The paths of yoga
Raja, Hatha, Jnana, Bhakti and Karma yoga: the classical paths to the same end, where they diverge, and which temperament each answers.
Yoga in English usually means posture. In the Sanskrit sources it means a method for stilling the mind, and posture is one component of one of the paths.
The classical division gives four. Jnana proceeds by discrimination and knowledge. Bhakti proceeds by devotion. Karma proceeds by action performed without attachment to its fruit. Raja, systematised by Patanjali, proceeds by the eight limbs. Hatha yoga, which is what the modern world inherited, developed later as a preparation of the body for the rest.
The Bhagavad Gita is where the paths are set out as genuine alternatives suited to different temperaments rather than a hierarchy.
These pages cover each path, the breath disciplines, and the question that follows the practice around the world: whether yoga is Hindu, and what that question is actually asking.