Yoga

For many people today, yoga is an Indian-derived form of physical exercise--based on the famous postures--which may or may not include a spiritual component. In this form yoga has spread all over the world, in ever-increasing variety.

More fundamentally, "yoga" refers to a family of voluntary spiritual practices, together with their attendant texts and teacher-student lineages, aimed at release from the cycle of reincarnation (samsara). This liberation is given various Sanskrit names:

• moksha ("liberation")
• mukti ("release," i.e. from bondage)
• kaivalya ("aloneness")
• samadhi ("equipoise")
• nirvana ("extinction" or "snuffing out," as with a candle, of egoism and delusion. Chiefly Buddhist, however cf. Bhagavadgita 2:72)

Its underlying assumption is that by stilling or concentrating the mind, the yoga practitioner can

"Yoga" in this sense is practiced within the religions of Hinduism, Buddhism, and Jainism; and encompasses theistic as well as nontheistic forms.

In Indian philosophy, "Yoga" is the name of one of the six "orthodox" (i.e., Veda-affirming) schools, while "Yogacara" ("Yoga Practitioners") is an important school of thought within Mahayana Buddhism.

The name

From Sanskrit yoga (योग)-- derived from yugam, a cognate of the modern English "yoke" (via Latin iugum). Its Proto-Indo-European forbear is speculated to be *yugom, from the root *yeug- (Sanskrit yuj-) meaning "to join" or "unite".

The term is attested since the Rigveda in the sense of "act of yoking, joining, attaching, harnessing" but also "undertaking, business, performance". A mental sense of "exertion, zeal, diligence" is attested since the Mahabharata, and the spiritual or mystical sense of "abstract contemplation, meditation" likewise appears in the Mahabharata as well as in the Upanishads.

A practioner of yoga is called a "yogin" (masculine), "yogini" (feminine), or most commonly, a "yogi" (unisex). In this form it has become the nickname of Lawrence Peter "Yogi" Berra, the celebrated baseball player for the New York Yankees; who in turn inspired the name of cartoon character Yogi Bear.

Origins

A soapstone seal from the Indus Valley archeological site of Mohenjo-Daro depicts a horned figure (or, a figure wearing a headdress) surrounded by four animals, and seated on a throne in what may be interpreted as a yogic or meditative position. (The soles of his feet are pressed together.) The figure is often identified with Shiva, perhaps in his role as Pashupati ("Lord of Animals").

Several Vedic references

Yoga in Hinduism

The Yogasutras of Patanjali

Patanjali's yoga is sometimes called Raja Yoga ("royal yoga") by way of distinction. The Yogasutras are divided into four books (Sanskrit pada), containing in all 195 aphorisms (sutras), divided as follows:

I. Samadhi Pada (51 sutras)

Samadhi refers to a blissful state where the yogi is absorbed into the One. The author describes yoga and then the means to attaining samadhi. This chapter contains the most famous verses: "Atha yoga anusasanam" ("Yoga begins with discipline") and "Yogas citta vritti nirodha" ("Yoga is control of citta vrittis" - i.e., thoughts and feelings).

II. Sadhana Pada (55 sutras)

Sadhana is the Sanskrit word for "practice". Here the author outlines two forms of Yoga: kriya yoga (action yoga) and ashtanga yoga (eightfold yoga).

Kriya yoga, sometimes called karma yoga, is reflected in the philosophy of the Bhagavad Gita, Chapter 3, where Arjuna is encouraged to act without attachment to the results of action. It is the yoga of selfless action or as some have observed, of service.

Ashtanga ("eight-limbed") yoga consists of the following aspects:

1. *The five yama (abstentions; the word means "restraint"). These are also found in Jainism; Buddhism has a similarly-conceived list.

(1) Ahimsa (abstention from violence, himsa)

(2) Satya ("truth", abstention from lying)

(3) Asteya (abstention from theft)

(4) Brahmacharya (abstention from sexual activity)

(5) Aparigraha (abstention from possessions)

2. The five niyama ("observances"):

(1) Shaucha ("{purity")

(2) Santosha ("contentment")

(3) Tapas ("heat", i.e., austerities, self-mortification)

(4) Svadhyaya ("self-contemplation")

(5) Ishvarapranidhana "surrender to the Creator")

3. Asana ("seat"). The term which is now generally translated as "physical postures" originally referring to seated postures.

4. Pranayama (control of prana, the vital breath or "life force")

5. Pratyahara ("withdrawal" of the mind from the senses, or the senses from objects)

6. Dharana (concentration, i.e., fixing the attention on a single object)

7. Dhyana (meditation)

8. Samadhi (equipoise)

III. Vibhuti Pada (55 sutras)

Vibhuti is the Sanskrit word for "power" or "manifestation". This book describes the higher states of awareness and the techniques of yoga to attain them.

IV. Kaivalya Pada (34 sutras)

Yoga as exercise

In 1893, Swami Vivekananda spoke before the World Parliament of Religions, mentioning the need for a "Raja Yoga" (i.e. a more spiritual or universalistic) approach to religion. While Vivekananda's allegiance lay with Vedanta, Western interest in yoga soon grew.

By the twentieth century, a new (and arguably nationalistic) emphasis on sport and "fitness" led to hatha yoga being understood in these terms, both in India and in Western countries. Yogis were made objects of scientific research which showed them to be able to, inter alia, regulate supposedly involuntary activities such as heart-rate, blood pressure, or body temperature.

B.K.S. Iyengar

Sri Yogendra

Swami Kuvalayananda

Globalization affected yoga by

References

Alter, Joseph S. Yoga in Modern India: The Body Between Science and Philosophy. Princeton UP, 2004.