YOGA The Art of Transformation
FEB 21–MAY 25, 2014
Yoga is regarded around the world as a path to health and spiritual insight. Many are aware of its origins in India. But the motivations that compelled countless individuals to pursue yogic paths over the past 2,500 years are less well known. Few are familiar with yoga’s rich diversity—the different schools of practice that developed over the centuries, and yoga’s varied meanings for practitioners and those they encountered. The many types of yoga familiar to practitioners today—Raja Yoga, Kriya Yoga, Vinyasa Yoga, Ashtanga Yoga and others—are relatively recent developments in yoga’s long history and have emerged (in the forms we now know them) only in the past 120 years, formulated by Indian and Western teachers. 2000–1000 BCE, contain fleeting references to flying long-haired sages that suggest an ancient mystic tradition. But it is not until several centuries later that we find the strongest evidence for the emergence of yogic techniques and goals.
SPRING 2014 | 7
Yoga’s origins are debated. The Vedas, the primary texts of orthodox Hinduism, composed around