Modern yoga

The term "modern yoga" refers to a wide variety of yoga practises that serve a variety of purposes. Modern yoga includes yoga philosophy that is derived from the Vedas, physical postures that are derived from Hatha yoga, devotional and tantra-based practises, and Hindu nation-building approaches. All of these aspects of yoga are included in modern yoga.

In 2004, the researcher Elizabeth de Michelis developed a 4-part typology of contemporary yoga, dividing it into modern psychosomatic, denominational, postural, and meditational yogas respectively. It has been recognised by other academics that her study sparked research into the history, sociology, and anthropology of contemporary yoga; however, not all of these researchers have agreed with her classification system. They have, in a variety of ways, emphasised modern yoga's international nature with its intercultural exchanges; its variety of beliefs and practises; its degree of continuity with older traditions, such as ancient Indian philosophy and mediaeval Hatha yoga; its relationship to Hinduism; its claims to provide health and fitness; and its tensions between the physical and the spiritual, or between the esoteric and the scientific.

Vivekananda, Madame Blavatsky, and a few other individuals brought a variety of yoga practises to the attention of the Western world in the latter half of the 19th century. By omitting any reference to yoga postures or hatha yoga in general, this work mirrored the period's hatred for these forms of yoga, which were believed to be practised by the reviled Nath yogins. Through her promotion of an interest in occult and esoteric ideas as well as an image of the "mystical East," Blavatsky was instrumental in facilitating the dissemination of yoga in Western culture. She had been to India between 1852 and 1853, when she developed a strong interest in yoga in general, while having a strong distaste for and suspicion of hatha yoga. In the 1890s, Vivekananda clearly rejected the practise of asanas and hatha yoga and instead taught a combination of yoga breathwork (pranayama), meditation, and positive thinking that was taken from the new thought movement.