This is great article and well written, Why I left Yoga by Irasna Rising. It does make you think about the eastern view of western Yoga. I agree with a lot of what the author says, but I also see the other side to this as well. I am a western yogini, no matter what Indian thinks I am just a "wannabe." I started practicing Yoga almost 30 years ago, when it wasn't cool. It was just considered weird. And I didn't start on a Yoga mat. I started on a meditation cushion. Hatha Yoga came afterwards.
I moved to an ashram when I didn't even know what an ashram was. I just wanted to be around people who didn't think I was so weird. I received my Yoga teacher's "certificate" 24 years ago through a residential "training." I was given a spiritual name at the end of that training. I took on the name (changed it legally) as an outward expression of renouncing my old lifestyle and beginning a yogic life. My name reminds me of my vow, my vow between me and God... not between me and the world. There are many American yoginis and yogis like me that Yoga has taken it's hold of and has not let go. We may or may not be recognized, and it's not important. It's not an outward journey. It's an inward journey.
I have spent a lot of time in India. I love India. I had always wanted to go. The first time I saw a picture of Ganesha I fell in love with his image. I don't know why I am pulled to what I am pulled to. I just know that I am, and I follow my heart. I often get the feeling from some Indians, that they think westerners who come to India are lost and that we came to be guided. In fact, they believe we will just empty our pockets at the feet of anyone who tells us that they can guide us. Truth is, we are not any less spiritually ignorant or more spiritually enlightened than Indians. I see just as many Indians emptying their pockets at that feet of charlatans.
When you travel to another country to experience another culture, the traveler gets more from the experience if they just try and go along with that culture's traditions instead of resisting them. Often what seems as us pretending to be Indian is merely our attempts at being polite. You encourage us see your temples, eat your food, wear your bindi's, don your saris and touch your gurus feet, but when we do, you laugh at us behind our backs? How yogic like. I don't believe the majority of Indians feel this way, but some do. Generalizations are often too harsh. Some people are just gullible, some aren't. That's true in every culture. People are just people. It takes all kinds everywhere.
India doesn't own Yoga. It is true that the West seems to be bastardizing Yoga, but I see the same thing happening in India. It's seems just about every corner in Rishikesh has a Yoga teacher's training. India is on the Yoga trend capitalizing just as much as America. Instead of pitting East against West on who is teaching Yoga the better way, why don't we just practice from the roots of Yoga's teachings?... Ahimsa, Asteya, Brachmacharya, Aparigraha, Satya. Oops, there I do that too... use Sanskrit words. I was taught, and I agree, that the Sanksrit language has a sacredness to it. It is not a language for mundane communication but one to communicate spiritual concepts. When I say, non-violence, non-stealing, chastity, non-attachment and truthfulness, it just doesn't have the same feel. However, more people understand what I am saying. I use both, so that the Sanskrit meaning doesn't get watered down. That is part of how I honor the tradition.
Yoga doesn't need our policing. Yoga will blossom wherever a seed is planted and in any soil. That flower may look different depending on the soil, water and air it is given, but somewhere, even in a puffed up, ego maniac like Bikram Choudry there's a seed. It may be a few lifetimes for that seed to blossom, but it's there underneath the layers of mud.
A lot of the West may be practicing for the "wrong" reasons. My students come to class for many different reasons and for some, yes, it's for a "Yoga butt." I don't care why they come. I just teach in the honor of the tradition in which it was shared with me. That's is the intention I set before every class. It is not up to me how Yoga organically unfolds in their lives. I just know it will. In 2 days, 2 months, 2 years or 2 lifetimes, eventually that seed will flower.
Om Shanti, everybody. Peace, everybody. Yoga means union. Let's not be divided by it.
