The word Yoga comes from the Sanskrit root yuj meaning TO UNITE.

Any discipline or method that unites one with the Supreme is called YOGA. (1)

 

According to Patanjali, Yoga is the cessation of the activities of the mind.

 

According to the SANKHYA PHILOSOPHY, YOGA means separation (disunion, viyoga) of spirit from matter.

 

In the words of Sri Aurobindo, the mystic Indian philosopher, YOGA means a methodized effort towards self perfection by the expression of the potentialities latent in the being and a union of the human individual with the universal and transcendent Existence we see partially expressed in man and in the cosmos.

 

 

 

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The first chapter of the Gita (The hesitation and despondency of Arjuna) ends in dejection and sorrow and this is also called YOGA, as this darkness of the soul is an essential step in the progress to spiritual life. (3)

 

 

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We know that some forms of yoga practice were probably prevalent in India as early as 3000 BCE.

 

The beginnings of the Yoga system are to be found in the Upanisads 

(ca 800 BCE).

 

A definite form of yoga practices and some of the stages of yoga meditation were given probably for the first time by GAUTAM Buddha...

 

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YOGA psychology realized the value of concentration and looked upon it as the means for the perception of the truth. It believed that there were no ranges of life or mind, which could not be reached by a methodical training of will and knowledge. It recognized the close connexion of mind and body. (2)

 

To attain conquest over passions, a discipline is sometimes enjoined. The Indian thinkers believe in the dependence of mind on body, and so prescribe purity of food as necessary for the purity of mind. Control over the passions must be spontaneous..

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The yogic practices of concentration, and contemplation, etc., are to be met with. Meditation and concentration as means of cleansing the mind are also enjoined. (2)

 

Yoga is a system of psychic discipline by which we can clear the intellect; free the mind of its illusions. Only a trained mind, which utterly controls the body, can inquire and meditate never for a moment losing sight of the object, never for a moment letting it be obscured. (1)

 

The secret of yoga is inwardness, self-scrutiny and inner cleansing...(4)

 

The Yoga writers introduce the concepts of the subconscious and the unconscious mind as determining instinctive tendencies, and also as showing how, by the process of yoga, the efforts of the conscious mind can dominate over the subconscious and the unconscious...

 

 

When therefore yoga is defined as suppression of the modifications of the mind-stuff,  it must be understood not only as the stoppage of the flow of presentations but also as the eradication of those potencies or 

latent tendencies that generate new streams of thought and new lines of action...(1)

 

 

 

In India, the interest of philosophy is in the self of man.

True life is the inner life. (3)

Within man is the spirit that is the centre of everything…. (2)  

 

The yoga can be best described as a manual of psychological ethics.(1)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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1. The cultural Heritage of India (Vol. III) - published by The Ramakrishna Mission Institute of Culture, Kolkata, India

2. Indian Philosophy - by Radhakrishnan

3. Bhagavadgita - by Radhakrishnan

4. Our Heritage -  by S. Radhakrishnan