Ok, this one’s juicy. We've got quite a story here: how something ancient, spiritual, and wildly complex evolved into something you can find sandwiched between spin and Pilates on a Tuesday night.
Walk into any yoga studio today and you’ll see a wild variety of practices: sweaty vinyasa flows, silent yin sessions, goat yoga (yes, that’s real - google it), and maybe even a chakra-themed sound bath. But how did a spiritual practice born in ancient India end up here: on rubber mats in climate-controlled rooms, often next to a smoothie bar?
Let’s rewind the timeline.
Roots in Ritual: Pre-Classical Yoga
Yoga’s earliest seeds were planted over 2,500 years ago in the Indus Valley civilization. Back then, yoga wasn’t about movement, it was about transcendence.
It included fire rituals, chants, meditations, and a deep desire to understand the nature of existence. The Vedas, some of the world’s oldest spiritual texts, hinted at early yogic ideas: union with the divine, disciplined living, and altered states of consciousness - though not in a Burning Man kind of way.
The original “yogis” were seekers and sages, often renouncing worldly pleasures to explore the nature of self and reality.
The Sutras Speak: Classical Yoga
Then came Patanjali, yoga’s first (and possibly mythical) content strategist. Around 200 BCE, he compiled the Yoga Sutras, a 196-aphorism guidebook that laid out yoga as an eight-limbed path.
This included:
- How we interact with the world (Yama)
- What we cultivate within ourselves (Niyama)
- Physical posture, steady and comfortable (Asana)
- Breathwork (Pranayama)
- Drawing inward (Pratyahara)
- Focused concentration (Dharana)
- Meditation (Dhyana)
- Ultimate liberation (Samadhi)
Note that there's still no flow classes. Even Asana in this context referred to still, comfortable positions you could hold for a long time.
This was a major milestone though. Yoga was now a cohesive, internal science of consciousness. Less “how to stretch,” more “how to end suffering.”
Tantra, Body, and Breath: Post-Classical Yoga
Fast-forward a few hundred years, and yoga got a makeover. Tantric schools introduced the idea that the body wasn’t a distraction from enlightenment, but a powerful tool for it. This opened the door to more embodied practices - visualization, mantra, energy work, and eventually, movement.
This is when yogis started developing physical postures to support meditation and awaken the subtle body. (still not hot yoga or yoga with goats)
Yoga Goes Global: Colonialism, Resistance & Reinvention
In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, Indian teachers like Swami Vivekananda and Paramahansa Yogananda introduced yoga to the West - not as exercise, but as spiritual philosophy. Their message: Yoga is universal, non-dogmatic and deeply human.
Meanwhile in India, yoga was being modernized from within. Pioneers like Krishnamacharya, Pattabhi Jois, and B.K.S. Iyengar created dynamic forms of physical practice that drew from Indian wrestling, British and Scandinavian gymnastics, and ancient techniques.
India, like many other countries at the time, experienced a huge popularity boost of physical practices and modern, physical yoga practice is one result of this era. The pioneers mentioned above exported this physical practice of yoga across the globe and the world fell in love with it.
They systematized asana practice in new ways - and that’s where our familiar sequences come from. Yoga’s expansion into Western culture was both a reclamation and a remix. It became accessible... but also commercialized, fragmented, and at times, stripped of its depth.
Your Studio, Your Lineage (Even If You Don’t Know It Yet)
Today we’ve got a dizzying array of styles: power yoga, restorative, prenatal, acro, trauma-informed, goat yoga.
It can feel overwhelming at times, or even disconnected from the source.
But look at it this way, yoga has never stood still. It is a conscious movement that has changed again and again over millenia. When you step on your mat, you’re part of a living tradition.
Yoga isn’t static. It adapts, evolves, survives. Every breath you take in class is linked - however loosely - to a lineage of seekers who asked: “Who am I, really?” and “How can I live with less suffering?”
You don’t need to memorize Sanskrit texts to honor the roots. But you can pause and ask:
- Am I approaching this with awareness?
- Do I see yoga as more than just a workout?
- How can I practice in a way that respects its depth and origin?
That’s not gatekeeping - it’s grounding.
Living Tradition ≠ Museum Exhibit
Yoga doesn’t need to be frozen in time to be real. The fact that it’s still alive, still debated, still practiced in basements, beaches and even prison cells around the world? That’s proof of its power.
Your practice - modern, messy, meaningful - is part of that continuum.
TL;DR:
Yoga didn’t start with Spotify playlists and goats balancing on practitioners. It’s evolved from a grounded ancient spiritual practice to a modern commercialized movement offering. But one thing's remained unchanged: Yoga as a personal practice is still as insightful and transformative as you want it to be. The curious minds will always be able to connect to the endless wisdom of yoga philosophy. And the world will continue to write the evolving story of yoga.
Your practice - however you go about it - is part of that story.
