The concept and practices of yoga come out of India (→ Indian Subcontinent). The Sanskrit word yoga is related to the English ‘yoke.’ In the ancient text of the Veda, accordingly, it meant first, the hitching (therefore, the ‘yoking’) of draught animals to a cart or plow. Then, in the time of the Upanishads (from c. 900 BCE), as a systematic examination of human nature began in India, the concept was broadened to include a mental and religious dimension. A basic premise of the mystics of the days in question was that religious seekers must ‘yoke’ their senses and drives (constantly subjected, as they are, to transformation), that is, dominate them, in order to be able to venture an advance to their essential basis and ground—as eternally and changelessly apostrophized. Only thus, according to the teaching of the Upanishads, was ‘liberation’ (Skt., moksha ) from the cycle of → ‘rebirths’ (samsara) to be attained. From such an allegorical comparison of human meaning with draught animals, …