A couple of weeks ago, there was an article in The New York Times about a new campaign called Take Back Yoga introduced by the Hindu American Foundation. You can read the article yourself, but the gist is that this group is trying to get Americans to acknowledge that yoga was initially a Hindu practice. Dr. Aseem Shukla, the foundation’s co-founder, is quoted in the article as saying: “In a way, our issue is that yoga has thrived, but Hinduism has lost control of the brand.”
The brand? Is yoga a brand? I don’t know. There are certainly many brands of yoga in the US. There’s Iyengar, Ashtanga, Viniyoga, Bikram, AcroYoga, Anusara, ParaYoga—and several of these are, in fact, trademarked. So, does that imply ownership? And even if it does, can someone own the whole of yoga?
Part of the problem is that yoga scholars are like rabbis (and I say this lovingly): You can’t get them to agree. And the main thing you can’t them to agree on is what yoga really is. With dozens (probably more) definitions of what the word “yoga” even constitutes, it’s going to be hard to figure out who owns the practice. And even if we could definitively define yoga, the question would remain whether or not it could be owned.
Let’s say you think of yoga as a spiritual discipline. Can you own a spiritual discipline? Do Christians own Christianity? Do Jews own Judaism? And what if you think of yoga as a physical discipline. I am sure that someone invented basketball, but I’ve never seen a trademark next to the word.
And here’s one other sticky piece of gum to chew one: All disciplines—physical, spiritual, or otherwise—evolve. Those who follow the teachings of the Old Testament are no longer bartering slaves and participating in animal sacrifice. Likewise, the rules of baseball and football have changed over the years. This is why it is so hard to claim ownership of a discipline—a hundred years after is introduced, it’s really not the same discipline anymore. That said, we can’t deny the importance of paying homage to the roots of the disciplines we love, and to honor the teachers that came before us.
How do you feel about it? Does anyone own yoga? If so, who? And how should that affect our practice? Write in and tell us what you think!
This debate has been going on for a while and as a Hindu I have been following it with interest. Who owns yoga? If you ask, do the Christians own Christianity? It’s a difficult question, but a simpler question to answer is who practice Christianity? The answer is of course, Christians practice Christianity. Who practices yoga requires us to consider the nature of yoga. Yoga originates in Hinduism, has later influenced the practices of Jainism, Buddhism and Taoism and has recently made a big boom in the commercially and dare I say, materialistically oriented west. I do not want to get into debate here about the etymological and philosophical meaning of the word yoga. This does not change anything in this conversation. Instead I will make just a simple distinction between traditional yoga and Modern Postural Yoga which is now becoming a tool for materialistic orientated people to make a good living.
The terminology and practices of Hindu yoga have been adopted by the other dharmic traditions. This was possible because of the compatibility of the practices and their own doctrine. Dr. Koenraad Elst calls these traditions the daughters of Sanatana Dharma (Hinduism). Now we can ask whether Modern Postural Yoga also is the daughter of Hinduism. In some way it is, because it is mostly derived from Hinduism. It has been raised a little by the older sisters Buddhism and played a little with Taoism and Sikhism, but the oldest sister Jainism did not come much in contact with the west. Who is the father then, it is said in Hindu mythology that the father of the Nigamas is Hiranyagarbha (Brahma) and the father of the Agamas is Shiva. Patanjali was a teacher in the Hiranyagarbha tradition and was a scholar of the sciences of Ayurveda (to purify the body), Grammar (to purify the voice) and Yoga (to purify the mind). This tradition of Patanjali has been most influential on Modern Postural Yoga which is largely based on the discipline of Ayurveda, coming from Krishnamacharya’s therapeutic tradition and Raja Yoga/ Vedanta coming from the Shivananda/ Vivekananda side. It has also been influenced a little bit by Agama. A lot of these teachings have become so westernized due to commercialism in the west that Patanjali would not even recognize it, like a bastard child.
Okay, enough with the analogies. I am not here to bash on Modern Postural Yoga. B.K.S Iyengar has done a lot to make the practice of Hatha yoga accessible to the western world and modern India. The body of Modern Postural Yoga has been modeled largely on Hinduism by teachers like Vivekananda, Shivananda, B.K.S Iyengar and others. These teachers have been very generous in spreading the knowledge of yoga. They have not asked anyone to convert to Hinduism to benefit from the practice of yoga. Let’s not dishonor them by not acknowledging the lineage of yoga, the Sampradaya which is grounded in Hinduism. Let’s also not participate in the commercial abuse of the yoga tradition.
It’s only because of western commercialism that the American Hindu Foundation (HAF) has to campaign to make people aware of the Hindu origins of yoga. People in America have even tried to score a patent on Basmati rice, can you imagine? Similarly many have tried to patent yogic practices like asana, pranayama and meditation. This misappropriation of Indic knowledge is the reason why Indians and Hindus are on the defense. Another reason why Hindus are on the defense is to protect a tradition that is now running wild with people who are offering enlightenment in a weekend seminar. The HAF has been very melodramatic in this debate which has led to many more sensationalist newspaper articles and blog posts. This is unfortunate and it doesn’t help the case of Hinduism. I would like to offer some more informed resources on this subject for the blog readers to refer to:
On the topic of misappropriation of Indic culture in the west, see an article of Rajiv Malhotra at a panel discussion at the American Academy of Religion:
http://www.barnard.edu/religion/defamation/malhotra.htm
For more information on the Hiranyagarbha yoga tradition, please read Dr David Frawley’s article, from Patanjali back to Hiranyagarbha:
http://www.vedanet.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=133:the-original-teachings-of-yoga-from-patanjali-back-to-hiranyagarbha&catid=6:new-articles-by-vamadeva-david-frawley&Itemid=2
Yoga and Buddhism, similarity and differences:
http://www.vedanet.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=104:yoga-and-buddhism-similarities-and-differences&catid=19:yoga-and-tantra&Itemid=2
Lastly, one important question is “can everyone benefit from yoga?” I cannot answer this question better than Satguru Bodhinatha Veylanswami of the Shaiva Siddhanta School and publisher of Hinduism Today in a two part youtube video: