4/5/24, 11:09 AM Yoga - Wikipedia

Yoga
ⓘ ;[1]
Yoga (/ˈjoʊɡə/ Sanskrit: योग, lit. 'yoke' or 'union'
pronounced [joːɡɐ]) is a group of physical, mental, and
spiritual practices or disciplines which originated in
ancient India and aim to control (yoke) and still the
mind, recognizing a detached witness-consciousness
untouched by the mind (Chitta) and mundane suffering
(Duḥkha). There is a wide variety of schools of yoga,
practices, and goals[2] in Hinduism, Buddhism, and
Jainism,[3][4][5] and traditional and modern yoga is
practiced worldwide.[6]

Yoga-like practices were first mentioned in the ancient

Hindu text known as Rigveda.[7] Yoga is referred to in a
number of the Upanishads.[8][9][10] The first known Statue of Shiva performing yoga in the
lotus position
appearance of the word "yoga" with the same meaning as
the modern term is in the Katha Upanishad,[11][12] which
was probably composed between the fifth and third centuries BCE.[13][14] Yoga continued to
develop as a systematic study and practice during the fifth and sixth centuries BCE in ancient
India's ascetic and Śramaṇa movements.[15] The most comprehensive text on yoga, the Yoga
Sutras of Patanjali, date to the early centuries of the Common Era;[16][17][note 1] Yoga philosophy
became known as one of the six orthodox philosophical schools (Darśanas) of Hinduism in the
second half of the first millennium CE.[18][web 1] Hatha yoga texts began to emerge between the
ninth and 11th centuries, originating in tantra.[19][20]

Two general theories exist on the origins of yoga. The linear model holds that yoga originated in
the Vedic period, as reflected in the Vedic textual corpus, and influenced Buddhism; according to
author Edward Fitzpatrick Crangle, this model is mainly supported by Hindu scholars. According
to the synthesis model, yoga is a synthesis of non-Vedic and Vedic elements; this model is favoured
in Western scholarship.[21][22]

The term "yoga" in the Western world often denotes a modern form of Hatha yoga and a posture-
based physical fitness, stress-relief and relaxation technique,[23] consisting largely of asanas;[24]
this differs from traditional yoga, which focuses on meditation and release from worldly
attachments.[23][25] 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.[26]
Vivekananda introduced the Yoga Sutras to the West, and they became prominent after the 20th-
century success of hatha yoga.[27]

Etymology
The Sanskrit noun योग yoga is derived from the root yuj (युज्) "to attach, join, harness, yoke".[28]
Yoga is a cognate of the English word "yoke".[29] According to Mikel Burley, the first use of the
root of the word "yoga" is in hymn 5.81.1 of the Rigveda, a dedication to the rising Sun-god, where
it has been interpreted as "yoke" or "control".[30][31][note 2]
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yoga 1/39
4/5/24, 11:09 AM Yoga - Wikipedia

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").[33] In the context of the Yoga Sutras, the
root yuj samādhau (to concentrate) is considered the correct
etymology by traditional commentators.[34]

In accordance with Pāṇini, Vyasa (who wrote the first

commentary on the Yoga Sutras)[35] says that yoga means
samadhi (concentration).[36] A person who practices yoga, or A statue of Patanjali, author of the
Yoga Sutras of Patanjali, meditating
follows the yoga philosophy with a high level of commitment, is
in the lotus position
called a yogi; a female yogi may also be known as a yogini.[37]

Definitions in classical texts

The term "yoga" has been defined in different ways in Indian philosophical and religious
traditions.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yoga 2/39
4/5/24, 11:09 AM Yoga - Wikipedia

Source Text Approx. Date Definition of Yoga[38]

"Pleasure and suffering arise as a result of the drawing
together of the sense organs, the mind and objects. When
Vaisesika sutra c. 4th century BCE that does not happen because the mind is in the self, there
is no pleasure or suffering for one who is embodied. That is
yoga" (5.2.15–16)[39]

"When the five senses, along with the mind, remain still and
the intellect is not active, that is known as the highest state.
Katha Upanishad last centuries BCE They consider yoga to be firm restraint of the senses. Then
one becomes un-distracted for yoga is the arising and the
passing away" (6.10–11)[40]
"Be equal minded in both success and failure. Such
equanimity is called Yoga" (2.48)
"Yoga is skill in action" (2.50) "Know that which is
Bhagavad Gita c. 2nd century BCE
called yoga to be separation from contact with
suffering" (6.23)[41]

1.2. yogas chitta vritti nirodhah – "Yoga is the calming down

the fluctuations/patterns of mind"
c. first centuries 1.3. Then the Seer is established in his own essential and
Yoga Sutras of Patanjali
CE[16][42][note 1] fundamental nature.
1.4. In other states there is assimilation (of the Seer) with
the modifications (of the mind).[43]
Yogācārabhūmi-Śāstra
(Sravakabhumi), a "Yoga is fourfold: faith, aspiration, perseverance and
4th century CE
Mahayana Buddhist means" (2.152)[44]
Yogacara work
Kaundinya's
"In this system, yoga is the union of the self and the Lord"
Pancarthabhasya on the 4th century CE
(I.I.43)
Pashupata-sutra

"With conviction, the lords of Yogins have in our doctrine

defined yoga as the concurrence (sambandhah) of the three
[correct knowledge (sajjñana), correct doctrine
(saddarsana) and correct conduct (saccaritra)] beginning
Yogaśataka a Jain work by with correct knowledge, since [thereby arises] conjunction
6th century CE
Haribhadra Suri with liberation....In common usage this [term] yoga also
[denotes the Self's] contact with the causes of these [three],
due to the common usage of the cause for the effect." (2,
4).[45][46]
"By the word 'yoga' is meant nirvana, the condition of
Linga Purana 7th–10th century CE
Shiva." (I.8.5a)[47]
"It is said in the treatises on yoga: 'Yoga is the means of
Brahmasutra-bhasya of Adi perceiving reality' (atha tattvadarsanabhyupāyo yogah)"
c. 8th century CE
Shankara
(2.1.3)[48]
Mālinīvijayottara Tantra,
one of the primary "Yoga is said to be the oneness of one entity with another."
6th–10th century CE
authorities in non-dual (4.4–8)[49][50]
Kashmir Shaivism

"To have self-mastery is to be a Yogin. The term Yogin

Mrgendratantravrtti, of the means "one who is necessarily "conjoined with" the
Shaiva Siddhanta scholar 6th–10th century CE manifestation of his nature...the Siva-state (sivatvam)" (yp
Narayanakantha
2a)[51][50]
Śaradatilaka of 11th century CE "Yogic experts state that yoga is the oneness of the
Lakshmanadesikendra, a individual Self (jiva) with the atman. Others understand it to
Shakta Tantra work be the ascertainment of Siva and the Self as non-different.
The scholars of the Agamas say that it is a Knowledge

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yoga 3/39
4/5/24, 11:09 AM Yoga - Wikipedia
which is of the nature of Siva's Power. Other scholars say it
is the knowledge of the primordial Self." (25.1–3b)[52][53]
"The union of apana and prana, one's own rajas and
Yogabija, a Hatha yoga semen, the sun and moon, the individual Self and the
14th century CE supreme Self, and in the same way the union of all dualities,
work
is called yoga. " (89)[54]

Goals
The ultimate goals of yoga are stilling the mind and gaining insight, resting in detached awareness,
and liberation (Moksha) from saṃsāra and duḥkha: a process (or discipline) leading to unity
(Aikyam) with the divine (Brahman) or with one's self (Ātman).[55] This goal varies by
philosophical or theological system. In the classical Astanga yoga system, the ultimate goal of yoga
is to achieve samadhi and remain in that state as pure awareness.

According to Knut A. Jacobsen, yoga has five principal meanings:[56]

1. A disciplined method for attaining a goal

2. Techniques of controlling the body and mind
3. A name of a school or system of philosophy (darśana)
4. With prefixes such as "hatha-, mantra-, and laya-, traditions specialising in particular yoga
techniques
5. The goal of yoga practice[57]
David Gordon White writes that yoga's core principles were more or less in place in the 5th century
CE, and variations of the principles developed over time:[58]

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.[59]
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.[60]
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.[61]
4. A technique for entering into other bodies, generating multiple bodies, and the attainment of
other supernatural accomplishments. These are, states White, described in Tantric literature of
Hinduism and Buddhism, as well as the Buddhist Sāmaññaphalasutta.[62] James Mallinson,
however, disagrees and suggests that such fringe practices are far removed from the
mainstream Yoga's goal as meditation-driven means to liberation in Indian religions.[63]
According to White, 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.[64]

History
There is no consensus on yoga's chronology or origins other than its development in ancient India.
There are two broad theories explaining the origins of yoga. The linear model holds that yoga has
Vedic origins (as reflected in Vedic texts), and influenced Buddhism. This model is mainly

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yoga 4/39
4/5/24, 11:09 AM Yoga - Wikipedia

supported by Hindu scholars.[65]

According to the synthesis model, yoga is a synthesis of
indigenous, non-Vedic practices with Vedic elements. This model is favoured in Western
scholarship.[66]

Speculations about yoga began to emerge 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.[67] The Middle Ages saw the development of a number of yoga satellite
traditions. It and other aspects of Indian philosophy came to the attention of the educated Western
public during the mid-19th century.

Origins

Linear model
According to Edward Fitzpatrick Crangle, Hindu researchers have favoured a linear theory which
attempts "to interpret the origin and early development of Indian contemplative practices as a
sequential growth from an Aryan genesis";[68][note 3] traditional Hinduism regards the Vedas as the
source of all spiritual knowledge.[70][note 4] Edwin Bryant wrote that authors who support
Indigenous Aryanism also tend to support the linear model.[73]

Synthesis model
Heinrich Zimmer was an exponent of the synthesis model,[70] arguing for non-Vedic eastern states
of India.[74] According to Zimmer, yoga is part of a non-Vedic system which includes the Samkhya
school of Hindu philosophy, Jainism and Buddhism:[74] "[Jainism] does not derive from Brahman-
Aryan sources, but reflects the cosmology and anthropology of a much older pre-Aryan upper class
of northeastern India [Bihar] – being rooted in the same subsoil of archaic metaphysical
speculation as Yoga, Sankhya, and Buddhism, the other non-Vedic Indian systems."[75][note 5]
Richard Gombrich[78] and Geoffrey Samuel[79] believe that the śramaṇa movement originated in
non-Vedic Greater Magadha.[78][79]

Thomas McEvilley favors a composite model in which a pre-Aryan yoga prototype existed in the
pre-Vedic period and was refined during the Vedic period.[80] According to Gavin D. Flood, the
Upanishads differ fundamentally from the Vedic ritual tradition and indicate non-Vedic
influences.[81] However, the traditions may be connected:

[T]his dichotomization is too simplistic, for continuities can undoubtedly be found

between renunciation and vedic Brahmanism, while elements from non-Brahmanical,
Sramana traditions also played an important part in the formation of the renunciate
ideal.[82][note 6]

The ascetic traditions of the eastern Ganges plain are thought to drew from a common body of
practices and philosophies,[84][85][86] with proto-samkhya concepts of purusha and prakriti as a
common denominator.[87][86]

Indus Valley Civilisation

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yoga 5/39
4/5/24, 11:09 AM Yoga - Wikipedia

The twentieth-century scholars Karel Werner, Thomas McEvilley, and Mircea Eliade believe that
the central figure of the Pashupati seal is in a Mulabandhasana posture,[11] and the roots of yoga
are in the Indus Valley civilisation.[88] This is rejected by more recent scholarship; for example,
Geoffrey Samuel, Andrea R. Jain, and Wendy Doniger describe the identification as speculative;
the meaning of the figure will remain unknown until Harappan script is deciphered, and the roots
of yoga cannot be linked to the IVC.[88][89][note 7]

Earliest references (1000–500 BCE)

The Vedas, the only texts preserved from the early Vedic period and codified between c. 1200 and
900 BCE, contain references to yogic practices primarily related to ascetics outside, or on the
fringes of Brahmanism.[92][7] The Rigveda 's Nasadiya Sukta suggests an early Brahmanic
contemplative tradition.[note 8] Techniques for controlling breath and vital energies are mentioned
in the Atharvaveda and in the Brahmanas (the second layer of the Vedas, composed c. 1000–800
BCE).[92][95][96]

According to Flood, "The Samhitas [the mantras of the Vedas] contain some references ... to
ascetics, namely the Munis or Keśins and the Vratyas."[97] Werner wrote in 1977 that the Rigveda
does not describe yoga, and there is little evidence of practices.[7] The earliest description of "an
outsider who does not belong to the Brahminic establishment" is found in the Keśin hymn 10.136,
the Rigveda's youngest book, which was codified around 1000 BCE.[7] Werner wrote that there
were

... individuals who were active outside the trend of Vedic mythological creativity and the
Brahminic religious orthodoxy and therefore little evidence of their existence, practices
and achievements has survived. And such evidence as is available in the Vedas themselves
is scanty and indirect. Nevertheless the indirect evidence is strong enough not to allow
any doubt about the existence of spiritually highly advanced wanderers.[7]

According to Whicher (1998), scholarship frequently fails to see the connection between the
contemplative practices of the rishis and later yoga practices: "The proto-Yoga of the Vedic rishis 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."[98] Jacobsen wrote in 2018, "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.[92] "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."[92]

According to Bryant, practices recognizable as classical yoga first appear in the Upanishads
(composed during the late Vedic period).[84] Alexander Wynne agrees that formless, elemental
meditation might have originated in the Upanishadic tradition.[99] An early reference to
meditation is made in the Brihadaranyaka Upanishad (c. 900 BCE), one of the Principal
Upanishads.[97] 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
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yoga 6/39
4/5/24, 11:09 AM Yoga - Wikipedia

also described in this upanishad.[100]

The practice of pranayama (focusing on the breath) is
mentioned in hymn 1.5.23 of the Brihadaranyaka Upanishad,[101] and pratyahara (withdrawal of
the senses) is mentioned in hymn 8.15 of Chandogya Upanishad.[101][note 9] The Jaiminiya
Upanishad Brahmana (probably before the 6th c. BCE) teaches breath control and repetition of a
mantra.[103] The 6th-c. BCE Taittiriya Upanishad defines yoga as the mastery of body and
senses.[104] According to Flood, "[T]he actual term yoga first appears in the Katha Upanishad,[12]
dated to the fifth[105] to first centuries BCE.[106]

Second urbanisation (500–200 BCE)

Systematic yoga concepts begin to emerge in texts dating to c. 500–200 BCE, such as the early
Buddhist texts, the middle Upanishads, and the Mahabharata's Bhagavad Gita and Shanti
Parva.[107][note 10]

Buddhism and the śramaṇa movement

According to Geoffrey Samuel, the "best evidence to date"
suggests that yogic practices "developed in the same
ascetic circles as the early śramaṇa movements
(Buddhists, Jainas and Ajivikas), probably in around the
sixth and fifth centuries BCE." This occurred during
India's second urbanisation period.[15] According to
Mallinson and Singleton, these traditions were the first to
use mind-body techniques (known as Dhyāna and tapas) Bas-relief in Borobudur of the Buddha
but later described as yoga, to strive for liberation from becoming a wandering hermit instead of a
the round of rebirth.[110] warrior

Werner writes, "The Buddha was the founder of his

[Yoga] system, even though, admittedly, he made use of some of the experiences he had previously
gained under various Yoga teachers of his time."[111] He notes:[112]

But it is only with Buddhism itself as expounded in the Pali Canon that we can speak
about a systematic and comprehensive or even integral school of Yoga practice, which is
thus the first and oldest to have been preserved for us in its entirety.[112]

Early Buddhist texts describe yogic and meditative practices, some of which the Buddha borrowed
from the śramaṇa tradition.[113][114] The Pāli Canon contains three passages in which the Buddha
describes pressing the tongue against the palate to control hunger or the mind, depending on the
passage.[115] There is no mention of the tongue inserted into the nasopharynx, as in khecarī mudrā.
The Buddha used a posture in which pressure is put on the perineum with the heel, similar to
modern postures used to evoke Kundalini.[116] Suttas which discuss yogic practice include the
Satipatthana Sutta (the four foundations of mindfulness sutta) and the Anapanasati Sutta (the
mindfulness of breathing sutta).

The chronology of these yoga-related early Buddhist texts, like the ancient Hindu texts, is
unclear.[117][118] Early Buddhist sources such as the Majjhima Nikāya mention meditation; the
Aṅguttara Nikāya describes jhāyins (meditators) who resemble early Hindu descriptions of muni,

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yoga 7/39
4/5/24, 11:09 AM Yoga - Wikipedia

the Kesin and meditating ascetics,[119]

but the meditation practices are not called "yoga" in these
texts. [120] The earliest known discussions of yoga in Buddhist literature, as understood in a
modern context, are from the later Buddhist Yogācāra and Theravada schools.[120]

Jain meditation is a yoga system which predated the Buddhist school. Since Jain sources are later
than Buddhist ones, however, it is difficult to distinguish between the early Jain school and
elements derived from other schools.[121] Most of the other contemporary yoga systems alluded to
in the Upanishads and some Buddhist texts have been lost.[122][123][note 11]

Upanishads
The Upanishads, composed in the late Vedic period, contain the first references to practices
recognizable as classical yoga.[84] The first known appearance of the word "yoga" in the modern
sense is in the Katha Upanishad[11][12] (probably composed between the fifth and third centuries
BCE),[13][14] where it is defined as steady control of the senses which – with cessation of mental
activity – leads to a supreme state.[97][note 12] The Katha Upanishad integrates the monism of the
early Upanishads with concepts of samkhya and yoga. It defines levels of existence by their
proximity to one's innermost being. Yoga is viewed as a process of interiorization, or ascent of
consciousness.[126][127] The upanishad is the earliest literary work which highlights the
fundamentals of yoga. According to White,

The earliest extant systematic account of yoga and a bridge from the earlier Vedic uses of
the term is found in the Hindu Katha Upanisad (Ku), a scripture dating from about the
third century BCE ... [I]t describes the hierarchy of mind-body constituents—the senses,
mind, intellect, etc.—that comprise the foundational categories of Sāmkhya philosophy,
whose metaphysical system grounds the yoga of the Yogasutras, Bhagavad Gita, and other
texts and schools (Ku3.10–11; 6.7–8).[128]

The hymns in book two of the Shvetashvatara Upanishad (another late-first-millennium BCE text)
describe a procedure in which the body is upright, the breath is restrained and the mind is
meditatively focused, preferably in a cave or a place that is simple and quiet.[129][130][127]

The Maitrayaniya Upanishad, probably composed later than the Katha and Shvetashvatara
Upanishads but before the Yoga Sutras of Patanjali, mentions a sixfold yoga method: breath
control, introspective withdrawal of the senses, meditation (dhyana), mental concentration, logic
and reasoning, and spiritual union.[11][127][131] In addition to discussions in the Principal
Upanishads, the twenty Yoga Upanishads and related texts (such as Yoga Vasistha, composed
between the sixth and 14th centuries CE) discuss yoga methods.[9][10]

Macedonian texts
Alexander the Great reached India in the 4th century BCE. In addition to his army, he brought
Greek academics who wrote memoirs about its geography, people, and customs. One of
Alexander's companions was Onesicritus (quoted in Book 15, Sections 63–65 by Strabo in his
Geography), who describes yogis.[132] Onesicritus says that the yogis were aloof and adopted
"different postures – standing or sitting or lying naked – and motionless".[133]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yoga 8/39
4/5/24, 11:09 AM Yoga - Wikipedia

Onesicritus also mentions attempts by his colleague, Calanus, to meet them. Initially denied an
audience, he was later invited because he was sent by a "king curious of wisdom and
philosophy".[133] Onesicritus and Calanus learn that the yogis consider life's best doctrines to "rid
the spirit of not only pain, but also pleasure", that "man trains the body for toil in order that his
opinions may be strengthened", that "there is no shame in life on frugal fare", and that "the best
place to inhabit is one with scantiest equipment or outfit".[132][133] According to Charles Rockwell
Lanman, these principles are significant in the history of yoga's spiritual side and may reflect the
roots of "undisturbed calmness" and "mindfulness through balance" in the later works of Patanjali
and Buddhaghosa.[132]

Mahabharata and Bhagavad Gita

Nirodhayoga (yoga of cessation), an early form of yoga, is described in the Mokshadharma section
of the 12th chapter (Shanti Parva) of the third-century BCE Mahabharata.[134] Nirodhayoga
emphasizes progressive withdrawal from empirical consciousness, including thoughts and
sensations, until purusha (self) is realized. Terms such as vichara (subtle reflection) and viveka
(discrimination) similar to Patanjali's terminology are used, but not described.[135] Although the
Mahabharata contains no uniform yogic goal, the separation of self from matter and perception of
Brahman everywhere are described as goals of yoga. Samkhya and yoga are conflated, and some
verses describe them as identical.[136] Mokshadharma also describes an early practice of elemental
meditation.[137] The Mahabharata defines the purpose of yoga as uniting the individual ātman
with the universal Brahman pervading all things.[136]

The Bhagavad Gita (Song of the Lord), part of the

Mahabharata, contains extensive teachings about yoga.
According to Mallinson and Singleton, the Gita "seeks to
appropriate yoga from the renunciate milieu in which it
originated, teaching that it is compatible with worldly activity
carried out according to one's caste and life stage; it is only the
fruits of one's actions that are to be renounced."[134] In
addition to a chapter (chapter six) dedicated to traditional yoga
practice (including meditation),[138] it introduces three Krishna narrating the Bhagavad Gita
significant types of yoga:[139] to Arjuna

Karma yoga: yoga of action[140]

Bhakti yoga: yoga of devotion[140]
Jnana yoga: yoga of knowledge[141][142]
The Gita consists of 18 chapters and 700 shlokas (verses);[143] each chapter is named for a
different form of yoga.[143][144][145] Some scholars divide the Gita into three sections; the first six
chapters (280 shlokas) deal with karma yoga, the middle six (209 shlokas) with bhakti yoga, and
the last six (211 shlokas with jnana yoga. However, elements of all three are found throughout the
work.[143]

Philosophical sutras
Yoga is discussed in the foundational sutras of Hindu philosophy. The Vaiśeṣika Sūtra of the
Vaisheshika school of Hinduism, composed between the sixth and second centuries BCE, discusses
yoga.[note 13] According to Johannes Bronkhorst, the Vaiśeṣika Sūtra describes yoga as "a state
where the mind resides only in the Self and therefore not in the senses".[146] This is equivalent to
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yoga 9/39
4/5/24, 11:09 AM Yoga - Wikipedia

pratyahara (withdrawal of the senses). The sutra asserts that yoga leads to an absence of sukha
(happiness) and dukkha (suffering), describing meditative steps in the journey towards spiritual
liberation.[146]

The Brahma Sutras, the foundation text of the Vedanta school of Hinduism, also discusses
yoga.[147] Estimated as completed in its surviving form between 450 BCE and 200 CE,[148][149] its
sutras assert that yoga is a means to attain "subtlety of body".[147] The Nyaya Sutras—the
foundation text of the Nyaya school, estimated as composed between the sixth century BCE and
the secondcentury CE[150][151]—discusses yoga in sutras 4.2.38–50. It includes a discussion of
yogic ethics, dhyana (meditation) and samadhi, noting that debate and philosophy are also forms
of yoga.[152][153][154]

Classical era (200 BCE – 500 CE)

The Indic traditions of Hinduism, Buddhism and Jainism were taking shape during the period
between the Mauryan and the Gupta eras (c. 200 BCE – 500 CE), and systems of yoga began to
emerge;[67] a number of texts from these traditions discussed and compiled yoga methods and
practices. Key works of the era include the Yoga Sūtras of Patañjali, the Yoga-Yājñavalkya, the
Yogācārabhūmi-Śāstra, and the Visuddhimagga.

Yoga Sutras of Patanjali

One of the best-known early expressions of Brahminical yoga thought
is the Yoga Sutras of Patanjali (early centuries CE,[16][42][note 1] the
original name of which may have been the Pātañjalayogaśāstra-
sāṃkhya-pravacana (c. 325–425 CE); some scholars believe that it
included the sutras and a commentary.[155] As the name suggests, the
metaphysical basis of the text is samkhya; the school is mentioned in
Kauṭilya's Arthashastra as one of the three categories of anviksikis
(philosophies), with yoga and Cārvāka.[156][157] Yoga and samkhya
have some differences; yoga accepted the concept of a personal god,
and Samkhya was a rational, non-theistic system of Hindu
philosophy.[158][159][160] Patanjali's system is sometimes called
"Seshvara Samkhya", distinguishing it from Kapila's Nirivara
Traditional Hindu depiction
Samkhya.[161] The parallels between yoga and samkhya were so close of Patanjali as an avatar of
that Max Müller says, "The two philosophies were in popular parlance the divine serpent Shesha
distinguished from each other as Samkhya with and Samkhya without
a Lord."[162] Karel Werner wrote that the systematization of yoga
which began in the middle and early Yoga Upanishads culminated in the Yoga Sutras of
Patanjali.[note 14]

The Yoga Sutras are also influenced by the Yoga Sutras of Patanjali[164]
Sramana traditions of Buddhism and
Pada (Chapter) English meaning Sutras
Jainism, and may be a further Brahmanical
Samadhi Pada On being absorbed in spirit 51
attempt to adopt yoga from those
traditions.[155] Larson noted a number of Sadhana Pada On being immersed in spirit 55
parallels in ancient samkhya, yoga and Vibhuti Pada On supernatural abilities and gifts 56
Abhidharma Buddhism, particularly from Kaivalya Pada On absolute freedom 34
the second century BCE to the first century

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yoga 10/39
4/5/24, 11:09 AM Yoga - Wikipedia

AD.[165] Patanjali's Yoga Sutras are a synthesis of the three traditions. From Samkhya, they adopt
the "reflective discernment" (adhyavasaya) of prakrti and purusa (dualism), their metaphysical
rationalism, and their three epistemological methods of obtaining knowledge.[165] Larson says that
the Yoga Sutras pursue an altered state of awareness from Abhidharma Buddhism's
nirodhasamadhi; unlike Buddhism's "no self or soul", however, yoga (like Samkhya) believes that
each individual has a self.[165] The third concept which the Yoga Sutras synthesize is the ascetic
tradition of meditation and introspection.[165]

Patanjali's Yoga Sutras are considered the first compilation of yoga philosophy.[note 15] The verses
of the Yoga Sutras are terse. Many later Indian scholars studied them and published their
commentaries, such as the Vyasa Bhashya (c. 350–450 CE).[166] Patanjali defines the word "yoga"
in his second sutra, and his terse definition hinges on the meaning of three Sanskrit terms. I. K.
Taimni translates it as "Yoga is the inhibition (nirodhaḥ) of the modifications (vṛtti) of the mind
(citta)".[167] Swami Vivekananda translates the sutra as "Yoga is restraining the mind-stuff (Citta)
from taking various forms (Vrittis)."[168] Edwin Bryant writes that to Patanjali, "Yoga essentially
consists of meditative practices culminating in attaining a state of consciousness free from all
modes of active or discursive thought, and of eventually attaining a state where consciousness is
unaware of any object external to itself, that is, is only aware of its own nature as consciousness
unmixed with any other object."[169][170][171]

Baba Hari Dass writes that if yoga is understood as nirodha (mental control), its goal is "the
unqualified state of niruddha (the perfection of that process)".[172] "Yoga (union) implies duality
(as in joining of two things or principles); the result of yoga is the nondual state ... as the union of
the lower self and higher Self. The nondual state is characterized by the absence of individuality; it
can be described as eternal peace, pure love, Self-realization, or liberation."[172]

Patanjali defined an eight-limbed yoga in Yoga Sutras 2.29:

1. Yama (The five abstentions): Ahimsa (Non-violence, non-harming other living beings),[173]
Satya (truthfulness, non-falsehood),[174] Asteya (non-stealing),[175] Brahmacharya (celibacy,
fidelity to one's partner),[175] and Aparigraha (non-avarice, non-possessiveness).[174]
2. Niyama (The five "observances"): Śauca (purity, clearness of mind, speech and body),[176]
Santosha (contentment, acceptance of others and of one's circumstances),[177] Tapas
(persistent meditation, perseverance, austerity),[178] Svādhyāya (study of self, self-reflection,
study of Vedas),[179] and Ishvara-Pranidhana (contemplation of God/Supreme Being/True
Self).[177]
3. Asana: Literally means "seat", and in Patanjali's Sutras refers to the seated position used for
meditation.
4. Pranayama ("Breath exercises"): Prāna, breath, "āyāma", to "stretch, extend, restrain, stop".
5. Pratyahara ("Abstraction"): Withdrawal of the sense organs from external objects.
6. Dharana ("Concentration"): Fixing the attention on a single object.
7. Dhyana ("Meditation"): Intense contemplation of the nature of the object of meditation.
8. Samadhi ("Liberation"): merging consciousness with the object of meditation.
In Hindu scholasticism since the 12th century, yoga has been one of the six orthodox philosophical
schools (darsanas): traditions which accept the Vedas.[note 16][note 17][180]

Yoga and Vedanta

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yoga 11/39
4/5/24, 11:09 AM Yoga - Wikipedia

Yoga and Vedanta are the two largest surviving schools of Hindu traditions. Although they share
many principles, concepts, and the belief in Self, they differ in degree, style, and methods; yoga
accepts three means to obtain knowledge, and Advaita Vedanta accepts.[181] Yoga disputes Advaita
Vedanta's monism.[182] It believes that in the state of moksha, each individual discovers the
blissful, liberating sense of himself or herself as an independent identity; Advaita Vedanta teaches
that in the state of moksha, each individual discovers the blissful, liberating sense of himself or
herself as part of oneness with everything, everyone and the Universal Self. They both hold that the
free conscience is transcendent, liberated and self-aware. Advaita Vedanta also encourages the use
of Patanjali's yoga practices and the Upanishads for those seeking the supreme good and ultimate
freedom.[182]

Yoga Yajnavalkya
The Yoga Yajnavalkya is a classical treatise on yoga, attributed to
the Vedic sage Yajnavalkya, in the form of a dialogue between संयोगो योग इत्युक्तो
जीवात्मपरमात्मनोः ॥
Yajnavalkya and the renowned philosopher Gargi Vachaknavi.[184]
saṁyogo yoga ityukto
The origin of the 12-chapter text has been traced to the second
jīvātma-paramātmanoḥ॥
century BCE and the fourth century CE.[185] A number of yoga
Yoga is the union of the
texts, such as the Hatha Yoga Pradipika, the Yoga Kundalini and
individual self (jivātma)
the Yoga Tattva Upanishads, have borrowed from (or frequently
with the supreme self
refer to) the Yoga Yajnavalkya.[186] It discusses eight yoga asanas
(paramātma).
(Swastika, Gomukha, Padma, Vira, Simha, Bhadra, Mukta and
Mayura),[187] a number of breathing exercises for body
cleansing,[188] and meditation.[189] —Yoga Yajnavalkya[183]

Abhidharma and Yogachara

The Buddhist tradition of Abhidharma spawned treatises which
expanded teachings on Buddhist theory and yoga techniques which
influenced Mahayana and Theravada Buddhism. At the height of the
Gupta period (fourth to fifth centuries CE), a northern Mahayana
movement known as Yogācāra began to be systematized with the
writings of Buddhist scholars Asanga and Vasubandhu. Yogācāra
Buddhism provided a systematic framework for practices which lead
a bodhisattva towards awakening and full Buddhahood.[191] Its
teachings are found in the encyclopedic Yogācārabhūmi-Śāstra
(Treatise for Yoga Practitioners), which was also translated into
Tibetan and Chinese and influenced East Asian and Tibetan
Buddhist traditions.[192] Mallinson and Singleton write that the
study of Yogācāra Buddhism is essential to understand yoga's early
history, and its teachings influenced the Pātañjalayogaśāstra.[193]
Asanga, a fourth-century
The South India and Sri Lankan-based Theravada school also
scholar and co-founder of the
developed manuals for yogic and meditative training, primarily the Yogachara ("Yoga practice")
Vimuttimagga and the Visuddhimagga. school of Mahayana
Buddhism[190]

Jainism
According to Tattvarthasutra, a second-to-fifth century Jain text, yoga is the sum of all activities
of mind, speech and body.[5] Umasvati calls yoga the generator of karma,[194] and essential to the
path to liberation.[194] In his Niyamasara, Kundakunda describes yoga bhakti—devotion to the
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yoga 12/39
4/5/24, 11:09 AM Yoga - Wikipedia

path to liberation—as the highest form of devotion.[195]

Haribhadra and Hemacandra note the five
major vows of ascetics and 12 minor vows of laity in yoga. According to Robert J. Zydenbos,
Jainism is a system of yogic thinking which became a religion.[196] The five yamas (constraints) of
the Yoga Sutras of Patanjali are similar to Jainism's five major vows, indicating cross-fertilization
between these traditions.[196][note 18] Hinduism's influence on Jain yoga may be seen in
Haribhadra's Yogadṛṣṭisamuccaya, which outlines an eightfold yoga influenced by Patanjali's
eightfold yoga.[198]

Middle Ages (500–1500 CE)

The Middle Ages saw the development of
satellite yoga traditions. Hatha yoga emerged
during this period.[199]

Bhakti movement
In medieval Hinduism, the Bhakti movement
advocated the concept of a personal god or
Supreme Personality. The movement, begun by
the Alvars of South India during the 6th to 9th
centuries, became influential throughout India
by the 12th to 15th centuries.[200] Shaiva and Male and female yogis in 17th- and 18th-century India
Vaishnava bhakti traditions integrated aspects
of the Yoga Sutras (such as meditative
exercises) with devotion.[201] The Bhagavata Purana elucidates a form of yoga known as viraha
(separation) bhakti, which emphasizes concentration on Krishna.[202]

Tantra
Tantra is a range of esoteric traditions which had begun to arise in India by the 5th century
CE.[203][note 19] Its use suggests that the word tantra in the Rigveda means "technique". George
Samuel wrote that tantra is a contested term, but may be considered a school whose practices
appeared in nearly-complete form in Buddhist and Hindu texts by about the 10th century CE.[205]
Tantric yoga developed complex visualizations, which included meditation on the body as a
microcosm of the cosmos. It included mantras, breath control, and body manipulation (including
its nadis and chakras. Teachings about chakras and Kundalini became central to later forms of
Indian yoga.[206]

Tantric concepts influenced Hindu, Bon, Buddhist, and Jain traditions. Elements of Tantric rituals
were adopted by, and influenced, state functions in medieval Buddhist and Hindu kingdoms in
East and Southeast Asia.[207] By the turn of the first millennium, hatha yoga emerged from
tantra.[19][208]

Vajrayana and Tibetan Buddhism

Vajrayana is also known as Tantric Buddhism and Tantrayāna. Its texts began to be compiled
during the seventh century CE, and Tibetan translations were completed the following century.
These tantra texts were the main source of Buddhist knowledge imported into Tibet,[209] and were

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yoga 13/39
4/5/24, 11:09 AM Yoga - Wikipedia

later translated into Chinese and other Asian languages. The Buddhist text Hevajra Tantra and
caryāgiti introduced hierarchies of chakras.[210] Yoga is a significant practice in Tantric
Buddhism.[211][212][213]

Tantra yoga practices include postures and breathing exercises. The Nyingma school practices
yantra yoga, a discipline which includes breath work, meditation and other exercises.[214] Nyingma
meditation is divided into stages,[215] such as Kriya Yoga, Upa yoga, Yoga yana, mahā yoga, Anu
yoga and atiyoga.[216] The Sarma traditions also include Kriya, Upa (called "Charya"), and yoga,
with anuttara yoga replacing mahayoga and atiyoga.[217]

Zen Buddhism

Zen, whose name derives from the Sanskrit dhyāna via the Chinese ch'an,[note 20] is a form of
Mahayana Buddhism in which yoga is an integral part.[219]

Medieval hatha yoga

The first references to hatha yoga are in eighth-century Buddhist
works.[221] The earliest definition of hatha yoga is in the 11th-century
Buddhist text Vimalaprabha.[222] Hatha yoga blends elements of
Patanjali's Yoga Sutras with posture and breathing exercises.[223] It
marks the development of asanas into the full-body postures in
current popular use[208] and, with its modern variations, is the style
presently associated with the word "yoga".[224]

Sikhism
Yogic groups became prominent in Punjab during the 15th and 16th
centuries, when Sikhism was beginning. Compositions by Guru
Sculpture of Gorakshanath,
Nanak (the founder of Sikhism) describe dialogues he had with
an 11th-century yogi of the
Jogis, a Hindu community which practiced yoga. Guru Nanak
Nath tradition and a
rejected the austerities, rites and rituals associated with hatha yoga, proponent of hatha yoga[220]
advocating sahaja yoga or nama yoga instead.[225] According to the
Guru Granth Sahib,

O Yogi, Nanak tells nothing but the truth. You must discipline your mind. The devotee
must meditate on the Word Divine. It is His grace which brings about the union. He
understands, he also sees. Good deeds help one merge into Divination.[226]

Modern revival

Introduction in the West

Yoga and other aspects of Indian philosophy came to the attention of the educated Western public
during the mid-19th century, and N. C. Paul published his Treatise on Yoga Philosophy in
1851.[227] Swami Vivekananda, the first Hindu teacher to advocate and disseminate elements of
yoga to a Western audience, toured Europe and the United States in the 1890s.[228] His reception
built on the interest of intellectuals who included the New England Transcendentalists; among
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yoga 14/39
4/5/24, 11:09 AM Yoga - Wikipedia

them were Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882), who drew on

German Romanticism and philosophers and scholars such as Georg
Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel (1770–1831), the brothers August Wilhelm
Schlegel (1767–1845) and Friedrich Schlegel (1772–1829), Max
Mueller (1823–1900), and Arthur Schopenhauer (1788–
1860).[229][230]

Theosophists, including Helena Blavatsky, also influenced the

Western public's view of yoga.[231] Esoteric views at the end of the
19th century encouraged the reception of Vedanta and yoga, with
their correspondence between the spiritual and the physical.[232] The
reception of yoga and Vedanta entwined with the (primarily
neoplatonic) currents of religious and philosophical reform and
transformation during the 19th and early 20th centuries. Mircea Swami Vivekananda in
Eliade brought a new element to yoga, emphasizing tantric yoga in London in 1896
his Yoga: Immortality and Freedom. [233] With the introduction of
tantra traditions and philosophy, the conception of the
"transcendent" attained by yogic practice shifted from the mind to the body.[234]

Yoga as exercise
The postural yoga of the Western world is a physical activity consisting of asanas (often connected
by smooth transitions, sometimes accompanied by breathing exercises and usually ending with a
period of relaxation or meditation. It is often known simply as "yoga",[235] despite older Hindu
traditions (some dating to the Yoga Sutras) in which asanas played little or no part; asanas were
not central to any tradition.[236]

Yoga as exercise is part of a modern yoga renaissance,[237] a 20th-century blend of Western

gymnastics and haṭha yoga pioneered by Shri Yogendra and Swami Kuvalayananda.[238] Before
1900, hatha yoga had few standing poses; the Sun Salutation was pioneered by Bhawanrao
Shrinivasrao Pant Pratinidhi, the Rajah of Aundh, during the 1920s.[239] Many standing poses
used in gymnastics were incorporated into yoga by Krishnamacharya in Mysore between the 1930s
and the 1950s.[240] Several of his students founded schools of yoga. Pattabhi Jois created ashtanga
vinyasa yoga,[241] which led to Power Yoga;[242] B. K. S. Iyengar created Iyengar Yoga and
systematised asanas in his 1966 book, Light on Yoga;[243] Indra Devi taught yoga to Hollywood
actors; and Krishnamacharya's son, T. K. V. Desikachar, founded the Krishnamacharya Yoga
Mandalam in Chennai.[244][245][246] Other schools founded during the 20th century include
Bikram Choudhury's Bikram Yoga and Swami Sivananda of Rishikesh's Sivananda yoga. Modern
yoga has spread around the world.[247][248]

The number of asanas used in yoga has increased from 84 in 1830 (as illustrated in Joga
Pradipika) to about 200 in Light on Yoga and over 900 performed by Dharma Mittra by 1984. The
goal of haṭha yoga (spiritual liberation through energy) was largely replaced by the goals of fitness
and relaxation, and many of its more esoteric components were reduced or removed.[249] The term
"hatha yoga" also refers to gentle yoga, often for women.[250]

Yoga has developed into a worldwide, multi-billion-dollar business involving classes, teacher
certification, clothing, books, videos, equipment, and holidays.[251] The ancient, cross-legged lotus
position and Siddhasana are widely-recognised symbols of yoga.[252] The United Nations General

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yoga 15/39
4/5/24, 11:09 AM Yoga - Wikipedia

Assembly established 21 June as the International Day of

Yoga,[253][254][255] and it has been celebrated annually around
the world since 2015.[256][257] On 1 December 2016, yoga was
listed by UNESCO as an intangible cultural heritage.[258]

The effect of postural yoga on physical and mental health has

been a subject of study, with evidence that regular yoga
practice is beneficial for low back pain and stress.[259][260] In
International Day of Yoga in New
2017, a Cochrane review found that yoga interventions
Delhi, 2016
designed for chronic low back pain increased function at the six
month mark, and modestly decreased pain after 3–4 months.
The decrease in pain was found to be similar to other exercise programs designed for low-back
pain, but the decrease is not large enough to be deemed clinically significant.[261] Theories of the
mechanism underlying these changes include the increase in strength and flexibility, physical and
mental relaxation and increased body awareness.

Traditions
Yoga is practised with a variety of methods by all Indian religions. In Hinduism, practices include
jnana yoga, bhakti yoga, karma yoga, kundalini yoga, and hatha yoga.

Jain yoga
Yoga has been a central practice in Jainism. Jain spirituality is based on a strict code of
nonviolence, or ahimsa (which includes vegetarianism), almsgiving (dāna), faith in the three
jewels, austerities (tapas) such as fasting, and yoga.[262][263] Jain yoga aims at the liberation and
purification of the self from the forces of karma, which binds the self to the cycle of reincarnation.
Like yoga and Sankhya, Jainism believes in a number of individual selves bound by their individual
karma.[264] Only through the reduction of karmic influences and the exhaustion of collected karma
can one become purified and released.[265] Early Jain yoga seems to have been divided into several
types, including meditation, abandonment of the body (kāyotsarga), contemplation, and reflection
(bhāvanā).[266]

Buddhist yoga
Buddhist yoga encompasses a variety of methods which aim to
develop the 37 aids to awakening. Its ultimate goal is bodhi
(awakening) or nirvana (cessation), traditionally seen as the
permanent end of suffering (dukkha) and rebirth.[note 21]
Buddhist texts use a number of terms for spiritual praxis in
addition to yoga, such as bhāvanā ("development")[note 22] and
jhāna/dhyāna.[note 23]

In early Buddhism, yoga practices included:

Gautama Buddha in seated
the four dhyānas (four meditations or mental absorptions), meditation, Gal Vihara, Sri Lanka
the four satipatthanas (foundations or establishments of
mindfulness),
anapanasati (mindfulness of breath),
the four immaterial dwellings (supranormal states of mind),
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yoga 16/39
4/5/24, 11:09 AM Yoga - Wikipedia

the brahmavihārās (divine abodes).

Anussati (contemplations, recollections)
These meditations were seen as supported by the other elements of the Noble Eightfold Path, such
as ethics, right exertion, sense restraint and right view.[267] Two mental qualities are said to be
indispensable for yoga practice in Buddhism: samatha (calm, stability) and vipassanā (insight,
clear seeing).[268] Samatha is a stable, relaxed mind, associated with samadhi (mental unification,
focus) and dhyana (a state of meditative absorption). Vipassanā is insight or penetrative
understanding into the true nature of phenomena, also defined as "seeing things as they truly are"
(yathābhūtaṃ darśanam). A unique feature of classical Buddhism is its understanding of all
phenomena (dhammas) as being empty of a self.[269][270]

Later developments in Buddhist traditions led to innovations in yoga practice. The conservative
Theravada school developed new ideas on meditation and yoga in its later works, the most
influential of which is the Visuddhimagga. Mahayana meditation teachings may be seen in the
Yogācārabhūmi-Śāstra, compiled c. 4th century. Mahayana also developed and adopted yoga
methods such as the use of mantras and dharani, pure land practices aiming at rebirth in a pure
land or buddhafield, and visualization. Chinese Buddhism developed the Chan practice of Koan
introspection and Hua Tou. Tantric Buddhism developed and adopted tantric methods which are
the basis of the Tibetan Buddhist yoga systems, including deity yoga, guru yoga, the six yogas of
Naropa, Kalacakra, Mahamudra and Dzogchen.[271]

Classical yoga
What is often referred to as classical yoga, ashtanga yoga, or rāja yoga is primarily the yoga
outlined in the dualistic Yoga Sutras of Patanjali.[272] The origins of classical yoga are unclear,
although early discussions of the term appear in the Upanishads.[165] Rāja yoga (yoga of kings)
originally denoted the ultimate goal of yoga; samadhi,[273] but was popularised by Vivekananda as
a common name for ashtanga yoga,[note 24] the eight limbs attain samadhi as described in the Yoga
Sutras.[274][272] Yoga philosophy came to be regarded as a distinct orthodox school (darsanas) of
Hinduism in the second half of the first millennium CE.[18][web 1]

Classical yoga incorporates epistemology, metaphysics, ethical practices, systematic exercises and
self-development for body, mind and spirit.[169] Its epistemology (pramana) and metaphysics are
similar to the Sāṅkhya school. The Classical yoga's metaphysics, like Sāṅkhya's, primarily posits
two distinct realities: prakriti (nature, the eternal and active unconscious source of the material
world composed of three guṇas) and puruṣa (consciousness), the plural consciousnesses which are
the intelligent principles of the world.[275] Moksha (liberation) results from the isolation
(kaivalya) of puruṣa from prakirti, and is achieved through meditation, stilling one's thought
waves (citta vritti) and resting in pure awareness of puruṣa.[275] Unlike Sāṅkhya, which takes a
non-theistic approach,[158][276] the yoga school of Hinduism accepts a "personal, yet essentially
inactive, deity" or "personal god" (Ishvara).[277][278]

In Advaita Vedanta
Vedanta is a varied tradition, with a number of sub-schools and philosophical views. It focuses on
the study of the Upanishads and the Brahma Sutras (one of its early texts), about gaining spiritual
knowledge of Brahman: the unchanging, absolute reality.[279]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yoga 17/39
4/5/24, 11:09 AM Yoga - Wikipedia

One of the earliest and most influential sub-traditions of Vedanta is

Advaita Vedanta, which posits non-dualistic monism. It emphasizes
jñāna yoga (yoga of knowledge), which aims at realizing the identity
of one's atman (individual consciousness) with Brahman (the
Absolute consciousness).[280][281] The most influential thinker of
this school is Adi Shankara (8th century), who wrote commentaries
and other works on jñāna yoga. In Advaita Vedanta, jñāna is attained
from scripture, one's guru, and through a process of listening to (and
meditating on) teachings.[282] Qualities such as discrimination,
renunciation, tranquility, temperance, dispassion, endurance, faith,
attention, and a longing for knowledge and freedom are also
desirable.[283] Yoga in Advaita is a "meditative exercise of
withdrawal from the particular and identification with the universal,
Raja Ravi Varma's Adi
leading to contemplation of oneself as the most universal, namely, Shankara with Disciples
Consciousness".[284] (1904)

Yoga Vasistha is an influential Advaita text[285] which uses short

stories and anecdotes to illustrate its ideas. Teaching seven stages of yoga practice, it was a major
reference for medieval Advaita Vedanta yoga scholars and one of the most popular texts on Hindu
yoga before the 12th century.[286] Another text which teaches yoga from an Advaita point of view is
the Yoga Yajnavalkya.[287]

Tantric yoga
According to Samuel, Tantra is a contested concept.[205] Tantra yoga may be described as practices
in 9th to 10th century Buddhist and Hindu (Saiva, Shakti) texts which included yogic practices
with elaborate deity visualizations using geometric arrays and drawings (mandalas), male and
(particularly) female deities, life-stage-related rituals, the use of chakras and mantras, and sexual
techniques aimed at aiding one's health, longevity and liberation.[205][288]

Hatha yoga
Hatha yoga focuses on physical and mental strength-building exercises and postures described
primarily in three Hindu texts:[290][291][292]

1. Hatha Yoga Pradipika by Svātmārāma (15th century)

2. Shiva Samhita, author unknown (1500[293] or late 17th century)
3. Gheranda Samhita by Gheranda (late 17th century)
Some scholars include Gorakshanath's 11th-century Goraksha Samhita on the list,[290] since
Gorakshanath is considered responsible for popularizing present-day hatha yoga.[294][295][296]
Vajrayana Buddhism, founded by the Indian Mahasiddhas,[297] has a series of asanas and
pranayamas (such as tummo)[211] which resemble hatha yoga.

Laya and kundalini yoga

Laya and kundalini yoga, closely associated with hatha yoga, are often presented as independent
approaches.[298] According to Georg Feuerstein, laya yoga (yoga of dissolution or merging) "makes
meditative absorption (laya) its focus. The laya-yogin seeks to transcend all memory traces and
sensory experiences by dissolving the microcosm, the mind, in the transcendental Self-
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yoga 18/39
4/5/24, 11:09 AM Yoga - Wikipedia

Consciousness."[299]Laya yoga has a number of techniques which

include listening to the "inner sound" (nada), mudras such as
Khechari and Shambhavi mudra, and awakening kundalini (body
energy).[300]

Kundalini yoga aims to awaken bodily and cosmic energy with breath
and body techniques, uniting them with universal consciousness.[301]
A common teaching method awakens kundalini in the lowest chakra
and guides it through the central channel to unite with the absolute
consciousness in the highest chakra, at the top of the head.[302]

Reception by other religions

Christianity
Viparītakaraṇī, a posture
Some Christians integrate physical aspects of yoga, stripped from the
used as an asana and a
spiritual roots of Hinduism, and other aspects of Eastern spirituality
mudra[289]
with prayer, meditation and Jesus-centric affirmations.[303][304] The
practice also includes renaming poses in English (rather than using
the original Sanskrit terms), and abandoning involved Hindu mantras as well as the philosophy of
Yoga; Yoga is associated and reframed into Christianity.[304] This has drawn charges of cultural
appropriation from various Hindu groups;[304][305] scholars remain skeptical.[306] Previously, the
Roman Catholic Church, and some other Christian organizations have expressed concerns and
disapproval with respect to some eastern and New Age practices that include yoga and
meditation.[307][308][309]

In 1989 and 2003, the Vatican issued two documents: Aspects of Christian meditation and "A
Christian reflection on the New Age," that were mostly critical of eastern and New Age practices.
The 2003 document was published as a 90-page handbook detailing the Vatican's position.[310]
The Vatican warned that concentration on the physical aspects of meditation "can degenerate into
a cult of the body" and that equating bodily states with mysticism "could also lead to psychic
disturbance and, at times, to moral deviations." Such has been compared to the early days of
Christianity, when the church opposed the gnostics' belief that salvation came not through faith
but through mystical inner knowledge.[303] The letter also says, "one can see if and how [prayer]
might be enriched by meditation methods developed in other religions and cultures"[311] but
maintains the idea that "there must be some fit between the nature of [other approaches to] prayer
and Christian beliefs about ultimate reality."[303] Some fundamentalist Christian organizations
consider yoga to be incompatible with their religious background, considering it a part of the New
Age movement inconsistent with Christianity.[312]

Islam
Early-11th-century Persian scholar Al-Biruni visited India, lived with Hindus for 16 years, and
(with their help) translated several Sanskrit works into Arabic and Persian; one of these was
Patanjali's Yoga Sutras.[313][314] Although Al-Biruni's translation preserved many core themes of
Patañjali's yoga philosophy, some sutras and commentaries were restated for consistency with
monotheistic Islamic theology.[313][315] Al-Biruni's version of the Yoga Sutras reached Persia and
the Arabian Peninsula by about 1050. During the 16th century, the hatha yoga text Amritakunda
was translated into Arabic and Persian.[316] Yoga was, however, not accepted by mainstream Sunni
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yoga 19/39
4/5/24, 11:09 AM Yoga - Wikipedia

and Shia Islam. Minority Islamic sects such as the mystic Sufi movement, particularly in South
Asia, adopted Indian yoga postures and breath control.[317][318] Muhammad Ghawth, a 16th-
century Shattari Sufi and translator of yoga text, was criticized for his interest in yoga and
persecuted for his Sufi beliefs.[319]

Malaysia's top Islamic body imposed a legally-enforceable 2008 fatwa prohibiting Muslims from
practicing yoga, saying that it had elements of Hinduism and its practice was haram as
blasphemy.[320][321] Malaysian Muslims who had been practicing yoga for years called the decision
"insulting."[322] Sisters in Islam, a Malaysian women's-rights group, expressed disappointment
and said that yoga was a form of exercise.[323] Malaysia's prime minister clarified that yoga as
exercise is permissible, but the chanting of religious mantras is not.[324]

The Indonesian Ulema Council (MUI) imposed a 2009 fatwa banning yoga because it contains
Hindu elements.[325] These fatwas have been criticized by Darul Uloom Deoband, a Deobandi
Islamic seminary in India.[326] Similar fatwas banning yoga for its link to Hinduism were imposed
by Grand Mufti Ali Gomaa in Egypt in 2004, and by Islamic clerics in Singapore earlier.[327][328]

According to Iran's yoga association, the country had about 200 yoga centres in May 2014. One-
quarter were in the capital, Tehran, where groups could be seen practising in parks; conservatives
were opposed.[329] In May 2009, Turkish Directorate of Religious Affairs head Ali Bardakoğlu
discounted personal-development techniques such as reiki and yoga as commercial ventures which
could lead to extremism. According to Bardakoğlu, reiki and yoga could be a form of proselytizing
at the expense of Islam.[330] Nouf Marwaai brought yoga to Saudi Arabia in 2017, contributing to
making it legal and recognized despite being allegedly threatened by her community who asserts
yoga as "un-Islamic".[331]

See also
Hinduism portal

India portal

List of asanas
Modern yoga gurus
List of yoga schools
Sun Salutation
Yoga tourism
Yogis
Mallakhamba, a form of yoga performed on a pole
Traditional games of India

Notes
1. Bryant (2009, p. xxxiv): "Most scholars date the text shortly after the turn of the Common Era
(circa first to second century)."

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yoga ते ते धि यो वि वि तो वि श्चि वि हो धे वि दे ही 20/39

4/5/24, 11:09 AM Yoga - Wikipedia

2. Original Sanskrit: युञ्जते मन उत युञ्जते धियो विप्रा विप्रस्य बृहतो विपश्चितः । वि होत्रा दधे वयुनाविदेक इन्मही
देवस्य सवितुः परिष्टुतिः ॥१॥[32]
Translation 1: Seers of the vast illumined seer yogically [युञ्जते, yunjante] control their minds
and their intelligence... (…)[30]
Translation 2: The illumined yoke their mind and they yoke their thoughts to the illuminating
godhead, to the vast, to the luminous in consciousness;
the one knower of all manifestation of knowledge, he alone orders the things of the sacrifice.
Great is the praise of Savitri, the creating godhead.[31]
3. See also Gavin Flood (1996), Hinduism, p.87–90, on "The orthogenetic theory" and "Non-Vedic
origins of renunciation".[69]
4. Post-classical traditions consider Hiranyagarbha the originator of yoga.[71][72]
5. Zimmer's point of view is supported by other scholars, such as Niniam Smart in Doctrine and
argument in Indian Philosophy, 1964, pp. 27–32, 76[76] and S. K. Belvakar and Inchegeri
Sampradaya in History of Indian philosophy, 1974 (1927), pp. 81, 303–409.[77]
6. Gavin Flood: "These renouncer traditions offered a new vision of the human condition which
became incorporated, to some degree, into the worldview of the Brahman householder. The
ideology of asceticism and renunciation seems, at first, discontinuous with the brahmanical
ideology of the affirmation of social obligations and the performance of public and domestic
rituals. Indeed, there has been some debate as to whether asceticism and its ideas of
retributive action, reincarnation and spiritual liberation, might not have originated outside the
orthodox vedic sphere, or even outside Aryan culture: that a divergent historical origin might
account for the apparent contradiction within 'Hinduism' between the world affirmation of the
householder and the world negation of the renouncer. However, this dichotomization is too
simplistic, for continuities can undoubtedly be found between renunciation and vedic
Brahmanism, while elements from non-Brahmanical, Sramana traditions also played an
important part in the formation of the renunciate ideal. Indeed there are continuities between
vedic Brahmanism and Buddhism, and it has been argued that the Buddha sought to return to
the ideals of a vedic society which he saw as being eroded in his own day."[83]
7. Some scholars are now considering the image to be an instance of Lord of the Beasts found in
Eurasian neolithic mythology or the widespread motif of the Master of Animals found in ancient
Near Eastern and Mediterranean art.[90][91]

8. Wynne states that "The Nasadiyasukta, one of the earliest and most important cosmogonic
tracts in the early Brahminic literature, contains evidence suggesting it was closely related
to a tradition of early Brahminic contemplation. A close reading of this text suggests that it
was closely related to a tradition of early Brahminic contemplation. The poem may have
been composed by contemplatives, but even if not, an argument can be made that it marks
the beginning of the contemplative/meditative trend in Indian thought."[93]
Miller suggests that the composition of Nasadiya Sukta and Purusha Sukta arises from "the
subtlest meditative stage, called absorption in mind and heart" which "involves
enheightened experiences" through which seer "explores the mysterious psychic and
cosmic forces...".[94]
Jacobsen writes that dhyana (meditation) is derived from the Vedic term dhih which refers
to "visionary insight", "thought provoking vision".[94]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yoga धी नो र्मि न्वि नि र्वै न्द्रि णि ति हिँ र्व 21/39

4/5/24, 11:09 AM Yoga - Wikipedia

9. Original Sanskrit: स्वाध्यायमधीयानो धर्मिकान्विदधदात्मनि सर्वैन्द्रियाणि संप्रतिष्ठाप्याहिँसन्सर्व भूतान्यन्यत्र

तीर्थेभ्यः स खल्वेवं वर्तयन्यावदायुषं ब्रह्मलोकमभिसंपद्यते न च पुनरावर्तते न च पुनरावर्तते॥ १॥ – Chandogya
Upanishad, VIII.15[102]
Translation 1 by Max Muller, The Upanishads, The Sacred Books of the East – Part 1, Oxford
University Press: (He who engages in) self study, concentrates all his senses on the Self,
never giving pain to any creature, except at the tîrthas, he who behaves thus all his life,
reaches the world of Brahman, and does not return, yea, he does not return.
Translation 2 by G.N. Jha: Chandogya Upanishad (https://archive.org/stream/Shankara.Bhash
ya-Chandogya.Upanishad-Ganganath.Jha.1942.English#page/n503/mode/2up) VIII.15, page
488: (He who engages in self study),—and having withdrawn all his sense-organs into the Self,
—never causing pain to any living beings, except in places specially ordained,—one who
behaves thus throughout life reaches the Region of Brahman and does not return,—yea, does
not return.—
10. Ancient Indian literature was transmitted and preserved through an oral tradition.[108] For
example, the earliest written Pali Canon text is dated to the later part of the 1st century BCE,
many centuries after the Buddha's death.[109]
11. On the dates of the Pali canon, Gregory Schopen writes, "We know, and have known for some
time, that the Pali canon as we have it — and it is generally conceded to be our oldest source
— cannot be taken back further than the last quarter of the first century BCE, the date of the
Alu-vihara redaction, the earliest redaction we can have some knowledge of, and that — for a
critical history — it can serve, at the very most, only as a source for the Buddhism of this
period. But we also know that even this is problematic ... In fact, it is not until the time of the
commentaries of Buddhaghosa, Dhammapala, and others — that is to say, the fifth to sixth
centuries CE — that we can know anything definite about the actual contents of [the Pali]
canon."[124]
12. For the date of this Upanishad see also Helmuth von Glasenapp, from the 1950 Proceedings of
the "Akademie der Wissenschaften und Literatur"[125]
13. The currently existing version of Vaiśeṣika Sūtra manuscript was likely finalized sometime
between the 2nd century BCE and the start of the common era. Wezler has proposed that the
Yoga related text may have been inserted into this Sutra later, among other things; however,
Bronkhorst finds much to disagree on with Wezler.[146]
14. Werner writes, "The word Yoga appears here for the first time in its fully technical meaning,
namely as a systematic training, and it already received a more or less clear formulation in
some other middle Upanishads....Further process of the systematization of Yoga as a path to
the ultimate mystic goal is obvious in subsequent Yoga Upanishads and the culmination of this
endeavour is represented by Patanjali's codification of this path into a system of the eightfold
Yoga."[163]
15. For Patanjali as the founder of the philosophical system called yoga see: Chatterjee & Datta
1984, p. 42.
16. For an overview of the six orthodox schools, with detail on the grouping of schools, see:
Radhakrishnan & Moore 1967, "Contents" and pp. 453–487.
17. For a brief overview of the yoga school of philosophy see: Chatterjee & Datta 1984, p. 43.
18. Worthington writes, "Yoga fully acknowledges its debt to Jainism, and Jainism reciprocates by
making the practice of yoga part and parcel of life."[197]
19. The earliest documented use of the word "Tantra" is in the Rigveda (X.71.9).[204]
20. "The Meditation school, called 'Ch'an' in Chinese from the Sanskrit 'dhyāna,' is best known in
the West by the Japanese pronunciation 'Zen' ".[218]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yoga 22/39
4/5/24, 11:09 AM Yoga - Wikipedia

21. For instance, Kamalashila (2003), p. 4, states that Buddhist meditation "includes any method of
meditation that has Enlightenment as its ultimate aim." Likewise, Bodhi (1999) writes: "To arrive
at the experiential realization of the truths it is necessary to take up the practice of
meditation.... At the climax of such contemplation the mental eye … shifts its focus to the
unconditioned state, Nibbana ..." A similar although in some ways slightly broader definition is
provided by Fischer-Schreiber et al. (1991), p. 142: "Meditation – general term for a multitude
of religious practices, often quite different in method, but all having the same goal: to bring the
consciousness of the practitioner to a state in which he can come to an experience of
'awakening,' 'liberation,' 'enlightenment.'" Kamalashila (2003) further allows that some Buddhist
meditations are "of a more preparatory nature" (p. 4).
22. The Pāli and Sanskrit word bhāvanā literally means "development" as in "mental
development." For the association of this term with "meditation," see Epstein (1995), p. 105;
and, Fischer-Schreiber et al. (1991), p. 20. As an example from a well-known discourse of the
Pali Canon, in "The Greater Exhortation to Rahula" (Maha-Rahulovada Sutta, MN 62), Ven.
Sariputta tells Ven. Rahula (in Pali, based on VRI, n.d.) (http://www.tipitaka.org/romn/cscd/s020
2m.mul1.xml): ānāpānassatiṃ, rāhula, bhāvanaṃ bhāvehi. Thanissaro (2006) (http://www.acce
sstoinsight.org/tipitaka/mn/mn.062.than.html) translates this as: "Rahula, develop the
meditation [bhāvana] of mindfulness of in-&-out breathing." (Square-bracketed Pali word
included based on Thanissaro, 2006, end note.)
23. See, for example, Rhys Davids & Stede (1921–25), entry for "jhāna1" (https://dsal.uchicago.ed
u/cgi-bin/philologic/getobject.pl?c.1:1:2005.pali); Thanissaro (1997) (http://www.accesstoinsigh
t.org/lib/authors/thanissaro/onetool.html); as well as, Kapleau (1989), p. 385, for the derivation
of the word "zen" from Sanskrit "dhyāna." PTS Secretary Dr. Rupert Gethin, in describing the
activities of wandering ascetics contemporaneous with the Buddha, wrote:

"... [T]here is the cultivation of meditative and contemplative techniques aimed at

producing what might, for the lack of a suitable technical term in English, be referred to
as 'altered states of consciousness'. In the technical vocabulary of Indian religious texts
such states come to be termed 'meditations' ([Skt.:] dhyāna / [Pali:] jhāna) or
'concentrations' (samādhi); the attainment of such states of consciousness was generally
regarded as bringing the practitioner to deeper knowledge and experience of the nature
of the world." (Gethin, 1998, p. 10.)

24. Not to be confused with Ashtanga Vinyasa Yoga, a style of modern yoga using fluid transitions
(vinyasas) between asanas.

References
1. "yoga, n." (http://www.oed.com/view/Entry/232036) OED Online. Oxford University Press.
September 2015. Retrieved 9 September 2015.
2. White 2011, p. 2.
3. Denise Lardner Carmody, John Carmody (1996), Serene Compassion. Oxford University Press
US. p. 68.
4. Stuart Ray Sarbacker, Samādhi: The Numinous and Cessative in Indo-Tibetan Yoga. SUNY
Press, 2005, pp. 1–2.
5. Tattvarthasutra [6.1], see Manu Doshi (2007) Translation of Tattvarthasutra, Ahmedabad: Shrut
Ratnakar p. 102.
6. "Yoga: How did it conquer the world and what's changed?" (https://www.bbc.com/news/world-4
0354525). BBC News. 22 June 2017. Retrieved 14 June 2021.
7. Karel Werner (1977), Yoga and the Ṛg Veda: An Interpretation of the Keśin Hymn (RV 10,
136), Religious Studies, Vol. 13, No. 3, page 289–302
8. Deussen 1997, p. 556.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yoga 23/39
4/5/24, 11:09 AM Yoga - Wikipedia

9. T. R. S. Ayyangar (1938), The Yoga Upanishads (https://archive.org/stream/TheYogaUpanisha

ds/TheYogaUpanisadsSanskritEngish1938#page/n3/mode/2up) The Adyar Library, Madras
10. Ruff 2011, pp. 97–112.
11. Singleton 2010, pp. 25–34.
12. Flood 1996, p. 95.
13. Stephen Phillips (2009). Yoga, Karma, and Rebirth: A Brief History and Philosophy (https://boo
ks.google.com/books?id=uLqrAgAAQBAJ). Columbia University Press. pp. 28–30. ISBN 978-
0-231-14485-8.
14. Patrick Olivelle (1998). The Early Upanishads: Annotated Text and Translation (https://books.g
oogle.com/books?id=d4IRDAAAQBAJ). Oxford University Press. pp. 12–13. ISBN 978-0-19-
512435-4.
15. Samuel 2008, p. 8.
16. Bryant 2009, p. xxxiv.
17. Desmarais 2008, p. 16–17.
18. Whicher 1998, p. 320.
19. Mallinson 2012, p. 20, "The techniques of hatha yoga are not taught in Sanskrit texts until the
11th century or thereabouts."
20. Burley 2000, p. 15, "While many scholars prefer to locate hatha-yoga's formative years
somewhere between the ninth and tenth centuries CE, coinciding with the estimated flourishing
of the great siddhas Matsyendra and Goraksa, other researchers and practitioners of yoga look
much farther back in time.".
21. Crangle 1994, pp. 1–6.
22. Crangle 1994, pp. 103–138.
23. Burley 2000, pp. 1–2.
24. "Yoga Landed in the U.S. Way Earlier Than You'd Think—And Fitness Was Not the Point" (http
s://www.history.com/news/yoga-vivekananda-america). HISTORY. 20 June 2019. Retrieved
14 June 2021.
25. Marek Jantos (2012), in Oxford Textbook of Spirituality in Healthcare (Editors: Mark Cobb et
al.), Oxford University Press, ISBN 978-0-19-957139-0, pp. 362–363.
26. White 2011, p. xvi–xvii, 2.
27. White 2014, pp. xvi–xvii.
28. Satyananda 2008, p. 1.
29. White 2011, p. 3.
30. Burley 2000, p. 25.
31. Sri Aurobindo (1916, Reprinted 1995), A Hymn to Savitri V.81, in The Secret of Veda,
ISBN 978-0-914955-19-1, page 529
32. Sanskrit:
Source: Rigveda Book 5, Chapter 81 (https://sa.wikisource.org/wiki/ऋग्वेद:_सूक्तं_५.८१) Archived
(https://web.archive.org/web/20170511111113/https://sa.wikisource.org/wiki/%E0%A4%8B%E
0%A4%97%E0%A5%8D%E0%A4%B5%E0%A5%87%E0%A4%A6:_%E0%A4%B8%E0%A
5%82%E0%A4%95%E0%A5%8D%E0%A4%A4%E0%A4%82_%E0%A5%AB.%E0%A5%A
E%E0%A5%A7) 11 May 2017 at the Wayback Machine Wikisource
33. Dasgupta, Surendranath (1975). A History of Indian Philosophy. Vol. 1. Delhi, India: Motilal
Banarsidass. p. 226. ISBN 81-208-0412-0.
34. Bryant 2009, p. 5.
35. Bryant 2009, p. xxxix.
36. Aranya, Swami Hariharananda (2000). Yoga Philosophy of Patanjali with Bhasvati. Calcutta,
India: University of Calcutta. p. 1. ISBN 81-87594-00-4.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yoga 24/39
4/5/24, 11:09 AM Yoga - Wikipedia

37. American Heritage Dictionary: "Yogi, One who practices yoga." Websters: "Yogi, A follower of
the yoga philosophy; an ascetic."
38. Mallinson & Singleton 2017, pp. 17–23.
39. Vaisesika sutra, 5.2.15–16
40. Katha Upanishad, 6.10–11
41. Bhagavad Gita, 2.48, 2.50, 6.23
42. Desmarais 2008, p. 16-17.
43. Yoga Sutras of Patanjali, 1.2–4
44. Yogācārabhūmi-Śāstra (Sravakabhumi), 2.152
45. Yogaśataka, 2, 4
46. Vasudeva, p. 241.
47. Linga Purana, I.8.5a
48. 'Brahmasutra-bhasya, 2.1.3
49. Mālinīvijayottara Tantra, 4.4–8
50. Vasudeva, pp. 235–236.
51. Mrgendratantravrtti, yp 2a
52. Śaradatilaka, 25.1–3b
53. Vasudeva, p. 243.
54. Yogabija, 89
55. Grimes 1996, p. 359.
56. Jacobsen 2018, p. 4.
57. Jacobsen 2011, p. 4.
58. White 2011, p. 6.
59. White 2011, pp. 6–8.
60. White 2011, pp. 8–9.
61. White 2011, pp. 9–10.
62. White 2011, pp. 10–12.
63. Mallinson, James (2013). "The Yogīs' Latest Trick" (https://doi.org/10.1017%2Fs135618631300
0734). Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society. 24 (1). Cambridge University Press: 165–180.
doi:10.1017/s1356186313000734 (https://doi.org/10.1017%2Fs1356186313000734).
S2CID 161393103 (https://api.semanticscholar.org/CorpusID:161393103).
64. White 2011, p. 11.
65. Crangle 1994, p. 1-6.
66. Crangle 1994, p. 103-138.
67. Larson 2008, p. 36.
68. Crangle 1994, p. 4.
69. Flood 1996, p. 87–90.
70. Crangle 1994, p. 5.
71. Feuerstein 2001, Kindle Locations 7299–7300.
72. Aranya, Swami Hariharananda (2000). "Introduction". Yoga Philosophy of Patanjali with
Bhasvati. Calcutta, India: University of Calcutta. p. xxiv. ISBN 81-87594-00-4.
73. Bryant2009, p. xix-xx.
74. Zimmer 1951, p. 217, 314.
75. Zimmer 1951, p. 217.
76. Crangle 1994, p. 7.
77. Crangle 1994, pp. 5–7.
78. Gombrich 2007.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yoga 25/39
4/5/24, 11:09 AM Yoga - Wikipedia

79. Samuel 2008.

80. McEvilley, Thomas (1981). "An Archaeology of Yoga". Res: Anthropology and Aesthetics. 1
(spring): 51. doi:10.1086/RESv1n1ms20166655 (https://doi.org/10.1086%2FRESv1n1ms20166
655). ISSN 0277-1322 (https://www.worldcat.org/issn/0277-1322). S2CID 192221643 (https://a
pi.semanticscholar.org/CorpusID:192221643).
81. Flood 1996, p. 78.
82. Flood 1996, p. 77.
83. Flood 1996, pp. 76–77.
84. Bryant 2009, p. xxi.
85. Samuel 2009.
86. Flood 1996, p. 233.
87. Larson 2014.
88. Samuel 2008, pp. 1–14.
89. Doniger, Wendy (2011). "God's Body, or, The Lingam Made Flesh: Conflicts over the
Representation of the Sexual Body of the Hindu God Shiva" (https://www.jstor.org/stable/23347
187). Social Research. 78 (2): 485–508. ISSN 0037-783X (https://www.worldcat.org/issn/0037-
783X). JSTOR 23347187 (https://www.jstor.org/stable/23347187).
90. Witzel 2008, pp. 68–70, 90.
91. Kenoyer, Jonathan Mark (2010). "Master of Animals and Animal Masters in the Iconography of
the Indus Tradition". In Counts, Derek B.; Arnold, Bettina (eds.). The Master of Animals in Old
World Iconography. Archaeolingua Alapítvány. p. 50.
92. Jacobsen 2018, p. 6.
93. Wynne 2007, p. 50.
94. Whicher 1998, p. 11.
95. Lamb 2011, p. 427.
96. Whicher 1998, p. 13.
97. Flood 1996, pp. 94–95.
98. Whicher 1998, p. 12.
99. Wynne 2007, pp. 44–45, 58.
100. Jacobsen 2011, p. 6.
101. Mircea Eliade (2009), Yoga: Immortality and Freedom, Princeton University Press, ISBN 978-0-
691-14203-6, pages 117–118
102. wikisource (https://sa.wikisource.org/wiki/छान्दोग्योपनिषद् _४) Archived (https://web.archive.org/w
eb/20160822070520/https://sa.wikisource.org/wiki/%E0%A4%9B%E0%A4%BE%E0%A4%A
8%E0%A5%8D%E0%A4%A6%E0%A5%8B%E0%A4%97%E0%A5%8D%E0%A4%AF%E0%
A5%8B%E0%A4%AA%E0%A4%A8%E0%A4%BF%E0%A4%B7%E0%A4%A6%E0%A5%8D
_%E0%A5%AA) 22 August 2016 at the Wayback Machine, Chandogya Upanishad,
अष्टमोऽध्यायः ॥ पञ्चदशः खण्डः ॥
103. Mallinson & Singleton 2017, p. xii.
104. Whicher 1998, p. 17.
105. Richard King (1995). Early Advaita Vedānta and Buddhism: the Mahāyāna context of the
Gauḍapādīya-kārikā (https://books.google.com/books?cd=1&q=9780791425138&btnG=Search
+Books). SUNY Press. ISBN 978-0-7914-2513-8, page 52
106. Olivelle 1996, p. xxxvii.
107. Larson 2008, pp. 34–35, 53.
108. Wynne, Alexander (2004). "The Oral Transmission of the Early Buddhist Literature" (http://journ
als.ub.uni-heidelberg.de/index.php/jiabs/article/view/8945/2838). Journal of the International
Association of Buddhist Studies. 27 (1): 97–128.
109. Donald Lopez (2004). Buddhist Scriptures. Penguin Books. pp. xi–xv. ISBN 978-0-14-190937-0

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yoga 26/39
4/5/24, 11:09 AM Yoga - Wikipedia

110. Mallinson & Singleton 2017, pp. 13–15.

111. Werner 1998, p. 131.
112. Werner 1998, pp. 119–20.
113. Richard Gombrich, "Theravada Buddhism: A Social History from Ancient Benares to Modern
Colombo." Routledge and Kegan Paul, 1988, p. 44.
114. Barbara Stoler Miller, "Yoga: Discipline of Freedom: the Yoga Sutra Attributed to Patanjali; a
Translation of the Text, with Commentary, Introduction, and Glossary of Keywords." University
of California Press, 1996, p. 8.
115. Mallinson, James. 2007. The Khecarīvidyā of Adinathā. London: Routledge. pp. 17–19.
116. Mallinson 2012, pp. 20–21, "The Buddha himself is said to have tried both pressing his tongue
to the back of his mouth, in a manner similar to that of the hathayogic khecarīmudrā, and
ukkutikappadhāna, a squatting posture which may be related to hathayogic techniques such as
mahāmudrā, mahābandha, mahāvedha, mūlabandha, and vajrāsana in which pressure is put
on the perineum with the heel, in order to force upwards the breath or Kundalinī."
117. Samuel 2008, pp. 31–32.
118. Singleton 2010, Chapter 1.
119. Bronkhorst, Johannes (1993), The Two Traditions of Meditation in Ancient India, Motilal
Banarsidass, ISBN 978-8120816435, pages 1–24
120. White 2011, pp. 5–6.
121. Werner 1998, pp. 119–120.
122. Douglass, Laura (2011). "Thinking Through The Body: The Conceptualization Of Yoga As
Therapy For Individuals With Eating Disorders" (http://web.ebscohost.com.subzero.lib.uoguelp
h.ca/ehost/pdfviewer/pdfviewer?vid=3&sid=1d8495be-1c1c-4423-ad48-1f6054f42876%40sessi
onmgr111&hid=103). Academic Search Premier: 83. Retrieved 19 February 2013.
123. Datta, Amaresh (1988). Encyclopaedia of Indian Literature: devraj to jyoti (https://books.google.
com/books?id=zB4n3MVozbUC&pg=PA1809). Sahitya Akademi. p. 1809. ISBN 978-81-260-
1194-0.
124. Wynne 2007, pp. 3–4.
125. "Vedanta and Buddhism, A Comparative Study" (https://web.archive.org/web/20130204142029/
http://www.accesstoinsight.org/lib/authors/vonglasenapp/wheel002.html). Archived from the
original (http://www.accesstoinsight.org/lib/authors/vonglasenapp/wheel002.html) on 4
February 2013. Retrieved 29 August 2012.
126. Whicher 1998, pp. 18–19.
127. Jacobsen 2011, p. 8.
128. White 2011, p. 4.
129. See: Original Sanskrit: Shvetashvatara Upanishad (http://sanskritdocuments.org/all_pdf/shvet
a.pdf) Archived (https://web.archive.org/web/20110304112640/http://sanskritdocuments.org/all_
pdf/shveta.pdf) 4 March 2011 at the Wayback Machine Book 2, Hymns 8–14;
English Translation: Paul Deussen (German: 1897; English Translated by Bedekar & Palsule,
Reprint: 2010), Sixty Upanishads of the Veda, Vol 1, Motilal Banarsidass, ISBN 978-
8120814677, pages 309–310
130. Singleton 2010, p. 26.
131. Feuerstein, Georg (January–February 1988). "Introducing Yoga's Great Literary Heritage".
Yoga Journal (78): 70–75.
132. Charles R Lanman, The Hindu Yoga System (https://archive.org/stream/jstor-1507563/1507563
#page/n3/mode/2up), Harvard Theological Review, Volume XI, Number 4, Harvard University
Press, pages 355–359

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yoga 27/39
4/5/24, 11:09 AM Yoga - Wikipedia

133. Strabo, Geography (https://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Roman/Texts/Strabo/15A3*.html#

ref101) Archived (https://web.archive.org/web/20221101030721/https://penelope.uchicago.edu/
Thayer/E/Roman/Texts/Strabo/15A3%2A.html#ref101) 1 November 2022 at the Wayback
Machine Book XV, Chapter 1, see Sections 63–65, Loeb Classical Library edition, Harvard
University Press, Translator: H. L. Jones
134. Mallinson & Singleton 2017, pp. xii–xxii.
135. Whicher 1998, pp. 25–26.
136. Jacobsen 2011, p. 9.
137. Wynne 2007, p. 33.
138. Jacobsen 2011, p. 10.
139. Flood 1996, p. 96.
140. Jacobsen 2011, pp. 10–11.
141. E. Easwaran, Essence of the Bhagavad Gita, Nilgiri Press, ISBN 978-1-58638-068-7, pages
117–118
142. Jack Hawley (2011), The Bhagavad Gita, ISBN 978-1-60868-014-6, pages 50, 130; Arvind
Sharma (2000), Classical Hindu Thought: An Introduction, Oxford University Press, ISBN 978-
0-19-564441-8, pages 114–122
143. Bibek Debroy (2005), The Bhagavad Gita, Penguin Books, ISBN 978-0-14-400068-5,
Introduction, pages x–xi
144. Jacobsen 2011, p. 46.
145. Georg Feuerstein (2011), The Bhagavad Gita – A New Translation, Shambhala, ISBN 978-1-
59030-893-6
146. Johannes Bronkhorst (1993). The Two Traditions of Meditation in Ancient India (https://books.g
oogle.com/books?id=AZbZDP8MRJoC&pg=PA64). Motilal Banarsidass. p. 64. ISBN 978-81-
208-1114-0.
147. Stephen Phillips (2009). Yoga, Karma, and Rebirth: A Brief History and Philosophy (https://boo
ks.google.com/books?id=uLqrAgAAQBAJ&pg=PA281). Columbia University Press. pp. 281
footnote 36. ISBN 978-0-231-14485-8.
148. Andrew J. Nicholson (2013). Unifying Hinduism: Philosophy and Identity in Indian Intellectual
History (https://books.google.com/books?id=AVusAgAAQBAJ). Columbia University Press.
p. 26. ISBN 978-0-231-14987-7., "From a historical perspective, the Brahmasutras are best
understood as a group of sutras composed by multiple authors over the course of hundreds of
years, most likely composed in its current form between 400 and 450 BCE."
149. NV Isaeva (1992), Shankara and Indian Philosophy, State University of New York Press,
ISBN 978-0-7914-1281-7, page 36, ""on the whole, scholars are rather unanimous, considering
the most probable date for Brahmasutra sometime between the 2nd-century BCE and the 2nd-
century CE"
150. Jeaneane Fowler (2002), Perspectives of Reality: An Introduction to the Philosophy of
Hinduism, Sussex Academic Press, ISBN 978-1898723943, page 129
151. B. K. Matilal (1986), "Perception. An Essay on Classical Indian Theories of Knowledge", Oxford
University Press, p. xiv.
152. Stephen Phillips (2009). Yoga, Karma, and Rebirth: A Brief History and Philosophy (https://boo
ks.google.com/books?id=uLqrAgAAQBAJ&pg=PA281). Columbia University Press. pp. 281
footnote 40, 297. ISBN 978-0-231-14485-8.
153. SC Vidyabhushana (1913, Translator), The Nyâya Sutras (https://archive.org/stream/NyayaSut
ra/nyaya_sutras_of_gautama#page/n161/mode/2up), The Sacred Book of the Hindus, Volume
VIII, Bhuvaneshvar Asrama Press, pages 137–139
154. Karl Potter (2004), The Encyclopedia of Indian Philosophies: Indian metaphysics and
epistemology, Volume 2, Motilal Banarsidass, ISBN 978-8120803091, page 237
155. Mallinson & Singleton 2017, pp. xvi–xvii.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yoga यो गो लो न्वीक्षि की 28/39

4/5/24, 11:09 AM Yoga - Wikipedia

156. Original Sanskrit: साङ् ख्यं योगो लोकायतं च इत्यान्वीक्षिकी |

English Translation: Arthasastra Book 1, Chapter 2 (https://archive.org/stream/Arthasastra_Eng
lish_Translation/Arthashastra_of_Chanakya_-_English#page/n9/mode/2up) Kautiliya, R
Shamasastry (Translator), page 9
157. Olivelle, Patrick (2013), King, Governance, and Law in Ancient India: Kautilya's Arthasastra,
Oxford University Press, ISBN 978-0-19-989182-5, see Introduction
158. Lloyd Pflueger, Person Purity and Power in Yogasutra, in Theory and Practice of Yoga (Editor:
Knut Jacobsen), Motilal Banarsidass, ISBN 978-8120832329, pages 38–39
159. Burley 2012, pp. 31–46.
160. Radhakrishnan & Moore 1967, p. 453.
161. Radhakrishnan 1971, p. 344.
162. Müller 1899, p. 104.
163. Werner 1998, p. 24.
164. Stiles 2001, p. x.
165. Larson 2008, pp. 43–45.
166. Larson 2008, pp. 21–22.
167. Taimni 1961, p. 6.
168. Vivekananda, p. 115.
169. Edwin Bryant (2011, Rutgers University), The Yoga Sutras of Patanjali (http://www.iep.utm.edu/
yoga/) Archived (https://web.archive.org/web/20190518185305/https://www.iep.utm.edu/yoga/)
18 May 2019 at the Wayback Machine IEP
170. Bryant 2009, p. 10.
171. Bryant 2009, p. 457.
172. Dass 1999, p. 5.
173. James Lochtefeld, "Yama (2)", The Illustrated Encyclopedia of Hinduism, Vol. 2: N–Z, Rosen
Publishing. ISBN 978-0-8239-3179-8, page 777
174. Arti Dhand (2002), The dharma of ethics, the ethics of dharma: Quizzing the ideals of
Hinduism, Journal of Religious Ethics, 30(3), pages 347–372
175. MN Gulati (2008), Comparative Religions And Philosophies : Anthropomorphism And Divinity,
ISBN 978-8126909025, page 168
176. Sharma and Sharma, Indian Political Thought, Atlantic Publishers, ISBN 978-8171566785,
page 19
177. N Tummers (2009), Teaching Yoga for Life, ISBN 978-0-7360-7016-4, pages 16–17
178. Kaelber, W. O. (1976). "Tapas", Birth, and Spiritual Rebirth in the Veda, History of Religions,
15(4): 343–386
179. SA Bhagwat (2008), Yoga and Sustainability. Journal of Yoga, Fall/Winter 2008, 7(1): 1–14
180. Mallinson & Singleton 2017, pp. 16–17.
181. Grimes 1996, p. 238.
182. Phillips, Stephen H. (1995). Classical Indian Metaphysics: Refutations of Realism and the
Emergence of "New Logic" (https://archive.org/details/classicalindianm00phil). Open Court
Publishing. pp. 12–13 (https://archive.org/details/classicalindianm00phil/page/12).
ISBN 9780812692983.
183. Larson 2008, p. 478.
184. Rosen, Richard (March 2006). "Guided Meditation" (https://books.google.com/books?id=-ekDA
AAAMBAJ&pg=PA121). Yoga Journal. p. 121. ISSN 0191-0965 (https://www.worldcat.org/issn/
0191-0965).
185. Divanji, Prahlad, ed. (1954). Yoga Yajnavalkya: A Treatise on Yoga as Taught by Yogi
Yajnavalkya. B.B.R.A. Society's Monograph. Vol. 3. Bombay, India: Bombay Branch of the
Royal Asiatic Society. p. 105.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yoga 29/39
4/5/24, 11:09 AM Yoga - Wikipedia

186. Mohan, A.G. (2010). Krishnamacharya: His Life and Teachings (https://books.google.com/book
s?id=E6nQQQ0OWo8C&pg=PA127). Shambhala Publications. p. 127. ISBN 978-1-59030-800-
4.
187. Larson 2008, p. 479.
188. Larson 2008, pp. 481–484.
189. Larson 2008, pp. 485–486.
190. John M. Koller (2002). Asian Philosophies (https://books.google.com/books?id=wgAQAQAAIA
AJ). Prentice Hall. pp. 144–145. ISBN 978-0-13-092385-1.
191. Dan Lusthaus. Buddhist Phenomenology: A Philosophical Investigation of Yogacara Buddhism
and the Ch'eng Wei-shih Lun. Published 2002 (Routledge). ISBN 0-7007-1186-4. pg 533
192. Ulrich Timme Kragh (editor), The Foundation for Yoga Practitioners: The Buddhist
Yogācārabhūmi Treatise and Its Adaptation in India, East Asia, and Tibet, Volume 1 Harvard
University, Department of South Asian studies, 2013, pp. 16, 25.
193. Mallinson & Singleton 2017, pp. xvii–xviii.
194. Tattvarthasutra [6.2]
195. Kundakunda, pp. 134–140.
196. Zydenbos 2006, p. 66.
197. Worthington 1982, p. 35.
198. Whicher 1998, p. 313.
199. Larson 2008, pp. 136–139.
200. Cutler, Norman (1987). Songs of Experience (https://books.google.com/books?id=veSItWingx8
C&pg=PA1). Indiana University Press. p. 1. ISBN 978-0-253-35334-4.
201. Larson 2008, pp. 137.
202. Jacobsen 2011, p. 22.
203. Einoo, Shingo, ed. (2009). Genesis and Development of Tantrism. University of Tokyo. p. 45.
204. Banerjee, S.C., 1988.
205. Samuel 2008, p. 9.
206. Mallinson & Singleton 2017, pp. xviii–xx.
207. Samuel 2008, pp. 324–333.
208. Burley 2000, p. 16.
209. John Powers (2004), in Encyclopedia of Buddhism (Editors: Damien Keown et al.), Routledge,
ISBN 978-0-415-31414-5, pages 775–785
210. White, David Gordon. Yoga in Practice. Princeton University Press 2012, page 14.
211. Lama Yeshe (1998). The Bliss of Inner Fire. Wisdom Publications. pp. 135–141.
212. Chogyam Trungpa (2001) The Lion's Roar: An Introduction to Tantra. Shambhala. ISBN 1-
57062-895-5
213. Edmonton Patric 2007, Pali and Its Significance, p. 332
214. "Yantra Yoga: The Tibetan Yoga of Movement" by Chogyal Namkhai Norbu. Snow Lion, 2008.
ISBN 1-55939-308-4
215. The Lion's Roar: An Introduction to Tantra, by Chogyam Trungpa. Shambhala, 2001 ISBN 1-
57062-895-5
216. "Secret of the Vajra World: The Tantric Buddhism of Tibet" by Ray, Reginald A. Shambhala:
2002. pp. 37–38 ISBN 1-57062-917-X
217. "Secret of the Vajra World: The Tantric Buddhism of Tibet" by Ray, Reginald A. Shambhala:
2002. p. 57 ISBN 1-57062-917-X
218. The Buddhist Tradition in India, China, and Japan. Edited by William Theodore de Bary. pp.
207–208. ISBN 0-394-71696-5

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yoga 30/39
4/5/24, 11:09 AM Yoga - Wikipedia

219. Dumoulin, Heisig & Knitter 2005, p. 13: "This phenomenon merits special attention since yogic
roots are to be found in the Zen Buddhist school of meditation."
220. Akshaya Kumar Banerjea (1983). Philosophy of Gorakhnath with Goraksha-Vacana-Sangraha
(https://books.google.com/books?id=Ljn1koKa0CQC). Motilal Banarsidass. pp. xxi. ISBN 978-
81-208-0534-7.
221. Mallinson 2012, p. 2: "The earliest references to hathayoga are scattered mentions in Buddhist
canonical works and their exegesis dating from the eighth century onwards, in which it is the
soteriological method of last resort."
222. Mallinson 2012, p. 2: "In its earliest definition, in Pundarīka's eleventh-century Vimalaprabhā
commentary on the Kālacakratantra, hathayoga is said to bring about the "unchanging
moment" (aksaraksana) "through the practice of nāda by forcefully making the breath enter the
central channel and through restraining the bindu of the bodhicitta in the vajra of the lotus of
wisdom". While the means employed are not specified, the ends, in particular restraining bindu,
semen, and making the breath enter the central channel, are similar to those mentioned in the
earliest descriptions of the practices of hathayoga, to which I now turn."
223. Larson 2008, p. 140.
224. Feuerstein 1996.
225. Mansukhani, Gobind Singh (2009). Introduction To Sikhism (https://books.google.com/books?i
d=5_SirMuPr54C&pg=PA66). Hemkunt Press. p. 66. ISBN 978-81-7010-181-9.
226. Dhillon, Harish (2010). Guru Nanak (https://books.google.com/books?id=obRecfp1QCYC&pg=
PA178). Indus Source Books. p. 178. ISBN 978-81-88569-02-1.
227. Besaw, Kelsie (7 January 2014). The Little Red Book of Yoga Wisdom (https://books.google.co
m/books?id=TFyCDwAAQBAJ&pg=PT10). Simon and Schuster. p. 10. ISBN 9781628738704.
228. Shaw, Eric. "35 Moments", Yoga Journal, 2010.
229. Goldberg 2010, pp. 21ff.
230. Von Glasenapp, Hellmuth. Die Philosophie der Inder. Stuttgart, 1974: A. Kroener Verlag, pp.
166f.
231. "Fear of Yoga" (http://www.utne.com/2007-03-01/Mind-Body/Fear-of-Yoga.aspx?page=2#axzz2
bnQLbp2o). Utne.com. Retrieved 28 August 2013.
232. De Michelis 2004, pp. 19ff.
233. Eliade 1958.
234. Flood, Gavin D., Body and Cosmology in Kashmir Saivism, San Francisco, 1993: Mellen
Research University Press, pp.229ff.
235. De Michelis, Elizabeth (2007). "A Preliminary Survey of Modern Yoga Studies" (https://wzukuse
rs.storage.googleapis.com/user-31520575/documents/5a57bf9c24c23ZrCu301/Survey_of_Mo
dern_Yoga_De_Michelis_2007.pdf) (PDF). Asian Medicine, Tradition and Modernity. 3 (1): 1–
19. doi:10.1163/157342107X207182 (https://doi.org/10.1163%2F157342107X207182).
236. Jain, Andrea (July 2016). "The Early History of Modern Yoga" (http://oxfordre.com/religion/view/
10.1093/acrefore/9780199340378.001.0001/acrefore-9780199340378-e-163). Modern Yoga.
Oxford Research Encyclopedia of Religion. Oxford Research Encyclopedias.
doi:10.1093/acrefore/9780199340378.013.163 (https://doi.org/10.1093%2Facrefore%2F97801
99340378.013.163). ISBN 978-0-19-934037-8. Retrieved 23 February 2019.
237. Mishra, Debashree (3 July 2016). "Once Upon A Time: From 1918, this Yoga institute has been
teaching generations, creating history" (http://indianexpress.com/article/cities/mumbai/once-up
on-a-time-from-1918-this-yoga-institute-has-been-teaching-generations-creating-history/).
Indian Express. Mumbai.
238. Singleton 2010, pp. 32, 50.
239. Doctor, Vikram (15 June 2018). "Bhawanrao Shrinivasrao Pant Pratinidhi: The man who
promoted Surya Namaskar" (https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/politics-and-nation/bh
awanrao-shrinivasrao-pant-pratinidhi-the-man-who-promoted-surya-namaskar/articleshow/646
07546.cms). The Economic Times (India).

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yoga 31/39
4/5/24, 11:09 AM Yoga - Wikipedia

240. Singleton 2010, pp. 199–203.

241. Singleton 2010, pp. 175–210.
242. Kest, Bryan (4 September 2017). "The History of Power Yoga" (https://poweryoga.com/blog/po
wer-yoga-history/). Power Yoga. Retrieved 1 January 2019.
243. Sjoman 1999, pp. 39, 47.
244. Cushman, Ann (January–February 2000). "The New Yoga" (http://www.yogajournal.com/lifestyl
e/281). Yoga Journal. p. 68. Retrieved 5 February 2011.
245. Mehta 1990, p. 9.
246. Desikachar, T. K. V. (2005). Health, healing and beyond: Yoga and the living tradition of
Krishnamacharya. Aperture, USA. p. cover jacket text. ISBN 978-0-89381-731-2.
247. "What's Your Style? Explore the Types of Yoga" (https://www.yogajournal.com/practice/which-y
oga-is-right-for-you-2). Yoga Journal. 13 November 2012.
248. Beirne, Geraldine (10 January 2014). "Yoga: a beginner's guide to the different styles" (https://
www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2014/jan/10/yoga-beginners-guide-different-styles). The
Guardian. Retrieved 1 February 2019.
249. Singleton 2010, pp. 29, 170.
250. Singleton 2010, p. 152.
251. Delaney, Brigid (17 September 2017). "The yoga industry is booming – but does it make you a
better person?" (https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2017/sep/17/yoga-better-person-life
style-exercise). The Guardian.
252. Singleton 2010, p. 32.
253. "United Nations Information Centre for India and Bhutan" (https://web.archive.org/web/2016070
9170015/http://www.unic.org.in/display.php?E=13712&K=Yoga). www.unic.org.in. Archived
from the original (http://www.unic.org.in/) on 9 July 2016.
254. Rajghatta, Chidanand (28 September 2014). "Narendra Modi calls for International Yoga Day"
(http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/Narendra-Modi-calls-for-International-Yoga-Day/article
show/43665102.cms). The Times of India.
255. "UN declares June 21 as 'International Day of Yoga' | India News – Times of India" (https://time
sofindia.indiatimes.com/india/UN-declares-June-21-as-International-Day-of-Yoga/articleshow/4
5480636.cms). The Times of India. 11 December 2014.
256. Network, Newsroom24x7 (21 June 2015). "Massive turnout on International Day of Yoga in
India" (https://newsroom24x7.com/2015/06/21/massive-turnout-on-international-day-of-yoga-in-
india/).
257. "PM Modi Leads Yoga Session, India Sets Guinness Records: 10 Developments" (http://www.n
dtv.com/cheat-sheet/sushma-swaraj-addresses-the-united-nations-in-new-york-on-international
-yogaday-highlights-773899). NDTV. Retrieved 21 June 2015.
258. "Yoga joins Unesco world heritage list" (https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2016/dec/01/
yoga-joins-unesco-intangible-world-heritage-list). The Guardian. 1 December 2016.
259. Ross, Alyson; Thomas, Sue (2010). "The Health Benefits of Yoga and Exercise: A Review of
Comparison Studies". The Journal of Alternative and Complementary Medicine. 16 (1): 3–12.
doi:10.1089/acm.2009.0044 (https://doi.org/10.1089%2Facm.2009.0044). PMID 20105062 (htt
ps://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/20105062). S2CID 14130906 (https://api.semanticscholar.org/Co
rpusID:14130906).
260. Hayes, M.; Chase, S. (March 2010). "Prescribing Yoga". Primary Care. 37 (1): 31–47.
doi:10.1016/j.pop.2009.09.009 (https://doi.org/10.1016%2Fj.pop.2009.09.009).
PMID 20188996 (https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/20188996).

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yoga 32/39
4/5/24, 11:09 AM Yoga - Wikipedia

261. Wieland, L. Susan; Skoetz, Nicole; Pilkington, Karen; Vempati, Ramaprabhu; D'Adamo,
Christopher R.; Berman, Brian M. (12 January 2017). "Yoga treatment for chronic non-specific
low back pain" (https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5294833). Cochrane Database
of Systematic Reviews. 1 (1). CD010671. doi:10.1002/14651858.cd010671.pub2 (https://doi.or
g/10.1002%2F14651858.cd010671.pub2). ISSN 1465-1858 (https://www.worldcat.org/issn/146
5-1858). PMC 5294833 (https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5294833).
PMID 28076926 (https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/28076926).
262. Mahapragya, Acharya (2004). "Foreword". Jain Yog. Aadarsh Saahitya Sangh.
263. Feuerstein 2002, pp. 187, 198.
264. Tulsi, Acharya (2004). "Blessings". Sambodhi (https://web.archive.org/web/20160305051429/ht
tp://www.adarshsahityasangh.com/bookdetail.aspx?id=24). Aadarsh Saahitya Sangh.
OCLC 39811791 (https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/39811791). Archived from the original (http://w
ww.adarshsahityasangh.com/BookDetail.aspx?Id=24) on 5 March 2016.
265. Feuerstein 2002, pp. 192–193.
266. Pragya, Samani Pratibha (2017), Prekṣā meditation : history and methods. PhD Thesis, SOAS,
University of London, p. 42.
267. Analayo (2017), Early Buddhist Meditation Studies, Barre Center for Buddhist Studies, pp. 69–
70, 80
268. Thanissaro Bhikkhu, One Tool Among Many, The Place of Vipassana in Buddhist Practice,
1997.
269. Buswell, Robert, ed. (2004), Encyclopedia of Buddhism, MacMillan, p. 889.
270. Paul Williams (2008). Mahayana Buddhism: The Doctrinal Foundations. Routledge. pp. 68–69.
ISBN 978-1-134-25056-1.
271. Feuerstein 2002, pp. 230–241.
272. White 2014, p. xvi.
273. Mallinson 2011, p. 770.
274. Hari Dass 1978.
275. Ruzsa, Ferenc, Sankhya, Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy. (https://www.iep.utm.edu/sankh
ya/) Archived (https://web.archive.org/web/20190318003120/https://www.iep.utm.edu/sankhy
a/) 18 March 2019 at the Wayback Machine
276. Burley 2012, pp. 43–46.
277. K. T. Behanan (2002), Yoga: Its Scientific Basis, Dover, ISBN 978-0-486-41792-9, pages 56–58
278. Burley 2012, pp. 39, 41.
279. George Thibaut, Vedanta Sutras Part 1, The Sacred Books of the East at Google Books,
Volume 34 (Editor: Max Muller), Oxford University Press, pages lxxii–lxxiii
280. Deutsch, Eliot (1988), Advaita Vedanta: A Philosophical Reconstruction, University of Hawaii
Press, pp. 104–105. ISBN 0-88706-662-3
281. Comans, Michael (2000), The Method of Early Advaita Vedānta: A Study of Gauḍapāda,
Śaṅkara, Sureśvara, and Padmapāda, Delhi: Motilal Banarsidass, p. 183.
282. P. P. Bilimoria (2012). Śabdapramāṇa: Word and Knowledge. Springer. pp. 299–301.
ISBN 978-94-009-2911-1.
283. Eliot Deutsch (1980), Advaita Vedanta : A Philosophical Reconstruction, University of Hawaii
Press, ISBN 978-0824802714, pages 105–108
284. Michael Comans (1993), The question of the importance of Samādhi in modern and classical
Advaita Vedānta, Philosophy East & West. Vol. 43, Issue 1, pp. 19–38
285. Feuerstein 2002, p. 401.
286. White 2014, pp. xvi–xvii, 51.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yoga 33/39
4/5/24, 11:09 AM Yoga - Wikipedia

287. Rosen, Richard (March–April 2001). "T.K.V. Desikachar's English translation of a 700-year-old
text introduces Westerners to one of the earliest hatha yoga manuals (Review of
Yogayajnavalkya Samhita by T.K.V. Desikachar)" (https://books.google.com/books?id=AeoDAA
AAMBAJ&pg=RA1-PA147). Yoga Journal. pp. 147–149 – via Google Books.
288. Mukunda Stiles, Tantra Yoga Secrets, Weiser, ISBN 978-1-57863-503-0, pages 3–7
289. James Mallinson (2011). Knut A. Jacobsen; et al., eds. Haṭha Yoga in the Brill Encyclopedia of
Hinduism, Vol. 3. Brill Academic. pp. 770–781. ISBN 978-90-04-27128-9.
290. See Kriyananada, page 112.
291. See Burley, page 73.
292. See Introduction by Rosen, pp 1–2.
293. See translation by Mallinson.
294. On page 140, David Gordon White says about Gorakshanath: "... hatha yoga, in which field he
was India's major systematizer and innovator."
295. Bajpai writes on page 524: "Nobody can dispute about the top ranking position of Sage
Gorakshanath in the philosophy of Yoga."
296. Eliade writes of Gorakshanath on page 303: "...he accomplished a new synthesis among
certain Shaivist traditions (Pashupata), tantrism, and the doctrines (unfortunately, so
imperfectly known) of the siddhas – that is, of the perfect yogis."
297. Davidson, Ronald. Indian Esoteric Buddhism. Columbia University Press. 2002, pg.169–235.
298. Whicher 1998, pp. 6–7.
299. Feuerstein, Georg, Yoga: The Technology of Ecstasy, J.P. Tarcher, 1989, p. 61.
300. Daniélou, Alain (1991). Yoga: Mastering the Secrets of Matter and the Universe. Inner
Traditions / Bear & Co. p. 107. ISBN 9780892813018. OCLC 831272340 (https://www.worldca
t.org/oclc/831272340).
301. Larson, p. 142.
302. Vishnudevananda, Swami (1999). Meditation and Mantras. Motilal Banarsidass. p. 89.
ISBN 978-0143422235.
303. Steinfels, Peter (7 January 1990). "Trying to Reconcile the Ways of the Vatican and the East"
(https://web.archive.org/web/20090808214350/https://www.nytimes.com/1990/01/07/weekinrev
iew/ideas-trends-trying-to-reconcile-the-ways-of-the-vatican-and-the-east.html). The New York
Times. Archived from the original (https://www.nytimes.com/1990/01/07/weekinreview/ideas-tre
nds-trying-to-reconcile-the-ways-of-the-vatican-and-the-east.html) on 8 August 2009.
304. Solomon, Serena (5 September 2017). "Inside the Growing Wold of Christian Yoga" (https://ww
w.vice.com/en/article/7xxa3a/inside-the-growing-world-of-christian-yoga). Vice. Retrieved
3 September 2021.
305. Carleton, James (2020). "Mental and spiritual wellness in isolation" (https://www.abc.net.au/rad
ionational/programs/godforbid/mental-and-spiritual-wellness-in-isolation-lockdown/13467828).
ABC. Retrieved 3 September 2021.
306. Jain, Andrea R. (2015). Selling Yoga : from Counterculture to Pop culture. Oxford University
Press. ISBN 978-0-19-939024-3.
307. Victor L. Simpson (1989). "Vatican warns against practicing Eastern meditation" (https://www.w
ashingtonpost.com/archive/local/1989/12/16/vatican-warns-against-practicing-eastern-meditati
on/e974fb62-c018-4cbb-a002-39fd03ec1075/). The Washington Post.
308. "Vatican sounds New Age alert" (http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/2722743.stm). BBC. 4
February 2003. Retrieved 27 August 2013.
309. Teasdale, Wayne (2004). Catholicism in dialogue: conversations across traditions. Rowman &
Littlefield. p. 74. ISBN 0-7425-3178-3.
310. Handbook of vocational psychology by W. Bruce Walsh, Mark Savickas 2005 ISBN 0-8058-
4517-8 page 358

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yoga 34/39
4/5/24, 11:09 AM Yoga - Wikipedia

311. "1989 Letter from Vatican to Bishops on Some Aspects of Christian Meditation" (https://web.arc
hive.org/web/20100502022624/http://www.ewtn.com/library/curia/cdfmed.htm). Ewtn.com.
Archived from the original (http://www.ewtn.com/library/curia/cdfmed.htm) on 2 May 2010.
Retrieved 28 November 2012.
312. Dr Ankerberg, John & Dr Weldon, John, Encyclopedia of New Age Beliefs, Harvest House
Publishers, 1996
313. S Pines and T Gelblum (Translators from Arabic to English, 1966), Al-Bīrūni (Translator from
Sanskrit to Arabic, ~ 1035 AD), and Patañjali, Al-Bīrūnī's Arabic Version of Patañjali's
"Yogasūtra" (https://www.jstor.org/stable/611180) Archived (https://web.archive.org/web/201703
12213950/http://www.jstor.org/stable/611180) 12 March 2017 at the Wayback Machine, Bulletin
of the School of Oriental and African Studies, Vol. 29, No. 2 (1966), pages 302–325
314. White 2014, p. .
315. Philipp Maas (2013), A Concise Historiography of Classical Yoga Philosophy, in Periodization
and Historiography of Indian Philosophy (Editor: Eli Franco), Sammlung de Nobili, Institut für
Südasien-, Tibet- und Buddhismuskunde der Universität Wien, ISBN 978-3-900271-43-5,
pages 53–90, OCLC 858797956 (https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/858797956)
316. Satish Chandra (2007), Historiography, Religion, and State in Medieval India, ISBN 978-
8124100356, pages 135–136
317. Ernst, C.W. (2005). "Situating Sufism and Yoga" (https://www.cambridge.org/core/services/aop-
cambridge-core/content/view/BFBC851ADCEC24B0E08A8BDF10D4DCB7/S13561863040046
75a.pdf/situating_sufism_and_yoga.pdf) (PDF). Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society. 15: 15–
43. doi:10.1017/S1356186304004675 (https://doi.org/10.1017%2FS1356186304004675).
S2CID 53485495 (https://api.semanticscholar.org/CorpusID:53485495).
318. "Situating Sufism and Yoga" (http://www.unc.edu/~cernst/pdf/jras2.pdf) (PDF). Retrieved
5 September 2010.
319. Carl W. Ernst, Persecution and Circumspection in Shattari Sufism (http://www.unc.edu/~cernst/
pdf/UTRECHT.pdf) Archived (https://web.archive.org/web/20140824030955/http://www.unc.ed
u/%7Ecernst/pdf/UTRECHT.pdf) 24 August 2014 at the Wayback Machine, in Islamic
Mysticism Contested: Thirteen Centuries of Debate and Conflict (Editors: Fred De Jong and
Berndt Radtke), Brill, 1999
320. "Sidang Media – Fatwa Yoga" (https://web.archive.org/web/20090106003351/http://www.islam.
gov.my/portal/lihat.php?jakim=3600). Islam.gov.my. Archived from the original (http://www.isla
m.gov.my/portal/lihat.php?jakim=3600) on 6 January 2009. Retrieved 5 September 2010. "The
Fatwas of Religious Council in Islamic affairs on Yoga. After carefully studied various reports
and factual data, the Council unanimously agreed that this ancient India religious teachings,
which involves physical and mental exercises, are Hinduism in nature known as wahdat al-
wujud philosophy (oneness of existence; the realization of identity between the Self in man,
Atman; and the Divine, BRAHMAN: 'Brahman is all, and Atman is Brahman'). It is prohibited
(haram) for Muslims to practice it."
321. Paul Babie and Neville Rochow (2012), Freedom of Religion Under Bills of Rights (http://www.a
delaide.edu.au/press/titles/freedom-religion/) Archived (https://web.archive.org/web/201512220
94331/http://www.adelaide.edu.au/press/titles/freedom-religion/) 22 December 2015 at the
Wayback Machine, University of Adelaide Press, ISBN 978-0-9871718-0-1, page 98
322. Top Islamic body: Yoga is not for Muslims (http://www.nbcnews.com/id/27857578) Archived (htt
ps://web.archive.org/web/20191202062342/http://www.nbcnews.com/id/27857578) 2
December 2019 at the Wayback Machine – NBC News
323. "Mixed reactions to yoga ban" (https://web.archive.org/web/20110622072723/http://thestar.co
m.my/news/story.asp?file=%2F2008%2F11%2F23%2Fnation%2F2625368&sec=nation).
Thestar.com.my. 23 November 2008. Archived from the original (http://thestar.com.my/news/sto
ry.asp?file=/2008/11/23/nation/2625368&sec=nation) on 22 June 2011. Retrieved 5 September
2010.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yoga 35/39
4/5/24, 11:09 AM Yoga - Wikipedia

324. "Badawi: Yoga for Muslims OK without chant" (https://web.archive.org/web/20130731183706/ht

tp://www.saudigazette.com.sa/index.cfm?method=home.regcon&contentID=2008112723185).
Saudi Gazette. Archived from the original (http://www.saudigazette.com.sa/index.cfm?method=
home.regcon&contentID=2008112723185) on 31 July 2013.
325. "Indonesian clerics issue yoga ban" (http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/7850079.stm). BBC
News. 25 January 2009. Retrieved 6 April 2010.
326. "Why give yoga religious connotation: Deoband" (http://specials.rediff.com/news/2009/jan/29vi
deo-islam-allows-yoga-deoband.htm). rediff News. 29 January 2009. Retrieved 5 September
2010.
327. Jain, Andrea R. (2014). Selling Yoga: From Counterculture to Pop Culture. Oxford University
Press. p. 195. ISBN 978-0-19-939024-3.
328. "Find alternative to yoga, urges Jakim" (https://web.archive.org/web/20150208225308/http://dd
ms.usim.edu.my/bitstream/handle/123456789/975/24%20Nov%202008%20-%20PRIME%20N
EWS%20(14).pdf?sequence=1) (PDF). New Straits Times. Malaysia. Archived from the original
(http://ddms.usim.edu.my/bitstream/handle/123456789/975/24%20Nov%202008%20-%20PRI
ME%20NEWS%20(14).pdf?sequence=1) (PDF) on 8 February 2015.
329. "The perils of yoga: Conservative clerics are wary of a popular pastime" (https://www.economis
t.com/news/middle-east-and-africa/21602272-conservative-clerics-are-wary-popular-pastime-p
erils-yoga). The Economist. 17 May 2014.
330. "It's OK to stretch, just don't believe" (http://www.hurriyet.com.tr/english/domestic/11692086.as
p?gid=244). Hurriyet.com.tr. 21 May 2009. Retrieved 5 September 2010.
331. PTI (15 November 2017). "Meet Nouf Marwaai, the woman behind yoga becoming 'no more a
deviant behaviour' in Saudi Arabia" (https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/magazines/panach
e/meet-nouf-marwaai-the-woman-behind-yoga-becoming-no-more-a-deviant-behaviour-in-saud
i-arabia/articleshow/61655093.cms). The Economic Times.

Sources
Printed sources

Bryant, Edwin (2009). The Yoga Sutras of Patañjali: A New Edition, Translation, and
Commentary (https://archive.org/details/yogastrasofpataj0000brya). New York: North Point
Press. ISBN 978-0-86547-736-0.
Burley, Mikel (2000). Hatha Yoga: Its Context, Theory and Practice (https://archive.org/details/h
athayogaitscont0000burl). Delhi: Motilal Banarsidass. ISBN 978-8-1208-1706-7.
Burley, Mikel (2012). Classical Samkhya and Yoga – An Indian Metaphysics of Experience.
Routledge. ISBN 978-0-415-64887-5.
Chatterjee, Satischandra; Datta, Dhirendramohan (1984). An Introduction to Indian Philosophy.
Calcutta: University of Calcutta.
Crangle, Edward Fitzpatrick (1994). The Origin and Development of Early Indian
Contemplative Practices. Otto Harrassowitz Verlag.
Dass, Baba Hari (1999). The Yoga Sutras of Patanjali: A Study Guide for Book I: Samadhi
Pada. Santa Cruz, CA: Sri Rama Publishing. ISBN 0-918100-20-8.
De Michelis, Elizabeth (2004). A History of Modern Yoga. London: Continuum. ISBN 978-0-
8264-8772-8.
Desmarais, Michele (2008), Changing Minds: Mind, Consciousness and Identity in Patanjali's
Yoga Sutra, Motilal Banarsidass, ISBN 978-8-1208-3336-4
Deussen, Paul (1997). Sixty Upanishads of the Veda, Volume 1 (https://books.google.com/boo
ks?id=8mSpQo9q-tIC). Motilal Banarsidass Publishers. ISBN 978-8-1208-1467-7.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yoga 36/39
4/5/24, 11:09 AM Yoga - Wikipedia

Dumoulin, Heinrich; Heisig, James W.; Knitter, Paul F. (2005). Zen Buddhism: a History: India
and China (https://books.google.com/books?id=9CYeWYtYBS4C). World Wisdom. ISBN 978-
0-941532-89-1.
Eliade, Mircea (1958). Yoga: Immortality and Freedom. Princeton: Princeton University Press.
ISBN 978-0-691-14203-6.
Feuerstein, Georg (1996). The Shambhala Guide to Yoga (https://archive.org/details/shambhal
aguideto00feue) (1st ed.). Boston & London: Shambhala Publications. ISBN 978-1-5706-2142-
0.
Feuerstein, Georg (2001). The Yoga Tradition: Its History, Literature, Philosophy and Practice.
Hohm Press. ISBN 978-1-890772-18-5.
Feuerstein, Georg (2002). The Yoga Tradition. Delhi: Motilal Banarsidass.
Flood, Gavin D. (1996). An Introduction to Hinduism. Cambridge University Press.
Goldberg, Philip (2010). American Veda. From Emerson and the Beatles to Yoga and
Meditation. How Indian Spirituality Changed the West (https://archive.org/details/americanveda
from00gold). New York: Harmony Books. ISBN 978-0-385-52134-5.
Gombrich, Richard (2007). Religious Experience in Early Buddhism (http://www.ochs.org.uk/lec
tures/religious-experience-early-buddhism). OCHS Library.
Hari Dass, Baba (1978). Ashtanga Yoga Primer. Santa Cruz: Sri Ram Publishing. pp. bk.
cover. ISBN 978-0-918100-04-7.
Jacobsen, Knut A., ed. (2011). Yoga Powers (https://books.google.com/books?id=rHXQsZiz7P
oC). Leiden: Brill. ISBN 978-9-0042-1214-5.
Jacobsen, Knut A., ed. (2018), Theory and Practice of Yoga: Essays in Honour of Gerald
James Larson, Brill
Kundakunda. Niyamasara.
Lamb, Ramdas (2011), "Yogic Powers and the Ramananda Sampraday", in Jacobsen, Knut A.
(ed.), Yoga Powers, Leiden: Brill, ISBN 978-9004212145
Larson, Gerald James (2008). The Encyclopedia of Indian Philosophies: Yoga: India's
philosophy of meditation (https://books.google.com/books?id=p6pURGdBBmIC). Motilal
Banarsidass. ISBN 978-81-208-3349-4.
Mallinson, James (2011). "Haṭha Yoga". In Jacobsen, Knut A.; Basu, Helene (eds.). Brill's
Encyclopedia of Hinduism. Volume Three. Brill.
Mallinson, James (28 June 2012). "Sāktism and 'Hathayoga' " (https://web.archive.org/web/201
30616025645/http://www.khecari.com/resources/SaktismHathayoga.pdf) (PDF). Archived from
the original (http://www.khecari.com/resources/SaktismHathayoga.pdf) (PDF) on 16 June 2013.
Retrieved 19 September 2013.
Mallinson, James; Singleton, Mark (2017). Roots of Yoga. Penguin Books. ISBN 978-0-241-
25304-5. OCLC 928480104 (https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/928480104).
Mehta, Silva; Mehta, Mira; Mehta, Shyam (1990). Yoga: The Iyengar Way. Dorling Kindersley.
ISBN 978-0-86318-420-8.
Müller, Max (1899). Six Systems of Indian Philosophy; Samkhya and Yoga, Naya and
Vaiseshika (https://books.google.com/books?id=hiH57a0tGpcC). Calcutta: Susil Gupta (India)
Ltd. ISBN 0-7661-4296-5. Reprint edition; Originally published under the title of "The Six
Systems of Indian Philosophy."
Olivelle, Patrick (1996), The Early Upanishads: Annotated Text & Translation, Oxford University
Press, ISBN 978-0195124354
Radhakrishnan, S. (1971). Indian Philosophy. Vol. II. London: George Allen & Unwin.
Radhakrishnan, S.; Moore, C. A. (1967). A Sourcebook in Indian Philosophy (https://archive.or
g/details/sourcebookinindi00radh). Princeton. ISBN 978-0-691-01958-1.
Ruff, Jeffrey Clark (2011). "Yoga in the 'Yoga Upanisads': Disciplines of the Mystical 'OM'
Sound" (https://books.google.com/books?id=1ii7D-bR0osC&pg=PA97). In White, David Gordon
(ed.). Yoga in Practice. Princeton University Press. pp. 97–116. ISBN 978-0691140865.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yoga 37/39
4/5/24, 11:09 AM Yoga - Wikipedia

Samuel, Geoffrey (2008). The Origins of Yoga and Tantra (https://books.google.com/books?id=

JAvrTGrbpf4C). Cambridge University Press. ISBN 978-0-521-69534-3.
Satyananda, Swami (2008) [1996]. Asana Pranayama Mudra Bandha (http://www.znakovi-vre
mena.net/en/Swami-Satyananda-Saraswati---Asana-Pranayama-Mudra-Bandha.pdf) (PDF).
Munger: Yoga Publications Trust. ISBN 978-81-86336-14-4.
Singleton, Mark (2010). Yoga Body: the origins of modern posture practice. Oxford University
Press. ISBN 978-0-19-539534-1. OCLC 318191988 (https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/31819198
8).
Sjoman, Norman E. (1999). The Yoga Tradition of the Mysore Palace (https://books.google.co
m/books?id=1BU2WI8wMpcC) (2nd ed.). New Delhi: Abhinav Publications. pp. 11, 35.
ISBN 81-7017-389-2.
Stiles, Mukunda (2001). Yoga Sutras of Patanjali: With Great Respect and Love (https://books.
google.com/books?id=ytHC2gJ2CbcC). Weiser Books. ISBN 978-1-5786-3201-5.
Taimni, I. K. (1961). The Science of Yoga. Adyar, India: The Theosophical Publishing House.
ISBN 81-7059-212-7.
Vasudeva, Somadeva. The Yoga of the Mālinīvijayottara Tantra, Critical edition, translation &
notes.
Vivekananda, Swami. Swami Vivekananda at the Parliament of Religions (https://books.googl
e.com/books?id=Lw4gkcQS7cEC). Indic Publication. ISBN 978-1-301-19120-8.
Werner, Karel (1998) [1977]. Yoga And Indian Philosophy. Motilal Banarsidass Publ. ISBN 81-
208-1609-9.
Whicher, Ian (1998). The Integrity of the Yoga Darśana: A Reconsideration of Classical Yoga (h
ttps://books.google.com/books?id=_Qo9K9hPvQgC). SUNY Press. ISBN 978-0-7914-3815-2.
White, David Gordon (2011). "Yoga, Brief History of an Idea" (http://press.princeton.edu/chapte
rs/i9565.pdf) (PDF). Yoga in Practice. Princeton University Press. pp. 1–23.
White, David Gordon (2014). The 'Yoga Sutra of Patanjali': A Biography. Princeton University
Press. ISBN 978-1-4008-5005-1.
Worthington, Vivian (1982). A History of Yoga (https://books.google.com/books?id=5aI9AAAAI
AAJ). Routledge. ISBN 0-7100-9258-X.
Wynne, Alexander (2007). The Origin of Buddhist Meditation (https://books.google.com/books?
id=ElIupyX_SYAC&pg=PA51). Routledge. ISBN 978-1-134-09741-8.
Zimmer, Heinrich (1951). Philosophies of India (https://books.google.com/books?id=bRQ5fpTm
woAC). New York, New York: Princeton University Press. ISBN 0-691-01758-1. Bollingen
Series XXVI; Edited by Joseph Cambell.
Zydenbos, Robert (2006). Jainism Today and Its Future. Munich: Manya Verlag. p. 66.
Grimes, John A. (1996). A Concise Dictionary of Indian Philosophy: Sanskrit Terms Defined in
English. State University of New York Press. ISBN 978-0-7914-3067-5.

Websources

1. Edwin Bryant (2011, Rutgers University), The Yoga Sutras of Patanjali (http://www.iep.utm.edu/
yoga/) Archived (https://web.archive.org/web/20190518185305/https://www.iep.utm.edu/yoga/)
18 May 2019 at the Wayback Machine IEP

External links
Quotations related to Yoga at Wikiquote

Yoga media on Commons

Yoga Wikibooks

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yoga 38/39
4/5/24, 11:09 AM Yoga - Wikipedia

Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Yoga&oldid=1199257489"

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yoga 39/39