My reflections on this question prompted another inquiry. How one defines religion? The word Religion as explained by the late Joseph Campbell, comes from Latin definition- Re-ligio means to connect or from the Biblical sense return to (God) as Man and woman were banished from the God's presence (Garden of Eden) and Man must reunite with God and Jesus came to show the way. From spiritual aspects, Hindu, Buddhist and Jain also present similar view where ultimate aim for the human beings is not the Heaven, but the freedom from sufferings of life on earth and that is via attaining the Nirvana, Moksha etc. The Yoga, a Sanskrit and also a Pali word, indicating a discipline, that makes individual free of physical and mental stresses and tunes body and mind to achieve higher level of consciousness.

In the Science of Yoga various pathways are made available in the form of physical training for achieving athletic prowess, superior brain functions and higher mental acuity. It is used for good and bad purposes as per individual's goals and objectives. Due to the recognition of these benefits, from ancient times, Yoga has been embedded in almost all religious practices as a means to induct a discipline and this aspect is more evident in the yogic "Dhyana" or 'Zen' in Chinese and Japanese Buddhist adaptations.

Religion is way of life a person chooses to fulfill the intrinsic needs of human psyche. Even the Atheism and Communism function like a religion, if we apply the general definition of religion, -to bind or connect to a supreme authority. It appears that a set of common beliefs and practices, when adopted as the mandated way of life by a body of humans, they form an organized religion. Yoga in that sense, just becomes part of religious philosophical discipline, if one makes physical and mental tuning as a way of life to transcend the void between the physical world and the realm of spiritual existence.

The Meditation practice can become a part of the yoga repertoire, but it is an independent discipline standing on its own ground and it is used today in the places of worship, Corporate Cultures and even in the training of Sports Teams. One can make a religion out of it by adopting it as a part of religious rituals but to label Yoga by itself, as an individual, unique and distinct religion is as absurd as staking a claim on the entire land mass of Moon just because a spacecraft landed there and a nation's flag has been planted.

From the Hindu point of view, word yoga is a title that simply identifies any psycho-spiritual methodology that bends the physical body in order to bind its material nature with the Self or simply stated, 'awakens the kundalini',- the driving force traversing the neural pathways. To illustrate this point I am introducing an ancient, Vedanta book- Ramayana Volume- The Yoga Vashistha Maharamayana(See the Author's Note bellow). In this book, there is a story depicting Shri Ram, as an adolescent prince suffering from melancholy and getting a psycho- therapy treatment from the royal guru, the Sage Vashistha . The therapy includes a strong dose of Metaphysical (but not religious), indoctrination. It is laced with, in part, a Socio-Psychological discourse explaining to the young prince, why one is born, how a Dharma is assigned to each soul and what is the best practice to navigate through the voyage, called life. The approach in this treatment plan has no relationship to Hath,Vikram Yoga or any other commercialized manifestations we see in the market places, but has all the essential aspects of imparting a set of values and initiating a chain of thoughts, which facilitated developing of Rama's idiosyncrasies. Obviously, it has an educational perspective and yet, it is titled as "Yoga Vashistha"-i.e.: Yoga of Sage Vashistha. I therefore concluded that Yoga was never a part of Hindu-Jain-Buddhist religious doctrine, but a precious adornment that distinguishes the uniqueness of the Hindu belief systems from the other religions of Old Testament.

You may spot similar discourses in Judaism, Christianity and Islam, and perhaps also other lesser known religions of antiquity but non would qualify as Yoga in the same sense as the Eastern Religions do, in spite of the similarities in objectives and goals. For now, I would leave Yoga where it is today, because there are many disciplines which could fall in the definition of Sanskrit word Yoga and I believe, the English word Yoke (Things that joins two together) itself has derived from Yoga, which does bring both physical and spiritual aspects together.