Ashtanga (eight limbs of yoga) in the context of "Pranayama"

Samādhi (Pali and Sanskrit: समाधि), in the Indian religions, is a state of meditative consciousness. In many such traditions, the cultivation of samādhi through various meditation methods is essential for the attainment of spiritual liberation (known variously as nirvana, moksha).

In Buddhism, it is the last of the eight elements of the Noble Eightfold Path. In the Ashtanga Yoga tradition, it is the eighth and final limb identified in the Yoga Sutras of Patanjali. In Jain meditation, samadhi is considered one of the last stages of the practice just prior to liberation.

Kaivalya (Sanskrit: कैवल्य) is the ultimate goal of aṣṭāṅga yoga and means "solitude", "detachment" or "isolation", a vrddhi-derivation from kevala "alone, isolated". It is the isolation of purusha from prakṛti, and liberation from rebirth, i.e., moksha. Kaivalya-mukti is described in some Upanishads, such as the Muktika and Kaivalya Upanishads, as the most superior form of moksha, which can grant liberation both within this life (as in jīvanmukti), and after death (as in videhamukti).

An āsana (Sanskrit: आसन) is a body posture, originally and still a general term for a sitting meditation pose, and later extended in hatha yoga and modern yoga as exercise, to any type of position, adding reclining, standing, inverted, twisting, and balancing poses. The Yoga Sutras of Patanjali define "asana" as "[a position that] is steady and comfortable". Patanjali mentions the ability to sit for extended periods as one of the eight limbs of his system. Asanas are also called yoga poses or yoga postures in English.

The 10th or 11th century Goraksha Sataka and the 15th century Hatha Yoga Pradipika identify 84 asanas; the 17th century Hatha Ratnavali provides a different list of 84 asanas, describing some of them. In the 20th century, Indian nationalism favoured physical culture in response to colonialism. In that environment, pioneers such as Yogendra, Kuvalayananda, and Krishnamacharya taught a new system of asanas (incorporating systems of exercise as well as traditional hatha yoga). Among Krishnamacharya's pupils were influential Indian yoga teachers including Pattabhi Jois, founder of Ashtanga (vinyasa) yoga, and B.K.S. Iyengar, founder of Iyengar yoga. Together they described hundreds more asanas, revived the popularity of yoga, and brought it to the Western world. Many more asanas have been devised since Iyengar's 1966 Light on Yoga which described some 200 asanas. Hundreds more were illustrated by Dharma Mittra.

The Yoga Sutras of Patañjali (IAST: Patañjali yoga-sūtra) is a compilation "from a variety of sources" of Sanskrit sutras (aphorisms) on the practice of yoga – 195 sutras (according to Vyāsa and Krishnamacharya) and 196 sutras (according to others, including BKS Iyengar). The Yoga Sutras were compiled in India in the early centuries CE by the sage Patanjali, who collected and organized knowledge about yoga from Samkhya, Buddhism, and older Yoga traditions, and possibly another compiler who may have added the fourth chapter. He may also be the author of the Yogabhashya, a commentary on the Yoga Sutras, traditionally attributed to the legendary Vedic sage Vyasa, but possibly forming a joint work of Patanjali called the Pātañjalayogaśāstra.

The Yoga Sutras draw from three distinct traditions from the 2nd century BCE to the 1st century CE, namely Samkhya, Buddhism traditions, and "various older ascetic and religious strands of speculation." The Yoga Sutras are built on Samkhya notions of purusha and prakriti, and are often seen as complementary to it. It is closely related to Buddhism, incorporating some of its terminology. While there is "an apparent lack of unity and coherence," there is a "straightforward unity to the text," which focuses on "one-pointed awareness" (ekagrata) and "content-free awareness" (nirvikalpa samadhi); the means to acquire these, namely kriya yoga ("action yoga") and ashtanga yoga (eight-limb yoga); the results acquired from the attainment of these levels of awareness; and the final goal of yoga, namely kaivalya and liberation.

Ashtanga yoga (not to be confused with Patanjali's aṣṭāṅgayoga, the eight limbs of yoga) is a style of yoga as exercise popularised by K. Pattabhi Jois during the twentieth century, often promoted as a dynamic form of medieval hatha yoga. Jois claimed to have learnt the system from his teacher Tirumalai Krishnamacharya. The style is energetic, synchronising breath with movements. The individual poses (asanas) are linked by flowing movements called vinyasas.

Jois established his Ashtanga Yoga Research Institute in 1948. The current style of teaching is called "Mysore style", after the city in India where the practice was originally taught. Ashtanga yoga has given rise to various spinoff styles of power yoga.