Yoga and Hinduism
Yoga and Hinduism
Sometime back, I presented a video on the
origin and history of yoga in which I made a statement that
yoga was India's unique contribution to the world. I also
added that it was a more intense form of prayer and religious
worship, and a way of reaching out to God through intense
personal effort. These words came to me effortlessly, when
I began working on the video and I added them without hesitation
because I grew up with those convictions, having seen yoga
as an inseparable aspect of Hinduism, and never doubted
them. Some people did not like those statements because
they thought I was trying to add a theistic element to an
otherwise secular and atheistic philosophy of yoga. Many
people outside India do not know that yoga is interwoven
with Hinduism and it is essentially a spiritual practice
meant for liberation by cultivating purity (sattva) and
stabilizing citta (dynamic consciousness), concepts that
are essentially Hindu and alien to the religions and philosophies
that originated outside India. Yoga was not a Buddhist practice.
The Buddhist adapted it, just as they adapted many concepts
of the Vedic tradition, including the names of Hindu divinities
and concepts such as dharma, karma, reincarnation, mantra
and tantra. The Upanishads deal with the subject of yoga,
yoga techniques, types of yoga and the six fold yoga. The
Bhagavadgita is rightly known as Yogasastram, a scripture
on yoga. The title of every chapter either contains or ends
with the word yoga. Yoga is one of the ancient philosophies
(Darshanas) of Hinduism. The word Iswara mentioned in the
Yogasutra is essentially a Sanskrit word of Vedic origin.
Patanjali was a Vedic scholar and the scripture was taught
in the Vedic schools and gurukulas of ancient India.