The true yoga – Healthcare News

Yoga, the mind-body-soul practice, took root in India about 5,000 years ago and remains its chief cultural export. Over millennia, sages and yogis perfected the postures while gaining control over the breath and experiencing a higher level of consciousness on the way. One among Hinduism’s six schools of philosophy, it is also a crucial aspect of both Buddhism and Jainism.

“Yoga is very natural and inbuilt in all of us,” says Gurudev Sri Sri Ravi Shankar, yoga guru, spiritual mentor, and the founder of The Art of Living. “If you observe a baby from the age of three months to three years, she does all the asanas, all the postures. A baby’s breath is like pranayama,” he tells FE.

And as yoga travelled through the length and breadth of the subcontinent and reached abroad, especially the West, a host of styles emerged – those rooted in the traditional styles, those named after the founders, those more intended for physical fitness, and also a few quirky ones, such as beer yoga, dog yoga, et al.

While these may be trending, do they level up to how yoga has been traditionally practiced? Moreover, is yoga, at all, being practiced in its traditional form?

“Traditionally, yoga was practiced as a comprehensive lifestyle, not just a physical exercise routine,” highlights Hansaji Yogendra, director of The Yoga Institute, Mumbai. “For instance, there are eight limbs of Maharshi Patanjali’s Ashtanga yoga. Yama and niyama are restraints and observances related to our social duties and involvements, creating a stable state of mind and helping to gain self-control. Asana and pranayama relate to the physical dimension, with asanas bringing steadiness in the body and pranayama dealing with bio-energy or life force, leading to deeper understanding. Pratyahara, dharana, dhyana, and samadhi are about the spiritual aspects, generating a state of consciousness that provides a deeper insight into ourselves and the purpose of our existence,” she explains. “These core practices of traditional yoga are still preserved by many ashrams and institutes in India. But unfortunately, the essence of the yogic traditions can sometimes be diluted in some modern practices. This is especially so in the case of those styles of yoga which focus only on physical fitness,” the expert adds.

Concurring with her, Mayur Karthik, international yoga trainer, The Art of Living, says to truly understand how yoga has been traditionally practiced, “the first step is to disconnect our understanding of it just being a set of physical practices. The term yoga comes from yuj, meaning to unite the body, breath, and mind. Uniting your individual self with the universe is yoga.”

Yogendra also emphasises the importance of the guru-shishya parampara (teacher-pupil relationship). “In olden times, the gurus experienced a higher state of consciousness, and students also wanted to reach the same. For example, Hatha yoga traditions began with Guru Matsyendranath to various other Nath Yogis. The classical yoga of Maharshi Patanjali is called Ashtanga yoga. It effectively provides a holistic approach to self-development, giving importance to all dimensions of human existence – mental, physical, and spiritual. As the ages passed, several styles of yoga developed from the classical yoga traditions. In recent times, we have also seen yoga gurus such as Shri Iyengar, Baba Ramdev, and others teach yoga in various styles based on the original traditional methods,” she says.

Removed from traditional essence

Being an ancient Indian practice, yoga aligns well with the Indian style of living and the larger philosophy, where ample focus is placed on spiritual nourishment. According to the yoga experts, while several Western styles, such as power yoga, Vinyasa, etc, have worked well in making the practice accessible to a larger audience, “I feel that they may not always capture the essence of traditional yoga practices,” says Yogendra. “These modern styles mostly emphasise the physical aspect of yoga, at times, at the expense of its meditative and spiritual components.”

Here, Karthik also highlights the increased commercialisation of yoga. “The issues are twofold,” he says. “First, it is increasingly being seen as just about the asanas. And second, it is being modified for commercial reach. If these issues can be resolved and the focus is brought back to traditional values and the spiritual essence of yoga, then it has a lot to offer,” he highlights.

The rise of yoga merchandising

While yoga in its traditional form requires very little in terms of equipment, merchandise ranging from costumes and mats to blocks and straps is becoming increasingly common.

“Isn’t it obvious that the rise of branded yoga merchandise is part of the commercialisation trend?” quips Yogendra. “Traditional yoga requires very little in terms of equipment. In ancient times, the yogis hardly wore any clothing, even though they sometimes practiced in freezing temperatures. For our modern sadhaks (practitioners), the item usually required is a simple mat,” she specifies. However, “certain styles recommend the use of mats, blocks, and straps because they help those who find the asana practice challenging. But these aids are not required in the traditional practices,” she says.

Even for garments, “ I recommend comfortable, loose-fitting clothes made from natural fibres to allow free movement and breathability. Your pajamas could be a better choice than those synthetic lycra tights that you see in advertisements,” she adds.

‘Misusing popularity’

While it’s natural for a practice to undergo some change over the years as it traverses time and geographies, recently, styles have emerged that might feel like taking that change a bit too far. Case in point being beer yoga, dog yoga, or doga.

“The main challenge with anything that becomes popular is that it is always misused. Today, people are misusing the popularity of yoga and have turned it into a marketing gimmick,” opines Gurudev Sri Sri Ravi Shankar. “One should look for authentic yoga. The purpose of yoga is to create awareness in you. But if you indulge in beer yoga, where you have to start with sipping alcohol to get into an unconscious state and then perform yoga asanas, it defeats the purpose,” he adds.

Karthik, too, equates these to “narrow-minded marketing gimmicks to lure people in the name of yoga.”