Yoga

The term "yoga" refers to a collection of practises or disciplines that can be practised on a physical, mental, and spiritual level. These practises or disciplines have their roots in ancient India and aim to tame (yoke) and calm the mind in order to recognise a witness-consciousness that is unaffected by the mind (Chitta) and the mundane suffering (Dukha). Traditional and contemporary yoga are both widely practised around the globe. Within the religions of Hinduism, Buddhism, and Jainism, yoga schools, practises, and aims may vary greatly from one another.

There are two overarching hypotheses about where yoga first came from. According to the author Edward Fitzpatrick Crangle, the linear model asserts that yoga had its beginnings in the Vedic era, as represented in the Vedic textual corpus, and that it went on to have an impact on Buddhism. This model is mostly endorsed by Hindu academics. According to the synthesis model, yoga is a synthesis of non-Vedic and Vedic components; this paradigm is favoured in Western study. This model describes yoga as a synthesis of non-Vedic and Vedic elements.

The Rigveda is the earliest text that makes reference to yoga, and a number of the Upanishads also make mention of yoga. In the Katha Upanishad, which was most likely written between the fifth and third century BCE, the word "yoga" appears for the first time with the same meaning as the current term. This is the first known occurrence of the phrase. During the fifth and sixth centuries before the common era (BCE), the ascetic and rama movements in ancient India were responsible for the continuous development of yoga as a systematic study and practise. The Yoga Sutras of Patanjali, which are considered to be the most complete work on yoga, date back to the early years of the Common Era. In the second half of the first millennium CE, yoga philosophy became recognised as one of the six orthodox philosophical schools (Daranas) of Hinduism. Tantra was the source of the first writings on hatha yoga, which appeared during the ninth and eleventh centuries.

In the Western world, the term "yoga" most commonly refers to a modern form of Hatha yoga and a posture-based physical fitness, stress-relief, and relaxation technique that consists primarily of the asanas. This is in contrast to traditional yoga, which places more of an emphasis on meditation and detaching oneself from attachments to the material world. After the success of Swami Vivekananda's adaptation of yoga without asanas in the late 19th and early 20th century, gurus from India brought it to the attention of practitioners across the world. Vivekananda was the one who brought the Yoga Sutras to the Western world, and following the development of hatha yoga in the 20th century, they rose to prominence.