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 oga, from the Sanskrit YUG meaning to join two or more things. Union. Body, breath, mind. The goal is to quiet the distractions of the mind. Yoga has its origins in the Vedas, and is a 5,000 year old "holistic" approach to well being.
According to the yoga sutra, whatever happens to the mind and causes a change in it, affects the whole person including the body and all experience on the physical level.
Hatha, (pronounced Hatá ha = sun and tha = moon) is the physical culture of yoga using postures called asanas. In the western world, it is what most people think of when they hear the word yoga, although hatha yoga is only one of eight "limbs" of yoga.
Yoga Sutras consit of 195 aphorisms, which are considered to be the most condensed form of knowledge. Until about 3000 AD, the sutras were handed down by oral tradition by the Indian Brahman class.
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Patanjali, was the first person known to write the sutras (in Sanskrit).
Later there were many translations of his work, among them are:
Hari Hariharananda Aranya
Tamini — associated with Madam Blavatsky and the Theosophical Society, a world-wide eclectic spiritual movement based largely on Brahman and Buddhist teachings. (Founded in New York in 1875.)
Desikachar, The Heart of Yoga
Barbara Stoler Miller, Yoga discipline of Freedom
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