Through the ages
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Yoga is a school of indian philosophy. focusing on meditation as a path to self-knowledge and liberation.
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The History of Yoga spans from four to eight thousand years ago to the current day.
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Explicit examples of the concept and terminology of yoga appear in the Upanishads.
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After the Bhagavad Gita and Yoga Sutras, the most fundamental text of Yoga is the Hatha Yoga Pradipika, that in great detail lists all the details that are familiar to today's yoga student.
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In the West, hatha yoga has become wildly popular.
Archaic Yoga
Archaic Yoga was community oriented, as it attempted to discern the cosmic order through inner vision, then to apply that order to daily living.
Later, Yoga evolved into a more inward experience, and Yogis focused on their individual enlightenment and salvation. The first archaeological evidence of Yoga's existence is found in stone seals excavated from the Indus valley. The stone seals depict figures performing Yoga postures. These artifacts officially put Yoga on the History books circa 3000 B.C.
The Indus-Sarasvati civilization gave birth to the ancient texts known as the Vedas, the oldest scriptures in the world. The Vedas is a collection of hymns that praises a higher power; it contains the oldest recorded Yogic Teachings and is considered divine revelation.
Pre-Classical Yoga
The creation of the Upanishads marks the Pre-Classical Yoga. The 200 scriptures of the Upanishads (the conclusion of the revealed literature) describe the inner vision of reality resulting from devotion to Brahman. These explain three subjects: the ultimate reality (Brahman), the transcendental self (atman), and the relationship between the two. The Upanishads further explain the teachings of the Vedas.
Yoga shares some characteristics not only with Hinduism but also with Buddhism that we can trace in its history. During the sixth century B.C., Buddha started teaching Buddhism, which stresses the importance of Meditation and the practice of physical postures. Siddharta Gautama, the first Buddhist to study Yoga, achieved enlightenment at the age of 35.
A set of documents called the upanishads were crafted which were supposedly the earliest known documentation of vedas which dates back to 200 BC.
Just as the Upanishads further the Vedas, the Gita builds on and incorporates the doctrines found in the Upanishads. In the Gita, three facets must be brought together in our lifestyle: Bhakti or loving devotion, Jnana which is knowledge or contemplation, and Karma which is about selfless actions. The Gita then tried to unify Bhakti Yoga, Jnana Yoga, and Karma Yoga and it is because of this that it has gained importance. The Gita was a conversation between Prince Arjuna and God-man Krishna and it basically stresses the importance of opposing evil.
Citations
Shayne Amor Bance, Yoga History, ABC-of-Yoga,
Image Source: http://www.flickr.com/photos/rammorrison/331105659/
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