It combines breathing with dynamic movement. Pattabhi Jois (1915-2009): Ashtanga-Vinyasa Yoga. Lineage of Sri Tirumalai Krishnamacharya (1888-1989) We share for your interest this interesting painting, logically not exhaustive, that we have extracted from the book Yoga in evolution, written by Mayte Raised and edited by Kairós. (The author is a senior journalist and political commentator.A reference to the main styles or schools of hatha yoga since the last century. Yoga is essentially an elitist pastime those who sit for long hours, move around in vehicles and eat junk food need yoga to stay fit more than the working class and those toiling in agricultural fields. There is no yoga in Veda and Swami Vivekananda popularised Raja yoga in the West as against Hatha yoga. It became a multi-billion dollar industry with some Christian communities offering “Christian-based” yoga practice in US and Europe.įearing that the BJP will use yoga for electoral benefits, even the CPM had sponsored a mass yoga programme in 2017, giving it a “secular twist” with party insiders billing the programme a way of fighting “attempts by communal forces to misuse India’s traditional knowledge for ulterior purposes” and “misappropriate ancient knowledge”. Yoga, first introduced to America by Swami Vivekanda in 1893, has now become highly commoditised globally. The United Nations declared June 21 as International Yoga Day in 2014 and the Modi government and the BJP went hyper to promote it, triggering unease among a section of minorities. Ideology-neutral and agnostic Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru was a yoga afficionado and practised even the hazardous sirsasana (head stand). The All India Muslim Personal Law Board had also expressed reservations, saying that the BJP was compelling Muslim students to take up “Hindu religious practices”. Way back in 2015, Popular Front of India chairman KM Shareef had in a statement said that Muslims are not against yoga but “the ongoing yoga campaigns by the government with the Hindutva outfits acting as key players have brought in apprehension among minorities because of the religious fervour added to it.” The ruling apparatchiks going overboard with its Hindutva and ultra-nationalism has not helped the yoga cause either. The primary reason for the ‘yogaphobia’ is the belief that yoga is part of a hidden cultural nationalism agenda of the Narendra Modi government remote controlled by the RSS. And yet, fearing that yoga might emasculate the faithful and they may deviate from the path, the Kerala Catholic Bishops Council last week issued guidelines for Christians practising yoga so as not to believe anything that goes against the core of Christianity. Privately, many Indian Christian theologians and intellectuals are of the view that 2,000-year-old Christianity cannot be undercut by mere yoga practices. David’s church in Ceredigion (Wales) UK threatened to boycott a church that banned yoga from its premises. At an in-house meeting, Vatican officials discussed whether yoga is worshiping Hindu gods or mere anatomical postures and concluded that yoga originated from the ancient worship of Hindu gods and out of sync with Christianity.Īround the same time, yoga classes were banned in the central Russian city of Nizhnevartovsk by the authorities to “check the spread of religious occultism”. Two years ago, Vatican’s top exorcist Father Cesare Truqui branded yoga and fantasy novels like Harry Potter as ‘Satanic’ acts. But all of this will never be able to give you freedom,” he cautioned. “You can take a million catechetical courses, a million courses in spirituality, a million courses in yoga, Zen and all these things. In a homily in 2015, he reminded listeners that yoga is not capable of opening our hearts to God. In contrast, reigning Pope Francis disapproved of yoga practices. Nevertheless, I said, if questioned about it, I was not prepared to lie.” Of course, I assured him that yoga is universal, transcending any creed or cult and I was able to say that I could not broadcast what was taking place. The lesson were to be kept a total secret as it might be interpreted in a twisted fashion as if a Catholic Pope were to be seen to be following practices associated with Hindusim. According to, which carried an excerpt from the book, Iyengar accepted the invite, “but suddenly, at the behest of his cardinals, he (Pontiff) imposed a condition. Iyengar’s disciples included distinguished personalities like Elisabeth, Queen of Belgium, violin virtuoso Yehudi Menuhin, Jiddu Krishnamurthi and Jai Prakash Narayan.Ī 2005 book called Light on Life authored by Iyengar says the Pope was in poor health and invited him to Vatican “with a view to giving him yoga lessons”.
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