I'm very interested in Yoga and I've read about Patanjali

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>>3042896

Well, keep in mind that many of the Buddhist, Jainist and Hindu sects/groups throughout Indias history have advocated austere diets if not outright occasional fasting. Members of the Buddhist Sangha during the time of Buddha's life were instructed to not eat after the mid-day meal.

Most Buddhist, Jainist and Hindu monks/ascetics would obtain their meals by going from home to home begging with their alms bowl and would eat very little a day. Most of them spent their time meditating, in yoga, conversing to their guru/teacher or slowly walking from place to place. These people would be pretty skinny and not have a lot of muscle but would be in okay shape from walking and meditating and not eating excessively.

Aside from the fact that exercise for the sake of simply increasing muscle size/strength goes completely against the tenets and attitude of Buddhism, Jainism and Hinduism; any sort of strength training would dramatically speed up their metabolisms and would mean their bodies would need way more food, drastically worsening their hunger if they didn't get it. It would make no sense for someone who receives their food from begging to try to be developing their physique.

>>3042896
Yoga literally means "union" or "linking up" and refers to linking up one to God. It's first and foremost a method to withdraw the mind from the senses in order to directly perceive God. Yoga in the West, specifically Hatha Yoga, has somehow become known as primarily some sort of exercise for physical fitness, but this is not the case at all. Hatha Yoga does produce great health effects for the physical body, but these effects are merely secondary to the primary mental purification effects it has. If you really want to learn the process of Yoga read the Bhagavad Gita.