Yoga

Yoga is a form of physical, mental and spiritual practice originated in ancient India with a view to attain enduring peace in life. Yoga has become a very popular system across the world in the later part of the 20th century. It is being practiced in different types as Asanas (Postures), Pranayama (Breathing technique), Bandhas (locks), Mudras (Gestures), and Relaxation techniques.
Yoga has the benefits of instant contentment as well as long lasting transformation in the lives of those who practice it. Yoga will quickly change the physical and mental capacity of individuals while preparing for a joyous mind and healthy body.

Yoga can be practiced by all age group having different health conditions. The yoga practice is not only a form of work-out but it is more of a healthy life-style. Strength as well as flexibility can be achieved by doing yoga regularly while bringing in the look good and feel good for the one who practices it regularly. Every yoga posture helps strengthen the muscles around the spine and also alleviate back, shoulder and neck pain. Yoga as a unique form of holistic therapy revolves around the science of breathing which is the key force in driving our life forward. Yogic form of breathing exercises is being used as the utmost remedy for respiratory ailments and stress management as well.

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Terminology

There are very many compound words containing yog in Sanskrit. Yoga can take on meanings such as "connection", "contact", "method", "application", "addition", and "performance". In simpler words, Yoga also means "combined". For example, guṇá-yoga means "contact with a cord"; chakrá-yoga has a medical sense of "applying a splint or similar instrument by means of pulleys (in case of dislocation of the thigh)"; chandrá-yoga has the astronomical sense of "conjunction of the moon with a constellation"; puṃ-yoga is a grammatical term expressing "connection or relation with a man", etc. Thus, bhakti-yoga means "devoted attachment" in the monotheistic Bhakti movement. The term kriyā-yoga has a grammatical sense, meaning "connection with a verb". But the same compound is also given a technical meaning in theYoga Sutras (2.1), designating the "practical" aspects of the philosophy, i.e. the "union with the Supreme" due to performance of duties in everyday life In Vedic Sanskrit, the more commonly used, literal meaning of the Sanskrit word yoga which is "to add", "to join", "to unite", or "to attach" from the root yuj, already had a much more figurative sense, where the yoking or harnessing of oxen or horses takes on broader meanings such as "employment, use, application, performance" (compare the figurative uses of "toharness" as in "to put something to some use"). All further developments of the sense of this word are post-Vedic. More prosaic moods such as "exertion", "endeavour", "zeal", and "diligence" are also found in Epic Sanskrit.^[

According to Pāṇini, a 6th-century BCE Sanskrit grammarian, the term yoga can be derived from either of two roots, yujir yoga (to yoke) or yuj samādhau (to concentrate). In the context of the Yoga Sutras of Patanjali, the root yuj samādhau (to concentrate) is considered by traditional commentators as the correct etymology. In accordance with Pāṇini, Vyasa who wrote the first commentary on the Yoga Sutras, states that yoga means samādhi (concentration). In other texts and contexts, such as the Bhagavad Gītā and the Hatha Yoga Pradipika, the word yoga has been used in conformity with yujir yoge (to yoke).

According to Dasgupta, the term yoga can be derived from either of two roots, yujir yoga (to yoke) or yuj samādhau (to concentrate). Someone who practices yoga or follows the yoga philosophy with a high level of commitment is called a yogi (may be applied to a male or a female) or yogini (traditionally denoting a female).

Goal of Yoga

The ultimate goal of Yoga is moksha (liberation) though the exact definition of what form this takes depends on the philosophical or theological system with which it is conjugated.

According to Jacobsen, "Yoga has five principal meanings:

1. Yoga as a disciplined method for attaining a goal;
2. Yoga as techniques of controlling the body and the mind;
3. Yoga as a name of one of the schools or systems of philosophy (darśana);
4. Yoga in connection with other words, such as "hatha-, mantra-, and laya-," referring to traditions specialising in particular techniques of yoga;
5. Yoga as the goal of Yoga practice."

According to David Gordon White, from the 5th century CE onward, the meanings of the term "yoga" became more or less fixed, but having various meanings:

1. Yoga as an analysis of perception and cognition;
2. Yoga as the rising and expansion of consciousness;
3. Yoga as a path to omniscience;
4. Yoga as a technique for entering into other bodies, generating multiple bodies, and the attainment of other supernatural accomplishments;

Schools of Yoga

The term "yoga" has been applied to a variety of practices and methods. The well-known Hindu schools of Yoga being Jnana Yoga, Bhakti Yoga, Karma Yoga, Laya Yoga and Hatha Yoga, but also including Jain and Buddhist practices. Yoga Sutras of Pantajali, constitute classical Ashtanga Yoga (the eight limbs), also called Raja Yoga.

Buddhism

Buddhist meditation encompasses a variety of meditation techniques that aim to develop mindfulness, concentration, supramundane powers, tranquility, and insight.

Core techniques have been preserved in ancient Buddhist texts and have proliferated and diversified through teacher-student transmissions. Buddhists pursue meditation as part of the path toward Enlightenment and Nirvana.The closest words for meditation in the classical languages of Buddhism are bhāvanā and jhāna/dhyāna. Buddhist meditation techniques have become increasingly popular in the wider world, with many non-Buddhists taking them up for a variety of reasons.

Hinduism

Raja Yoga

The Yoga Sutras of Patanjali are often labelled as Rāja yoga. It defines yoga as citta-vṛtti-nirodhaḥ (the cessation of the perturbations of the mind). The aim is to still the mind in order to reach Kaivalya, the "isolation" of purusha (the motionless consciousness "essence") from prakriti (the primordial matter from which everything is made, including mind and emotions). In Hinduism, Raja yoga is considered as one of the six āstika schools (those which accept the authority of the Vedas)^[36] of Hindu philosophy. Meditation is one of the keys for Raja Yoga

Tantra

Tantra is the name given by scholars to a style of meditation and ritual which arose in India no later than the 5th century CE. The earliest documented use of the word "Tantra" is in the Rigveda (X.71.9). Tantra has influenced the Hindu, Bon, Buddhist, and Jain traditions and Silk Road transmission of Buddhism that spread Buddhism to East and Southeast Asia.^[40]

Hatha yoga

Hatha yoga, also called hatha vidyā (हठविद्या), is a kind of yoga focusing on physical and mental strength building exercises and postures described primarily in three texts of Hinduism:

1. Hatha Yoga Pradipika, Svātmārāma (15th century)
2. Shiva Samhita, author unknown (1500 C.E  or late 17th century)
3. Gheranda Samhita by Gheranda (late 17th century)

Many scholars also include the preceding Goraksha Samhita authored by Gorakshanath of the 11th century in the above list. Gorakshanath is widely considered to have been responsible for popularizing hatha yoga as we know it today.

Vajrayana Buddhism, founded by the Indian Mahasiddhas, has a series of asanas and pranayamas, such as tummo (Sanskrit caṇḍālī)^[4] and trul khor which parallel hatha yoga.

Shaivism

Main articles: Shaivism, Shaiva Siddhanta and Nath

In Shaivism, yoga is used to unite kundalini with Shiva. Mahabharata defines the purpose of yoga as the experience of uniting the individual ātman with the universal Brahman that pervades all things.^[50]

Jainism

Mahavira, 24th Tirthankara

Jain meditation has been the central practice of spirituality in Jainism along with the Three Jewels. Meditation in Jainism aims at realizing the self, attain salvation, take the soul to complete freedom. It aims to reach and to remain in the pure state of soul which is believed to be pure conscious, beyond any attachment or aversion. The practitioner strives to be just a knower-seer (Gyata-Drashta). Jain meditation can be broadly categorized to the auspicious Dharmya Dhyana and Shukla Dhyana and inauspicious Artta and Raudra Dhyana.

Modern wellness

Apart from the spiritual goals, the physical postures of yoga are used to alleviate health problems, reduce stress and make the spine supple in contemporary times. Yoga is also used as a complete exercise program and physical therapy routine.

While the practice of yoga continues to rise in contemporary American culture, sufficient and adequate knowledge of the practice’s origins does not. According to Andrea R. Jain, Yoga is undoubtedly a Hindu movement for spiritual meditation, yet is now being marketed as a supplement to a cardio routine. This scope “dilutes its Hindu identity.” Contemporaries of the Hindu faith argue that the more popular yoga gets, the less concerned people become about its origins in history. These same contemporaries do state that while anyone can practice yoga, only those who give Hinduism due credit for the practice will achieve the full benefit of the custom.

Yoga physiology

Over time, an extended yoga physiology developed, especially within the tantric tradition and hatha yoga. It pictures humans as composed of three bodies or five sheats which cover the atman. The three bodies are described within the Mandukya Upanishad, which adds a fourth state, turiya, while the five sheaths (pancha-kosas) are described in the Taittiriya Upanishad. They are often integrated:

1. Sthula sarira, the Gross body, comprising the Annamaya Kosha
2. Suksma sarira, the Subtle body, composed of;
   1. the Pranamaya Kosha (Vital breath or Energy),
   2. Manomaya Kosha (Mind)
   3. the Vijnanamaya Kosha (Intellect)
3. Karana sarira, the Causal body, comprising the Anandamaya Kosha (Bliss)

Within the subtle body energy flows through the nadis or channels, and is concentrated within the chakras.

Yoga compared with other systems of meditation

Zen Buddhism

Zen, the name of which derives from the Sanskrit "dhyaana" via the Chinese "ch'an" is a form of Mahayana Buddhism. The Mahayana school of Buddhism is noted for its proximity with yoga. In the west, Zen is often set alongside yoga; the two schools of meditation display obvious family resemblances. This phenomenon merits special attention since yogic practices have some of their roots manifested in the Zen Buddhist school. Certain essential elements of yoga are important both for Buddhism in general and for Zen in particular.

Tibetan Buddhism

In the Nyingma tradition, the path of meditation practice is divided into nine yanas, or vehicles, which are said to be increasingly profound. The last six are described as "yoga yanas": "Kriya yoga", "Upa yoga," "Yoga yana," "Mahā yoga," "Anu yoga" and the ultimate practice, "Ati yoga." The Sarma traditions also include Kriya, Upa (called "Charya"), and Yoga, with the Anuttara yoga class substituting for Mahayoga and Atiyoga.

Other tantra yoga practices include a system of 108 bodily postures practiced with breath and heart rhythm. The Nyingma tradition also practices Yantra yoga (Tib. "Trul khor"), a discipline that includes breath work (or pranayama), meditative contemplation and precise dynamic movements to centre the practitioner. The body postures of Tibetan ancient yogis are depicted on the walls of the Dalai Lama's summer temple of Lukhang. A semi-popular account of Tibetan yoga by Chang (1993) refers to caṇḍalī (Tib. "tummo"), the generation of heat in one's own body, as being "the very foundation of the whole of Tibetan yoga." Chang also claims that Tibetan yoga involves reconciliation of apparent polarities, such as prana and mind, relating this to theoretical implications of tantrism.

Christian meditation

Some Christians integrate yoga and other aspects of Eastern spirituality with prayer and meditation. This has been attributed to a desire to experience God in a more complete way. In 2013, Monsignor Raffaello Martinelli, servicing Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, having worked for over 23 years with Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger (Pope Benedict XVI), said that for his Meditation, a Christian can learn from other religious traditions (zen, yoga, controlled respiration,Mantra): "As long as the Catholic Church rejects nothing of what is true and holy in these religions, we should not despise these indications since non-Christian. Instead, we can collect from them what is useful, provided you never lose sight of the Christian conception of prayer, its logic and requirements, since it is within this that all these fragments must be reformulated and assumed.../...». Previously, the Roman Catholic Church, and some other Christian organizations have expressed concerns and disapproval with respect to some eastern and New Age practices that include yoga and meditation.

In 1989 and 2003, the Vatican issued two documents: Aspects of Christian meditation and "A Christian reflection on the New Age," that were mostly critical of eastern and New Age practices. The 2003 document was published as a 90 page handbook detailing the Vatican's position. The Vatican warned that concentration on the physical aspects of meditation "can degenerate into a cult of the body" and that equating bodily states with mysticism "could also lead to psychic disturbance and, at times, to moral deviations." Such has been compared to the early days of Christianity, when the church opposed the gnostics' belief that salvation came not through faith but through a mystical inner knowledge. The letter also says, "one can see if and how [prayer] might be enriched by meditation methods developed in other religions and cultures" but maintains the idea that "there must be some fit between the nature of [other approaches to] prayer and Christian beliefs about ultimate reality." Some fundamentalist Christian organizations consider yoga to be incompatible with their religious background, considering it a part of the New Age movement inconsistent with Christianity.^[245]

Another view holds that Christian meditation can lead to religious pluralism. This is held by an interdenominational association of Christians that practice it. "The ritual simultaneously operates as an anchor that maintains, enhances, and promotes denominational activity and a sail that allows institutional boundaries to be crossed." 

Islam

The development of Sufism was considerably influenced by Indian yogic practises, where they adapted both physical postures (asanas) and breath control (pranayama).^[247] The ancient Indian yogic text Amritakunda ("Pool of Nectar)" was translated into Arabic and Persian as early as the 11th century. Several other yogic texts were appropriated by Sufi tradition, but typically the texts juxtapose yoga materials alongside Sufi practices without any real attempt at integration or synthesis. Yoga became known to Indian Sufis gradually over time, but engagement with yoga is not found at the historical beginnings of the tradition.

Yoga is a growing industry in Islamic countries (Two Bikram Yoga studios in Iran). Also, yoga is used in regions like Palestine to help the population manage stress. This article is a comparative study of yoga and Islam, showing their similarities.

Malaysia's top Islamic body in 2008 passed a fatwa, which is legally non-binding, against Muslims practicing yoga, saying it had elements of "Hindu spiritual teachings" and that its practice was blasphemy and is therefore haraam. Muslim yoga teachers in Malaysia criticized the decision as "insulting." Sisters in Islam, a women's rights group in Malaysia, also expressed disappointment and said that its members would continue with their yoga classes.

The fatwa states that yoga practiced only as physical exercise is permissible, but prohibits the chanting of religious mantras, and states that teachings such as the uniting of a human with God is not consistent with Islamic philosophy. In a similar vein, the Council of Ulemas, an Islamic body in Indonesia, passed a fatwabanning yoga on the grounds that it contains "Hindu elements" These fatwas have, in turn, been criticized by Darul Uloom Deoband, a Deobandi Islamic seminary in India.

In May 2009, Turkey's head of the Directorate of Religious Affairs, Ali Bardakoğlu, discounted personal development techniques such as yoga as commercial ventures that could lead to extremism. His comments were made in the context of yoga possibly competing with and eroding participation in Islamic practice.

As of May 2014, according to Iran’s Yoga Association, Islamic Republic of Iran has approximately 200 yoga centres, a quarter of them in the capital Tehran, where groups can often be seen practising in parks. This has been met by opposition among conservatives.

Yoga for complete beginners. 20 minute gentle yoga class to give you greater relaxation, more energy and joy. Relaxation pose and crocodile poses to relax the lower back. Shoulder exercises to relax the neck and shoulders. Sitting forward bend for flexibility. Inclined plane for strengthening the back. Spinal 

International Yoga Day

On December 11, 2014, The 193-member U.N. General Assembly approved by consensus, a resolution establishing June 21 as 'International Day of Yoga'.