Q 01/05

Yoga took shape among wandering Śramaṇa ascetics, whose movement also produced Jainism and what other world religion?

A) Buddhism

B) Sikhism

C) Zoroastrianism

D) Taoism

Answer · why

A) Buddhism

Buddhism: its founder is said to have lived as a wandering ascetic, starving himself alongside five companions, before rejecting such extremes for a '...

Q 02/05

Which sage is traditionally credited with compiling the Yoga Sutras?

A) Patanjali

B) Valmiki

C) Panini

D) Kapila

Answer · why

A) Patanjali

Patanjali is also the name on a famous commentary on Sanskrit grammar; tradition makes the two authors one sage, but many scholars doubt that the same...

Q 03/05

Which Sanskrit word names a sound, word or phrase repeated to focus the mind in meditation?

A) Mantra

B) Mandala

C) Sutra

D) Tantra

Answer · why

A) Mantra

Mantra: repeating one, often counted off on a string of prayer beads, is a practice called japa, and the habit gave English its everyday sense of a sl...

Q 04/05

Kundalini is described as a coiled serpent resting where?

A) At the base of the spine

B) Behind the eyebrows

C) In the palms of the hands

D) At the crown of the head

Answer · why

A) At the base of the spine

Kundalini rests at the base of the spine, coiled in the muladhara, the root centre; practice is said to rouse it and send it upward through six centre...

Q 05/05

Whom did K. Pattabhi Jois claim to have learnt his system from?

A) Swami Sivananda

B) T. Krishnamacharya

C) Paramahansa Yogananda

D) Yogi Bhajan

Answer · why

B) T. Krishnamacharya

T. Krishnamacharya gave a lecture and demonstration that Jois watched as a boy of 12; he asked for lessons and began the next day, later crediting Kri...