What is Yoga?

Is it exercise? Is it meditation? Is it spiritual?

To quote Wikipedia,

“Yoga is a group of physical, mental, and spiritual practices or disciplines which originated in ancient India”

The origins of yoga have been speculated to date back to pre-Vedic Indian traditions.Yoga gurus from India later introduced yoga to the West.Yoga in Indian traditions, however, is more than physical exercise; it has a meditative and spiritual core.

In Sanskrit, the word yoga comes from the root ‘yuj’ which means “to add”, “to join”, “to unite”, or “to attach” in its most common senses.

 

Sadhguru defines yoga into four parts. These are the only four realities in your life: body, mind, emotion, and energy. Whatever you wish to do, you can only do it with your body, your mind, your emotions or your energy. If you use your emotions and try to reach the ultimate, we call this bhakti yoga. That means the path of devotion. If you use your intelligence and try to reach the ultimate, we call this gnana yoga. That means the path of intelligence. If you use your body, or physical action to reach the ultimate, we call this karma yoga. That means the path of action. If you transform your energies and try to reach the ultimate, we call this kriya yoga. That means internal action.