Yoga is not just therapy but it has a deep spiritual motive.

It is to
realize the self and thereafter the God. Yoga is Universal and is for
all, young, children, adults and old alike. There are several
precautions a practitioner should take before doing Yoga. Most
important is that stomach should be empty for atleast 3 hours
before doing yoga. It is a misconception that for doing yoga, one
must be very flexible like a rubber. Every person must perform the
postures as per their capacity and without any comparison.

Yoga is derived from the Sanskrit word Yuj. There are three
meanings of Yuj Dhatu i.e. Joining of Individual soul and
Universal soul, achieving Samadhi or absorption and Censuring of
the thoughts.

In Ancient period, the concept of yoga was mixed in vedas,

brahma sutras, Upanishads and Bhagwad Gita. It was Sage
Patanjali himself, who conceptualized and composed the yog
sutras into 4 chapters containing 195/196 sutras. He basically
helped to standardise the knowledge and compiled it into one text.
He specifically mentioned three important entities in Universe
namely, purusha, prakriti and Ishwara. Prakriti is composed of 5
great elements (Fire, earth, water, space and ether). Purusha,
unlike in modern day colloquial Hindi doesn’t mean male or gent.
It means individual consciousness/atma. Just like eyes by itself
cannot see but the consciousness behind the eyes sees through the
eyes. A dead person’s body, even though eyes are intact but cannot
see as their is no consciousness. Relation of prakriti and purusha
can be understood by the example of a Man who has no eyes (thus
no direction/purpose) carrying a man who has no legs (thus no
motion) on his shoulders to navigate through the world. With both
coming together, their is motion as well as direction/purpose.
Without purusha, prakriti cannot function. Purusha on the other
hand is an essence of Ishwara. Ishwara is the one God who is
formless, who has three qualities namely, omnipresent (sarvatra),
omniscient (sarvajna) and omnipotent (sarvashakta). He controls
all the purushas, their activities, achievements, birth and death.
Ishwara can be compared like a spider, who creates the Universe
like web and sustains it for some time and then swallows it or ends
it. Patanjali says “tasya vachaka Pranavaha”, means Ishwara is
denoted by the symbol OM. He also encourages Sadhaka’s to
surrender to the almighty all their fruits. Patanjali tells that
Sadhaka must realize their true self different from body-mind
complex by the 8-fold tools and slowly remove the past sanskaras
and progress towards achieving mukti from the endless birth and
death cycle. This is because all our problems starts with this
pseudo or false entity with our body-mind complex as I, me &
myself. Once this jinx breaks we are free.

Sage Patanjali who wrote patanjali yog sutras had mentioned

about Ashtanga yoga or 8-fold path to achieve the Samadhi or
absorption. They are Yama, Niyama, Asana, Pranayama,
Pratyahara, Dharana, Dhyana and Samadhi. Yama’s are social
discipline’s. They are 5 in number namely, Ahimsa (Non-
violence), Satya (Truthfulness), Asteya (Non-stealing),
Brahmacharya (celibacy), Aparigraha (non-possessiveness).
Niyamas are individual discipline. They are also 5 in number
namely, Shoucha (Purity), Santosha (contentment), Tapas
(austerity), Svyadhyaya (study of scriptures), Ishwara Pranidhana
(surrendering to god). Yama and niyama must be practiced at
Manasa, Vacha and KarmaNa levels compulsarily. If our lips say
good but inner mind think bad, then it is violation of Yama &
Niyama. Asana are the body postures which we do to keep body
healthy and stable. Most asana’s are inspired from animal
kingdom and nature. Asana’s are generally done either standing,
sitting, supine, prone, inverted and balancing. There is another
category also as meditative, cultural (Involving spine) and
relaxative. As per patanjali, asana must be sthira (stable), Sukha
(giving happiness). Further asana must be done as per one’s
individual capacity only as overstraining may lead to injury and is
not recommended. Asana is done with an aim to perfect any
posture so that Sadhaka or practitioner can stay longer and achieve
samadhi by God’s grace. Pranayama means control of vital breath
or prana to regulate the mind. This is because breath has a direct
link with the mind. If the mind is disturbed so is the breath.
Pratyahara means to regulate the senses from the sense objects.
Where queen bee goes, the honey bees follow. Likewise wherever
senses goes, the mind follows. For Instance due to a weak mind,
even though a person is not hungry, he eats just for the taste on the
tongue. He cannot control his mind by the sight or smell of
delicious food even though his stomach is full. Dharana means
intense concentration on any object, internally or externally.
Dhyana means meditation. Samadhi means absorption. Patanjali
defines Yoga as Chitta Vritti nirodhaha means ceasing
modifications of mind is yoga.