History Of Yoga Essay

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Yoga History and Traditions

T he single most important aspect of YOGA is that our physical asana practise is just one part of YOGA SCIENCE. The Yoga Sutras of Patanjali make this perfectly clear when defining yoga as Science of the Mind. This mental science is founded on Raja Yoga. The Sutras provide a firm foundation for all of the many types of yoga postures and meditation which have been developed over the centuries. They all have one thing in common, the search for and development of a particular state of being we call consciousness. The asanas, or postures together with pranayama, which is the meditative technique of breath awareness, help us to prepare the body for the more difficult work in opening up the subliminal or unconsciousness mind.

The subject of yoga history is enormous, difficult to define and open to a number of interpretations. However, we can make it easier by noting that the main elements of philosophy in India are The Vedas, Brahmanism, Hinduism, Jainism, Buddhism and Sikhism. Yoga history has …show more content…

Each one provides an alternative series of asanas, mantras, meditation, etc. They have been introduced to suit a particular need or fashion or age group. Yoga is also used for medicinal purposes, such as aches and pains, headaches, anxiety, stress, high blood pressure etc. Together with Ayurveda food recipes, yoga can present a number of solutions to better health. The vast body of literature on yoga makes it perfectly clear that interpretations and practises have varied from school to school and teacher to teacher over many years. For most of us, however, when we practise yoga we have chosen a series of asanas which we find worthwhile and attractive. The student may want to experiment with other styles as time and opportunity allows. One should remember that there is no single correct form of yoga. We all have our favourite style which happens to be the yogic path that suits us at the

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