Practical aspects of Yoga

This chapter illustrates some of the physical, breathing and meditation exercises through which the Yoga method attempts to perfect the body and mind of a person. Scholars who have translated and commented on the Yoga Sutras of Patanjali have either completely ignored or given scanty importance to the practical aspects of yoga. This benign neglect has served the purposes of the popularizers of the Yoga method who, in their turn, have described the physical, breathing and meditation exercises without reference to their philosophical and religious foundations. However, in the Yoga Sutras, Patanjali devotes a major portion of Sadhanapada, to the description of the practical method called Ashtanga Yoga. Since An Introduction to Yoga Philosophy is written to meet the needs of an academic and student readership, it is not within the scope of the present text to elucidate all the major exercises.