What is Yoga?

Find out what is Yoga and when it first came into the Western world

Today I want to discuss a little more about what is Yoga. To a beginner (or someone who is not familiar with the subject), Yoga can look somehow complicated.

Someone could even say that it is a dizzying array of physical manipulations that transforms apparently pleased humans into pleased human pretzels. This pretzels thing is a joke ofcourse, but you got my point hopefully.

As noted already in the introduction blog posts, some people even think about Yoga in terms of stereotypes, which makes the whole story even more upsetting.

For instance: term Yoga can also be a synonym for cult or and other kinds of archaic spirituals beliefs, which require you to quit your day joy, sell your house, move in the Jungle and never look back. Not to say that none of the above is true!

In fact, Yoga is very basic or ordinary activity to perform. Just take a visit to the countries like India, Japan, China where it has been practised for generations. What you will find out it that Yoga is really something pretty ordinary, like going to Fitness or Gym for example.

Perhaps you already know that. After all, Yoga has been present in our society for quite some time now. The first time the practice of Yoga came to west was in year 1893. This happened due to the visit of Swami Vivekananda, a guru from India, who visited World Fair in Chicago in the previously mentioned year.

Swami Vivekananda is nowadays known as someone who has sparked the interest in Yoga in the Western world.

The meaning of word Yoga

The word Yoga itself originates from the Sanskritic language: Yug, which basically means to "yoke, bind, join, direct" one's attention. Besides this meanings, Yoga can also connote things like fusion, union and discipline.

A definition of Yoga is also defined in The sacred scriptures of Hinduism. According to this ancient belief system from India, Yoga is defined as unitive discipline that leads you toward your inner and outer union, harmony and joy.

This is also stated in book Living Yoga, which was written by two experts in Yoga, Georg Feuerstein and Stephan Bodian.

In general, Yoga is most usually interpreted as conscious living: a tapping into your own inner potential for being and feeling happy. In Sanskritic language this is refered to as Ananda.

Hope this blog post has further helped you understand the meaning of Yoga and helped you with finding answers on the question: What is Yoga?

That is all for now, stay happy and see you soon with my next post on Yoga for beginners.