What is Yoga?

Yoga. Many people look at yoga as a form of physical exercise or contorted movements, but it is much more than that. Before we get started, let's talk about yoga and how it was introduced. Yoga from the Hindu tradition is a wide set of practices that encompass many aspects of life. Swami Vivekananda once said, " Each soul is potentially divine. The goal is to manifest this divinity by controlling nature, external and internal. Do this either by work, or worship, or psychic control, or philosophy - by one, or more, or all of these - and be free." Swami Vivekananda was a famous Hindu monk who was born in Kolkata, India. He came to the United States in 1893 and gave a famous speech at the Parliament of World Religions in Chicago. If we take a look at the first sentence of his quote, it states "Each soul is potentially divine." In this case, the soul translates to "Atman", which means pure consciousness.  Swami Vivekananda thinks the goal of human existence is to manifest the divinity from within.

What Benefits do we get from doing yoga? Yoga can help systematically calm one's mind, give us higher states of consciousness and happiness, and manifest the divinity from oneself. There are four different types of Yoga which include: 

1. Karma Yoga: Path of selfless action/service.
2. Bhakti Yoga: Path of devotion.
3. Raja Yoga: Path of Meditation
4. Jnana Yoga: Path of knowledge. 

Yoga helps us to be free. It rids us of impulsiveness, selfish desires, anger, fear, pain, and anxiety. It lets us awaken to see reality and lead a peaceful life.