What is yoga?

Yoga is as an art, a science and a spiritual practice. It is an ancient practice derived from a system of life philosophy and lifestyle and whose original purpose was to attain higher states of consciousness.

Yoga is first mentioned in ancient texts called the Vedas and evidence of yoga positions in sculptures goes back as far as 3000BC. The esoteric aspect of yoga is embraced directly in the practice of Tantric Yoga as espoused by the system of Kundalini Yoga and breathwork yoga as taught by the guru Gitananda. These latter two systems are grounded in the concepts of the energy system of our body and brain and their practices are set up to directly catalyze our subtle energy.

All systems of yoga enhance and stimulate our subtle energies and this starts with the cleansing practices of posture work which lead to the practices of breathing.

No single teacher can be described as the originator of yoga, but the first person believed to have systematized yoga into a practice of wisdom, written in the form of ‘sutras’ (aphorisms) was Patanjali, an academic and grammarian, who is sometimes called “the father of yoga”. These aphorisms describe how we can reach our full and personal potential through the practice of yoga as a physical and lifestyle practice. Until he wrote this, yoga was taught orally to the student in an important relationship of learning. This oral tradition still happens as we attend our classes and learn through practising the postures each week, each month and so on.

The practice of yoga can be discussed and written about forever but it is in the practice itself that we learn and understand the postures.

Pattabhi Jois stated that yoga is “99% practice and 1% theory” – this is a good maxim to practice by!

Therefore, the purpose of the oral tradition of learning is to embody the postures and to feel how the postures affect our body and mind so that we get to know how best to use the postures for what we need at any given time.

ˆˆ Back to top