Yoga as exercise
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Yoga as exercise is a physical activity consisting mainly of postures, often connected by flowing sequences, sometimes accompanied by breathing exercises, and frequently ending with relaxation lying d
Women in an outdoor yoga community class, Texas, 2010
Yoga was originally a spiritual practice based on meditation. Statue from Java, 13th century.
Postures in Niels Bukh's 1924 Primary Gymnastics resembling Parighasana, Parsvottanasana, and Navasana, supporting the suggestion that Krishnamacharya derived some of his asanas from the gymnastics culture of his time
"The father of modern yoga" Krishnamacharya teaching yoga in Mysore, 1930s
Yoga
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Yoga is a group of physical, mental, and spiritual practices or disciplines that originated with its own philosophy in ancient India, aimed at controlling body and mind to attain liberation, as practi
Statue of Shiva performing yoga in the lotus position
A statue of Patanjali, author of the Yoga Sutras of Patanjali, meditating in the lotus position
The Pashupati seal from the Indus Valley Civilisation (3300 BCE) shows a seated figure, surrounded by animals, in a posture that was thought by 20th century scholars to be Mulabandhasana. This is rejected by more recent scholars.
Bas-relief in Borobudur of the Buddha becoming a wandering hermit instead of a warrior