21st Century skills for students!

I received an invite from Parul university in Gujarat to do a live webinar on the topic ”21st century skills for students to succeed in work and life” and I immediately agreed even though I had little idea about it. I started delving deeper into the topic and was surprised to see tons of information. I quickly made some points and went on to do the webinar.  Here's some of the data that I collated for reference and shared with the students and staff.

To begin with I started by setting the context and how changes have happened and we have evolved from stone age, to iron age to the middle ages and to -

Agrarian age in the 18th century - Farmers

Industrial age in the 19th century to – Factory system

Information age/computer/digital age in the 20th century – knowledge workers

Conceptual age in the 21st century – Creators and empathisers

Research data shows that for the first time in 1991, the spend on knowledge age tools exceeded the spend on the Industrial age tools by  $5billion in the US alone. This was the investment in technology related work items including computers, printers etc. signifying the shift towards the new age. As the jobs were shifted, did the skill sets required to work in these jobs also shift and change? 

Few years ago, 400 hiring executives were asked “Are students graduating from school really ready to work”? and their unanimous answer was “No” and the gaps as shared by them were:

Communication – Both oral and written

Critical thinking and problem solving

Professionalism and work ethics

Team work and collaboration

Working in diverse teams

Applying technology

Leadership and project management

The 21st century skill gaps are costing businesses a great deal of money. $200 billion a year is spent world over in hiring scarce talent and in training them to be work ready.

“Learning is earning”. Education has always played an important role. Any slight increase in the country’s literacy rate even by a small percentage has a huge positive economic impacts on the country. Education also increases earning potential. Every additional year of schooling can improve a person’s lifetime wages by 10% or more. Most government’s in the world have made primary education free and compulsory.  Everyone has the right to education. 

If education is given so much importance then where is the gap? Is our education system preparing students to solve tomorrow’s problems? Are the skills imparted even relevant?

We need to understand that the current education system is built on the industrial age model and focuses on IQ and in particular memorisation and standardisation. It was founded when industries needed workers with a relatively fixed set of skills and knowledge. 

These skills today are replaced by artificial and augmented intelligence (AI).  Anything that is routine and repetitive is getting automated. Only IQ alone is not sufficient. A good blend of IQ+EQ+RQ (Resilience) is required to unleash students potential. 

In the current world, job creation is slowing down, job destruction is increasing, redundant roles are getting automated. As per the “Future of Jobs” report 2020  published by the world economic forum, its estimated that by 2025, 85 million jobs maybe displaced by a shift in the division of labour between humans and machines, while 97 million new roles may emerge that are more adapted to the new division of labour between humans, machines and algorithms. 

“We are currently preparing students for jobs that don’t yet exist, using technologies that haven’t been invented, in order to solve problems we don’t even know are problems yet” – (source internet)

What skills are required today? We have quietly moved on to the “Conceptual age” where creators and empathizers are required. We have moved on from left brain thinking were logic was involved to Right brain thinking where creativity is required. Logic being taken over by AI. 

Students today require job readiness, the ability to compete against smart machines. It’s the era of innovation, disruption and constant change where adoptability and learning flexibility are required. Students today require skills that are more relevant to the 21st century.

What are 21st century skill sets?

1. Creativity and innovation – We need people who can think differently and use imagination to generate new ideas to solve problems. We need risk takers to take risks, to fail, to be different, to come up with unique solutions.
Creativity is the ability to perceive the world in new ways, to find hidden patterns, to make connections between unrelated phenomenon and to generate new solutions. 
Innovation is the process of turning a new concept into commercial success or widespread use.

2. Critical thinking and problem solving – Critical thinking skills includes observation, analysis, interpretation, reflection, evaluation, inference, problem solving, decision-making skills. The students should be able to think about the problem in a objective/critical way and process information to make better decisions and understand things better. 

Critical thinking is the opposite of the regular everyday thinking which the mind does almost automatically. When you think critically, you deliberate and analyse and understand better and arrive at a better understanding/decision.

We need students to ask more open ended questions, question the basic assumptions, be aware of how the mind processes information, think for oneself. 

3. Collaboration and Team work – Collaboration includes people working collaboratively to complete a project collectively whereas teamwork combines individual efforts of all team members to achieve a goal. Both involve working with a group of people to complete a shared goal.

Students should be encouraged to take part in group projects, team sports, doing things collectively as a team rather than as an individual so it helps understand each others better, connect with each other, communicate clearly and work towards the common goal. 

4. Communication – Communication includes verbal communication in which you listen to a person and understand their meaning, 

written communication in which  you read their meaning and 

Nonverbal communication in which you observe a person and infer meaning. 

When communicating it is important to be clear, concise, correct, coherent, complete and courteous. Students require these skills to be able to speak and convey owns thoughts, ideas, and express with a wide variety of people.

5. Empathy and emotional intelligence - Empathy is the ability to communicate and lead by understanding others' thoughts, views, and feelings. It is a crucial skill which allows students to understand other peoples perspectives and integrate that to their own thinking and to connect and work with the world better as the entire world is merging into one single global community. Emotional intelligence helps them to understand better and express themselves better, find a purpose and lead more satisfying lives. 

6. Adaptability and flexibility - Adaptability is more relevant today than any other time where the world is constantly going through changes every day. Students need to be able to adopt to changing circumstances, able to juggle multiple demands, adopt to new situations with fresh ideas. 

When they are flexible they are able to deal with unexpected challenges quickly, calmly, efficiently. 

7. Digital literacy -

a. Media literacy – Conventional media – TV, radio, newspaper and Digital media like the internet, email, social media

Media literacy is important so that students can be wiser consumers of media and responsible producers of own media

b. Information literacy – The ability to identify, apply, acknowledge and use the information available in a right way.

c. Technology literacy – The ability to adopt and use all the latest technologies available which could include smart phones, computers, emails, digital payments, ecommerce etc

Knowledge of this should enable the students to responsibly lead their digital lifestyles that we are all part of.

How can students acquire these skills? These skills cannot be learnt in isolation. Most of them overlap and all of them are essential. Students need to start taking up more collaborative projects, assignments, team work v/s individual work, take up team sports, participate in extra curricular activities, take up a hobby, pursue their passion which helps them prepare and get them job ready.

As students they can also take up internships to get an exposure to the real world problems while in school/college. 

They can sign up for community work, volunteering, social work, social projects, contribute to the society etc. Some of the students hobbies, passion can be converted into business ideas and entrepreneurship promoted even while in school.

As staff and education providers, teachers should encourage enquiry based learning, ask more open ended questions, assign collaborative projects, allow for student led and student centric learning, give them projects which requires creative, original thinking, solving real world problems. Promote entrepreneurship by creating more opportunities for them to experiment and innovate. Allow them to take risks and fail early on.

The illiterate of the 21st century will not be those who cannot read and write, but those who cannot learn, unlearn and relearn – Alvin Toffler

Whether we have realised it or not, we have already moved on to the conceptual age and to just not thrive, even to survive in todays changing times, we need to move on to new skills sets that equip us to keep pace with the changing world!

What is SEO in Digital Marketing?

Basics of Online Marketing/ Digital Marketing

I have been running www.inlinguabangalore.com for the last 15 years and www.Languagestation.org for the last 2 years and have been investing in Digital marketing for more than 10 years now, without fully understanding the specific analysis metrics and just going by the generic market information, until a colleague recently asked me what is the ROI and what are the measurement metrics that we are using for our business . It got me thinking and I realised its high time, that I started measuring the results and understanding the metrics behind it. So here’s a beginners guide to understanding online marketing. In this post I have given a brief insight of my understanding into SEO segment. SMM and SEM will be covered in the next posts.

Any Digital marketing covers 3 parts:

1.    SEO – Search Engine Optimisation

2.    SMM – Social Media Marketing

3.    SEM – Search Engine Marketing or Paid Marketing – Google ads, Social media ads, PPC(Pay per click)

SEO – Search Engine Optimisation

SEO is the process of increasing traffic to the website by completely natural, organic or unpaid methods which excludes paid or direct visitors to the website. In order to do this the Search Engine will scan or crawl different websites online to better understand what your website is about.

SEO uses key words(terms people use to search your product online) to attract a user to the website. For ex., “German language classes” is a keyword that is commonly used in searches for our website www.inlinguabangalore.com

There are 3 types of SEO. By breaking down your strategy and thinking into these 3 parts, it will be easier to execute the plans:

1. On-Page SEO (Content Optimisation)

2. Technical SEO (Crawling and Indexing)

3. Off page SEO  (Website Promotion)

Before you start, identify the keywords/ terms used most commonly by people who are searching for your services. Based on the search volume, relevance and competition you can come up with a list of keywords that you want to optimise. Google’s own key word tools can help here to decide which keywords are better performing in searches.

On-Page SEO:

While the search engines look at the website as a whole, ranking is performed on a page level basis. That’s why it is important to pay attention to the optimisation of each and every page on your website.

Optimising the page titles, tags, images, headings, page formatting helps.

Content SEO is a subset of on page SEO. Identifying the right keywords and including them and other related words onto the content of your page/website.
Publishing great content (Blogs, online PR etc) on various forums which users love and search engines pick up.

Technical SEO:

As the name indicates it means the technical parameters that affect the visibility of the site. The goal here is to ensure that search engine crawlers can crawl and index a website without any problems. Apart from the technical fixes on the site like the site and URL structure, the XML sitemap, optimising your robots.txt, specifying preferred domain name, fixing crawl errors, SEO friendly web design that loads fast on the desktop and mobile devices help.

Off Page SEO:

Is all about how your website is promoted on the Internet. Websites that are popular, rank higher on Google searches.  The methods used here are:

·      Link Building – It is the process of getting SEO backlinks from other websites. These links from other websites to your website increase the authority of your website.

·      Brand Promotion: The more you promote your brand and the more conversations people have in various social media channels and forums, the more Google rewards you by ranking you higher because people trust your brand.

Other SEOs:

Local SEO – Suited for local business only

Mobile SEO – Optimising your site for searches from mobile phones by ensuring the site is mobile friendly.

E-Commerce SEO – For E-commerce business.

White Hat SEO V/S Black Hat SEO:

All the above listed are White hat SEO techniques. Black Hat SEO is when you artificially create links to improve the rankings of a website on google. These methods are against google guidelines and needs to be avoided or else it could lead you to loosing your google rankings.

Measurement Metrics for SEO:

Reports Used:

Google Analytics Reports – Free report provided by Google

Webmaster Analytics report again by google.

Keyword Ranking: Looking at where your website ranks for a particular set of keywords can let you know if your SEO is working. The target here is to rank your website higher than your competitors. The top 3 slots on the first page of the site are considered the prime slot. There are some free tools which can give you a report on your rankings for various keywords.

Organic Traffic: Looking at the number of visitors to the website and where they are going can be a much healthier way of measuring the SEO work. Google Analytics report which Google provides for free can you give you the complete data. The report even gives you the number of organic searches from the search engine.

Organic Leads and Sales: The actual leads, sales, revenues and profits of the business should be the primary indicator. The Google analytics report can help you track the number of visitors landing on your website from organic source versus paid ads or any other channels.

More on SEM and SMM in the next posts!

References:

https://www.wordstream.com/blog/ws/2015/04/30/seo-basics

https://www.reliablesoft.net/types-of-seo/

Kundalini

What is Kundalini?

Kunda in Sanskrit means pit, cavity, pot. Kundal means coil and kundalini means that which is coiled.

Kundalini is the divine cosmic energy in our bodies. It is symbolised by a coiled and sleeping serpent. Snake is the symbol of kundalini.

This latent energy has to be awakened and made to go up the spine to the brain through Sushmna nadi, a channel through which the prana or the energy flows

Where is kundalini located? 

Seat of kundalini is a small gland at the base of the spinal cord. It is located at the base of the spine at the Mooladhara chakra.

In the Feminine body it is located at the root of the uterus in the cervix. In the masculine body, it is located in the perinium between the urinary and excretory organs.

How is Kundalini awakened?

It can be awakened by the regular practice of asanas, pranayama, kriya yoga, meditation. There are different ways to awaken it:
1. By Birth - in some people it is awakened by birth

2. Mantras, healing sounds, Music

3. Tapasya

4. consuming certain type of Herbs

5. Raja yoga, Hatha yoga
6.Pranayama
7. Kriya yoga
8. Tantric initiations
9. Shakthipat – initiation by guru
10. Self surrender

What happens when it is fully awakened?

Although kundalini is said to reside in mooladhara chakra, we are all at different stages of evolution and in some of us kundalini may have already reached swadhishtana, manipura or anhata chakra. Once it is awakened in Sahshrara a new consciousness, super consciousness emerges, experience and knowledge becomes completely independent and different parts of the brain gets activated and the person becomes fully conscious and reaches Samadhi.

 How was Kundalini discovered?

Man realised that in every individual there is a special form of energy. In some people it was dormant and in others it was evolving and in a very small minority it was actually awakened.

Originally man named this energy after gods, divinity, angels etc and then when he discovered prana and called it prana shakthi. In Tantra yoga it is called Kundalini.

How do Mudras, Bandhas and Granthis help in awakening it?
Mudras and Bandhas trap the prana and helps unblock the nadis and allows the prana to flow upwards.

Moola Bandha – When moolabandha closes the lower opening and traps prana and this helps to unblock the central sushmna channel allowing kundalini to rise.

Jalandhar Bandha – This closes the wind pipe and traps prana

Kechari Mudra – Closes top of sushmna trapping bindu.

Granthis are psychic knots in the physical body which are obstacles on the path of the awakened kundalini. The 3 granthis are Brahma, Vishnu, and Rudra granthi. And they represent levels of awareness where the attachment to material things,  ignorance, power of maya,  is specially strong. Each aspirant must transcend these barriers to make a clear passageway for the ascending kundalini.

What is the link between Nadis, Chakras and kundalini?

It is only when the energies in the Ida and Pingala nadis are completely balanced, Kundalini energy starts moving upwards in the central sushmna nadi. Ida and Pingala are like intertwined serpents and they intersect each other at 7 points along the spine and these intersection points are called Chakras.

If all the Chakras are awakened, can the Kundalini raise to Sahasrara?

It is not just the awakening of the chakras. The first step is to discipline the Ida and Pingala nadi. Only when both these nadis are disciplined and balanced, the prana can flow up.
The second step is that the chakras have to be awakened, meaning, there are no blockages in them and they are open.

The third step is the awakening of the suhmna nadi.
Only when all these 3 are disciplined and awakened, the Kundalini energy starts moving upwards.

Why does the serpent symbol of kundalini have 3 and half coils?

3 coils signify:

3 Matras of OM – past, present and future

3 Gunas – Tamas, Rajas, Satva

3 states of consciousness – waking, sleeping, dreaming

3 states of experience – subjective, sensual and absence of experience

3 coils signify the total experience of universe and the half coil which is opened up signifies the experience of transcendence.

Who can awaken Kundalini?

It is not only the saints and sadhus who have awakened kundalini. Poets, painters, warriors, writers, scientists and many others have awakened it. Kundalini is the creative energy. It is the energy of self expression. Awakening Kundalini is the prime purpose of human incarnation.

Shatdarshanas and Indian thought System

Comparative Study of Shatdarshanas:

Evolution of the Indian thought systems

The goal of any of the thought systems/study/philosophies is to end human suffering by seeking out the truth or the true knowledge of reality.

Truth is a subjective experience and is inherently multi dimensional with multiple perspectives. However, the study mostly includes the Man/Microcosm and the nature/universe also known as the Macrocosm and the interplay between the two.
The truth is known either by:

Shruthi (Hearing) -  Direct experience, or by

Smriti  (Memorising) - Indirect experience/ Study of other people’s experiences

Shruthi / Vedas

Vedas is the oldest body of knowledge. The word Veda is derived from the Sanskrit root word “Vid” means to know, perceive, to attain, to comprehend.
It is the expression of the experience of reality. It was heard by the Seers in deep states of clarity. Therefore it is also called Shruthi – that which was heard.
It is considered  Apourusheya, meaning divine, and hence not of human origin. Therefore, it is considered the primary authority. It is Esoteric and abstract.  It is also difficult to navigate and make sense.

Veda Vyasa divided the vast body of knowledge into 4 vedas

1.    Rig Veda – Hymns of Praise

2.    Yajur Veda – Ritualistic Hymns

3.    Sama Veda – Songs of Praise

4.    Atharva Veda – Book of Formulae

And each of the 4 vedas was divided into 4 sections based on the content.

1.    Samhita – It is the early part of the vedas consisting of Hymns, devoted to the forces of nature – Indira, Varuna, Agni, Surya etc. It was Poetic and magical. It creates Wonder

2.    Brahmana – This part contains Liturgies and rituals one must carry out to tame the forces of nature. The “How to worship”. It deals with the Karma kanda.

3.    Aranyaka – This part contains the philosophical speculation on the nature of reality. Also, contains objects of meditation.

4.    Upanishad – Last part of the vedas containing the crème of philosophical thought. Deals with Jnanakanda – 10 principal Upanishads.

These 4 parts also reflect the 4 stages of the human life.

Childhood -

Adulthood –

Retirement -
Old age –

Smriti

It means to memorise or which is remembered.

It contains scriptures of secondary authority in terms of

Literature, lives, teachings of Rishis.

Pourushay – meaning having human origin, written by seers

Digestible and accessible since it gives context to knowledge

Under Smriti – There are 6 divisions

1.    Upavedas – subsidiary vedic texts – applied knowledge –

Ayurveda (Medicine),
Dhanurveda (Archery),
Gandharva veda (Dance and Music),

Stapathyaveda (Architecture)

2.    Vedangas – The 6 limbs of the vedas -

The six Vedangas are
Siksha,  - Phonetics
Chhandas,  - metre
Vyakarana,  - grammer
Nirukta,  - etymology
Jyotisha - astronomy
Kalpa – ritual

3.    ShatDarshana – The 6 schools of philosophy

4.    Purana – Traditional legends

5.    Ithiasa – Historical events

6.    Dharma Sastras – Socio religious works

Darshanas

That which shows you the truth. It is based on the knowledge of the vedas. It is written mainly in the form of Sutras (Aphorisms)

Broad principles:

The individual self is a spiritual being

The root of suffering is ignorance

The goal of each philosophy is to end the suffering

Belief in the idea of Karma

The individual self who follows any of the six systems observes the same Sadhana as the followers of other systems. Sadhana consists of the basic practices of purification and self control.

The 6 Darshanas are – Shatdarshanas: (Shat meaning 6)

1.    Nyyaya – propounded by Sage Goutama and the principles are based on Logic and analysis. So it is called Realistic School

2.    Vaisheshika – Sage Kanda – Atomist School. Classify the entities present to human perceptions

3.    Sankhya – Sage kapila – Enumerationist school. Exploring the ultimate objects of reality

4.    Yoga – Sage Patanjali – Practical School

5.    Purva Mimamsa – Sage Jaimini – Ritualistic school – Fruitful actions, dharma

6.    Vedantha / Uttara Mimamsa – sage Vyasa – Philosophical school – derived from Upanishads, Baghavad Gita and Bramha Sutras

1.Nyyaya – propounded by Sage Goutama and the principles are based on Logic and analysis. So it is called Realistic School

It is a Sanskrit word which literally means rules, method or judgement. This school's most significant contributions to Indian philosophy was systematic development of the theory  of  logic methodology, and its treatises on epistemology.

The Nyyaya school of philosophy believes that the following pramanas (proof of knowledge) are a reliable way to gain knowledge. Pratyakṣa (perception),
Anumāṇa (inference),
Upamāṇa (comparison and analogy) and
Śabda (word, testimony of past or present reliable experts)

The Nyaya school considers perception, inference, comparison/analogy, and testimony from reliable sources as four means to correct knowledge, holding that perception is the ultimate source of such knowledge.^[

Naiyyayika scholars approached philosophy as a form of direct realism, stating that anything that really exists is in principle humanly knowable. To them, correct knowledge and understanding is different from simple, reflexive cognition; it requires Anuvyavasaya (cross-examination of cognition, reflective cognition of what one thinks one knows). An influential collection of texts on logic and reason is the Nyayasutras, attributed to Aksapada Gautama, variously estimated to have been composed between 6th-century BCE and 2nd-century CE.

2.Vaisheshika – Sage Kanda – Atomist School. Classify the entities present to human perceptions

Vaisheshika school is known for its insights in naturalism. It is a form of atomism in natural philosophy. It postulated that all objects in the physical universe are reducible to paramāṇu (atoms), and one's experiences are derived from the interplay of substance (a function of atoms, their number and their spatial arrangements), quality, activity, commonness, particularity and inherence. Everything was composed of atoms, qualities emerged from aggregates of atoms, but the aggregation and nature of these atoms was predetermined by cosmic forces. Ajivika metaphysics included a theory of atoms which was later adapted in Vaiśeṣika school.

According to Vaiśeṣika school, knowledge and liberation were achievable by a complete understanding of the world of experience.

Vaiśeṣika darshana was founded by Kaṇāda Kashyapa around the 6th to 2nd century BC.

The epistemology of Vaiśeṣika school of Hinduism, like Buddhism, accepted only two reliable means to knowledge: perception and inference.

3.Sankhya – Sage kapila – Enumerationist school. Exploring the ultimate objects of reality

These include pratyakṣa (perception), anumāṇa (inference) and śabda (āptavacana, word/testimony of reliable sources). Sometimes described as one of the rationalist schools of Indian philosophy, this ancient school's reliance on reason was exclusive but strong.

Samkhya is strongly dualist. Sāmkhya philosophy regards the universe as consisting of two realities, puruṣa (consciousness) and prakṛti (matter). Jiva (a living being) is that state in which puruṣa is bonded to prakṛti in some form. This fusion, state the Samkhya scholars, led to the emergence of buddhi ("intellect") and ahaṅkāra (ego consciousness). The universe is described by this school as one created by purusa-prakṛti entities infused with various combinations of variously enumerated elements, senses, feelings, activity and mind. During the state of imbalance, one or more constituents overwhelm the others, creating a form of bondage, particularly of the mind. The end of this imbalance, bondage is called liberation, or kaivalya, by the Samkhya school.

Samkhya, also referred to as Sankhya, Sāṃkhya, or Sāṅkhya, is a Sanskrit word that, depending on the context, means "to reckon, count, enumerate, calculate, deliberate, reason, reasoning by numeric enumeration, relating to number, rational." In the context of ancient Indian philosophies, Samkhya refers to the philosophical school in Hinduism based on systematic enumeration and rational examination.

Samkhya is known for its theory of guṇas (qualities, innate tendencies). Guṇa, it states, are of three types: 

1.    sattva being goodness, compassion, illumination, and positivity; 

2.    rajas being activity, chaos, passion, and impulsivity, potentially good or bad; and

3.    tamas being the quality of darkness, ignorance, destruction, lethargy, negativity.

All matter (prakṛti), states Samkhya, has these three guṇas, but in different proportions. The interplay of these guṇas defines the character of someone or something, of nature and determines the progress of life. The Samkhya theory of guṇas was widely discussed, developed and refined by various schools of Indian philosophies. Samkhya's philosophical treatises also influenced the development of various theories of Hindu ethics.

Evolution in Samkhya is thought to be purposeful. The two primary purposes of evolution of prakṛti are the enjoyment and the liberation of Purusha. The 23 evolutes of prakṛti are categorized as follows:

Primordial matter	prakṛti; puruṣa	Root evolvent
Internal instruments	Intellect (Buddhi or Mahat), Ego-sense (Ahamkāra), Mind (Manas)	Evolvent
External instruments	Five Sense organs (Jnānendriyas), Five Organs of action (Karmendriyas)	Evolute
Subtle elements	Form (Rupa), Sound (Shabda), Smell (Gandha), Taste (Rasa), Touch (Sparsha).	Evolvent
Gross elements	Earth (Prithivi), Water (Jala), Fire (Agni), Air (Vāyu), Ether (Ākāsha).	Evolute

4.Yoga – Sage Patanjali – Practical School

Yoga is a group of physical, mental, and spiritual practices or disciplines which originated in ancient India.

There is a broad variety of yoga schools, practices, and goals in Hinduism, Buddhism, and Jainism. The term "Yoga" in the Western world often denotes a modern form of hatha yoga and yoga as exercise, consisting largely of the postures called asanas.

The origins of yoga have been speculated to date back to pre-vedic Indian traditions; possibly in the Indus valley civilization around 3000 BCE. It is mentioned in the Rigveda, but yoga most likely developed as a systematic study around the 5th and 6th centuries BCE, in ancient India's ascetic and śramaṇa movements. The chronology of earliest texts describing yoga-practices is unclear, varyingly credited to Upanishads. The Yoga Sutras of Patanjali date from the 2nd century BCE, and gained prominence in the west in 20th century after being first introduced by Swami Vivekananda. Hatha yoga texts emerged sometimes between the 9th and 11th century with origins in tantra.

The word Yoga in Sanskrit is derived from the root Yuj which means to attach, join, harness.

The ultimate goal of Yoga is Moksha (liberation), although the exact form this takes depends on the philosophical or theological system with which it is conjugated.

In the classical Astanga yoga system, the ultimate goal of yoga practice is to achieve the state of Samadhi and abide in that state as pure awareness.

(Notes on Yantra, Tantra, Mantra, Mandalas, Laya yoga, Kundalini yoga, Ashtanga and Hatha yoga pending)

References to Yoga is made in all religions including Islam and Christianity, Alexanders chronicles, Tibetian and Zen Budhism, Jainism, western world etc. and also in Mahabaratha and Bagvad Gita

5. Purva Mimamsa – Sage Jaimini – Ritualistic school – Fruitful actions, dharma

Mīmāmsa is a Sanskrit word that means "reflection" or "critical investigation" and thus refers to a tradition of contemplation which reflected on the meanings of certain Vedic text^. This tradition is also known as Pūrva-Mīmāṃsā because of its focus on the earlier (pūrva) Vedic texts dealing with ritual actions, and similarly as Karma-Mīmāṃsā due to its focus on ritual action (karma). It is one of six Vedic "affirming" (āstika) schools of Hinduism. This particular school is known for its philosophical theories on the nature of dharma, based on hermeneutics of the Vedas, especially the Brāḥmanas and Saṃhitas. The Mīmāṃsā school was foundational and influential for the vedāntic schools, which were also known as Uttara-Mīmāṃsā for their focus on the "later" (uttara) portions of the Vedas, the Upaniṣads. While both "earlier" and "later" Mīmāṃsā investigate the aim of human action, they do so with different attitudes towards the necessity of ritual praxis.

6. Vedantha/ Uttara Mimamsa – sage Vyasa – Philosophical school – derived from Upanishads.

The word Vedanta literally means the end of the Vedas and originally referred to the Upanishads.^[1] Vedanta was concerned with the jñānakāṇḍa or Vedic knowledge part called the Upanishads. The denotation of Vedanta subsequently widened to include the various philosophical traditions based on to the Prasthanatrayi.

The Upanishads may be regarded as the end of Vedas in different senses:

1.   These were the last literary products of the Vedic period.

2.   These mark the culmination of Vedic thought.

3.   These were taught and debated last, in the Brahmacharya (student) stage.

Vedanta is one of the six orthodox (āstika) schools of Indian philosophy. It is also called Uttara Mīmāṃsā, the 'latter enquiry' or 'higher enquiry'; and is often contrasted with Pūrva Mīmāṃsā, the 'former enquiry' or 'primary enquiry'. Pūrva Mīmāṃsā deals with the karmakāṇḍa or rituals part (the Samhita and Brahmanas) in the Vedas.

The Upanishads, the Bhagavad Gita and the Brahma Sutras constitute the basis of Vedanta. All schools of Vedanta propound their philosophy by interpreting these texts, collectively called the Prasthanatrayi, literally, three sources.

1.   The Upanishads, or Śruti prasthāna; considered the Sruti, the “heard” (and repeated) foundation of Vedanta.

2.   The Brahma Sutras, or Nyaya prasthana / Yukti prasthana; considered the reason-based foundation of Vedanta.

3.   The Bhagavad Gita, or Smriti prasthāna; considered the Smriti (remembered tradition) foundation of Vedanta.

The Brahma Sutras attempted to synthesize the teachings of the Upanishads. The diversity in the teaching of the Upanishads necessitated the systematization of these teachings. This was likely done in many ways in ancient India, but the only surviving version of this synthesis is the Brahma Sutras of Badarayana.

All major Vedantic teachers, including Shankara, Bhaskara, Ramanuja, Nimbarka, Vallabha, Madhva, and Swami Bhadreshdas have composed commentaries not only on the Upanishads and Brahma Sutras, but also on the Bhagavad Gita. The Bhagavad Gita, due to its syncretism of Samkhya, Yoga, and Upanishadic thought, has played a major role in Vedantic thought.

 ^{Bhagavad Gita}

The Bhagavad Gita ("The Song of God"), often referred to as the Gita, is a 700-verse Sanskrit scripture that is part of the Hindu epic Mahabharata (chapters 23–40 of Bhishma Parva).

The Gita is set in a narrative framework of a dialogue between Pandava prince Arjuna and his guide and charioteer Krishna. At the start of the Dharma Yudhha (righteous war) between Pandavas and Kauravas,

The Bhagavad Gita presents a synthesis of Hindu ideas about dharma, theistic bhakti, and the yogic ideals of moksha. The text covers jnana, bhakti, karma, and Raja Yoga incorporating ideas from the Samkhya-Yoga philosophy.

The Bhagavad Gita is the best known and most famous of Hindu texts, with a unique pan-Hindu influence. The Gita's call for selfless action inspired many leaders of the Indian independence movement including Bal Gangadhar Tilak and Mahatma Gandhi; the latter referred to it as his "spiritual dictionary".