Yoga is the ancient cultural heritage of India. It is the science of healthy and better living on all levels of our existence - physical, mental, moral, intellectual and spiritual. Better living is connected with the total personality of person and this develops from within. Yoga is universal in its application and hence all-embracing. Through its elaborate technology, it sublimates man to divinity byt education not only of the conscious but also of the sub-conscious.
Thus it covers all aspects of human life that leads to physical well-being, mental harmony and spiritual consciousness, culminating in positive and lasting happiness and peace through the integration of personality. Patanjal Yog Darshan: The Yoga of Patanjali is an ethical system. It takes note of all human shortcomings and weaknesses. It is a system based on non-violence, truthfulness, austerity and purity of life, and thus in short the highest moral values.
The system evolved by Patanjali is purely a Vedic System, based on the Vedas and the Upanisads.It is also known as Raja Yoga. The Yoga Darshan of Patanjali has four chapters, known as Padas. The Raja Yoga of Patanjali has nothing superstitious in it; it is a science to be practiced with care and caution. It is meant for everybody, child or young, boys and girls, adults and old persons of either sex, who believe in the sactity of life and its purposefulness.
It can be regarded as one of the greatest contributions of Indian thought, that mind and its behaviours can be controlled by Pranayama or breathing exercises. Astanga Yoga: It is that part of the Yoga philosophy which is attributed to Patanjali and therefore also referred to as Patanjala yoga. It covers both the Yoga ideology and Yoga technology in their foundational forms.