Yoga definition and origins

 

Yoga

Sanskrit: योग 'yoga' lit. 'yoke' or 'union') 

a group of physical, mental, and spiritual practices or disciplines that originated (with its own philosophy ) in ancient India, aimed at controlling body and mind to attain various spiritual goals (moksha),[as practiced in the Hindu, Jain, Sikh, and Buddhist traditions.

Yoga may have pre-Vedic origins,but is first attested in the early first millennium BCE. It developed as various traditions in the eastern Ganges basin drew from a common body of practices, including Vedic elements.

Yoga-like practices are mentioned in the Rigveda[10] and a number of early Upanishads,but 

systematic yoga concepts emerge during the fifth and sixth centuries BCE in ancient India's ascetic and Śramaṇa movements, including Jainism and Buddhism.

The Yoga Sutras of Patanjali, the classical text on Hindu yoga, samkhya-based but influenced by Buddhism, dates to the early centuries of the Common Era.

Hatha yoga texts began to emerge between the ninth and 11th centuries, originating in tantra.

 "yoga" in the Western world often entails a modern form of Hatha yoga and a posture-based physical fitness, stress-relief and relaxation technique,consisting largely of asanas;this differs from traditional yoga, which focuses on meditation and release from worldly attachments.

It was introduced by gurus from India after the success of Swami Vivekananda's adaptation of yoga without asanas in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.

Vivekananda introduced the Yoga Sutras to the West, and they became prominent after the 20th-century success of hatha yoga.

Contents

Etymology

Definition

Definitions in classical texts

Scholarly definitions

History

Origins

Earliest references (1000–500 BCE)

Second urbanisation (500–200 BCE)

Classical era (200 BCE – 500 CE)

Middle Ages (500–1500 CE)

Modern revival

Traditions

Jain yoga

Buddhist yoga

Classical yoga

In Advaita Vedanta

Tantric yoga

Hatha yoga

Laya and kundalini yoga

Reception by other religions

Christianity

Islam

Etymology

The Sanskrit noun योग yoga is derived from the root yuj (युज्) "to attach, join, harness, yoke".

Pāṇini (4th c. BCE) wrote that 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, this root is considered the correct etymology by traditional commentators.

In accordance with Pāṇini, Vyasa (who wrote the first commentary on the Yoga Sutras) says that yoga means samadhi (concentration).

yoga's core principles were more or less in place in the 5th century CE, and variations of the principles developed over time:[60]

1 A meditative means of discovering dysfunctional perception and cognition, as well as overcoming it to release any suffering, find inner peace, and salvation. Illustration of this principle is found in Hindu texts such as the Bhagavad Gita and Yogasutras, in a number of Buddhist Mahāyāna works, as well as Jain texts.

2 The raising and expansion of consciousness from oneself to being coextensive with everyone and everything. These are discussed in sources such as in Hinduism Vedic literature and its epic Mahābhārata, the Jain Praśamaratiprakarana, and Buddhist Nikaya texts.

3 A path to omniscience and enlightened consciousness enabling one to comprehend the impermanent (illusive, delusive) and permanent (true, transcendent) reality. Examples of this are found in Hinduism Nyaya and Vaisesika school texts as well as Buddhism Mādhyamaka texts, but in different ways.

4 A technique for entering into other bodies, generating multiple bodies, and the attainment of other supernatural accomplishments. These are, described in Tantric literature of Hinduism and Buddhism, as well as the Buddhist Sāmaññaphalasutta.

the last principle relates to legendary goals of yoga practice; it differs from yoga's practical goals in South Asian thought and practice since the beginning of the Common Era in Hindu, Buddhist, and Jain philosophical schools.

A classic definition of yoga in Patanjali's Yoga Sutras 1.2 and 1.3,defines yoga as "the stilling of the movements of the mind," and recognises Purusha, the witness-consciousness, as different from Prakriti, mind and matter.

According to Larson, in the context of the Yoga Sutras, yoga has two meanings. The first meaning is yoga "as a general term to be translated as "disciplined meditation" that focuses on any of the many levels of ordinary awareness."

In the second meaning yoga is "that specific system of thought (sāstra) that has for its focus the analysis, understanding and cultivation of those altered states of awareness that lead one to the experience of spiritual liberation."

Another classic understanding sees yoga as union or connection with the highest Self (paramatman), Brahman,or God, a "union, a linking of the individual to the divine."

This definition is based on the devotionalism of the Bhagavad Gita, and the jnana yoga of vedanta.

The earliest yoga-practices may have appeared in the Jain tradition at ca. 900 BCE.Speculations about yoga are documented in the early Upanishads of the first half of the first millennium BCE, with expositions also appearing in Jain and Buddhist texts c. 500 – c. 200 BCE. 

Between 200 BCE and 500 CE, traditions of Hindu, Buddhist, and Jain philosophy were taking shape; teachings were collected as sutras and a philosophical system of Patanjaliyogasastra began to emerge.

The proto-Yoga of the Vedic sages is an early form of sacrificial mysticism and contains many elements characteristic of later Yoga that include: concentration, meditative observation, ascetic forms of practice (tapas), breath control practiced in conjunction with the recitation of sacred hymns during the ritual, the notion of self-sacrifice, impeccably accurate recitation of sacred words (prefiguring mantra-yoga), mystical experience, and the engagement with a reality far greater than our psychological identity or the ego.

Bodily postures are closely related to the tradition of tapas ascetic practices in the Vedic tradition"; ascetic practices used by Vedic priests in their preparations for the performance of the sacrifice may be precursors of yoga.

The ecstatic practice of enigmatic longhaired muni in Rgveda 10.136 and the ascetic performance of the vratya-s in the Atharvaveda outside of or on the fringe of the Brahmanical ritual order, have probably contributed more to the ascetic practices of yoga.

practices recognizable as classical yoga first appear in the Upanishads (composed during the late Vedic period).

formless, elemental meditation might have originated in the Upanishadic tradition.

An early reference to meditation is made in the Brihadaranyaka Upanishad (c. 900 BCE), one of the Principal Upanishads.

The Chandogya Upanishad (c. 800–700 BCE) describes the five vital energies (prana), and concepts of later yoga traditions (such as blood vessels and an internal sound) are also described in this upanishad.

The practice of pranayama (focusing on the breath) is mentioned in hymn 1.5.23 of the Brihadaranyaka Upanishad,and pratyahara (withdrawal of the senses) is mentioned in hymn 8.15 of Chandogya Upanishad.

The Jaiminiya Upanishad Brahmana (probably before the 6th c. BCE) teaches breath control and repetition of a mantra.

The 6th-c. BCE Taittiriya Upanishad defines yoga as the mastery of body and senses.

The actual term yoga first appears in the Katha Upanishad,

dated to the fifth to first centuries BCE.