On the Schizophrenic Nature of Modern Yoga

Yoga means complete evenness of mind.

-    Krishna

 

 

Again and again we come back to this question: what is yoga?  Maybe more pertinently, is our modern version of yoga really yoga at all?  The tradition of yoga as it comes to us from India is deeply spiritual.  It is about discovering our true nature – beyond body and beyond the formulations of our mind.  It is about revealing our essential being underneath the layers of illusion, confusion and delusion. 

 

Unfortunately our modern Western versions of yoga have little to do with this.  They seem to be almost completely focused on the body with perhaps some lip service to a higher ideal.  It is yoga designed to appeal to the superficial, consumer mentality.  “Never mind your inner, immortal soul.  Let’s work on toning those glutes.”  This is unfortunate because yoga is a means to our spiritual evolution.  When it is misinterpreted, commercially packaged and commodified, it becomes something more anti-yoga.

 

Dereck Beres has written an interesting and valuable post entitled “The Schizophrenic Nature of Modern Yoga.”  (https://medium.com/@derekberes/the -schizophrenic-nature -of-modern-yoga- 8fe1d14f9b04)  It is an insightful perspective on the yoga industry that has arisen in our culture.  It is an industry that focuses on profits and seeks to credential teachers through an expensive process that is essentially meaningless.  As Beres puts it, “Consider a few aspects of the 200-hour training program, of which there is extremely little oversight from the organization itself. Basically, you mail in your curriculum, pay your fee, they take your money and send you a logo. To stay registered, you keep paying an annual fee.”

 

Then you open your studio, teach physical postures and call this yoga.  It is a travesty.  In truth it is hard to define exactly what yoga is.  There are a variety of approaches, however the methods all lead to one supreme goal: Self-Realization.  Certainly exercise is good for you but exercise is not yoga.  There has to be a deeper teaching, a reorientation of mind and a pointing to the awareness that underlies all experience. 

 

Although I was vaguely aware of “postural yoga” in my younger years, I was mainly motivated by reading the Bhagavad Gita, an exposition of yoga by Lord Krishna.  The “Gita” does not even mention postures (except in reference to sitting for meditation.)  Instead Krishna focuses on meditation, selfless service and devotion.  This is the true orientation of yoga: unifying the individual with the universal spirit.  This seemingly simple formula is a means of transformation and transcendent bliss.  Another book that impressed me deeply was Autobiography of a Yogi by Paramhansa Yogananda.  Anyone has read it knows that it is not full of stories about the asanas he perfected.

 

Hatha yoga is the branch of yoga that deals with asanas, or postures.  It also includes pranayama which is a means of working with the life-force or prana through the breath.  These practices offer wonderful health benefits both physically and psychologically.  Within the yoga tradition they are meant as preliminary practices for meditation.  The Hatha Yoga Pradipika, a classic treatise on Hatha yoga states that it is offered “. . . solely and exclusively for the attainment of Raja yoga.”  Raja yoga is the path of meditation.

    

The practice of Hatha yoga is meant to reduce distractions such as pain and illness, restlessness, lethargy, etc. that get in the way of sitting quietly and focusing inwardly.  The physical benefits such as health, beauty, youthful vitality, etc. are considered “side-effects” albeit very positive ones.  There are other important paths of yoga, while Hatha yoga is a preliminary to Raja yoga, there is also Bhakti Yoga – the path of devotion, Jnana yoga – the path of wisdom, Karma yoga – the path of selfless service. 

 

There are also various types of yoga practice which incorporate aspects of these paths.  Kundalini Kriya Yoga for example combines elements of Hatha and Raja yoga as means of awakening the Chakras (centers of psychic energy within the body), Nadis (energy channels) and Kundalini (the dormant energy potential which leads to spiritual awakening.)  A true yogic lifestyle incorporates aspects of all paths to form Poorna, or complete yoga. 

 

Interestingly Beres dismisses the importance of the Chakras as part of yoga teacher training. Actually the understanding of the elements of the energy body, i.e. chakras and nadis is essential to yoga.  The energy (prana) body underlies the physical and imbalances in it contribute to both physical and psychological diseases.  Yoga helps us to align the physical, energetic, mental and spiritual aspects of our beings.  It is a science of integration and wholeness.

 

If yoga has become schizophrenic in our modern culture it is because it has become disconnected from its roots.  It has been misinterpreted and commodified for modern consumption.  If people are coming to yoga classes primarily for physical exercise they don’t really want yoga.  They want Pilates, or Zumba or something else.  If we are going to call it yoga it needs to have to depth to it and if we are students of yoga we have to look beyond the physical form and be willing to look within ourselves.  If not we shouldn’t be calling our practice “yoga.”