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Yoga is a physical, mental, and spiritual discipline, originating in ancient India. The word is associated with meditative practices in Hinduism, Jainism and Buddhism. Within Hindu philosophy, the word yoga is used to refer to one of the six orthodox schools of Hindu philosophy. Yoga in this sense is based on the Yoga Sutras of Patanjali, and is also known as Rāja Yoga to distinguish it from later schools. The Bhagavad Gita introduces distinctions such as Jnana Yoga ("yoga based on knowledge") vs.Karma Yoga ("yoga based on action"). Other systems of philosophy introduced in Hinduism during the medieval period are bhakti yoga, and hatha yoga.

The Sanskrit word yoga has the literal meaning of "yoke", meaning to join, to unite, or to attach. As a term for a system of abstract meditation or mental abstraction it was introduced by Patañjali in the 2nd century BC. Someone who practices yoga or follows the yoga philosophy with a high level of commitment is called a yogi or yogini. For more information about the origins of yoga, see Wikipedia's Yoga page.

Yoga came to the attention of the west in the mid 19th century along with other topics of Hindu philosophy. The first Hindu teacher to promote Yoga to a western audience was Swami Vivekananda, who toured Europe and the United States in the 1890s. In the West, the term "yoga" is today typically associated with Hatha Yoga and its asanas (postures) or as a form of exercise. In the 1960s, western interest in Hindu spirituality reached its peak. Among the teachers of Hatha yoga who were active in the west in this period were B.K.S. Iyengar (founder of Iyengar Yoga), K. Pattabhi Jois, and Swami Vishnu-devananda, and Swami Satchidananda. A second "yoga boom" followed in the 1980s, as Dean Ornish, a follower of Swami Satchidananda, connected yoga to heart health, legitimizing yoga as a purely physical system of health exercises outside of counter culture or esotericism circles, and unconnected to a religious denomination.