And Then There Was Yoga - The Yogic Story

Representing a complete system of social, physical, mental and spiritual development; the origins of ? yoga date to some 5,000 years ago in the Indus-Sarasvati civilization of northern India. The first references to the history of yoga can be found in the Rig Veda, texts containing the songs and rituals of the Vedic priests, the Brahmans.



These same priests documented their practices and beliefs in a collection of 200 scriptures called the Upanishads which transformed the idea of ritual sacrifice and internalized it as the sacrifice of the ego. This was to be accomplished through self-knowledge, karma yoga, and jnana yoga. Modern yoga positions and principles have evolved from these earliest meditative practices.

Yoga practitioners believe the positions and poses of their practice stimulates the Kundalini Shakti, or serpent power, at the base of the spine. This latent energy rises upward through the chakras that correspondent to various endocrine glands until it reaches the hypothalamus and controls the release of hormones throughout the body thus reducing stress and promoting inner harmony.

How Did The Practice of Yoga Develop?

Although the development of yoga basics has been a long process with many influences, the overall path of the discipline can be divided into classical, post-classical and modern periods. The modern period, as it applies to the United States, is the time in which Hatha Yoga gained its primacy and importance. (In the United States the practice is more for exercise than as part of a spiritual quest for enlightenment.)

Classical Period

In the second century the first systemic presentation of yoga was made by Patanjali, the father of yoga, in the Yoga Sutras. This organized "eight limbed path" to quiet the mind and merge with the infinite still strongly influences styles of modern yoga today. The eight limbs in English are moral codes, self-purification and study, posture, breath control, sense control, concentration, contemplation, and meditation.

Post-Classical Period

In the centuries after Patanjali, yoga masters developed practices for the rejuvenation of the body and the prolongation of life, embracing perfection of the body as the only path to enlightenment, an important step in the origins of yoga as we know it. It was in this period that Tantra Yoga to cleanse the system and break ties to physical existence began to be perfected. In turn these mind-body-spirit connections led to the evolution of Hatha Yoga. This is the form most practiced in the West today. It uses physical exercises, controlled, breathing, relaxation, and meditation to balance the mind and body and to improve physical health.

Modern Period

Yoga masters began to travel to the west (all over the world, in fact) in the late 1800s and early 1900s. By the 1920s T. Krishnamacharya demonstrated Hatha Yoga throughout India and opened the first school to teach the practice. Three of his students significantly spread global yoga, in particular B.K.S. Iyengar, T.K.V. Desikachar and Pattabhi Jois.

In 1947 Indra Devi opened a yoga study in Hollywood which was the beginning of the spread and popularization of Hatha Yoga in the United States. The practice became wildly popular during the counterculture movement of the 1960s with the so-called "hippies" embracing many aspects of Eastern teaching and philosophy as they sought to distance themselves from the "establishment" and the traditional American values they so actively rejected.

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