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The word ‘yoga’ means to connect, unite or ‘yoke’. The thing we look to connect to is the true Self, also known as the ‘divine essence’, ‘ultimate self’, the soul or atman.

According to Patanjali’s Yoga Sutras, there is an eight-fold path leading to liberation, known as the ‘Ashtanga Yoga System’ or ‘Eight Limbs of Yoga’ (the word ‘ashta’ means ‘eight’ and ‘anga’ means ‘limb’).  Each limb sets the foundation for the next level, that is one must understand limb one in order to practice level 2. Yama and Niyama together set the ground for physical yoga practice. Together with breath work, withdrawal of senses, concentration, it forms of the essence of mediation. 

Should you master the initial seven limbs, eternal happiess is awaiting for you. 

The five moral constraints. 

1. Ahimsa - Non-violence

2. Satya - Truthfulness

3. Asteya - Non-Stealing

4. Brahmacharya - Moderation

5. Aparigraha - Non-greed or non-hoarding

The five moral principles. 

1. Saucha - Purification

2. Santosha - Contentment, be happy within oneself

3. Tapas - Self-discipline

4. Svadhyaya - Self-study & self-knowledge

5. Ishvara pranidhana - Surrender to a higher source

This is the physical exercise that a yogi practices regularly, including all postures, sequences and movements seen in both traditional yoga (Hatha, Ashtanga, and Iyenga) or in modern yoga (yin, vinyasa, hot yoga, aerial yoga, restorative yoga, power yoga, prenatal yoga). 

Pranayama is the formal practice of controlling the breath, which is the source of our prana, or vital life force. 

Dirga Breath - Three-part yogic breath

Ujjayi - Ocean breath

Nadi Shodhada - Alternative breath

Kapalabahti - Skull shine breath

Bastrika - Bellows breath

Bhramari - Honeybee humming breath

Bhedana - Single nostril breath

One of the most common practices for withdrawal of the senses is bringing the attention inwards towards the breath, observing it without trying to control it, as connection with the external senses and stimuli are all gradually severed.

Dhāraṇā is translated as "collection or concentration of the mind (joined with the retention of breath)", or "the act of holding, bearing, wearing, supporting, maintaining, retaining, keeping back (in remembrance), a good memory", or "firmness, steadfastness, ... , certainty". This term is related to the verbal root dhri to hold, carry, maintain, resolve.

The term Dhyana appears in Aranyaka and Brahmana layers of the Vedas, also in the early Upanishads. It demonstrates in the sense of "contemplation, meditation" and an important part of self-knowledge process.

Dhyāna or jhāna is the training of the mind, commonly translated as mediation, to withdraw the mind from the automatic responses to sense-impressions, and leading to a "state of perfect equanimity and awareness (upekkhā-sati-parisuddhi).

The term 'Samadhi' derives from the root sam-a-dha, which means 'to collect' or 'bring together', and thus it is often translated as 'concentration' or 'unification of mind'. In the early Buddhist texts, samadhi is also associated with the term samatha (calm abiding). It is the state in virtue of which consciousness and its concomitants remain evenly and rightly on a single object, undistracted and unscattered. 

Thus allows one to feel pleasant, joyful, emptiness, nothingness, everythingness, and etneral happiness that is not liited by the physical world.