Over 15,000 years ago, in the upper regions of the Himalayas, a being appeared whose name and origin were unknown. Filled with ecstasy, he sat motionless and silent with his eyes closed for days, weeks and months. 

When people saw him, they understood that this being was able to go beyond the limits of his physical nature and experience dimensions that no one had experienced before him. They saw that this being was in complete unity with the entire cosmos and therefore called him a "Yogi", "Adiyogi" or "Shiva". 

This Yogi shared 112 methods by which a person can overcome the limits of his physicality and attain his ultimate nature with 7 of his observers. These 112 methods are the sciences of yoga and were carried to different parts of the world by his 7 disciples ("Saptarishis"). 

Today, parts of this profound yoga system are known in the Western world as a kind of sport. When people talk about practicing yoga today, they often mean only the semi-professional execution of physical postures and exercises, which are called "asanas" in the yoga tradition. However, most people are not aware that this is only a small part of this complete science. Yoga is not just a kind of sport, it is a scientific system for self- transformation. 

The word yoga literally means "Union". According to the Indian sage "Patanjali", the author of the so- called "Yoga Sutras", there are 8 limbs of yoga. These include: "Yama" (social discipline), "Niyam" (self-discipline), "Asana" (body discipline), "Pranayama" (breathing discipline), "Pratyahar" (sense discipline), "Dharana" (goal discipline), "Dhyana" (meditation discipline) and "Samadhi" (self realization). 

Yoga is an all- encompassing, profound system based on these 8 limbs and goes far beyond stretching and training the physical body. It is a system and science of comprehensive understanding of the workings of life and the human organism and how to use these disciplines to engineer oneself in wonderful ways. 

If we want to take responsibility for our own lives and our holistic well-being and be able to determine the quality of our lives, then the yogic system offers us numerous ways to change the basic activities of our body, our brain and even our genetics in a way that enables transformation and allows one to reach one's ultimate nature and fully master one's life.