Background
The origin of yoga dates as far back as prehistoric times. According to ancient sources, Lord Shiva, one of Hindu Trinity executed some 8,400,000 postures and gifted them to the human race for the maintenance of health and overall advancement. Among these, some 84 postures are in common use. They are considered as the basis of all other postures.
The ancient sages adopted these postures and practiced them. They taught them to their students. They had a thorough understanding of the physical, physiological, psychological and the spiritual sciences. Later sages would record them in their minutest details as a legacy to mankind. Yoga can be traced back to the Vedas themselves, the oldest Hindu texts.
The first manual of Yoga is believed to be the ‘Hiranyagarbha Samhita’. Hiranyagarbha is one name of Lord Brahma, the creator. Some scholars believe that Lord Brahma is the creator of Yoga. Others attribute it to ‘Adiyogi’ Lord Shiva, believed to be the first yogi. Lord Brahma and Lord Shiva along with Lord Vishnu form the Hindu Trinity.
Famous Vedic sages as Atri, Vasishta, Yajnavalkya and VedaVyasa were among the great teachers of Yoga. These ancient Vedic sages, the seers of truth, were already teaching the Vedas’ lofty system of moral philosophy and religion, science and ethics. Their followers were deeply absorbed in the practice of the ethical and spiritual teachings of the Vedas.
Maharishi Patanjali was the first to compile a comprehensive Yoga text, the Yoga Sutras. The practice is known as ‘Ashtanga Yoga’, the ‘Eight steps to Raja Yoga’. The Bhagavad-Gita is the oldest known sacred text on Yoga. The Bhagavad Gita and Yoga Sutras form the theoretical and philosophical base of all yoga. The Hatha Yoga Pradipika is a later authoritative yoga text written by Swami Swatamarama.
Swami Vivekananda’s legendary address to the World Parliament of Religions in Chicago on Sept 11, 1893 saw the dawn of a modern era in the history of yoga. The Parliament aimed to lay the foundation for a synthesis of East and West, religion and science. Swami Vivekananda, a blend of eastern culture and western education was the perfect emissary to present the timeless yoga philosophy to an international audience. He laid the foundation for yoga’s dissemination worldwide.
In the past century, yoga has seen an exceptional universal popularity. With time its higher values of purity, simplicity and humility have been increasingly overlooked. Its moral and ethical values are being sacrificed to current cultural norms. Many teachers of yoga, ignoring its higher spiritual aims, promote the practice of asanas and pranayamas only. ‘Modern yoga’ falls short of the ethical and spiritual values the science of Yoga symbolises.
Since the 1960s yoga has become more and more popular in the west. As awareness of its beneficial therapeutic effects increased, it has gained respect and recognition as a valuable method to promote health and well-being. Today many doctors recommend yoga practice for some chronic conditions which find no proper remedy in modern medicine. Among are stress management, heart disease, back pain, arthritis and depression.
Today’s life style accentuates stress, tension, worries, seemingly insoluble in the various fields of life. Technology with its great strides has made life more sedentary with all its ill effects on the mental and physical levels. Yoga appears as the ideal remedy. It is day by day gaining importance as the most beneficial therapy for several mental and physical diseases.
Yoga aims at a holistic treatment of a variety of psychological or psychosomatic disorders ranging from sinusitis and asthma to emotional distress. In contrast to allopathic medicine which focuses mainly on the body, yoga takes into account the physical, mental, emotional and spiritual facets of the person.
The combination of yoga and modern medicine is a positive and laudable attempt to link age-old techniques with modern medical knowledge. More medical professionals are having recourse to yoga in their treatment regimen. The move to make modern healthcare more holistic is fast becoming a reality with yoga.
Yoga has an intrinsic holistic approach. It treats the organism as a unified whole, enhancing the physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual aspects of the individual. Yoga postures train and condition the body and mind for a higher purpose. For self improvement, this ageless technique is remarkably efficient. To discover its worth, it only needs to be practiced.