Connolly/Student's Guide, 1. Background to Yoga Philosophy

In order to understand the practices of mental and physical culture that go under the label of yoga it is useful to be aware of features in the Indian world view that make it different from its Western counterparts and provide a rationale for many of the teachings of different yoga schools. The Indian understanding of time, of human destiny and of the kinds of connections that exist between language, the physical world and the various realms within the physical world are all different from what is generally accepted in the West, and these differences can have quite a profound effect on how we make sense of yoga.