Om Sweet Om

The Huffington Post is currently featuring a debate entitled “Is Yoga a Hindu Practice?”  On one side, it features Suhag Shukla, Managing Director/Legal Counsel of the Hindu American Foundation (HAF), who argues that yoga is absolutely rooted in Hindu philosophy.  Suhag is pitted again Tara Stiles, a well-known yoga teacher here in NYC who has become even more famous thanks to her student, Deepak Chopra, who ironically enough has made his millions by repackaging Hindu philosophy and selling it as anything and everything, but Hinduism.

As one would expect of a lawyer, Suhag provides solid, logical arguments to prove her point.  And since she has done such a nice job of this, I see no reason to rehash the myriad of reasons she uses to explain why yoga is rooted in Hindu thought.

Tara, on the other hand, just seems to miss the point altogether, and in the process, misrepresents what I said during last year’s yoga panel at Princeton.  First, the debate is not and never was about who owns yoga – no one person, no one group, no one religion owns yoga.  I said the same thing during the panel discussion at Princeton.  So, for Tara to continue to twist the debate into “who owns yoga” is quite frankly, the easy way out because everyone seems to agree on the answer.

Second, the debate, on the Huffington Post and at the Princeton panel, is and has always been about the origins and roots of yoga, and one which Tara consistently fails to address.  Instead, we’re offered a stream of consciousness that includes stories about bottling water and a “super tall dude” with great energy.  We are told that I’m looking for “respect” and “ownership” of yoga.  I’m unclear as to why that was her takeaway from the panel, but my goal at Princeton was not to demand respect nor ownership; rather it was to understand that yoga is rooted in Hindu thought.  And ironically, instead of countering my and Suhag’s points, Tara, somewhere in the midst of wondering why “yoga people” are crazy, unknowingly makes some beautiful allusions to Hindu philosophy.

…yoga exists inside all of us, we simply need to quiet, pay attention, and remember. When we remember, expansion of consciousness sparks up and cultivates the union of the self with the union of everyone’s self, the collective consciousness. Yoga for me, personally has always felt like plugging into the cosmic mainframe and downloading infinite secrets and wonders of the universe as we dive further and further inward. The further we dive the more we understand that the big “out there” is really the big “in there.” We discover that the external exists internally…

Those are the best four sentences of her piece, and it makes me think that perhaps she may have read the Bhagavad Gita in a previous life and retained part of its knowledge.  The idea of looking inwards to find the bigger picture, or “infinite secrets and wonders of the universe,” or the Divine is at the very crux of Hinduism.  It is why Hindus say, “Namaste” – the greeting is an acknowledgement of the Divine residing within us all.  The beauty of the above lines in isolation is that they demonstrate that yoga is far more than just a physical practice.  It is a holistic practice, a lifestyle that is designed to make the yogi one with the Divine, or “collective consciousness” in Tara’s words.

“One who sees the Self present in all beings and all beings present within the Self – Such a person, whose self is absorbed in yoga, sees the same everywhere.” – Bhagavad Gita, 6.29

Ahh, the Choudhury’s are still at it.  First, Bikram wanted to patent “his” sequence of asanas.  And now, his wife, Rajashree, is out to make yoga a competitive sport.  Earlier this week, the Wall Street Journal reported that an organization called USA Yoga, founded by Rajashree, is hosting a national yoga competition this weekend in New York where participants will be judged on seven different poses.  According to Rajashree, no spirituality will be judged.  Well, thank God she clarified that!

In the article, Rajashree said that competitive yoga has existed in India for quite sometime.  Not being an expert on the evolution of yoga, I first did a quick google search of “yoga competitions India” and noticed that while they exist, they seem to be far newer than the “century” old competitions Rajashree mentioned.  And then, I asked my yoga teacher, student of the revered Pattabhi Jois, if there was any truth to Rajashree’s statement. He mentioned being aware of “asana competitions in the south for at least 40 years.”  Note the marked distinction in his response – “asana” competitions.  Not “yoga” competitions.

And thus, we go back to the Hindu American Foundation’s tireless efforts to remind everyone that yoga is a combination of both spiritual and physical exercises.  Yoga is a holistic practice that cannot be judged by a panel over the course of a weekend.  To simplify yoga into a series of asanas – actually just seven asanas in this case – is a charade that only devalues the spiritual knowledge, wisdom, and insight imparted to us by the great gurus.  The Bhagavad Gita, which mentions “yoga” over 100 times, Patanjali’s Yoga Sutras, which are forever cited by the “yoga world,” and the Hatha Yoga Pradipika all clearly demonstrate that yoga is “an inward journey, where you explore your mind, your awareness, your consciousness, your conscience” (Source: Namarupa Magazine).

If it’s just physical, it’s not yoga.  Like I’ve alluded to before – just because a person can rock the forearm stand does not mean she is practicing yoga.  It just means she has mastered the ability to balance on her forearms.

For such powerful players in the “yoga world,” the Choudhury’s should have more respect for the practice and tradition that has made them so famous.  My favorite reaction to Rajashree’s competition came from Phil Goldberg, author of American Veda and friend of HAF.  “My money is on the performers at Cirque du Soleil.”

As a child, my mother told me fascinating stories of Lord Shiva, who simultaneously embodies the qualities of being short-tempered, yet quickly pacified and pleased.  Hindu epics and stories make countless references to devotees praying to Lord Shiva, above all other manifestations of the Divine, in order to be granted a specific boon.  From Ravana, who abducted Sita in the Ramayana, to the famous Queen Draupadi in the Mahabharata, worshippers have for millenia turned to Lord Shiva.
The story of Draupadi and Lord Shiva is my favorite, and perhaps explains that while for many, He represents destruction and death (both which are integral to the workings of our universe), to me, he is the embodiment of pure love that cannot turn away a true devotee.  Draupadi was married to the five Pandava brothers, and the reason for that unusual arrangement was the result of a boon from Lord Shiva.  According to one version of the Mahabharata, in Draupadi’s past life, she prayed devoutly to Lord Shiva to grant her a husband with five qualities: the wisdom of dharma, strength, amazing archery skills, patience, and exceedingly good looks.  Lord Shiva told her that it was impossible for any one man to have all five qualities, but Draupadi insisted, saying that nothing is impossible for God.  Never one to turn down a devotee, Lord Shiva granted her the boon.  And so, Draupadi ended up marrying the wise Yudhishthira, the strong Bhima, the best archer Arjuna, the handsome Nakul, and the ever patient Sahadeva.  It was in this way, Lord Shiva’s fulfilled his promise to Draupadi.

By now, we’ve all read about the benefits of teaching yoga to children.  And despite the ongoing separation-of-church-and-state debate,  some schools do offer yoga classes to their students.

Another group finding the benefits of yoga are prison inmates.  I ran across  this is a beautiful piece about Gino Sevacos, an inmate in San Quentin State Prison, who practices yoga five times a week in his cell.  Check out the interview with Gino on Elephant Journal : http://www.elephantjournal.com/2012/02/goal-of-life/.