The History of Yoga

The word Yoga has its origin from the Asians. It can be traced in three Asian Religions although it means different things to all of them. The three religions include Hinduism, Buddhism and Jainism. In Jainism, the word Yoga is used in the reference of all the collective activities such as the mental, physical and verbal. In Hinduism, the word is used in the reference of one of the Orthodox schools of Hindu Philosophy.

Yoga is associated with the physical and mental disciplines which traditionally originated from India. Yoga is alleged to have originated from Pakistan due to the discovery of several seals. These seals, which were discovered, at the Indus Valley Civilization depict figures which are in positions that resemble Yoga's form of ritual discipline and meditation pose thus alluding to the fact that Yoga originated from Pakistan. Yoga has three basic steps which include the coming into pose, maintenance of the pose and finally, releasing the pose (Sparrowe, 2008).

Pantajali is honored with the translation of Yoga Sutras. Besides coming up with his Raja Yoga, he developed the eight-fold path of Yoga which includes the five Yamas and five Niyamas. The Yamas consists of positively expressed guidelines for the Yogi. The Niyamas comprise of the things the Yogi is supposed to observe towards god. The five Niyamas include contentment, study, purity, surrender and austerity (Iyengar, 2007).

Research has established that there are several issues, which are, health wise beneficially from Yoga. Yoga has been established to help in the cure of diseases such as back pain, improvement of health of a cancer patient and depression. The practitioners argue that Yoga is important to the health of human beings as it helps in prevention of certain diseases as it keeps the energy meridians open. It also helps in the flowing of life energy (Sparrowe, 2008).

In conclusion, the limb Yoga is a good shield from opportunistic diseases as it helps in the improvement of a person's concentration. It also improves a person's physical health. Its translation from the Sutras is attributed to Pantajali who also developed several steps under his Raja Yoga. Despite all the benefits associated with Yoga, there have also been some reported injuries.