Yoga has been getting popular ever since it was introduced in western culture. The types of postures (asana) which are present in yoga have something for every age group and that makes it even more accessible to all kinds of people.

Interesting Facts About Yoga

Apart from India, Australia is one of the nations where Yoga has been practiced the most. So much so, the oldest yoga teacher lives in Australia, who is an 85-year-old Lady. She even has her world record for it although back in 2012, Tao Porchon-Lynch was declared the oldest yoga instructor by the Guinness World Records at the age of 98 years. After her death, the title shifted many times.

Here are some interesting facts about Yoga

  1. The yoga sutra is divided into 4 chapters, which have a total of 196 aphorisms.
  2. Yoga has 84 classic postures (Asanas).
  3. The “greatest proponent of yoga” title is being given to Swami Vivekananda in the West, as he was the one to spread the knowledge about Yoga and Vedanta in the West.
  4. Lord Shiva is also considered “The Supreme Lord of Yoga”, according to Hindu mythology. Many of the yoga poses are also inspired by the characters of lord Shiva. He also enlightened the saints, which later went on to declare themselves as Yogis.
  5. Many of you must have heard about the name “Patanjali” and mostly assumed that the name is derived from some flower or herb which is related to Ayurveda. But many fewer people are aware that “Patanjali” was a very knowledgeable Yogi, who spread a positive awareness regarding Yoga into people’s minds.
  6. You can find many yoga teachers these days, who will guide you professionally and train you. But did you know yoga teaching has been around for many years?  The first yoga teacher was an Indian yogi named Paramahansa Yogananda, who used to teach Kriya Yoga. It is said, that he taught yoga to more than a million people.
  7. There are many physical and internal benefits that are derived from doing yoga, one of the research showed that it had a measurable effect on schizophrenic patients when it comes to improving their occupational and social functioning.
  8. The yoga craze is quite big in western than it used to be earlier. To put things in perspective, 16 million people in America practice yoga and spend $5.7 billion a year on classes and accessories.

The International Yoga day was declared not long ago, just 2 years back, on June 21st, 2015, the Internal Yoga day was announced by the Indian postal service. I learned all these facts during my yoga teacher training in India.