Yoga is a spiritual, mental, and physical practice that originated in ancient India. It was introduced to the Western world in the late 19th century by figures like Swami Vivekananda and Tirumalai Krishnamacharya.
The earliest mention of yoga comes from the Rig Veda, which describes rituals and prayers for Brahmin priests. The word can also refer to a chant that is used to invoke gods or goddesses.
Origins
Yoga is a spiritual, mental and physical practice that originated in ancient India over 5,000 years ago. It has since become a significant aspect of several Indian philosophical systems and is credited with promoting spiritual growth and understanding. In the late 19th and 20th centuries, influential yogis like Swami Vivekananda helped yoga gain widespread popularity in the West. This is when the practice started gaining a physical dimension, and postures known as “asanas” became more prominent.
The earliest paths of yoga were based on the rituals and prayers of the Vedas, meant to connect common people with a higher power. Later, a sage named Patanjali systematized the yoga practices and released the Yoga Sutras, which form the foundation of classical yoga. During this period, the term yogi was used to describe all manner of spiritual practitioners including ascetics and street performers. It wasn’t until the 1893 Chicago World Fair that a more physically-orientated yoga began to emerge, as exemplified by the postural contortions of hatha yoga.
Early Practices
Yoga emerged from the Indus-Saraswati river valley civilization around 3000BCE. This was a time of rishis who renounced worldly goals and cultivated spiritual liberation through meditation, deep study of the self and the universe. The rishis shared their wisdom with their students through orally transmitted texts that became the Rig Veda and Patanjali’s Yoga Sutras.
By the early 1900s yoga began to grow in popularity in the West. It was at this time that Swami Vivekananda wowed audiences at the 1893 Chicago World Fair with his lectures on yoga, and Indian yogis like T. Krishnamacharya and Sivananda promoted Hatha Yoga which was more physical.
This era also saw the rise of mantras which are melodic phrases with spiritual interpretations, such as “Aum” or “Om Shanti.” And practitioners developed greater understandings related to breaking through psychological, emotional and energetic blockages through yoga pranayama. It is at this point that the yoke or union between body, mind and spirit was first referenced in yoga texts.
Early Mantras
Many ancient Hindu texts refer to the practice of chanting mantras as a way of reaching higher states of meditation. Mantras are unique, mystical formulas of sacred syllables that help to focus the mind and open the heart during deep yoga practices.
In the early days of yoga, this practice was passed from teacher to student orally. It remained a series of meditative techniques practiced by religious hermits until the great sage Patanjali systematized the teachings and created a set of principles for yogic life.
He created the philosophic Yoga Sutras that were a basis for hatha yoga and other modern forms of yoga practice. Vivekananda brought hatha yoga to the West in the 19th century, and his synthesis of a physical form of yoga helped to spur its popularity. But Indian immigration quotas prevented most yogis from traveling to the United States, and so the modern physical form of yoga developed in various countries around the world.
Modern Practices
Modern yoga is a practice with a global reach and it has evolved from its pre-colonial roots. It had a resurgence during the British colonial era under the guidance of spiritual figures like Swami Vivekananda.
By the late 1800s and early 1900s, India’s yoga masters traveled widely to spread their teachings. They attracted crowds of Western students who viewed yoga as a universal system that encompassed the beliefs of all religions.
Unlike hatha yoga, which focused on the body, many of these modern practices of yoga emphasize breath control and meditation as their main purpose. Yet these modern practitioners still seek a deeper transformation of the self that goes beyond the superficial physical benefits of flexibility and six pack abs. In the end, they may use these tools to serve a higher mission – for example, to bring peace and happiness to others through yoga practice. This is where the true spirit of yoga lies, not in its asanas but in its spiritual practice and philosophy.