Yoga

Also called: Yoga school, Yoga darshana · Topic: The Vedic Age · NCERT: Class 6, Ch 7 "India's Cultural Roots"; Class 7, Ch 6 "The Age of Reorganisation"

Meaning

Yoga is a school of thought that grew out of the Vedas early in the 1st millennium BCE. It gives the methods, or practices, by which a person can realise brahman (the one divine essence of everything) inside their own mind and awareness. Vedanta explains what is true, and Yoga shows how to experience it. Later, Patañjali organised Yoga in the Yoga Sūtras [6]. It became one of the six classical darśhanas (schools of Indian philosophy) and is still practised around the world today [8].

Explanation

Background: where Yoga came from

• The Upanishads changed the focus of Vedic religion. They are the last part of the Vedic texts and were composed c. 700–500 BCE [2].
• Older Vedic religion was about doing sacrifices correctly.

• The Upanishads said that knowledge is the path [2].

• They gave Yoga its main ideas:

• Ātman: the Self, the divine essence inside every being.
• Brahman (also called tat, "that"): the one essence of all life, nature and the universe.

• Ātman = brahman. The Self inside you is the same as the essence of everything [5].

• This raised a practical question: if brahman is already inside you, how do you actually experience it? Yoga's answer was a set of inner practices.

• The training already existed. The holistic education of the gurukula (where the pupil lived in the teacher's home) included yoga, meditation and service to the guru, alongside the Vedas, logic and medicine.
• The renunciant trend also helped. Around the middle of the 1st millennium BCE, many people left home to search for truth: parivrājaka (wanderer), bhikṣhu (one who lives on alms) and śhramaṇa (one who strives). They needed disciplines for the body and mind [4].

How Yoga is related to Vedanta

• Vedanta ("the end of the Veda") is the doctrine: everything is one divine essence, brahman.
• Yoga is the method: the practical steps for realising brahman in one's own consciousness.
• Together, these schools became the foundations of what we now call 'Hinduism'.
• NCERT prefers to call them 'schools of thought' rather than 'religions'. They were ways of thinking and practising, not separate, closed faiths.

Patañjali and the eight limbs

• Patañjali later collected the scattered practices into the Yoga Sūtras. The text is dated to c. 2nd century BCE, though some scholars place it in the 5th century CE [6].

• He set out an eightfold path called Aṣhṭāṅga Yoga ("eight-limbed yoga"), in this order [6][7]: 1. Yama: ethical restraints, or things one must not do. 2. Niyama: disciplines, or good habits one must keep. 3. Āsana: posture. 4. Prāṇāyāma: breath control. 5. Pratyāhāra: drawing the senses inward, away from outside objects. 6. Dhāraṇā: concentration, or fixing the mind on one point. 7. Dhyāna: meditation. 8. Samādhi: deep absorption, the final goal.

• How the path works: it begins with outward conduct (limbs 1–2), moves to the body and breath (3–4), and ends with training the mind (5–8).

• Philosophical base: the Yoga school is close to Sāṁkhya philosophy, but it adds a supreme lord, Īśhvara [7].

Results and legacy

• Yoga became one of the six classical darśhanas, the recognised schools of Indian philosophy.
• It is now recognised worldwide.
• On 11 December 2014, the UN declared 21 June as the International Day of Yoga in resolution 69/131 [8].
• India proposed it, and a record 175 member states co-sponsored it [8].

Time, place and evidence

• Period: Yoga grew out of the Vedas early in the 1st millennium BCE, in the later Vedic age. It was systematised later, in Patañjali's Yoga Sūtras (c. 2nd century BCE, or possibly 5th century CE) [6].
• Setting: this was a time of big change in north India. Older rural tribal society was giving way to towns and kingdoms. Groups of mystics, renouncers and forest-dwellers appeared across India [4].
• Key people:
• Patañjali, who codified Yoga [6].

• The Upanishadic teachers whose ideas Yoga puts into practice, such as Uddālaka Āruṇi (tat tvam asi, "You are That") and Yājñavalkya [3].

• How we know:

• The Upanishads (108 in the traditional list) give the ideas of ātman and brahman [2]. The Bṛihadāraṇyaka and Chhāndogya are the two most important [2][3].
• The Yoga Sūtras of Patañjali give the eight limbs [6][7].
• NCERT Class 6, Ch 7 "India's Cultural Roots" presents Yoga as one of the schools of thought that grew out of the Vedas.

• UN resolution 69/131 (2014) is the official record for the International Day of Yoga [8].

• Note on dates: the Upanishads are dated c. 700–500 BCE [2], and the Bṛihadāraṇyaka c. 10th–5th century BCE [3]. These are ranges, so dates for early Yoga are also approximate.

Don't confuse with

• Vedanta: Vedanta is the doctrine (all is one brahman). Yoga is the method (practice to realise brahman in one's consciousness).
• Sāṁkhya: Yoga is close to Sāṁkhya philosophy, but Yoga adds a supreme lord, Īśhvara [7].
• Yama (the first limb) vs Yama (god of death): in Aṣhṭāṅga Yoga, yama means ethical restraints. Yama the god of death is the one Nachiketa questions in the Katha Upaniṣhad.
• Āsana vs Yoga: āsana (posture) is only one of the eight limbs. The final goal of Patañjali's Yoga is samādhi (deep absorption), not physical exercise.

Prelims Hooks

• Yoga Sūtras: author Patañjali. Dated c. 2nd century BCE, though some scholars say 5th century CE [6].
• Aṣhṭāṅga Yoga has eight limbs, in this order: yama → niyama → āsana → prāṇāyāma → pratyāhāra → dhāraṇā → dhyāna → samādhi [6][7]. Trap: an option that says dhyāna is the final limb is wrong. The last limb is samādhi.
• Pratyāhāra = drawing the senses inward. Dhāraṇā = concentration. Dhyāna = meditation.
• The Yoga school is close to Sāṁkhya, but adds Īśhvara (a supreme lord) [7].
• Vedanta = doctrine; Yoga = method. Both grew out of the Vedas early in the 1st millennium BCE.
• International Day of Yoga = 21 June. The UN declared it on 11 December 2014 (resolution 69/131), with 175 co-sponsors [8].

Mains Points

• From idea to practice. The Upanishads moved Vedic religion from ritual to knowledge [2], and Yoga turned that knowledge into a discipline anyone could follow.
• Use this to show that later Vedic thought was practical as well as speculative.

• It worked through ethics, the body, the breath and the mind.

• Continuity within the Vedic tradition. Yoga, the vānaprastha and saṁnyāsa stages [9][10], and the śhramaṇa movement all grew out of the same churn of the mid-1st millennium BCE.

• This supports the view that new ideas developed from inside the Vedic world, not only as a revolt against it.

• Link this to urbanisation and the rise of kingdoms [4].

• Living heritage and soft power. Yoga links ancient Indian thought to present-day global culture.

• The UN's International Day of Yoga (2014), proposed by India and backed by a record 175 co-sponsors [8], is a strong example for GS-I questions on the continuity of Indian culture.

Related concepts

• Upanishads
• Brihadaranyaka Upanishad
• Chandogya Upanishad
• Uddalaka Aruni
• Tat tvam asi
• Katha Upanishad
• Nachiketa
• Mundaka Upanishad
• Satyameva Jayate
• Atman

Read more

• Upanishadic thought: Vedanta, Yoga and the questioning spirit