Resurgence of Yoga and Its Modern Practice

N K Srinivasan Ph D

[ "Yoga is 99% practice and 1% theory."

--- Pattabhi Jois ]

Yoga is practised by millions of people both in the east

and in the west. According to one estimate, nearly 12

million Americans learn this form of physical and mental

exercise. As one writer puts it: Yoga has taken the world

by storm.

A little bit of my bio!

[I love yoga and has been practising for well over 60

years--from the age of twelve. I have tried different

methods, but I would strongly recommend "Iyengar style of

yoga" ,after B K S Iyengar. By the way, I am also an

Iyengar from India and I had watched T Krishnamacharya

taking a yoga class in the late 1950's. I learned Yoga

from my "uncle" -my father's nephew in Chennai.

I learned later various meditation techniques, including

'Kriya Yoga' from SRF/YSS , with initiation from a monk of

YSS,Ranchi.

I consider the Vinyasa method and the Ashtanga methods

(Pattabhi Jois) more difficult ,though they may suit

certain yoga students.]

What is the essence of hatha yoga ?

Yoga as a spiritual discipline was developed in India from

ancient times---as given in various Sanskrit texts. This

method or discipline includes strengthening body and mind

and then tune into spiritual realms. We are concerned here

only with the physical and mental well being of

individuals and the "use" of Yoga for this purpose. This

part of yoga is included in what is commonly called "Hatha

Yoga".

HATHA YOGA is largely physical and includes asanas

[postures or poses], pranayama [breath regulation],

bandhas [physical locks] and mudras [gestures].

A Yoga teacher near you may teach mostly the asanas and a

bit of pranayama and perhaps give a small introductory

lesson of bandhas and mudras. Please note that bandhas and

mudras are more important for tantra yoga and for

spiritual seekers or sadhaks.

Yoga system involves two essential principles: 1 Breathing

is to be regulated for proper functioning and healthy

organs.

2 The spine is to be kept healthy and strong and properly

aligned.

Much of the work in yoga is towards your breath cycle and

spinal manipulation.

You may hear the word "prana" in yoga circles. "Prana" is

the life force, triggered and stored by breathing

system.Thus prana is a more intricate entity than the

breath, but breath becomes an easy way of controlling and

directing this prana. Prana is also identified with nerve

currents which are regulated by body movements or postures

and directed to specific organs of the body.Thus prana is

the current or energy coursing through our nervous system.

For instance prana can be directed to our digestive system

where it would create the ' gastric fire' for digesting

the food properly.

[Those interested to learn more should study the chakra

concepts. Chakras are nerve nodes which are activated

by yoga methods and influence the various glands in the

body.]

Pioneers in Modern Yoga

To place the development of modern yoga in proper

perspective, I have to mention the works of pioneers in

this field in India. It is a fascinating story how yoga

spread to the west from India in the past few decades.

Thirumalai Krishnamacharya,[T K] often called the "Father

of Modern Yoga", taught yoga in a systematic manner in a

yoga school or yoga shale in Mysore, India, under the

patronage of the then Maharaja of Mysore, Krishna Raje

Wadeyar [from 1936 onwards.]He trained some of the

greatest teachers of yoga who established the teaching

schools and traditions that we find today.

The important students of TK include: B K S Iyengar,

Pattabhi Jois, TKV Desikachar (his son) , A G Mohan ,

Srivatsa Ramaswami and Indra Devi.

I mention Indra Devi for a specific reason. She was a

Russian aristocrat who came to India and learned music,

dance and finally yoga under T K. TK acknowledged her

proficiency after a year and sent her to teach in the

West. [The legend says that at first TK refused to teach

her because she was a woman and the Maharaja had to

intervene to convince TK to accept her. Contrast it with

the scene a generation later. TK's student ,B K S Iyengar

was teaching several women in London and elsewhere, both

housewives and rich aristocrats, free of charge.]

Indra Devi came to the USA and popularised yoga ; she

taught yoga to several celebrities and movie stars in L A

and also wrote books "Yoga for Americans", "Yoga for You"

. She later moved to Argentina and taught for 12 years and

died at the age of 102 years.

The other students mentioned are so well known that I need

not write about them here.

[I had the good fortune to witness TK's yoga classes in

1950's in Chennai, though I had not formally studied under

him.]

Another great pioneer in Yoga was Swami Sivananda who

founded "Divine Life Society", in Rishikesh. A doctor by

profession, a great yogi and jnani, he was largely

responsible for wider dissemination of yoga knowledge in

India through his inexpensive books and around the world

with his students. The list of his renunciate students

(monks)is a long one and reads almost like a "Who is Who "

of modern yoga: Swami Chinmayananda, Swami

Vishnudevananda, Swami Satyananda , Swami Satchitananda

and Swamini Sivananda Radha. Swami Vishnudevananda

established several Sivananda Yoga Centers in USA and

Canada. Swamini Sivananda Radha , his first female

disciple , hailed from Germany but settled in Canada and

built the Yashodara Ashram.

Paramahansa Madhavdasji was a great saint-yogi in Gujarat.

He settled after wandering upto the age of eighty and

taught yoga. His two illustrious students were Yogendra

and Swami Kuvalaynanda. Madhavadasji lived upto 123 years.

[Incidentally Sri Aurobindo was also inspired by

Madhavadasji.]

Yogendra, a yoga teacher who experimented with yoga

therapy established the "Yoga Institute" in Mumbai and

trained many yoga teachers like Hans Raj Yadhav and his

son Jayadeva.

Swami Kuvalayananda set up another yoga institution in

Lovala near Mumbai in 1924 ; he also developed the

healing methods of yoga for thousands of patients.

Raja of Aundh,[Aundh-- a small princely state in

Maharashtra] was an avid sportsman and a yoga enthusiast.

He taught 'surya namaskar' or sun salutations to school

children. This work was carried on by his able son Apa

Pant. While he was the Indian Ambassador in Egypt, Apa

Pant taught sun salutations to local Arabs and at their

request wrote a book on Sun Salutations in Arabic and

English, which was also published in India.

[An American pioneer was Theos Bernard, who wrote great

books and taught yoga, but had early death.]

The Siddha tradition in Tamil Nadu had many adepts in Yoga

who taught many students. They were to be found near

Palani hills near Madurai and in

Chidambaram/Thiruvannamalai. They also practiced native

medicines. I had read several of the old texts in Tamil.

There were several other teachers who were pioneers in

India; they not only taught hundreds of students, but did

serious 'experiments' and extended the scope and knowledge

of Hatha Yoga.

I have written this section on "pioneers" only to

emphasize that the yoga as practised today is the fruit of

labors of these pioneers in India, often working under

very trying circumstances. There is a long and well

established tradition behind modern yoga, which is often

ignored or made slight of by some academic writers [

mostly Ph D scholars] with limited, bookish knowledge of

history and traditions of yoga.

Modern Yoga in the West

The practice of yoga came to the west mostly due to two

teachers or yogis in the early 1940's and 1950's:

Yesudian Selvarajan and B K S Iyengar.

Yesudian Selvarajan [YS] was a doctor from Chennai, India.

He grew up as a sickly boy but became strong through Yoga.

So he committed himself to propagate yoga. Yesudian came

to Hungary to study graduate school in medicine at a wrong

time---the year was 1938 and the world war II was brewing

up. After some struggle, he began to teach yoga to a few

persons in Budapest. With the outbreak of war, he was

about to leave Europe when some friends invited him to

teach yoga in Switzerland. He moved to Zurich and with

the help of Elizabeth Haitch founded the first yoga school

in Europe .His book " Yoga and health" became immensely

popular in Europe.

B K S Iyengar came to Switzerland in 1954 to teach yoga

to Yehudi Menuhin, the famous violinist and then received

devoted students like Vanda Scaravelli and Dona Hollemann.

He later taught a few students in London including Diana

Clifton. He authorized Diana Clifton to teach on his

behalf and thus she became the first 'certified" teacher

of " Iyengar Yoga". She also taught in Los Angeles the

Iyengar style of Yoga. Thus the yoga movement got started

in the west, around the time of World War II.

Yoga as therapy

The present scenario is mainly yoga as a means for

physical health and mental calmness for persons with

various ailments.

Yoga as a cure had been used in India for several decades,

especially for chronic diseases. I recall how one of my

aunts used to practise yoga every day to avoid asthma

attacks.I had seen several persons practising yoga for

cure in Chennai , along with native 'ayurvedic" medicines.

Thus yoga therapy is not a recent development.

As I had mentioned, Yogendra and Kuvalayananda have been

treating several persons in Mumbai under controlled

observation and care. T K had been treating several

persons in Chennai where he moved from Mysore in 1955.

B K S Iyengar started treating patients over the years.

His main contribution is the use of props and supports for

elderly and the sick to perform yoga. His use of chairs

have led to his nickname "furniture yogi' in some

circles! He founded the "Ramamani Iyengar Institute" in

Pune where treatments are regularly given, assisted by his

daughter Geeta Iyengar and son Prashant Iyengar.

Dr Swami Gitananda Bhavnani , a practising doctor in UK ,

born to Indian father and Irish mother, returned to India

and set up ' Ananda Ashram' in Puducherry , a coastal town

and former French colony near Chennai and developed yoga

programs and yoga treatment. [I had met him a few times.]

Dr Phulgendra Sinha taught yoga for treating many

patients and had an institute in New York.His book "Yoga

cure for common ailments" was widely popular.

Bihar School of Yoga ,founded by Swami Satyananda , a

disciple of Swami Sivananda, has been teaching advanced

methods of classical yoga.

H R Nagendra developed a Yoga center in the style of a

regular university near Bangalore in the last three

decades.

Several masters have taught yoga in various towns using

native languages. Many yoga institutes and yoga treatments

have been established throughout India.

Easy yoga, gentle yoga and yoga therapy

The recent trend in the west is to teach yoga to seniors

with easy,gentle and simple poses, with the liberal use of

props,chairs , belts and bricks for support.

Many senior centers and enrichment programs offer such

courses for better health and to improve mobility and

flexibility at little or no cost.

Another important and significant trend is the yoga

treatment of back pain, joint pains, arthritis and other

serious degenerative diseases. These are backed by doctors

who have studied yoga in India or in the west and who had

been willing to do extensive study and research in yoga

therapy. While the methods have been known in India for

many decades, these are validated by modern methods and

attested by western doctors. It may be noted that these

diseases have reached almost epidemic proportions in

industrialized countries, especially among the young ,

professional age-groups.

The rich harvest of this cross-cultivation between Indian

yoga and western medicine is that valid and reliable

treatments are possible for these diseases now at very

little cost and without surgery. This trend has been

growing in the past 10 years of so. A number of practical

books have appeared to help those in need. Such treatment

can be alternative therapies to expensive and painful

surgeries and provide better quality of life for millions

of persons . Methods from yoga , with a qualified and

experienced teacher, can be safe and simple.

What is more, certified yoga teachers [with 200 hours or

500 hours of training] are readily available in most towns

in the USA, Europe , Russia and China.

Yoga for Longevity

Yoga is credited with conferring longevity in many

practitioners. TK lived for 101 years ; Indra Devi lived

for 102 years; Pattabhi Jois lived upto 94 years in good

health. Swami Madhavdasji, guru of Yogendra and

Kuvalayananda, lived for a pretty long time--1798 to 1921

--that is 123 years.

B K S Iyengar and his student Diana Clifton are in

their nineties.Such instances are many.

[We cannot ,however, conclude that yoga alone confers

longevity. These masters were vegetarians. I had known

many vegetarians, not doing yoga, living upto 90 years or

longer in good health.Therefore diet also may play a large

part.]

Can Yoga reverse aging ? Serious investigations are

required to answer this question, but many yogis will

attest to the youthful looks that can be attained.

Yoga and Hinduism

There had been several cynical remarks that Yoga is a

Hindu based system and is used to propagate Hindu faith or

Hindu forms of worship in the West. In the first place,

Hinduism is not a proselytizing religion. Hindus have no

religious creed to convert others to their faith [ as in

the case of Christianity or Islam.](In fact one should be

born a Hindu to practise this religion.) If a student is

keen, he/she can learn Yoga and Hindu philosophy and

adopt Hindu lifestyle---that is all.. Yoga is universal

and not confined to Hinduism ,though its roots stem from

Hindu religion.

Several teachers have modified the yoga system to suit

their milieu and their group of students. For instance,

hard-pronouncing Sanskrit names and terms can be easily

replaced by common English words---thus 'adho mukha

svanasana" is termed easily as "downward facing dog pose"

or simply "downward dog" pose. The preliminary Sanskrit

chants can be replaced with Christian or Jewish hymns or

dispensed with. Thus the spirit of doing yoga is more

important than the styles used . [In fact a "Christian

Yoga movement" has been promoted by some teachers and yoga

classes are held in some churches in USA. I welcome this

trend.] Practices such as burning incense , using

classical music and chanting are less important , though

seen as mood creating actions in Indian style. Whether

one should have them or not would depend on the teaching

environment.Thus a yoga teacher in a corporate setting

may not like them, but such things may lend an aura of

peace in a countryside yoga retreat .

Yoga and Spiritual Progress

Spiritual progress may be attained with or without hatha

yoga.But hatha yoga would help a great deal as this forms

part of "ashtanga yoga"--the eight -part yoga. Asasa and

Pranayama are third and fourth part of this sequence.

Many jnanis shun the hatha yoga for its emphasis and

obsession with human body. Often they become

obese,unhealthy and have a short life. Many swamis,wedded

to Jnana or bhakti paths ,without hatha yoga practice ,

are pot-bellied, fatty and suffer from many ailments.

Hatha yoga has its place in the scheme of many yogas.

Yoga-- American Style

Some would say that yoga has been "americanised" ,

branded and commercialised, to suit the mental framework

of Americans, much like pizza has been converted into an

American dish in many ways--no more an authentic Italian

item. Such changes are inevitable when yoga has become a

'common commodity' sold in DVD's in malls. That is

'product innovation" American style! There is 'hot yoga',

'power yoga', 'nude yoga','beach yoga'--some with fanciful

Sanskrit names. The 'authentic yoga' or classical style

would probably be hard to find in a decade or so.

[Yoga has also spawned a "yoga shop" industry, with a

multiplicity of products such as books, DVD's, yoga mats,

bricks, props and benches sold off line or on-line. The

commercial value could be a few billions of

dollars,feeding into American economy--thanks to yoga

masters.]

Many known to me prefer to go to India to learn yoga in an

ashram setting which is a more expensive undertaking and

have to be a short course for a few weeks for many

beginners. The learning could be more rigorous and also

tough for many students. But there is the added attraction

of vacationing or touring in India.This approach is

alright for young persons.There are easier 'beach yogas'

in Goa too.

Even then the 'yoga tourists' should contend with

limited 'comfort zone' and vegetarian food there and would

miss Macdonalds and Star Bucks outlets nearby. But if one

intends to become a yoga teacher, I would strongly

recommend learning at least a short course in an

established ashram or reputed residential institute in

India. That training would be invaluable to the individual

and for a teaching work later.

Yoga in China

B K S Iyengar was invited by the Chinese govt to teach in

China in 2011. He gave a lecture at the Yoga Summit

,jointly organized by Indian Embassy and Chinese govt on

16th June 2011. He took a class of 1600 students,standing

for nearly 3 hours--he was 93 years!. Later he taught at

Beijing with 700 students.

Iyengar was stunned at the rapid progress of Yoga in

China;all his books have been translated into Chinese

languages and there were 75 yoga centers,with about 30,000

students following "Iyengar Yoga", run by one of his

former students. The Chinese Post issued a commemorative

stamp honoring Iyengar. Iyengar quipped: "China may

overtake India in Yoga"! .

I am sure yoga would soon be taught in other countries

like South Korea and North Korea.

Urge to teach yoga

There is a subtle mechanism working through yoga learners.

Sooner or later, often sooner, they get the urge to share

their special knowledge with others--they want to teach

yoga to others--either informally in a small group or

they want to open a yoga studio or institute or Indian

style ashram for retreats. This inner mechanism is one of

the reasons for fast expansion of yoga activities. When

you see that others can acquire good health and cure

themselves of many diseases, you want to teach them yoga.

As I know very well, there are hundreds of yoga teachers

in India and in the West who teach without charging any

fees.

The Future of Yoga

As long as Yoga is useful in healing chronic and

debilitating diseases, people will learn to use it,

however toned down it might be. Therefore the spread of

yoga is a clear indication of its usefulness in modern

context. The yoga teachers, meanwhile, with their

imagination, can modify the form to suit their students.

Several therapeutic questions and medical issues, however,

remain to be explored in the use of yoga.

A time may come, sooner than we may imagine, when yoga

will be taught as a regular subject with practice classes

in many schools in India and in other countries. This

would depend on training of a large number of teachers.

Yoga clubs devoted to senior citizens and yoga health

centers for healing also would multiply severalfold.

Meanwhile research on cure of several diseases by yoga

would be undertaken all over the world.

At the same time, yoga is both art and science.As one yoga

teacher puts it: it is useful and beautiful! Thus

rhythmic flow and integration with dance forms may see the

light of the day. Yoga could be an art form, besides

contortions of pretzel like poses.

Contact: nksrinivasan@hotmail.com

Some references

There are literally hundreds of books and DVD's available.

Here are a few classics:

1 B K S Iyengar Light on Yoga

2 Swami Vishnudevananda --- The complete Illustrated Book

of Yoga

3 T K V Desikachar --- The Heart of Yoga

4 Dr Phulgendra Sinha--Yoga Cure for common diseases

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