very interesting comments frm Pak user abt yoga that meditation is to stop from thinking..that is actually a sort of profound observation.
Actually yoga meditation at its core is sleeping by being awake. That is sleeping but you are awake..But very difficult to do and needs lots of practise. Stop thinking part is partially correct. Exactly speaking, why we cannot concentrate is bcoz, thousands of thoughts are running at a time per second in our mind..and competing for our attention..so like running a lots of multi-threading programmes vying for attention of the processor. When 1000s of thoughts compete for attention..processor performance slows down..and creeks..In meditation..you close your eyes(generally)..in yoga it is said that 90% of User Input is through eyes..and you give attention to forest of thoughts and they one-by-one gets satisfied..and goes away...
and in ordinary persons..gradually number of thoughts can be brought to a small number.. When thoughts are completely stopped(very advanced ppl only can do this) then...your "SAMSKARAs"(acquired impure tendencies) or VASANAS(..bad habits.. etc) begin to burn ..and
you will be cleansed of your SINS(Negative Karma)...
And yes Yoga is completely Hindu practise..
Since Hinduism is a collection of philosophies(vedanta,vaishanava,shaivism,chakravarta,buddism,samkya etc)
unlike Abrahamic religions..can co-exist..that is Hindu practices are not...You are with us or you are going to hell...thingy..
Hindu philosophies include atheism(yes! Samkya),mocking of Hindu sacred text (Chakravarta)..and latest..and the most modern Hindu philosophy..which won through massive debating...is
Advaita Vedanta..which is the one mostly practised by yogis in India..
and pioneered by Saint Adi Shankaracharya...