Find Your Yoga Tradition
Different Yoga traditions emphasize different practices, philosophies and methods. Explore and decide what resonates with you.
This is an exploration, not a prescription — NOSTOPS won't tell you which tradition you 'should' follow, and makes no medical or spiritual guarantees. Every suggestion below is drawn from real teacher and tradition data.
Start with what interests you
Traditions that emphasise yoga philosophy
- Advaita VedāntaHistorical
Darśana
Advaita Vedānta, expounded by Ādi Śaṅkarācārya (c. 8th c. CE), teaches strict non-dualism: brahman alone is real and the individual self (ātman) is not different from it, with the world's multiplicity attributed to māyā. Liberation comes through discriminative knowledge (jñāna) rather than ritual or works.
- Dvaita VedāntaHistorical
Darśana
Dvaita Vedānta, founded by Madhvācārya (1238–1317 CE), affirms an eternal, real distinction between God, selves and matter. Liberation is realised through devotion and the grace of Viṣṇu, understood as fully independent reality.
- MīmāṃsāHistorical
Darśana
Exegetical school of Vedic ritual and dharma.
- NyāyaHistorical
Darśana
School of logic and epistemology.
- Pātañjala Yoga (Classical Yoga)Historical
Darśana
Pātañjala Yoga is the classical darśana codified in the Yoga Sūtras (c. 2nd–4th c. CE), defining yoga as the stilling of the movements of the mind (citta-vṛtti-nirodha) and mapping the eight limbs (aṣṭāṅga): yama, niyama, āsana, prāṇāyāma, pratyāhāra, dhāraṇā, dhyāna and samādhi. The date and identity of Patañjali are debated by scholars.
- SāṃkhyaHistorical
Darśana
Sāṃkhya is one of the six classical darśanas, a dualist enumeration of reality into puruṣa (pure consciousness) and prakṛti (nature with its three guṇas). Systematised in Īśvarakṛṣṇa's Sāṃkhya Kārikā (c. 4th c. CE), it supplies the metaphysical scaffolding that Patañjala Yoga assumes and applies.
- VaiśeṣikaHistorical
Darśana
Atomistic natural philosophy.
- VedāntaHistorical
Darśana
Vedānta is the family of schools that interpret the 'end of the Vedas' — the Upaniṣads, Brahma Sūtras and Bhagavad Gītā (the Prasthānatrayī). From a shared canon it branches into non-dualist, qualified-non-dualist and dualist readings of the relation between self, world and the absolute (brahman).
- Viśiṣṭādvaita VedāntaHistorical
Darśana
Viśiṣṭādvaita, the 'qualified non-dualism' of Rāmānuja (1017–1137 CE), holds that selves and world are real attributes of a single supreme reality (Nārāyaṇa), inseparable yet distinct. It grounds loving surrender (prapatti) and devotion within a rigorous Vedāntic framework.
- YogācāraHistorical
Darśana
'Yoga practice' Mahāyāna school of mind-only (cittamātra).