Yoga is one of the six traditional systems of Indian philosophy - Nyaya, Vaisheshika, Sankhya, Yoga, Karma Mimamsa, and Vedanta - and, despite what the “writer of the wikipedia” article says, the Yoga Darshana of Patanjali is the accepted text, and the ONLY accepted text, for this system.
Verse two of chapter one of this document states, “Yogaschittavriddhinarodhah,” which, translated into English from the original Sanskrit, is, “Yoga is the cessation of the modifications of the mind.”
Period.
End of story.
Deep in the body of the text, yogasanas (flexibility positions)are mentioned as an ancillary technique - one of eight - for the achievement of this end.
They are NOT yoga, nor can they be equated with same; they are, at BEST, a more or less useful tool for exercising the body between bouts of meditation.
Please refer all further questions to this document, an excellent translation of which is offered by State University of New York Press; I’m getting a little tired of this (very) old thread.
> the Yoga Darshana of Patanjali is the accepted text, and the ONLY accepted text....
It is evident that is not so:
The Original Teachings of Yoga: From Patanjali Back to Hiranyagarbha
American Institute of Vedic Studies
Many people today look to Patanjali, the compiler of the Yoga Sutras, as the father or founder of the greater system of Yoga. While Patanjali’s work is very important and worthy of profound examination, a study of the ancient literature on Yoga reveals that the Yoga tradition is much older.
The traditional founder of Yoga Darshana or the ‘Yoga system of philosophy’ – which the Yoga Sutras of Patanjali represents – is usually said to be Hiranyagarbha. It is nowhere said to be Patanjali. The Mahabharata (Shanti Parva 349.65), the great ancient text in which the Bhagavad Gita of Sri Krishna occurs, states: “Kapila, the teacher of Samkhya, is said to be the supreme Rishi. Hiranyagarbha is the original knower of Yoga. There is no one else more ancient.”
Elsewhere in the Mahabharata (Shanti Parva 342.95-96), Krishna states, identifying himself with Hiranyagarbha: “As my form, carrying the knowledge, eternal and dwelling in the Sun, the teachers of Samkhya, who have discerned what is important, call me Kapila. As the brilliant Hiranyagarbha, who is lauded in the verses of the Vedas, ever worshipped by Yoga, so I am also remembered in the world.” Other Yoga texts like the Brihadyogi Yajnavalkya Smriti XII.5 similarly portray Hiranyagarbha as the original teacher of Yoga, just as Kapila is the original teacher of the Samkhya system. So do commentaries on the Yoga Sutras.
The vast literature of the Vedas, Mahabharata and Puranas speak of numerous great yogis but does not give importance to Patanjali, who was of a later period. Even the Yoga literature that is later in time than Patanjali, like that of Kashmir Shaivism or Hatha Yoga, does not make him central to their teachings.
Complete article:
http://www.vedanet.com/2012/06/the-original-teachings-of-yoga-from-patanjali-back-to-hiranyagarbha/