---
type: Concept
title: "Yoga"
description: "The complete eight-limbed science of union — not stretching, not exercise, not wellness."
reception_note: "Present yoga as a discipline of mind whose home text is the Yoga Sutra, not as postural fitness; the exercise framing is a documented 20th-century export chain (Vivekananda 1896 -> physical culture -> global fitness) addressed in the not: field and Error Genealogy."
tags:
  - sadhana
  - practice
  - Patanjali
  - non-translatable
darshana:
  - Pātañjala Yoga
not:
  - term: "Exercise"
    why: "Reduces an eight-limbed science to physical activity; āsana is one part of one limb."
    instead: "Keep Yoga untranslated; gloss as the eight-limbed science of union."
  - term: "Stretching"
    why: "Names a bodily movement; Yoga is chitta-vṛtti-nirodha, the cessation of mental modifications."
  - term: "Wellness practice"
    why: "A modern lifestyle category; Yoga aims at union with the source, not at wellbeing as an end."
  - term: "Meditation (generic)"
    why: "Meditation is one stage (Dhyāna, the seventh limb), not the whole system."
  - term: "Workout"
    why: "A fitness goal; Yoga's goal is liberation, with the body as foundation, not target."
related:
  - /concepts/dhyana.md
  - /concepts/samadhi.md
  - /concepts/prana.md
  - /concepts/chitta.md
  - /concepts/moksha.md
  - /concepts/chakra.md
  - /concepts/dharma.md
  - /concepts/mantra.md
  - /concepts/vairagya.md
timestamp: "2026-06-18"
okf_version: "0.2"
---

# Yoga

**Not:** Exercise, Stretching, Wellness practice, Meditation (generic), Workout

## What It Actually Means

Yoga is defined by Patañjali in the Yoga Sūtras (1.2) as *chitta-vṛtti-nirodha* — the cessation of the modifications of [Chitta](/concepts/chitta.md). It is the complete science of yoking individual consciousness to its source in [Brahman](/concepts/brahman.md).

The complete system is *Aṣṭāṅga Yoga* — eight limbs progressing from outer ethical discipline inward to pure consciousness:

| # | Limb | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | **Yama** | 5 Moral Restraints — ethical conduct toward others |
| 2 | **Niyama** | 5 Ethical Observances — inner discipline and self-cultivation |
| 3 | **Āsana** | Postures — physical stability as foundation for inner work |
| 4 | **Prāṇāyāma** | Control of Prāṇa — not merely "breathing exercises" |
| 5 | **Pratyāhāra** | Withdrawal of the Senses — turning attention inward |
| 6 | **Dhāraṇā** | Fixing Consciousness on One Object — concentration |
| 7 | **Dhyāna** | Unbroken Flow of Attention on One Object — [Meditation](/concepts/dhyana.md) |
| 8 | **Samādhi** | No Distinction between Object and Subject — unified consciousness |

What the global fitness industry calls "yoga" is one-eighth of one limb (āsana) — the physical postures — stripped of the seven other limbs and the entire cosmological framework.

The 3-step digestion: (1) Yoga was SEPARATED from Vedānta, [Karma](/concepts/karma.md), and the dharmic worldview. (2) Its context was SCRUBBED — secularized into "stretching and wellness." (3) It was RE-CONTEXTUALIZED as a Western fitness practice, with dharmic sources erased.

## Why the Substitutes Fail

Every English substitute reduces an eight-limbed science to one of its minor physical components. Calling Yoga "exercise" is like calling a PhD program "reading" — technically one activity occurs within it, but the reduction destroys the meaning.

## Audience Metaphor

Imagine a smartphone. The global fitness industry took the flashlight app, called it "the phone," and sells courses on how to use it — while ignoring the operating system, the processor, the network, and every other app. That flashlight app is āsana. The full phone is Yoga.

## Citations

1. [Yoga Sūtras of Patañjali](/references/yoga-sutras.md) (complete text)
2. [Bhagavad Gītā](/references/bhagavad-gita.md) chapters 2, 3, 6, 12, 18
3. Haṭha Yoga Pradīpikā

## Error Genealogy

- Yoga-as-postural-exercise traces from Vivekananda's *Raja Yoga* (1896, sidelining āsana) → early-20th-century international physical culture → Krishnamacharya's Mysore synthesis (1930s) → global export as fitness (Singleton, *Yoga Body*, 2010). See [G5 — Yoga = postural exercise](../../../GENEALOGIES.md) in the repository root for the full chain and sources.
