Depending on who you talk to or what you have read you will discover that it is not certain when yoga first came about. Some people think that yoga began more than eight thousand years ago, if not even further back. The reason for this belief is that historians have been able to trace yoga practices to the people of the Indus Valley civilization and the Vedic civilization, but there have also been findings that yoga existed way before the Vedas in the Indian subcontinent. It all depends on the interpretation of the Mohenjo-daro seals. But still others believe that yoga can only be traced back about four thousand years because of the Hindu religious texts that clearly talk about yoga. But what they might be missing is that you can trace back yoga to the oldest Hindu text, the Rig Veda, because it clearly speaks about yoking the mind and insight to the Sun of Truth.

But regardless of which scholar you believe yoga does date back thousands of years and even back then the main purpose of yoga stayed the same. The main purpose of yoga is to unite the mind, body, and soul in the cosmic one. Because of the fact that the purpose of yoga has stayed the same throughout history there is another reason why it is important to know about the history of yoga. That reason is that if you are unaware of the history of yoga you will not know what the actually purpose of yoga is, which in turn can led to the fact that you will not get the most out of your yoga practices.

One thing that many people might find interesting is that the history of yoga actually reflects on how yoga is practiced today. Of course your religions like Hinduism and Buddhism still practice the entire purpose of yoga, but other followers do not follow the entire purpose of yoga. This is important because it is showing us how yoga developed in the beginning and how it has adapted to fit the new cultures that have started practicing it.

Another important reason for learning the history of yoga is if you want to become a yoga instructor. It used to be that yoga instructors passed down their knowledge orally to their most worthy students, which was a great way to make sure that the students understood the history of yoga so that they could apply all of the principles to their yoga practices. But now with how popular yoga has become more and more people are getting certified to teach yoga. But what these instructors are missing is the entire purpose of yoga. Many people in the West who practice yoga have turned yoga into a form of exercise, which defeats its original purpose.

So just keep in mind that learning the history of yoga is important so that you can practice it correctly and get the most out of your yoga classes.