yogas chitta vritti nirodhah - "Yoga is the calming down the fluctuations/patterns of mind"ġ.3. "Know that which is called yoga to be separation from contact with suffering" (6.23).ġ.2.
"Be equal minded in both success and failure. Then one becomes un-distracted for yoga is the arising and the passing away" (6.10-11) They consider yoga to be firm restraint of the senses. "When the five senses, along with the mind, remain still and the intellect is not active, that is known as the highest state. When that does not happen because the mind is in the self, there is no pleasure or suffering for one who is embodied. "Pleasure and suffering arise as a result of the drawing together of the sense organs, the mind and objects. The term Yoga has been defined in various ways in the many different Indian philosophical and religious traditions. Someone who practices yoga or follows the yoga philosophy with a high level of commitment is called a yogi (may be applied to a man or a woman) or yogini (a woman). the "union with the supreme" through performance of duties in everyday life.
The term kriyāyoga has a technical meaning in the Yoga Sutras (2.1), designating the "practical" aspects of the philosophy, i.e. In accordance with Pāṇini, Vyasa who wrote the first commentary on the Yoga Sutras, states that yoga means samādhi (concentration). In the context of the Yoga Sutras, the root yuj samādhau (to concentrate) is considered by traditional commentators as the correct etymology. BCE), the term yoga can be derived from either of two roots, yujir yoga (to yoke) or yuj samādhau ("to concentrate"). According to Burley, the first use of the root of the word "yoga" is in hymn 5.81.1 of the Rig Veda, a dedication to the rising Sun-god in the morning (Savitri), where it has been interpreted as "yoke" or "yogically control". The word yoga is cognate with English "yoke". The Sanskrit noun योग yoga is derived from the Sanskrit root yuj (युज्) "to attach, join, harness, yoke". 4.2 Earliest textual references (1000–500 BCE)Ī statue of Patañjali, the author of the core text Yoga Sutras of Patanjali, meditating in Padmasana.The Yoga Sutras gained prominence in the 20th century following the success of hatha yoga. It was introduced by gurus from India, following the success of Vivekananda's adaptation of yoga without asanas in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, who introduced the Yoga Sutras to the west. The term "yoga" in the Western world often denotes a modern form of hatha yoga and a posture-based physical fitness, stress-relief and relaxation technique, consisting largely of the asanas, in contrast with traditional yoga, which focuses on meditation and release from worldly attachments. Hatha yoga texts began to emerge between the 9th and 11th century with origins in tantra. The most comprehensive text on Yoga, Yoga Sutras of Patanjali date to the early centuries CE, while Yoga philosophy came to be marked as one of the six orthodox philosophical schools of Hinduism in the second half of the first millennium. Yoga continued to develop as a systematic study and practice during the 5th and 6th centuries BCE, in ancient India's ascetic, and Śramaṇa movements. The first known formal appearance of the word "yoga", with the same meaning as the modern term, is in the Katha Upanishad, probably composed between the fifth and third century BCE. Yoga is first mentioned in the Rigveda and also referenced in many Upanishads. The synthesis model argues that yoga is a synthesis of indigenous, non-Aryan practices with Aryan elements this model is favoured in western scholarship. The linear model argues that yoga has Aryan origins, as reflected in the Vedic textual corpus, and influenced Buddhism according to author Edward Fitzpatrick Crangle, this model is mainly supported by Hindu scholars. There are broadly two kinds of theories on the origins of yoga. There are a broad variety of the schools of yoga, practices, and goals in Hinduism, Buddhism, and Jainism, and traditional forms and modern methods of yoga are practiced worldwide. Yoga ( / ˈ j oʊ ɡ ə/ ( listen) Sanskrit: योग, lit.'yoke' or 'union' pronounced ) is a group of physical, mental, and spiritual practices or disciplines that originated in ancient India, aimed at controlling ('yoking') and stilling the mind, and recognizing the detached 'witness-consciousness' as untouched by the activities of the mind ( Citta) and mundane suffering ( Duḥkha).
Statue of Shiva performing yogic meditation in Padmasana