Monday, July 16, 2007

Yoga

Yoga is one of the six schools of Hindu philosophy, focusing on meditation as a trail to self-knowledge and freedom. Yoga is seen as a means to mutually physiological and spiritual mastery. Outside India, Yoga has become mainly related with the practice of asanas of Hatha Yoga, although it has influenced the whole dharmic religions family and other spiritual practices throughout the world

5,000 year old carvings from the Indus Valley Civilization represent a figure that archaeologists think represents a yogi sitting in meditation posture. The sitting in a conventional cross-legged yoga pose with its hands resting on its knees. The explorer of the seal, archaeologist Sir John Marshall, named the figure Shiva Pashupati.

A seal from the Indus Valley Civilization, The first known written reference to yoga is in the Rig Veda, likely by the western scholars to be at least 3,500 years old. The Upanishads, Bhagavad-Gita, and the Yoga Sutras of Patanjali also converse the concepts and teachings of yoga.