What is yoga?
In today’s society, yoga means many things to many people. But its origins are a mystery, with mythological connections and no concrete facts to draw on. But what is it? Where did it come from?
Yoga is a practice and a discipline. It is your connection with your consciousness. It is to unite the body and the mind, according to BKS Iyengar – the late, great man credited with popularising the existing form of Hatha yoga in the western world.
The earliest knowledge of yoga goes back as far as 2,500BC in India, where statues were found in the position of Namaskar and the throne position. In the 5th century it began to appear in Vedic scripture and in the 2nd century, yoga began to be documented in what is now known as the Patanjali’s Yoga Sutras – which make very little mention of actual poses and focus more on consciousness.
By the first millennium, yoga was known in Buddhism, Jainism and Hinduism, and was documented in the Bhagavad-Gita, which described four approaches to yoga that could be practiced singularly or combined. Jnana – the way of wisdom and learning; Bakti – the way of devotion; Karma – the way of action and Raja – the Ashtanga yoga.
In the 12th century, a group called the Naths created a training manual for monks, calling it Hatha Yoga, which translates to willpower. 84 asanas (postures) were developed to attune the practicing yogi into a higher state of consciousness, both physically and mentally, and 15 of these postures were documented in the 15th century in the Hatha Yoga Pradapika – most were seated or supine positions.
It was at this time yoga became somewhat outlawed, considered to be eccentric, the occult, magical, mystical, even crazy and saw the practice seek solace in secret schools across India, withdrawing from the world. When the British colonised India in the 18th century, they discovered these ‘contortionists’ and watched performances and displays alongside the Maharajas – shocked, surprised and impressed at the same time.
By the 19th century, the idea of yoga was now heard of in Europe and America, via Swami Vivekananda who taught the Americans about Raja yoga. At the time, in Mysore, the Maharaja was a great patron of yoga and his star student was the aforementioned B.K.S Iyengar, who participated in the demonstrations that saw yoga re-emerge all across India. In 1952, Iyengar travelled around the world, amazing audiences in London, Zurich, Paris, New York and many other places, leading to its popularisation in the form as we know it today – predominantly in the western world, a physical practice based in wellbeing with the aim of reaching balance and harmony in life.
“I am very happy that yoga, which had had been forgotten entirely, now like mushrooms, it has come everywhere,’ said Iyengar before he passed away in 2013 at the age of 95. And we are happy too…