History of Yoga Documented in the Sutras

Most people associate a complete harmony of mind, body and spirit when they think of yoga. This was the purpose of yoga in the early days and today still is. These intentions have remained the same for centuries. They’ve simply been improved or refined in recent years. The yoga history has a great deal of tradition associated with it. It is, explained in its most bare-bone form, a system that affects physcial, mental and spiritual health and the  fitness of the practitioner. Yoga roots go back thousands of years to the system originally devised in India. All through the four different periods in history beginning with the pre-classical period,  the classical period, after which came the post-classical period right up to the present which is our modern era.

Yoga, as a word, means “yolk” or something that joins another thing together. A good example is the joining of the cart to an ox through the use of a yolk. Based on the definition of yoga, you can figure out that yoga has mainly to do with creating unity in every human being by using every aspect and moulding it into a single entity.

Do not believe that yoga is simply a matter of forcing the body into odd poses. While this is done in yoga, this is just a small part of it. There is more involved in yoga such as ethics, breath control, meditation and the physical postures.

In the modern history of yoga, this form of exercise has gone through what some might consider to be a renaissance. It became more globalized and the religious aspects of yoga have been separated to create a form of exercise. The yoga history has seen the opening of many schools or branches of yoga. The practice of yoga has branched out into the different philosophies that have sprouted.

There’s no denying that yoga has changed all throughout history. But there is a common thread among all yoga forms that has changed very little over the years. The basic underlying goal of yoga, as it has been throughout all of the known history of yoga, was and is to create harmony of the body and mind, and even the environment. This modern era in the history of yoga has developed a more comprehensive way to get that greater control of body and mind. Yoga is not just a means to stay in shape and keep your body trim and firm. Yoga is a whole body and mind health practice that helps you empower your life.