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What is Yoga???

Yoga essentially is a way of life, an integrated means of synchronizing mind, spirit, and body. This system and its implementation originated in India, thousands of years ago and are now practiced universally.

Yoga has been gaining immense popularity due to the short-term as well as long-term benefits that it provides. Yoga addresses every system in the body and mind.
It offers various modes of effective physical therapy that can help alleviate painful conditions. Some examples are Arthritis, stiffness of neck, back and feet, improved blood circulation, constipation, increasing lung capacity, improving respiratory conditions, relieving insomnia, etc.

Asanas or postures comprise what is designated as Hatha Yoga. Practice of this helps in maintaining physical, mental and emotional health; one can be inducted here regardless of age or present physical condition. It can be done at one's own pace and there is no concept of competition with anybody else. It is practiced through various Asanas and Pranayams.

In Sanskrit, the term 'yoga' stands for 'union'. For all extant knowledge of yoga and its practices, such as yogasanas and pranayama, the entire credit goes to Maharishi Patanjali.

Patanjali systematized the various yogic practices and traditions of his times by encapsulating them in the form of aphorisms in his Yoga Sutra. In this momentous work, he describes the aim of yoga as knowledge of the self and outlines the eight steps or methods of achieving it. These are:

*	Yamas or eternal vows,
*	Niyamas or observances,
*	Yogasanas or yoga postures,
*	Pranayama or breath control exercises,
*	Pratyahara or withdrawal of the senses from distractions of the outside world,
*	Dharana or concentration on an object, place or subject,
*	Dhyana or the continuance of this concentration-meditation and
*	Samadhi or the ultimate stage of yoga meditation.

The collation of these eight steps is known as Patanjali's Ashtanga Yoga.

The central doctrine of Yoga philosophy is that nothing exists beyond the mind and its consciousness, which is the only ultimate reality. It believes that it is possible to reach this stage of self-realization through regular practice of certain yogic meditative processes and inculcate an inner sense of balanced calm and tranquility.

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