yoga by shilpa shetty
History of yoga:
Main article: History of yoga
While the most ancient mystic practices are vaguely hinted at in the Vedas, the ascetic practices (tapas) are referenced in the Brāhmaṇas (900 BCE and 500 BCE),[12] early commentaries on the Vedas. In the Upanishads, an early reference to meditation is made in Brihadaranyaka Upanishad,[13] one of the earliest Upanishads (approx. 900 BCE). The actual term "yoga" first occurs in the Katha Upanishad.[14] The main textual sources for the evolving concept of Yoga are the middle Upanishads, (ca. 400 BCE), the Mahabharata (5th c. BCE) including the Bhagavad Gita (ca. 200 BCE), and the Yoga Sutras of Patanjali (300 BCE-200 BCE). Several seals discovered at Indus Valley Civilization (c. 3300–1700 BC) sites depict figures in a yoga- or meditation-like posture, "a form of ritual discipline, suggesting a precursor of yoga" that point to Harappan devotion to "ritual discipline and concentration", according to Archaeologist Gregory Possehl.[15]
[edit] Yoga Sutras of Patanjali
Main articles: Raja Yoga and Yoga Sutras of Patanjali
In Indian philosophy, Yoga is the name of one of the six orthodox philosophical schools.[16][17] The Yoga philosophical system is closely allied with the Samkhya school.[18] The Yoga school as expounded by the sage Patanjali accepts the Samkhya psychology and metaphysics, but is more theistic than the Samkhya, as evidenced by the addition of a divine entity to the Samkhya's twenty-five elements of reality.[19][20] The parallels between Yoga and Samkhya were so close that Max Müller says that "the two philosophies were in popular parlance distinguished from each other as Samkhya with and Samkhya without a Lord...."[21] The intimate relationship between Samkhya and Yoga is explained by Heinrich Zimmer: