Introduction to Yoga
THOUSANDS of years ago, Yoga has been referred to as eternal and archaic, besides being glorified as the cream of Indian culture without the knowledge of which even gods could not be gods. Naturally, for those interested in culture, this fact should be sufficient to arouse interest about what Yoga really is.
It has been emphasized that true knowledge of Yoga is not possible without its practice. Consequently, those who study its ideology through its metaphysics are unqualified to evaluate it, It is only when yoga ideology is translated into practice through its own technology that knowledge about Yoga is regarded as genuine.
The jargon of yoga philosophy, thanks to the growth of over a hundred schools, have so complicated the basic yoga ideology that only a very few are able to apprehend the true spirit of Yoga.
Until the last century, Yoga thus touched only the periphery of social life without being able to enter it. Prejudice, misgiving, false notion and calumny reduced Yoga to a passive mystery. That basic Yoga possesses tremendous sociological potentials for the good of humanity needed ex- position. Reorientation of Yoga at both the levels ideological and technological was thus found to be long overdue to augment the benefits of its comprehensive scientific cum cultural values for the greatest happiness of the greatest number.