What is yoga and where it begins?

21st June has been declared as International yoga day by United Nations. Among many other things, the declaration of this day has provided an opportunity to know more about various aspects and significance of yoga.

International Yoga Day is celebrated on June 21 of every year. This wonderful day was started by Indian Prime Minister, Narendra Modi to create a new beginning and spreading awareness about yoga.
The two main goals of this day are to help people discover the power of yoga and to create a world without violence.
The first International Yoga Day was celebrated in India with 35,000 participants in the capital city New Delhi.
The second International Yoga Day was celebrated in over 110 countries across the world. There were 265 events held in the United States alone. The International Day of Yoga is observed by many countries in Asia, Europe, Africa, and Australia.
On the day of yoga, many people do a variety of yoga poses like Surya Namaskar (sun salutation) and Pranayama (breathing exercises).
This day definitely shows how yoga has become an international trend for health benefits and for living a better lifestyle.

International yoga day is on 21 June. In this occasion we are review the history of Yoga and how important Yoga can be in our daily life.

The history of yoga

A lot of people imagine the history of yoga as a way to be in touch with your body, become fitter and more flexible, while others think it is a way of getting closer to yourself or a spiritual path. There are many theories about the origins of yoga. Here, we will try to cover some of them and give you a better understanding of where this amazing art comes from.
The ancient Sanskrit texts were written at a time when nobody was interested in writing about how yoga evolved or originated from. The texts you can find about this issue are based on the knowledge that was transferred orally from generation to generation. But today there are some documents that suggest an idea of how yoga began and what it means for people.
The first record we have about yoga is in the Upanishads, a part of the Vedic literature, written around 700 BC text which refers to "Yoga" as "Yoga-Kshetra".

Yoga has become a popular practice and has also been commercialized. It is often performed in a studio, in front of an instructor, while wearing special clothing designed for yoga.
In the Indian religious tradition, yoga is one of the six India darshanas, or “points of view" on how to achieve the highest good. Historically, the origins of yoga can be traced back to pre-Vedic Indian traditions, though it is unclear exactly when various ideas associated with yoga originated.
Yoga earliest text is likely the Yoga Sutras of Patanjali dating from first to second century CE. The sutras present a hierarchy of levels of existence (or “planes” or “layers") with yoga as the means for moving between the various planes. Yoga is therefore seen as a process for discerning the truth, meaning and purpose of one's existence and then living according to those insights.

Yoga is the name of an ancient Indian physical, mental, and spiritual practice or discipline. It is a part of the Hindu philosophy but is also widely practiced in other countries like China, Japan, Tibet, Korea etc.
The word yoga has origins in many languages like Sanskrit, Pali, Prakrit, and Hindi. It is derived from the Sanskrit root 'yuj' meaning to yoke or join together. The ultimate goal of the practice is to prepare oneself for enlightenment by first overcoming "mental obstacles" and then purifying one's soul through the eight-fold path.
In Sanskrit, Yoga means "union", "joining" or "integration". In Hindu philosophy, it is referred to as "the yoking", which refers to the mind's control over the body and senses as well as its ability to liberate one from the cycle of birth and death (samsara).