yoga 2

Yoga (/ˈjoʊɡə/;^[1] Sanskrit: योग;  pronunciation) is a group of physical, mental, and spiritual practices or disciplines which originated in ancient India. Yoga is one of the six orthodox schools of Hindu philosophical traditions.^[2] [3] There is a broad variety of yoga schools, practices, and goals^[4] in Hinduism, Buddhism, and Jainism.^[5][6][7] Among the best-known types of yoga are Hatha yoga and Rāja yoga.^[8]

The origins of yoga have been speculated to date back to pre-Vedic Indian traditions; it is mentioned in the Rigveda,^{[note 1]} but most likely developed around the sixth and fifth centuries BCE,^[10] in ancient India's ascetic and śramaṇa movements.^{[11][note 2]}The chronology of earliest texts describing yoga-practices is unclear, varyingly credited to Upanishads.^[12] The Yoga Sutras of Patanjali date from the first half of the 1st millennium CE,^[13][14] but only gained prominence in the West in the 20th century.^[15]Hatha yoga texts emerged around the 11th century with origins in tantra.^[16][17]

Yoga gurus from India later introduced yoga to the West,^[18] following the success of Swami Vivekananda in the late 19th and early 20th century.^[18] In the 1980s, yoga became popular as a system of physical exercise across the Western world.^[17] Yoga in Indian traditions, however, is more than physical exercise; it has a meditative and spiritual core.^[19] One of the six major orthodox schools of Hinduism is also called Yoga, which has its own epistemology and metaphysics, and is closely related to Hindu Samkhya philosophy.^[20]

Many studies have tried to determine the effectiveness of yoga as a complementary intervention for cancer, schizophrenia, asthma, and heart disease.^[21][22] The results of these studies have been mixed and inconclusive.^[21][22] On December 1, 2016, yoga was listed by UNESCO as an intangible cultural heritage.^[23]