Yoga (philosophy)

Yoga philosophy is one of the six major orthodox schools of Hinduism. Ancient, medieval and most modern literature often refers to the Yoga school of Hinduism simply as Yoga. It is closely related to the Samkhya school of Hinduism. The Yoga school's systematic studies to better oneself physically, mentally and spiritually has influenced all other schools of Indian philosophy. The Yoga Sutras of Patanjali is a key text of the Yoga school of Hinduism.युञ्जते मन उत युञ्जते धियो विप्रा विप्रस्य बृहतो विपश्चितः (…)Seers of the vast illumined seer yogically control their minds and their intelligence... (…)यदा पञ्चावतिष्ठन्ते ज्ञानानि मनसा सह ।बुद्धिश्च न विचेष्टते तामाहुः परमां गतिम् ॥ १० ॥तां योगमिति मन्यन्ते स्थिरामिन्द्रियधारणाम् ।अप्रमत्तस्तदा भवति योगो हि प्रभवाप्ययौ ॥ ११ ॥Only when Manas (mind) with thoughts and the five senses stand still,and when Buddhi (intellect, power to reason) does not waver, that they call the highest path.That is what one calls Yoga, the stillness of the senses, concentration of the mind,It is not thoughtless heedless sluggishness, Yoga is creation and dissolution.Sanskrit: क्लेश कर्म विपाकाशयैःपरामृष्टः पुरुषविशेष ईश्वरः ॥२४॥– Yoga Sutras I.24Pleasure and pain results from contact of soul, sense, mind and object. Non-origination of that follows when the mind becomes steady in the soul. After it, there is non-existence of pain in the embodied soul. This is that Yoga.We are instructed to practice meditation in such places as a forest, a cave or a sand-bank. Such possibilities may occur even in release. It is, we reply, not so, because knowledge must spring up only in a body already in the state of formation. And there is absence of a body in our release. For that purpose, there should be a purifying of our soul by abstinence from evil, and observance of certain virtues, as well as by following the spiritual injunctions gleaned from Yoga. To secure release , it is necessary to study and follow this treatise on knowledge , as well as to hold discussions with those learned in that treatise.If it is said that there will result the defect of not allowing room for certain Smritis, we say not so, because there will result the defect of not allowing room for some other smritis , and on account of the non-perception of others. Thereby the Yoga Smriti is refuted.Yoga is the utter transcendence of the mind and is of two types. Self-knowledge is one type, another is the restraint of the life-force of self limitations and psychological conditioning. Yoga has come to mean only the latter, yet both the methods lead to the same result. To some, Self-knowledge through inquiry is difficult, to others Yoga is difficult. But my conviction is that the path of inquiry is easy for all, because Self-knowledge is the ever-present truth. I shall now describe to you the method of Yoga. Yoga philosophy is one of the six major orthodox schools of Hinduism. Ancient, medieval and most modern literature often refers to the Yoga school of Hinduism simply as Yoga. It is closely related to the Samkhya school of Hinduism. The Yoga school's systematic studies to better oneself physically, mentally and spiritually has influenced all other schools of Indian philosophy. The Yoga Sutras of Patanjali is a key text of the Yoga school of Hinduism. The epistemology of the Yoga school of Hinduism, like the Sāmkhya school, relies on three of six Pramanas as the means of gaining reliable knowledge. These include Pratyakṣa (perception), Anumāṇa (inference) and Sabda (Āptavacana, word/testimony of reliable sources). The metaphysics of Yoga is built on the same dualist foundation as the Samkhya school. The universe is conceptualized as composed of two realities in the Samhkya-Yoga schools: Puruṣa (consciousness) and prakriti (matter). Jiva (a living being) is considered as a state in which puruṣa is bonded to prakriti in some form, in various permutations and combinations of various elements, senses, feelings, activity and mind. During the state of imbalance or ignorance, one or more constituents overwhelm the others, creating a form of bondage. The end of this bondage is called liberation, or moksha, by both the Yoga and Samkhya schools of Hinduism. The ethical theory of the Yoga school is based on Yamas and Niyama, as well as elements of the Guṇa theory of Samkhya. The Yoga school of Hinduism differs from the closely related non-theistic/atheistic Samkhya school by incorporating the concept of a 'personal, yet essentially inactive, deity' or 'personal god' (Ishvara). While the Samkhya school suggests that jnana (knowledge) is a sufficient means to moksha, the Yoga school suggests that systematic techniques and practice, or personal experimentation, combined with Samkhya's approach to knowledge, is the path to moksha. Yoga shares several central ideas with the Advaita Vedanta school of Hinduism, with the difference that Yoga philosophy is a form of experimental mysticism, while Advaita Vedanta is a form of monistic personalism. Advaita Vedanta, and other schools of Hinduism, accept, adopt and build upon many of the teachings and techniques of Yoga. The origins of the Yoga school of Hinduism are unclear. Some of its earliest discussions are found in 1st millennium BCE Indian texts such as the Katha Upanishad, the Shvetashvatara Upanishad and the Maitri Upanishad. The root of 'Yoga' is found in hymn 5.81.1 of the Rig Veda, a dedication to rising Sun-god in the morning (Savitri), interpreted as 'yoke' or 'yogically control'. The Rig Veda, however, does not describe Yoga philosophy with the same meaning or context as in medieval or modern times. Early references to practices that later became part of Yoga school of Hinduism, are made in Brihadaranyaka Upanishad, the oldest Upanishad. Gavin Flood translates it as, '...having become calm and concentrated, one perceives the self (atman), within oneself.' The practice of pranayama (consciously regulating breath) is mentioned in hymn 1.5.23 of Brihadaranyaka Upanishad (c. ~ 900 BCE), and the practice of pratyahara (concentrating all of one's senses on self) is mentioned in hymn 8.15 of Chandogya Upanishad (c. ~ 800-700 BCE). The Katha Upanishad, dated to be from about the middle of the 1st millennium BCE, in verses 2.6.6 through 2.6.13 recommends a path to Self-knowledge, and calls this path Yoga. The Yoga school of Hinduism is mentioned in foundational texts of other orthodox schools such as the Vaisesikha Sutras, Nyaya Sutras and Brahma Sutras, which suggests that the Yoga philosophy was in vogue in the 1st millennium BCE. It influenced and was influenced by other schools and Indian philosophies. There are, for example, numerous parallels in the concepts in the Samkhya school of Hinduism, Yoga and the Abhidharma schools of thought, particularly from the 2nd century BCE to the 1st century AD, notes Larson. Patanjali's Yoga Sutras may be a synthesis of these three traditions. From the Samkhya school of Hinduism, the Yoga Sutras adopt the 'reflective discernment' (adhyavasaya) of prakrti and purusa (dualism), its metaphysical rationalism, as well its three epistemic methods to gaining reliable knowledge. From Abhidharma Buddhism's idea of nirodhasamadhi, suggests Larson, the Yoga Sutras adopt the pursuit of an altered state of awareness, but unlike Buddhism, which believes that there is neither self nor soul, Yoga is physicalist and realist like Samkhya in believing that each individual has a self and soul. The third concept that the Yoga Sutras synthesize into its philosophy is the ancient ascetic traditions of isolation, meditation and introspection. The systematic collection of ideas of the Yoga school of Hinduism is found in the Yoga Sutras of Patanjali. After its circulation in the first half of the 1st millennium CE, many Indian scholars reviewed it, then published their Bhāṣya (notes and commentary) on it, which together form a canon of texts called the Pātañjalayogaśāstra ('The Treatise on Yoga of Patañjali').