Hey, anyone down for some yoga? For me, it depends on the context.
This illustration is from an early 17th-century manuscript and illustrates an _asana_, or yoga pose, that looks an awful lot like the one called _kukkutasana_, or “rooster pose” shown in the second picture. If this seems arcane and not very practical to you, wait till you read the third book of the earliest seminal yoga texts, _The Yoga Sutras_of Patanjali (c. 325-425 CE).
There, the author enumerates all the magical superpowers that yogis can get after they have successfully trained. Knowing how to read minds, making oneself invisible, being immune to hunger, levitation, and the ability to manipulate matter. Sounds fantastic, no? I think my Dungeons and Dragons character can do some of these. Sadly, though, I cannot.
Modern yogis can be a bit embarrassed about the prominence of these yoga _siddhis_, or superpowers, in the ancient texts. Frequently, we might want to downplay their place in yoga’s history. Of course, the yogis of the past belonged to a completely different world. Like all religious and philosophical traditions, yoga has not been a single, unchanging system.
Source(s): Page 150 and image 9I on page 158 of _Yoga: the Art of Transformation_, illustration of Bahr-al-hayat_(_Ocean of Life_, circa 1600-1604 CE), 2013, Smithsonian, published by freer Gallery of Art and Sackler Gallery of Art.
