Yoga is one of India’s oldest and most comprehensive soteriological traditions, which has developed a vast arsenal of physical and mental techniques geared to gain control over the nervous system in order to achieve, at will, conscious and supraconscious states of transcendence. In order to appreciate the unique contribution of Yoga to our understanding of the human condition, this age-old tradition is best viewed from the kind of broad perspective of the human potential that characterizes transpersonal psychology and psychosomatic medicine. Yoga therapy is of modern coinage and represents a first effort to integrate traditional yogic concepts and techniques with Western medical and psychological knowledge. Whereas traditional Yoga is primarily concerned with personal transcendence on the part of a "normal" or healthy individual, Yoga therapy aims at the holistic treatment of various kinds of psychological or somatic dysfunctions ranging from back problems to emotional distress. Both approaches, however, share an understanding of the human being as an integrated body-mind system, which can function optimally only when there is a state of dynamic balance.