A few days ago we celebrated the International Yoga Day. No doubt, yoga is very popular in India and abroad. Almost every country has its own yoga practitioners and teachers. At the same time, I have noticed that the more popular something becomes, the more it tends to become corrupted locally too. This has happened with classical dance and music. It is the same with yoga. There are attempts to secularize yoga. There are attempts to separate yoga from its Indian roots and call it Christian yoga. There are also secular derivations such as beer yoga, dog yoga, etc. This is offensive. Surely, there are asanas named after certain animals. This is also true in martial arts like Kalaripayattu and Chinese martial arts like Kung Fu, which have been influenced by Indian martial arts. How can we give an entire system of yoga a name based on animals, considering that there are very few asanas based on animal-like postures? It cannot be yoga in the traditional sense. Similarly, yoga cannot be separated from its Hindu Sanatani roots.
Yoga is not overtly religious. There may be a practice that simply involves chanting “Om”. Even in other religions, most dedicated practitioners feel comfortable with yoga, provided they are not fanatical or influenced by radical religious ideas. Yoga is not overtly religious, but the whole practice of yoga has a religious spiritual background. Yoga is definitely Hindu or Sanatani, and more than 20 Yoga Upanishads deal with yoga. The Vedic origin of yoga cannot be distorted. One can separate the practice of asana and pranayama for health and so on. But even for health, including other elements of yoga like dharana, concentration, dhyana (meditation) will enhance health and also help in achieving spiritual goals. Practitioners of yoga solely for health purposes would be better off incorporating different aspects of yoga into their lives. So, let us feel free to bring back this ancient Indian practice and let people feel free to practice whatever aspects of yoga they want.
The author is Founder, Aarsha Vidya Foundation. Please write to us at aarshavidyaf@gmail.com.
Release date: Friday, June 28, 2024 at 6:00 AM
