Is Yoga a Religion?

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Yoga is clearly inherent in Buddhism, Hinduism and Jainism, which are most often referred to as separate religions. So which religion is Yoga? Is it that Yoga is a fourth religion, along side of Buddhism, Hinduism and Jainism?

The fact that Yoga is “in” Buddhism, that it is “in” Hinduism, and that it is “in” Jainism shows that Yoga is not, in itself, one and the same with those religions. The notion of Yoga is that if you set aside the false identities of who you incorrectly think you are, you will rest in your true nature. Yoga Sutras (1.2-1.3) specifically defines Yoga as the “nirodhah” (regulation, integrating, setting aside, letting go, transcending) of the swirls of thought patterns of the mind-field, and suggests that once that happens, one rests in his or her true nature.

Such processes are widely known as “purifying” in many, if not most or all of the more known religions. Yoga is, itself, such a purifying process. Surely, we would not call “purifying” a religion unto itself. The fact that practitioners of Yoga may do that purifying in the context of “a religion” does not mean that the underlying process of purifying is, itself, a religion. If you were to call it a religion, what religion would you call it?