To most of the 17 million people in the United States who practice yoga, it is all about asanas—the physical poses—but the physical is only one part of the yoga sutras composed by the sage Patanjali. His description of yoga as an eightfold path to self-realization has been reiterated thousands of times by enlightened masters, yet very few in our country understand or embrace the spiritual aspect. A profound spiritual philosophy has been reduced at the systemic level to a bunch of physical postures.
By exploring this situation as a community, we can identify some factors that caused this situation and explore solutions to make it better. It will require the entire yoga industry to take the discussion on yoga to the next level. Systemic problems do not develop overnight, nor are they created by just one person. All the stakeholders—yoga practitioners, yoga studios, yoga schools and certifying agencies—have contributed to the reduction of yoga to asanas. Now it is up to all stakeholders to come together and find ways to recognize and embrace the spiritual aspects of yoga.
Roots of Yoga
The way yoga is practiced today may imply that it has its roots in Hinduism, but it is quite the contrary. Yoga was the spiritual faith and way of life during the Vedic period, long before the formation of a Hindu religion. Oneness and universal consciousness were the fundamental tenets of the yogic philosophy. The early Vedic scriptures did not mention any specific gods; they mentioned just one creator, referred to as Ishvara. The concept of the trinity—Brahma, Vishnu and Shiva—as three instances of Ishvara was put forth much later.
To a non-Indian, Hinduism is the conduit to yoga, and it’s difficult to see a difference between the two. If a person has been on the yogic path long enough, he will realize that Hinduism is yoga wrapped in labyrinths of myths, superstitions and traditions. Traditions are sometimes useful in instilling discipline and focus into a spiritual practice, but it is unnecessary if one can see beyond religion to our underlying universality. So followers of different religions need to know that yoga is safe, they will not be converting to Hinduism if they embrace the spiritual side of yoga.
The bīja mantras used in yoga, such as “Om” or “So ham,” don’t refer to any particular Hindu god; and the Gāyatri mantra is an invocation to the universal consciousness to take us from ignorance to wisdom. Many meditation techniques mentioned in the yoga scriptures do not have any religious undertones, but are merely practical approaches to control the activity of the mind. Yoga instructors should recognize this universal aspect of yoga and offer their students universal mantras or secular meditation techniques, which can be easily found.
Levels of Training
While it’s wonderful to see so many people training to be teachers, most training programs are taught in 200-hour formats with the majority of the time spent in the instruction of asanas. A 200-hour course can’t do justice to the asanas alone, never mind the rest. With just a passing acquaintance with the other limbs of Raja yoga, how can new yoga instructors possibly teach them? Yoga is a science that takes many hours of training and years of practice before one can teach it. Is it fair to certify students with so little training? Does a physics teacher train for just 200 hours? Would we send our kids to a school where teachers had only 200 hours of training? Would we entrust our mental health to a therapist with only 200 hours of education? So then, why are we satisfied with yoga instructors with 200 hours of training? If we insist on more knowledgeable teachers, the schools will comply.
The certifying bodies have a big role to play here. If they change the requirements to include more limbs of yoga, the schools will follow their guidelines. Perhaps there could be two levels of certification. For a “registered yoga therapist,” certification should be increased to 500 hours, which would be sufficient time to get a comprehensive perspective of all the limbs of yoga. Anyone interested in only the fitness aspect of yoga could train for 200 hours and be certified as a “yoga asana instructor.”
Spiritual Consumerism
American corporations love the mantra, “The customer is always right,” and they’ve made billions of dollars by customizing their products and services to customers’ needs. This successful strategy from the material world has dire consequences for our spiritual practice. Customizing or consumerizing often results in some kind of compromise, as has happened with yoga.
The yogic path is built on the foundation of morals, disciplines and techniques to curb the fluctuations of the mind. In pursuit of quick and easy results, many yoga consumers have shunned these preparatory stages and jumped straight to the easier aspects of yoga, such as asanas, and yoga schools and instructors have been only too happy to respond to their desires. Of course yoga instructors and schools want to make an income, but at what cost? In consumerizing yoga, the authenticity of the practice is being lost and the message is being diluted. Where spiritual matters are concerned, if the customers were always right, they wouldn’t need any spiritual help in the first place! It is our dharma as teachers to help them embrace the spiritual aspects of yoga, so suppressing key information or changing yoga dramatically to increase our income is not yogic.
Teaching yoga was never designed to be a business, and we need to be aware of the negative impacts that business decisions can have on the practice of yoga. Our challenge is to work together to find ways to teach yoga, be authentic to the practice, help people and still make a good living.
Yoga teacher and entrepreneur Arvind Chittumalla is founder of the Moksha Festival and Yogiloka.com. We join him in inviting you to be part of this conversation. Please write to editor@wholelifemagazine.com
1 Comment
Namaste Arvind – We at the Hindu American Foundation (HAF) find it disheartening that you have chosen to perpetuate the unfortunate delinking of yoga from its Hindu roots. Your argument that yoga/Vedic and Hindu are distinct or separate is similar to one that Deepak Chopra made last year and rather erroneous. The Vedas are Hinduism’s most sacred scripture, and while the term “Hindu” may post-date the Vedas, Vedic teachings are the same as Hindu teachings. The term “Hinduism” is of relatively recent origin, but it is accepted today as a handy substitute for the perhaps more accurate but difficult to pronounce name, Sanatana Dharma, the eternal religion, to which you refer.
Secondly, the goals of yoga and Hinduism are the same. Patanjali describes the goal of Yoga as chitta-vritti-nirodha or “the cessation of mental fluctuations”, a core concept also expounded in Hinduism’s Bhagavad Gita: “Thus always absorbing one’s self in yoga, the yogi, whose mind is subdued, achieves peace that culminates in the highest state of Nirvana, which rests in me [Lord Krishna/Brahman/Supreme Reality].”
Thirdly, while I agree with your point that yoga extends far beyond just an asana practice, it is worthwhile examining the asanas, specifically the naming convention. As the legendary Yoga guru B.K.S Iyengar aptly points out in his famous Light on Yoga, “Some asanas are also called after Gods of the Hindu pantheon and some recall the Avataras, or incarnations of Divine Power.” It is disappointing to hear that despite asanas such as Hanumanasana or Natarajasana, you continue to deny the Hindu roots of Yoga.
Lastly, may I point out that the Gayatri mantra, which you also dismiss as non-Hindu, is in fact name after the Hindu Goddess Gayatri and chanted frequently by Hindus at Hindu temples. Even a simple Wikipedia search makes that more than apparent.
Due to pieces such as yours, the Hindu American Foundation launched its Take Back Yoga campaign two years ago in an effort to reverse the delinking of yoga with its Hindu roots. I hope you’ll take time to visit the site, which includes, amongst other papers and blogs, a link to the debate that one of our Board members had with Deepak Chopra on the Washington Post: http://newsweek.washingtonpost.com/onfaith/undergod/2010/04/shukla_and_chopra_the_great_yoga_debate.html.
Sheetal Shah
Senior Director
Hindu American Foundation