Gurus from India later introduced yoga to the west,[12] following the success of Swami Vivekananda in the late 19th and early 20th century.[12] In the 1980s, yoga became popular as a system of physical exercise across the Western world. This form of yoga is often called Hatha yoga.
Yoga physiology described humans as existing of three bodies and five sheets which cover the atmman, and energy flowing through energy channels and concentrated in chakras.
Many studies have tried to determine the effectiveness of yoga as a complementary intervention for cancer, schizophrenia, asthma, and heart disease.[13][14][15][16]
The ultimate goal of Yoga is moksha (liberation) though the exact definition of what form this takes depends on the philosophical or theological system with which it is conjugated.
According to Jacobsen, "Yoga has five principal meanings:[24]
1. yoga as a disciplined method for attaining a goal;
2. yoga as techniques of controlling the body and the mind;
3. yoga as a name of one of the schools or systems of philosophy (darśana);
4. yoga in connection with other words, such as "hatha-, mantra-, and laya-," referring to traditions specialising in particular techniques of yoga;
5. yoga as the goal of yoga practice."[24]
According to David Gordon White, from the 5th century CE onward, the meanings of the term "yoga" became more or less fixed, but having various meanings:[25]
1. Yoga as an analysis of perception and cognition;[25]
2. Yoga as the rising and expansion of consciousness;[26]
3. Yoga as a path to