what does Yoga means actually?

yoga by word , means the summation, assimilation , addition.

in the context of Yoga it means actually , the assimilation of the self with the God, the supreme power of the universe.

it occurred first time in the chapter of mahabharat , the famous Gita. Shrikrishna narrated the purpose of the life and about the universe and God to the perplexed Arjuna , who denied to fight against his kith and kins the kaurava.

in this chapter , the yoga adheres to this meaning.

later on many saints(rishi) like ashtavakra, patanjali, bhratahari etc have made their own researches to explore and elaborate the same meaning for the practice and theory.

now a days the yoga has been distorted meaning only to excercize to the body health and body positions and if elaborated little more contours itself to pranayama that too to the excersizes of the breathing.

this clearly is a delineation from the basic purpose of the Yoga. Yoga is not a part of the day schedule its rather a way of life. everything else like asana, pranayama is one of the methods to achieve this purpose.

asana means to situate, position and also to sit.

this is one of the most famous part of the Yoga and to many people yoga means the synonym of asana.

this was a coinage by maharshi Patanjali in Ashtanga . He narrated the eight basic ingradients of Yoga for best way of life. they are

1. Yam- is about understanding the set of governance of the God. the rules of the nature and universe.
   
2. Niyam- the set of rules a human being should follow to assimilate to the Yam.
   
3. Asan- the set of right body postures to inculcate in the way of life.
   
4. Pranayam- the understanding of the breathing , its importance and methods to positively divert your attention to the soul from the mundane and body.
   
5. dhyan- they are the methods of mind to divert your attention towards the purpose of life, the association with the supreme power of the universe.  one method is jatak dhyan
   
6. dharna- also called the sankalp are the set of deciding objectives of life. and adhering to them in the walk of life.
   
7. pratyahar- the control part of the life. the abstinence from some things, thoughts, processes that may distract you from the dharna.
   
8. samadhi- the achievement part. this is the state of shoonya(zero) both by body and mind. this is supposed to be the only state of constant in the universe. the state of nothingness is the only state of fullness. the state of BODH of Gautam Budhdha, state of NIRVAN of Mahavir Swami. the state irrespective of desires and feelings and time frame. This state is supposed to be the association with the God, the supreme power of the universe.
   

Now the asana should not be practiced as merely another style of the excersizes.

pranayam means the dimensions (ayam) of soul(pran).

pran means the live part of the self as a whole. pran is supposed to be governed by the air. the air that we breathe.

pranayam is the observation of the soul with various dimensions of the pran that is through breathing.

its been observed that the moods , emotions and state of mind changes the breathing pattern. when somebody becomes angry from a calm state of mind, the breathing pattern changes. when you face fear, the breathing changes, when you hear a great positive news the breathing pattern changes and so on...

its also observed that the vice versa is also true, means, changing your breathing pattern temperates mind states. so the pranayam came to existence as a practice.

another observation in the same context is that body positions and situations also change breathing patterns and so when you are running the thoughts are also running in the mind, they are many but incomplete and sudden and suddenly changing as well, similarly if you are lying on the bed , the thoughts are also lying , they are slow but complete and more systematic than the above position.

it was also observed that the animals, on an average,  that are slow in breathing live longer. and the faster dies earlier.

so the pranayam is the set of methods of breathing to chanelize our mind in a proper direction. since the inventions started we focused on the outer world, and payed little attention to ourself, and the mind.

the mind that discovered a lot to us is least discovered object of the world. pranayam is the method to temperate mind to structured thinking , observed and directional thinking with the help of breathing practices.

if you keep on doing breathing practices it will help , but if you keep in mind the purpose of the pranayam it will help you a lot.