Yoga originated in India and is at least 5000 years old. Some would however put it to belong to much older times. Whatever may be the age of Yoga, I would say ‘Yoga is a God sent gift to humankind through ancient Hindu sages’.
Sage Patanjali wrote famous Yoga Sutras, which became the foundational text for Yoga and Swami Vivekananda was the first sage to take this wisdom world over in modern times. There are eight types of main yogas namely, Bhakti Yoga, Karma Yoga, Jnana Yoga, Raja Yoga, Mantra Yoga, Laya Yoga, Tantra Yoga and Hatha Yoga. The eight limbs or steps for Yoga are Yama, Niyama, Asana, Pranayama, Pratyahara, Dharana, Dhyana and Samadhi.
Yoga Asanas and Pranayama are the most practiced now a days. Health benefits by practicing yoga are immense. Millions of people irrespective of religion, sect or country, are practicing Yoga and getting benefited. There are several instances, where incurable ailments like cancer, migraine, asthma, Hypertension..etc are cured by yoga practice. Yoga meditation is a well-known remedy for stress.
The credit for bringing the Yoga to masses goes to many Gurus like Iyyengar, Bikram Chowdary, Swami Ramdev, to name a few. Swami Ramdev’s training camps on Yoga particularly became very popular amongst millions of people in India and the west. Those who cannot attend his camps, watch him on Aastha TV channel and start doing self practice. One would be surprised to learn, from watching his programs, that thousands of people are cured of many chronic illnesses by practicing Pranayama regularly. As per him, Pranayama especially Kapalbati and Anuloma-Viloma are very useful even for weight loss. I think this is the positive way of loosing weight with all side benefits of Yoga. I would say “Swami Ramdev is in fact bringing a Yoga revolution to the modern world”.
Yoga meditation techniques are proving beneficial to reduce stress and related problems. Transcendental Meditation (TM) as preached by Maharshi Mahesh Yogi is helping thousands of people to over come stress and stress related disorders. Scientific Research on Transcendental Meditation shows (t-m.org.uk) that TM gives rise to deep rest by marked reductions in metabolic activity, increased orderliness, integration of brain functioning and increased cerebral blood flow. This is just opposite to what happens when one is under stress.
It is also interesting to note that the increasing popularity of Yoga is disturbing many religious groups who have vested interests in denigrating Hinduism. Little research on Google will take you to these sites and to some strange “Christian Yoga” pages. It is appropriate to mention here that the Yoga was derided and condemned for centuries by these groups in India during British Raj. No surprise that when Madhya Pradesh government wanted to make Yoga part of the school curriculum last year, there was outcry by the schools run by these groups. Yoga’s popularity is growing world over and it is unfortunate that it is still finding detractors in it’s homeland. There were also several unsuccessful attempts by some political groups in India to defame Swami Ramdev’s ayurvedic medicines. It is high time these people realize that even though Yoga is a Hindu practice, it helps all irrespective of their faith. Yoga is more useful and relevant today than it was any time before in human history because of the present day sedentary life style.
I bow to the lotus feet of those great sages who gave us this wisdom. Biographies of some of these sages can be found on this site at here. You can also find here good Youtube videos on Yoga asanas and Pranayama.