1. What does the word ‘yoga’ mean?

Literally, ‘yoga’ in Sanskrit is equivalent to the English word ‘yoke’. (According to the Sanskrit to English dictionary—Oxford University Press (1899): yoga = the act or process of having union with, the act of: yoking, joining, or harnessing (from yuj: ‘to join or conjoin’); page 856.

The word ‘yoke’ is ancient and has pre-Sanskrit origins. Sanskrit belongs to the broadly defined Proto-Indo-European family of languages, with its roots in the Indo-Aryan language branch, which had their origins in Central Russia and spread through southern migration over millennium into Eastern Iran. Once in ancient Iran, the Indo-Aryan language underwent linguistic change and morphed over several hundred years into a proto Vedic Sanskrit language. From there, ongoing migration Eastward during the first half of the 2nd millennium BCE carried Sanskrit into North West India. In India with the rise of the Vedic religions, Vedic Sanskrit was systematised into classical or modern Sanskrit.

Evidence of the earliest use of a ‘yoke’ to bind animals to pull ploughs or carriages has been linked to the existence of the remains of carriages with traces and wooden yokes that have been found at sites across the Euro-Asia region. These date to 4000 BCE. All 445 Indo-European languages have variations of the word ‘yoke’, which in later years in Indian Sanskrit became the word ‘yoga’. (Examples of ‘yoke’ in Proto-Indo-European languages are: yugóm (yoke), from root yewg- (join, unite), and is cognate with: Russian (yarmo); German (Joch); French (joug); Spanish (yujo); Portuguese (Jugo); Latin (iugum); Ancient Greek (zygon); Persian (yu); Hittite (iúkan); Old Church Slavonic (igo); Lithuanian (jungas), Old Irish (cuing), Armenian (luts) and others—all meaning a ‘yoke’.

Although the word ‘yoke’ is a noun it can be used as a verb: For example; ‘Yoke those oxen’ as opposed to: ‘Use that yoke to join those oxen’. In order to use the noun ‘yoga’ as a verb, requires using the verb-root, √yuj, ‘to yoke or conjoin, harness or cooperate’ to indicate uniting two or more things.

At some ancient time and place, a group of Indo-Aryan people started using their equivalent word of a ‘yoke’, as a symbol, an analogy for specific personal techniques that were able to remove suffering. Suffering can take the form of physical or mental-emotional suffering. Yoga was originally linked with addressing mental-emotional suffering.

Today yoga has two general forms. One form uses techniques to address mental-emotional suffering and is known as Raja Yoga (raja means ‘king’ or ‘royal’). The term Hatha Yoga (exercise yoga) is considered to help address physical suffering and was mostly associated as being a part of the Yoga tradition about 500 to 700 years ago (hatha means: applying force).

You can join a one year yoga apprenticeship to examine and learn about a range of Hatha and Raja Yoga techniques that are not taught at yoga teachers’ courses.

This apprenticeship is available to all interested students and teachers through the Samyama Yoga School of Canberra

For more reading: https://samyamayoga.com.au/course/

To ask your questions or enroll: Email bill@billgiles.com.au