Or do you practice the Adho Mukha Svanasana?
I’ve taken up yoga again and I hope that this time I’ll keep my practice going. I feel healthier and happier when I practice yoga and more at peace with myself and the world. I’m not trying to sell yoga though. This is just a general rant against the modernization and increasing disconnect from the spiritual side of yoga.
At the mention of the word spiritual, I see most of you rolling your eyes. Humor me. Yoga is a spiritual science. It’s not about toning those abs or building muscle or chewing glass and lying on a bed of nails (does anyone still believe that last bit anymore?). It’s certainly not about getting in touch with your “inner self” (whatever that is).
Yoga is not far removed from Hinduism. It’s not just one of those things from India that’s not “pagan”. The world yoga is derived from the sanskrit root that means “to join” – joining the self and the supreme being. (Holding weird poses seems to be a funny way of achieving this. But it’s just one of those things you have to try before they make sense). The way I understand it, we are far more limited by our physical body and ruled by our senses than we realize. The first step to achieving moksha (liberation from the physical world) is to control the senses and the mind. Yoga helps us achieve this. To practice asanas for the physical benefits alone reduces yoga to nothing more than complex stretching. It surely works. But it’s not what yoga is meant to be used for.
Many argue that yoga is not “of” any religion. That it has evolved separately fom Hinduism and one does not necessarily have to be Hindu to practice it. Yet the Dharmic religions have a distinct way of looking at the world. One that is in no way compatible with the more practical world view of the Abrahamic religions where creation is distinct from the creator. Where man is able to consciously communicate with God, lives on as a distinct entity in his afterlife, and (at least in the case of Christianity) is a sinner and posesses no divinity whatsoever. How can the concept of connecting with the divine through a quest to break away from the “real world” even work?
It is true that yoga does not require you to believe in the Hindu pantheon or worship “false Gods”. But the Gods are just a small part of Hinduism. It’s a pity more people don’t realize that. As much as I love the warmth and fuzziness around “there is only one God” and “all religions teach you to be good”, I think, sometimes, it’s ok to not want everything to be equal and secular. I like my yoga practice to be religious, thank you. And I wish someone would make it illegal to “downward dog” (or at least make it illegal to translate asana names to sound like an exciting break from missionary).
Disclaimers:
1. I’m no militant Hindu who believes my way is the only way. I could surely be wrong.
2. At the end of it all, I don’t really care what anyone else does. Really. I just need to get annoyed sometimes just to prove I care about something.
