Tuesday, June 23, 2009

Letter to New York Yoga Teachers

Om Namo Narayanaya

Dear fellow Yoga teachers,

A Yoga teachers training course is first and foremost a life transforming spiritual experience. Teaching Yoga and training Yoga teachers is part of our spiritual practice in this tradition. I think that if you speak to most of the teachers, if you ask their personal experience, you will find that they teach primarily as a part of their Yoga practice. I do not think I have ever met anyone who taught Yoga to become rich or primarily as a way of making money. I understand what you are seeing from the outside looks like big business, and to the state it must look like a good source of tax revenue. A person looking from the outside might think the same thing about any mainstream church. So just the issue of the money generated is not enough to say that a practice is not spiritual. I would like to speak to both the sectarian issue and the financial one. They are both important and I believe neither is in contradiction with our claiming that our Yoga practice and teaching are part of religious traditions originating in India, distinct yet with common scriptural sources. I would also claim that if we do not protect our first amendment rights there is a good possibility that down the road our sacred traditions will be regulated out of existence.

Yoga is a sacred spiritual tradition. As one of the six darshanas, or schools of Hindu philosophy it has its own scripture – the Yoga Sutras of Patanjali. This scripture is a practical treatise on spiritual liberation studied by devout monks and lay practitioners of both the Hindu and Buddhist faiths throughout its history of over 2,000 years. Even more than the Bhagavad Gita or the Upanishads it is a Universal scripture that deals with ethics, cosmology, meditation techniques, prayer, and treatises on sin and suffering and the means to overcome them. It also speaks of God as Ishwara. Even in its description of Yoga asanas, the Yoga Sutras assert that "Posture is mastered by releasing tension and meditation on the Unlimited", II-47. Another scripture widely studied as an authority more specifically of Hatha Yoga is the Hatha Yoga Pradipika, by Swatma Rama. This scripture begins with the verse, " I salute the primeval Lord, Siva, who taught to Parvati the Hatha Yoga Vidya, which is a stairway for those who wish to attain the most excellent Raja Yoga." I-1.
Yoga in its general meaning includes Vedanta philosophy - jnana yoga, devotional practices - bhakti yoga; and the yoga of selfless service - karma yoga. Yoga is practiced in different forms by thousands of Hindu sects, and guru traditions within and without Hinduism. Hinduism in itself honors God in many forms. The different forms are meditations on the one Absolute reality which is beyond and includes all names and forms and even includes faiths outside of Hinduism - even atheism.

I see three main groups of Yoga schools in America at this time: 1) Guru lineage schools which are spiritual by their connection to their sacred lineages and scriptures. 2) Small independent schools that have "evolved" from the lineage schools into some hybrid form such as "Yoga therapy", Yoga and massage, Yoga and sewing, etc. 3) Corporate Yoga designed by style and function, to attract as many students and make as much money as possible. Here Yoga traditions have been transformed into "brand names" and teachers are trained in recognizable styles which often have their spiritual components processed out. These teachers are trained as technicians appearing like one of the first two categories without the spiritual practice or philosophy. I see this as a mixed blessing as the "factories" have helped spread Yoga throughout the American culture. But as these watered down versions of classical Yoga have become more visible on the American landscape, and more and more money has gotten involved, the spiritual roots have become blurred if not lost.

Like many of the Indian lineage schools, we were established as a religious 501(c)3 organization, and we teach and practice yoga asanas as part of a larger spiritual discipline. Specifically our mission is to propagate the teachings of yoga and vedanta as a means of achieving physical, mental and spiritual well-being and Self-realization. We teach in the prisons and schools, at the UN and have centers and ashrams around the world, teaching in many languages. We are even training Yoga teachers in the deaf community. We teach a spiritual practice, as service to the community, to our gurus and to humanity as a whole. Swami Vishnudevananda, our founder and guru, pioneered Yoga Teacher Training in the West in 1969, and now Yoga has become so popular that the public and Yoga teachers themselves have convinced themselves that Yoga is not religious.

Yoga means religion. It is only in our western context that religion is considered something sectarian and threatening to "non-believers". If we can break out of the rajasic, exclusive box we have put religion in, it is evident that Yoga is religious. In its classical form, the Yoga of the Yoga Sutras, of the Hatha Yoga Pradipika, of the Bhagavad Gita, of the Upanishads and the great masters is Universal Religion, large enough to embrace all sects and traditions. If we want Yoga to continue in the USA we need to educate people to Yoga as Universal religion with many lineages, darshanas, and forms. Even the hybrid forms have their place in a healthy soil for Yoga to continue to grow and mature, including all its vast physical, mental, psychic and spiritual dimensions. The fact that one can be Hindu, or Buddhist, or Muslim, a Christian or a Jew, and still practice Yoga as part of your spiritual practice is not a contradiction. Its been done for ages in India and we, as well as many other lineage traditions have been very successful in opening that space in the west. In fact this is one of Yoga's greatest gifts to western culture, spiritualising all aspects of Life rather than the western tendency to sterilize sacred traditions of their very life blood. Swami Sivananda called the life of Yoga the "Divine Life". One could say that the origins of Yoga Teachers Training Courses as the teaching of Divine Life.

Finally, money is always an issue in maintaining religious, ethical purity, but it is not a legal issue. One of the signs of successful religion is prosperity. Unless all the practitioners take vows of poverty, the good karma created by religions generates wealth. Though Hatha Yoga texts ask practitioners to live simply, money is "shakti", or energy which can create build, and aid those in need. Yet we need to be aware that the big money in the Yoga "business" is in the corporate exploitation of Yoga for profit. You used the example of the Yoga Journal. With all of my respect for the work that the Yoga Journal has done promoting Yoga in America, it is owned and run by a large corporations. It has been bought and sold several times over the years, and I believe it has only been in its present incarnation for less than two years. The way corporations have devoured magazines and newspapers that were once institutions of information and turned them into hollow pulp, I do not think we can count on the Yoga Journal to protect any spiritual standards of Yoga. The Yoga clothes and accessory industry really has nothing to do with classical Yoga than opening new markets. Here is the URL for the media conglomerate that now owns the Yoga Journal: www.activeinterestmedia.com/article_display_6.html

The Sivananda Yoga Vedanta Centers trains teachers around the world and don't need to train teachers in New York State to survive. Moreover, we have the facilities, and the infrastructure in New York State to easily meet the current requirements for licensing. If we allow our curriculum to be regulated by the state, eventually it will be the commercial, corporate Yoga businesses that will set the standards for Yoga. When this happens Yoga training will become standardized like massage schools or medical technician schools. If we can hold the space for classical Yoga schools to maintain their spiritual lineages and to continue to teach without being regulated by the State, then there will be room for independent schools as well as the corporate Yoga factories. When corporations use the state to regulate the market the state works as an accomplice to manipulate the market, build monopoly and monoculture. The more the diversity the healthier the society and especially the Yoga will remain. I ask that you all reflect to see if your Yoga training is true to its spiritual roots and would like to file a religious exemption to curriculum regulation. This may not seem to be the issue here, but I believe in the long run it is the main issue.

Om and Prem, Srinivasan

1 comment:

  1. Yoga is a way of life, a conscious act, not a set or series of learning principles. The dexterity, grace, and poise you cultivate, as a matter of course, is the natural outcome of regular practice. You require no major effort. In fact trying hard will turn your practices into a humdrum, painful, even injurious routine and will eventually slow down your progress. Subsequently, and interestingly, the therapeutic effect of Yoga is the direct result of involving the mind totally in inspiring (breathing) the body to awaken. Yoga is probably the only form of physical activity that massages each and every one of the body’s glands and organs. This includes the prostate, a gland that seldom, if ever, gets externally stimulated in one’s whole life.
    www.coomararunodaya.com

    ReplyDelete