What is Yoga:
Yoga is the alignment of Body, Mind and spirit and the experience of unity with the rest of cosmic creation, in other words the divine, in one wholeness.
It is an ancient philosophy and science (acquisition of knowledge based on observation, experience and intellectual engagement) that aims at acquiring the best state of body, mind and spirit through mental, spiritual and physical exercises. The ethical codes (Yamas and Niyamas) that form the basis of yoga align with the moral codes accepted by all community ideologies and philosophical believes in the human history that safeguard and promote individual and societal well-being, whether religious or not.
The word Yoga is first mentioned in the oldest sacred Hindu text, the Rig Veda, dated around the middle of the 2nd millennium BCE. It derives from ‘yuj’ = ‘to yoke’ and it symbolically refers to the yoking of the Self in the rays of spiritual Dawn, the synchronization of thoughts or mind activity with Divine truth or else, Cosmic reality. Yoga means union, completion, realization. With roots well over 3500 years ago, the oral tradition of the Vedas seems to have been transcribed into a somewhat crystalized text form between 800-600 BCE (quite like the Homeric poems). Yoga focuses on the union of the self (spirit, body and mind) as well as the union of the individual self with the universal Self. Aiming at the final liberation from the restrictions of a particular, time & space-bonded self, it is a journey towards self-awareness and self-realisation that brings wholeness and contentment. In short, yoga is a philosophical as well as experiential path based on pre-Vedic traditions (Bronze Age), that cleanses body and mind, lifts the spirit, and restores physical, psychological and mental health.
The school of Vedanda (6th daarshana) summarises wisdom acquired by the Vedas and incorporates views from the other 5 darshanas (schools of thought in Hindu philosophy). It sees 4 different paths to approach the goal of yoga depending on the nature of the human being: Jnana yoga, Bhakti yoga, Karma yoga & Raja yoga, which even though distinct paths, they are also interconnected and were taught as 1 yoga by the great Gurus of the revival of yoga (end of 19th century in India and already in the 1st half of the 20th century by their students who travelled abroad in order to spread the message of yoga). Raja (or Royal) yoga is the scientific approach followed by most Gurus who travelled in the west and involves 8 steps or limbs (this is why it is also called Ashtanga yoga, Asthanga = 8; it should not be equated with K.P. Jois’s system known as Ashtanga Vinyasa yoga). Different names given to yoga may be linked to different stages of Raja yoga (e.g limbs 3 & 4 are Hatha yoga), variations in focus (kundalini yoga, laya yoga, mantra yoga) as well as the different styles of Raja or Hatha yoga developed by the different students of the great Gurus of the turn of the 20th century (e.g. Sivananda yoga, Kriya yoga, Ashtanga Vinyasa yoga, Iyengar yoga, Kundalini yoga etc).