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The United Nations General Assembly established June 21 as "International Yoga Day" (celebrated annually in India and around the world since 2015).

A reflection of the popularity of yoga in the West can be considered the fact that the largest modern sculpture in gold (by Mark Quinn, 50 kg, £ 1.5 million, British Museum) depicts Kate Moss, sitting in a pose "head in knees" (dvi pada shirshasana) [43].

In Europe, for the first time, the philosophy of yoga began to study Schopenhauer, one of the main sources of philosophical views of which were the Upanishads. After Vivekananda spoke at the Chicago Congress of Religions in New York and gave a series of lectures on yoga at the end of the 19th century, interest in her in the West did not wane. The next surge of interest came in the first half to mid-20th century.

The basics of the hatha yoga system are described in such texts as Hatha Yoga Pradipika, Goraksha Shataka, Gheranda Samhita and Shiva Samhita.

Hatha yoga is significantly different from Patanjali's raja yoga: it focuses on shatkarma, the purification of the body, leading to the purification of the mind (ha) and prana, or life energy (tha). Hatha yoga further develops the sitting yogic postures (asanas) of Patanjali's raja yoga, adding gymnastic yogic elements to them [41]. Currently, hatha yoga in its many variations is the style of yoga most often associated with the concept of "yoga"

Hatha yoga is a direction of yoga, formed in the X-XI century by Matsyendranath and, to a greater extent, by his disciple Gorakshanath [37] [38]. The Nath tradition founded by them played a significant role in the development of classical hatha yoga in medieval India [39] [40].

Both philosophies are considered twins in India, different aspects of the same discipline. Sankhya provides a basic theoretical explanation of human nature, listing and defining its elements, analyzing the ways of their interaction in a conditioned state (bandha), and describing their state in the liberated state of moksha, while yoga is devoted specifically to determining the driving force of the liberation process, describing practical methods to achieve this liberation ...

In Indian philosophy, yoga is one of the six orthodox philosophical schools of Hinduism [22] [23]. The philosophical system of yoga is closely related to the Samkhya school [24]. According to the teachings of Patanjali, the yoga school adopts the psychological and metaphysical aspects of the Samkhya philosophy and is more theistic in comparison with the Samkhya. An example of the theistic nature of yoga is the fact that the Divine Being is added to the 25 elements of Samkhya existence [25] [26].

The most famous of the Harappan yogic images is the Pashupati seal [16], discovered by the British archaeologist John Marshall, who believed that it depicted one of the ancient forms of Shiva [17]. Some scholars, however, have questioned the idea that the Pashupati (Lord of Animals) [18] depicted on the seal represents the figure of Shiva or Rudra [19] [20] [21].

Several seals found during excavations in the Indus Valley dating from 3300 to 1700 BC. e., were found images of people in meditative and yogic postures, engaged in "one of the types of ritual practice, possibly an ancient form of yoga." Of all the artifacts of the Harappan culture, archaeologist Gregory Possel singles out 16 specific figures in yogic poses. According to the scientist, they indicate that the inhabitants of the Harappan civilization were engaged in ritual practices of yoga and meditation. At the same time, images were found in yogic poses not only of people, but also of deities [13].

The main source, which reflects the development of the concept of yoga, are the so-called "middle" Upanishads (dating from the 6th century BC), "Mahabharata" and "Bhagavad Gita", as well as the Yoga Sutras of Patanjali (2nd century BC). NS.). In the Yoga Sutras, yoga was first presented as one of the schools (darshan) of Hindu philosophy. This early school of yoga was retrospectively known under the retronym of Raja Yoga in order to distinguish it from other, later schools.

In the meaning of yoga as a practice, the word yoga is described in the text of the Katha Upanishad in line 11 of the third chapter: “Firm control of the senses is considered yoga. Then [a person] becomes non-distracted, for yoga comes and goes. ”[10] [11]. The Latin word “religare” has a similar meaning to the word “yoga”, from which, according to one of the versions, the word “religion” originated [12].

The word "yoga" comes from the Sanskrit root yoj or yuj, which has many semantic meanings [8]: "union", "unity", "connection", "harmony", "union", "harness", "exercise", "curb ", Etc. [9] It is first encountered in the Rig Veda, the oldest surviving monument of Indian literature, but not in the meaning of yoga practice, but as a designation for a harness.

On December 1, 2016, UNESCO, noting the significant impact on numerous aspects of the life of Indian society in the field of health, medicine, education and the arts, included yoga in the representative list of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity [7].