Yoga
Yoga in its most basic sense means a “yoking” or “uniting.” In religious discourse, it refers to the uniting of the self with God. Most of us are familiar with hatha yoga, which makes use of physical exercises to promote the health of the body.
As a form of jnana marga, Yoga—often called Raja (“Royal”) Yoga—employs both physical and mental techniques in order to make liberation from samsara possible.By the fourth century ce, the principles and techniques of Raja Yoga had been systematized in the Yoga Sutras of Patanjali. The Yoga Sutras consist of 196 instructional sayings about the moral, physical, and mental conditions and techniques that can enable the individual to achieve moksha. These are evident in the eight steps through which practitioners move in their quest for liberation. The first two steps have to do with moral preparation. Prohibitions against harming other beings, lying, stealing, sexual irresponsibility, and greed must be observed. In addition, the five virtues of cleanliness, contentment, discipline, studiousness, and devotion to a god must be practiced. The next three steps involve preparation of the body. The practitioner learns postures (especially the lotus position) that promote comfort and alertness and the ability to breathe in rhythmic patterns that calm the body. Once these ends have been achieved, it becomes possible to withdraw the senses so that they no longer demand the mind’s attention. The next two steps prepare the mind for liberation. By focusing its attention on a single thing, all other particulars fade away. All that remains is to remove this single object of attention from the mind’s awareness. This brings the practitioner to the eighth step, which is also the ultimate goal: samadhi, a state in which one’s awareness is of the self as Brahman.
A Hindu ascetic sits in the lotus position, a prominent bodily posture for the practice of yoga.