What do I think about yoga? Well, I'm fairly sure it's a useful spiritual practice for some people so I'm not going to knock it. In other traditions, e.g. Sufism, there is a certain amount of emphasis placed on the body, with specific exercises designed for specific purposes, but generally speaking they're considered means to ends rather than beng ends in themselves. Mind you, I suppose in the end, the same could be said of yoga, though as often practised there seems to be an emphasis on bodily shapes and movements.
Maybe Yoga is an optimal way for certain kinds of more active and restless people to get into spirituality, whereas in other traditions, the spiritual impulse may come first, bodily movements being prescribed as and when necessary by a teacher to help seekers.
I hazard a guess that that most genuine traditions aim for some kind of balance between body and mind (to use loose terms). As incarnated beings, we necessarily have to take care of bodily needs and functions, or else we won't be able to make
any kind of spiritual evolution. I suppose one can make the initial approach from the (apparently) physical side, or from the mental (consciousness) side, including such things as meditation and/or self-enquiry.
Even the Romans had some inkling of this:
You should pray for a
healthy mind in a healthy body*.
Ask for a stout heart that has no fear of death,
and deems length of days the least of Nature's gifts
that can endure any kind of toil,
that knows neither wrath nor desire and thinks
the woes and hard labors of Hercules better than
the loves and banquets and downy cushions of
Sardanapalus.
What I commend to you, you can give to yourself;
For assuredly, the only road to a life of peace is virtue.
*Mens sana in corpore sano
There are hints in the above that Juvenal, the author, would have applauded those types who like to immerse themselves in freezing water, hold their breaths for a long time, and so on. It's not for me, but like I say, I'm not knocking it.
