Yoga is about 5,000 years old magical thing. But according to some investigators it might be 10,000 years old. We can imagine from this time period that yoga is there from the time of starting of human life. When there were no rules of kings or may be even older that. The history of yoga is divided into four major categories. Let’s discuss those four periods here to know more about the yoga.
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Pre classical period
First of all yoga was discovered in north India at Indus-Sarasvati civilization. It was first written in the Rig Veda. Vedas are the kind of spiritual books of India with lots of songs and mantras. There are mostly used by the Brahmins. Later on Brahmins and Rishis start using yoga. They start practicing the yoga and also write the Upanishads. That contains huge 2000 scriptures.
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Classical yoga
The pre classical period of yoga was kind a mess. Everyone was giving their own opinion about the yoga and it’s a mishmash. But in the classical period it got the first well systematic definition by the Pantanjali Yog Sutras. They give the path of classical yoga that is also known as Raja Yoga. They start practicing the yoga with eight limbed path. There were steps which take the human toward enlightenment that is also known as Samadhi. Patanjali is the father of yoga and still it is doing very well in modern type of yoga.
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Pre classical period
After practicing yoga for centuries Patanjali stops teaching by taking help of Vedas. Instead using the yoga to take human to enlightenment. They discover a special Tantra yoga that is used to clear our body and remove all the toxicity from our body as well a soul. Now they no more need and Vedas for Samadhi but yoga only. It is very much related to West yoga that is Hatha yoga.
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Modern yoga period
Then begins the modern period of the Yoga. Now the yoga master of India start going to whole world to create awareness in people about the yoga. It all starts in late 1800’s and early 1900’s. Swami Vivekananda went to Chicago to deliver his lecture on yoga. Hatha yoga start getting attention of people from all over the world. The yogis were also promoting it a lot. Krishchnamcharya in 1924 opens his first yoga school in Mysore. There is an Indian author who writes about 200 books on yoga.
These are the four period of history of yoga. It is very well clear that yoga originates from our spiritual books Vedas. And it was practice to clean the impurities from our body. It means that yoga is really a divine exercise. It can give us mental as well as physical benefits unlike some other exercise. So if you ever feel low in your life start practicing yoga on regular basis. It will heal your mind as well as body.