Bikram and Ethical Yoga

By God’s grace one is born as a human being. Try to make the best of this opportunity.

~ Sri Anandamayi Ma

There is a story I heard somewhere of a spiritual hermit who lived in the woods far from the mental contagion of human society.  He lived out in a forest and even went so far as to build a shelter in a tree where he could meditate without being interrupted.  Nonetheless local people discovered him, learned of his wisdom and would come out from time to time to ask him questions about life.  Eventually the local governor heard of his existence and decided that he needed to impress his subjects by going through the motions of consulting this crazy person. 

He arrived on site accompanied by his retinue and proceeded to address the holy hermit.  He called up, “I have heard of your great wisdom and have come to seek your guidance.”

After a pause the hermit answered, “What is your question?”

The governor was nonplussed.  He was used receiving information without questioning, following the rules as modeled by his peers and most basically, never questioning anything.  He had to think for a minute.  Finally he replied, “How can I find enlightenment?”

The hermit replied, “Be kind and do no harm.” 

The governor replied, “That’s it?  That is the extent of your wisdom?  I was taught that as a child.”

“Easy to say,” replied the hermit, “but hard to practice.”

Yoga is essentially a spiritual discipline.  It is not a religious discipline although it can be incorporated to the benefit of any religious tradition.  It is a holistic and integrative discipline, something hard to grasp with our fragmented modern/post-modern minds.  It is a discipline to help us disconnect from the false conditioning of our lives and to reconnect with our authentic being.  Religion is basically a form of conditioning.  Yoga is about spiritual practice and spiritual evolution.  It is experiential rather than dogmatic.

Having said this, it is somewhat disheartening to look around at the state of yoga education which is currently popular in the West.  A recent article in Elephant Journal article addresses the fact that many so-called yoga instructors do not meditate. (http://www.elephantjournal.com/2011/03/why-yogis-dont-meditate/)  From my understanding of the yoga tradition as I have studied and practiced it both at home and in India, the idea of a “yogi” who does not meditate is an oxymoron.  An instructor who is not personally familiar with some form of meditation practice is not a yoga instructor.  He or she might be a teacher of calisthenics but not yoga.

The physical practices of yoga, i.e. asana, are a small subset of what is all about.  There are various definitions of yoga throughout the literature.  For example Patanjali states, “Yoga means bringing the patterns of mind into a state of stillness.”  In a similar vein, Krishna, in the Bhagavad Gita states, “Yoga means complete mental equanimity.”  Another definition found throughout the traditional literature is that yoga means the union of the individual self and the Universal Self.  All three definitions point to the same thing: a transcendence of the conceptual ego and the realization of a deeper dimension of being; or more simply put “inner peace.”

This may or may not bring us to the peculiar case of Mr. Choudhury.  To be honest I have never been a fan of his style of yoga.  I have had friends who tried out or were even fond of his “hot Yoga.”  From my training at the Bihar School of Yoga, it seemed to make no sense.  It seemed to be about a particular sequence of asanas (postures) without any regard to individual needs, superficial in that in only focuses on the body and perhaps, um “stinky.”  My greatest reservation was that it did not seem to be connected to the greater, spiritual dimension of yoga (in which case, as noted above, it is not yoga.)

My concerns have been recently confirmed by a series of lawsuits brought against Bikram Choudhury. (http://blogs.yogajournal.com/yogabuzz/2013/07/will-bikram-yoga-survive.html)  Overall it appears that his yoga concession is a travesty of the yoga tradition.  If the charges are true, he is guilty of sexual harassment and rape.  Beyond the criminal scope the reports are that he is racist, misogynistic and homophopic.  He definitely does not seem to exemplify the loving openness and self-discipline that is the heart of yoga. 

Of course it is easy to judge and judgment is a characteristic of limited ego-identification.  On the other hand we need to use discernment and discrimination in a wise way to avoid the snake oil sellers on the path.  The Universal Being uses us all at times as teachers and as students.  An errant guru may impart as much wisdom as a “good” one.  The teaching is always relevant to where we are in terms of our own psycho-spiritual development.