The 2025 Yoga Darśana Yoga Sādhana conference at Arihanta Institute (YDYS@AI) is a three-day, online, public-facing event bringing the latest scholarship in yoga studies to the global yoga public. 

 

Each panel at YDYS@AI carefully pairs philologists, historians, and scholars of modern yoga studies working on closely related projects. Participants will observe both the continuities and discontinuities between the ancient, classical, medieval, and modern periods, thereby learning some of the potential sources of their contemporary yoga practices and philosophies but also understanding how they are a product of their historical moment as well as how they have changed through time.

 

Rather than try to produce clear connections between the past and present or notions of authenticity, scholars in the field of yoga studies will demonstrate the complexity around such projects seeking to establish origins for contemporary yoga practices. Conference attendees will thereby learn new ways to assess their own yoga practices critically and with complexity in light of philological, historical, and social-scientific methods used in the field of yoga studies.

 

Each day features a keynote speaker followed by two panels moderated by a scholar familiar with the particular area of focus who will guide the Q&A and discussion.

 

 

Yoga Studies Research Network
August 8, 2025 | 8:00 a.m. - 8:55 a.m.  Pacific

 

 

 

The 4th International Yoga Darśana Yoga Sādhana Conference will take place from Wednesday, May 27, 2026 midday to the evening of Friday, May 29, 2026 in collaboration with the Center for South Asian and Himalayan Studies (CESAH) at the School for Higher Social Sciences (EHESS) in Paris. 

The theme will be "authenticity, authority and adaptation." 

Call for papers and further details to follow in due course.