In yoga, we work on our prana energy which is in the form of our breath inhalation and exhalation. By stopping the breath,it freezes the mind for that moment, in that very moment we are not able to think, we are not able to plan, we are neither in future nor in the past, for the moment we are absolute in the present and that very instant we enter into yoga.

The whole effort of yoga is to stop the breath (or to freeze the breath that is also called khumbhaka).Initially, we have to work hard  to control the breath eventually it start happening naturally by regular practice.

Practice of yoga help us to restrain our breath either by doing asana or by pranayama. Yoga works on controlling your breath thus helping us to calm the  emotional turbulence in the mind.  Our mind ,body and breath are closely connected to each other thus  by controlling the breath the balance of body and mind is maintained.

Patanjali defined Yoga as ‘chitta vritti Nirodha’  Chitta mean mind, Vritti means Pattern of your thoughts and Nirodha means to control or still the activity of the mind.  When you freeze the activities of the mind, you are in yoga hence mind and body both are in equilibrium with each other.

In religion, we work on mind whereas in yoga we work on breath. Which is more scientific that is why yoga is not considered as a religion. It is a pure science. Everything is pure logic like 2+2=4. Patanjali was a scientist who did everything logically and discover the path of yoga.