite". It is generally translated as "union of the individual atma (loosely translated to mean soul) with Paramatma, the universal soul." This may be understood as union with the Divine by integration of body, mind, and spirit. A committed practitioner of yoga is referred to as a yogi or yogin (masculine), or yogini (feminine). These designations are for serious practitioners, who have already made considerable progress along the path towards yoga.

Images of a meditating yogi from the Indus Valley Civilization are thought to be 6 to 7 thousand years old. The earliest written accounts of yoga appear in the Rig Veda, which began to be codified between 1500 and 1200 BC but had been orally transmitted for at least a millennium prior to this. The first quasi-rational, full description of the principles and goals of yoga is to be found in the Upanisads, thought to have been composed between 800 and 300 BC. The Upanisads are also called Vedanta since they constitute the end or conclusion of the Vedas (the traditional body of spiritual wisdom). In the Upanisads, the older practice of offering sacrifices and ceremonies to appease external gods gives way instead to a new understanding that man can, by means of an inner sacrifice, become one with the Supreme Being (referred to as Brāhman or Māhātman) -- through moral culture, restraint and training of the mind.

Read more at Wikipedia.org