Yoga Adhyaya

How old is yoga? Nobody knows for sure. There are stone seals that are estimated to be about 5000 years old which depict characters in yogic positions. So, we assume that it is at least 5000 years old. The Hindu sacred texts, Vedas and Upanishads describe different aspects of yoga. They talk about chakras (Sanskrit for wheels) – vortices of energy. In yoga, chakras are said to reside along the body from the base of the spine to the top of the head.

The Bhagawad Gita, another sacred Hindu text talks about Bhakthi yoga, Jnana yoga and karma yoga. Bhakthi means devotion, Jnana means knowledge and karma means duty.

Yoga was classified and organized around the second century by Patanjali, a Hindu sage. His works are widely referred to as the “Yoga Sutra’s of Patanjali”. The word “sutra” means formula in Sanskrit. Patanjali’s yoga sutras contain 195 aphorisms. They describe an eightfold path of yoga, popularly referred to “Ashtanga yoga”.

Yoga spread to the west in the early 19th century. There were many teachers who exposed yoga to the west through books and celebrity students. Swami Sivananda wrote more than 200 books, on Yoga. Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, whose famous students include The Beatles, The Beach Boys, Clint Eastwood et al, popularized it even more with his transcendental meditation approach to yoga.

Today Yoga is practiced in the west as a physical exercise regimen. Much of the emphasis is on holding the asanas and breathing, while the spiritual side of it is left out. In India, serious yogis learn and teach in the guru-shishya tradition while most hindus as a part of daily rituals perform many activities that are rooted in yoga.